Questo sito utilizza i cookies per fornire i nostri servizi, per migliorare le prestazioni, per analisi, e (per gli utenti che accedono senza fare login) per la pubblicità. Usando LibraryThing confermi di aver letto e capito le nostre condizioni di servizio e la politica sulla privacy. Il tuo uso del sito e dei servizi è soggetto a tali politiche e condizioni.
Risultati da Google Ricerca Libri
Fai clic su di un'immagine per andare a Google Ricerca Libri.
In July 1935, Robert Atkinson and John Ainslie set out on an ornithological search for the rare Leach's Fork-tailed Petrel. Their quest was to last for twelve years and took them from their Oxford base to many of the remote and often deserted islands off the north-west coast of Scotland.Island Going is the account of their adventure. Not only is it packed with marvellous descriptions of the wildlife and landscapes of the islands as well as the journey itself, it also paints a vivid portrait of the way of life of the islanders and their history and traditions. … (altro)
Island Going is one of those books that are difficult to classify. This is part travel writing, part natural history and part social history.
It recounts the travels of Atkinson and his friend John Ainslie over the course of a number of summers in the mid to late 1930s. They are young (Atkinson is only 19 on their first visit) and from Oxfordshire, but have a yearning for isolation and a passion for ornithology. In particular they are keen to learn more about a reclusive sea bird, Leach’s petrel, that nests on only a few remote islands off the west coast of Scotland. They buy a car, that’s seen better days, and take the journey to the far north of Scotland to the Outer Hebrides.
However, this is more than an account of the seabirds and wildlife of the islands. It is as much about the journey to these remote islands, the people they meet on the way and a snapshot of this part of Scotland in the late 1930s. In particular this is a snapshot of life in the Hebrides in a period just before the onset of war, and before the modernisation of life got going from the 1940s onwards.
Many islands are visited in the course of the book, most of them abandoned and uninhabited. There are short visits to the Shiants, Monarchs, North Uist, Handa, Canna, Eigg and the remote gannetry Sula Sgeir. But at the heart of this book there are two long stays on the remotest islands in the British Isles that are at the heart of this book. The first is North Rona, a small island lying over 40 miles north of the Scottish mainland. The visits here were primarily to study the petrels, but the book details the history of this extraordinary place and the lives of the people that lived here up until the mid nineteenth century. It also shows how, even in the 1930s, this remote outcrop was still in use by Hebridean crofters for grazing sheep, despite its remoteness.
The second are the world famous islands of St Kilda, sitting in the Atlantic, 40 miles west of the Hebrides. This is undoubtedly an important account of the island, experienced only eight years after the island’s population was evacuated. In the late 1930s, former residents still returned to stay during the summer months. Atkinson recounts the decay of the island’s homes only a short period after permanent residence ceased and the resulting haunting feeling of a place built for and by humans, but where no humans live.
The writing is accompanied by some excellent photographic plates, that bring the whole experience to life. There is as much history in these pictures as in the writing itself. Well worth reading if you have an interest in this part of Scotland. ( )
Dati dalle informazioni generali inglesi.Modifica per tradurlo nella tua lingua.
At first it seem'd a little speck, And then it seemed a mist... A speck, a mist, a shape, I wist! And still it near'd and near'd...
Dedica
Incipit
Dati dalle informazioni generali inglesi.Modifica per tradurlo nella tua lingua.
A small unheard-of sea-bird, chance-found in the index of a bird book, was called - Leach's Fork-tailed Petrel.
Citazioni
Ultime parole
Dati dalle informazioni generali inglesi.Modifica per tradurlo nella tua lingua.
Fifteen hundred miles, a little over nine hours up, and the flying boat was back at Stranraer; time to make a dash for the harbour station and catch the London train.
In July 1935, Robert Atkinson and John Ainslie set out on an ornithological search for the rare Leach's Fork-tailed Petrel. Their quest was to last for twelve years and took them from their Oxford base to many of the remote and often deserted islands off the north-west coast of Scotland.Island Going is the account of their adventure. Not only is it packed with marvellous descriptions of the wildlife and landscapes of the islands as well as the journey itself, it also paints a vivid portrait of the way of life of the islanders and their history and traditions.
Google Books — Sto caricando le informazioni...
(4.25)
1
It recounts the travels of Atkinson and his friend John Ainslie over the course of a number of summers in the mid to late 1930s. They are young (Atkinson is only 19 on their first visit) and from Oxfordshire, but have a yearning for isolation and a passion for ornithology. In particular they are keen to learn more about a reclusive sea bird, Leach’s petrel, that nests on only a few remote islands off the west coast of Scotland. They buy a car, that’s seen better days, and take the journey to the far north of Scotland to the Outer Hebrides.
However, this is more than an account of the seabirds and wildlife of the islands. It is as much about the journey to these remote islands, the people they meet on the way and a snapshot of this part of Scotland in the late 1930s. In particular this is a snapshot of life in the Hebrides in a period just before the onset of war, and before the modernisation of life got going from the 1940s onwards.
Many islands are visited in the course of the book, most of them abandoned and uninhabited. There are short visits to the Shiants, Monarchs, North Uist, Handa, Canna, Eigg and the remote gannetry Sula Sgeir. But at the heart of this book there are two long stays on the remotest islands in the British Isles that are at the heart of this book. The first is North Rona, a small island lying over 40 miles north of the Scottish mainland. The visits here were primarily to study the petrels, but the book details the history of this extraordinary place and the lives of the people that lived here up until the mid nineteenth century. It also shows how, even in the 1930s, this remote outcrop was still in use by Hebridean crofters for grazing sheep, despite its remoteness.
The second are the world famous islands of St Kilda, sitting in the Atlantic, 40 miles west of the Hebrides. This is undoubtedly an important account of the island, experienced only eight years after the island’s population was evacuated. In the late 1930s, former residents still returned to stay during the summer months. Atkinson recounts the decay of the island’s homes only a short period after permanent residence ceased and the resulting haunting feeling of a place built for and by humans, but where no humans live.
The writing is accompanied by some excellent photographic plates, that bring the whole experience to life. There is as much history in these pictures as in the writing itself. Well worth reading if you have an interest in this part of Scotland. (