A Facebook page – called ‘Jonny Muir – Books’ – has been launched to coincide with the publication of Isles at the Edge of the Sea next week. It seems the done thing. Please click on the link to the right to ‘like’ the aforementioned page. I will be very grateful. Alternatively, follow this link.
Category: Islands
Isles at the Edge of the Sea – the Edinburgh launch
I will be speaking about my new book, Isles at the Edge of the Sea, at Blackwell’s book shop in Edinburgh on June 2. The event runs from 6.30-8pm. Please follow this Facebook link for further details; please come along. Now I just need to think of something to say… …this helps: calm, clear waters…
Countdown to publication
The publication of Isles at the Edge of the Sea is now just days away. These are exciting times. There are few more thrilling days for an author than these – when the anticipation of seeing a year of work come to fruition mingles with hopes and fears about the reception the book might receive. To get the ball rolling, here…
Isles at the Edge of the Sea
Here it is – the front cover of Isles at the Edge of the Sea. The cover went live on the website of my publisher, Sandstone Press, this morning. Publication just six months away.
Isles at the Edge of the Sea – a title at last
After much mithering, my book on the Hebrides (and the Firth of Clyde islands) finally has a title: Isles at the Edge of the Sea. Hebrides (from the Norse word Havbredey) roughly translates as isles at the edge of the sea, although I’ve had it on good authority that it may also mean sheep islands, which is not the most…
The writing
The journey over, the writing has started, and I have churned out almost 14,000 words in 10 days. It has been a long, time-hungry process. Constantly, as I read and re-read my words, I ask the same questions. Is it any good? Will anyone want to read this? Will anyone actually pay good money for this? It can be a…
St Kilda
So here it is, St Kilda, my last island, reached despite the weather’s best attempts to foil me. We were the first group to land on Hirta for 10 days. I will obviously elaborate in far greater depth in the book, but St Kilda was everything I had expected: a beautiful, eerie, awe-inspiring archipelago pitched 40 miles…
The Rum midge
On the wall of the visitor centre on Rum is a poster entitled ‘the Rum midge’, which illustrates people under attack by a swarm of giant midges. It’s like something out of a horror movie, but the poster isn’t ironic: the midges on Rum are that bad. There are midges, and then there are Rum…
Coll
I have now visited 10 islands – Arran, Holy Island, Bute, Colonsay, Oronsay, Islay, Jura, Mull, Coll and Tiree – and Coll is the one that has come closest to fulfilling my island fantasies. Less revered and frequented than its near-neighbour Tiree, Coll is all the better for it. For two days I followed in…
Isle of Jura Fell Race
We were sent on our way, a ripple of applause and the pounding of 200 pairs of feet on road drowning out the skirl of pipes. The theatrical idiom ‘break a leg’ was written across a saltire – a light-hearted but all too realistic prospect. A gloomy blanket of mist had been thrown over Jura…
Holy Island
At first it looked like my attempts to reach Holy Island, a small isle off the east coast of Arran, would be sunk by the weather. Despite glorious sunshine, crossings were cancelled due to high winds. The Dalai Lama had once been foiled by the unpredictable Scottish climate in 1993, so at least I was in good company. Fortunately, the wind eased the…
Heights of Madness 