Island Wife: living on the edge of the wild

A memoir of a woman's life on a remote Scottish island - from 19-year-old girl to wife of one to mother of five, hotelier, domestic miracle worker, to empty nester to writer.

My childhood socks were always white, my frocks ironed. Each day predictable, safe. I escaped. Aged 19, I was swept off my feet by a wild adventurer and married within months. Two small children later (with three more to come) complete with Labradors, cats, a heavy horse and hearts full of dreams, we arrived on a remote Hebridean island to begin our life on the Tapsalteerie Estate. Nothing was ever predictable again.

ISLAND WIFE tells the story of Judy, who, at 19, met her Wild Pioneer. He whisked her off into an adventure, a marriage of forty years, and a life on a remote Hebridean island. Along the way she bears five children, learns how to run a rocky hill farm, a hotel, a recording studio and the first whale watching business in the UK - all the while inventively making fraying ends meet. When her children start to leave home, things fall apart and there is sadness and joy in how she puts things back together. Judy tells her story in a clear and unique voice, in turns funny, unforgettable and intensely moving.

When I read my own story I can't believe my life has been this way. It even makes me laugh now, although it didn't at the time and there's the point of it. Any woman will relate to some part, and in that moment, be freed from her self doubt. 'If she can do it, so can I, and with grace and with humour.' It's not just a book, it's the courage to keep going, to never give up.