Island Dreams - Mapping an Obsession

An exploration of isolation and connectedness based on thirty years of travel, from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Adventures in Human Being and Empire Antarctica. In Island Dreams, Gavin Francis examines our collective fascination with islands. He blends stories of his own travels with psychology, philosophy and great voyages from literature, shedding new light on the importance of islands and isolation in our collective consciousness. Comparing the life of freedom of thirty years of extraordinary travel from the Faroe Islands to the Aegean, from the Galapagos to the Andaman Islands with a life of responsibility as a doctor, community member and parent approaching middle age, Island Dreams riffs on the twinned poles of rest and motion, independence and attachment, never more relevant than in today’s perennially connected world. Illustrated with maps throughout, this is a celebration of human adventures in the world and within our minds. Praise: “For those who have missed travelling this year, and for anyone who has pondered the meaning of “isolation”, there is an ideal present – a beautiful and highly illustrated book called Island Dreams, by Gavin Francis, exploring the place of islands in our psyche – from Lamu to the Lofoten Islands, the Faroes to the Falklands, Avalon to the Azores” Hilary Mantel “Highly absorbing … Francis combines memoir from a lifetime of travel and the practice of medicine, observations on the geography and history of islands across the globe, and reflections on how islands illuminate his own life and the human condition” guardian “An intoxicating voyage during which maps become fictions and fictions verifiable facts. Myths of returning and older legends carry us out in a shared fugue of obsession and release. Here is a worthy companion to the dream labyrinths of Borges” Iain Sinclair “A thrilling book – beautiful and spare at once … A real achievement” Tim Dee