A journey across the Lake District to discover the secrets of its 36 islands
'A Swallows and Amazons adventure for the modern day by one of the most interesting travel writers working today' Bijan Omrani, author of Caesar's Footprints
'A headlong plunge into the deep, dark waters of the Lake District and its islands. Packed with curious historical facts, philosophical and literary footnotes' Shaun Bythell, author of Diary of a Bookseller
Robert Twigger, poet, artist and travel author, is a lover of uninhabited islands. A lifelong passion for the Lake District led him to embark on a mission to visit all 36 islands of the region - some little more than rocks, some home only to wildlife, some the perfect spot for a night of wild-camping. Armed only with an inflatable canoe, and inspired by Arthur Ransome, Wainwright, Wordsworth and other writers of the region, he journeys beyond the tourists and the busy roads, beneath the surface, to islands both real and remembered. Here the low tide of the unconscious reveals itself through the strange flotsam that it leaves on the shore - a new sense of discovery, about himself and the world we live in.
A headlong plunge into the deep, dark waters of the Lake District and its islands. Packed with curious historical facts, philosophical and literary footnotes and a highly entertaining sense that every other visitor to the Lakes is an interloper, you can feel the chill of waters creeping into your bones as Twigger paddles his way to some of the most inaccessible spots of this liminal hinterland. I really enjoyed it - Shaun Bythell, author of Diary of a Bookseller
A Swallows and Amazons adventure for the modern day by one of the most interesting travel writers working today: 36 Islands is a journey to the forgotten parts of the Lake District that weaves together philosophy, psychology, poetry, literature, folk-lore, angry swans and damp pot noodles, and reminds us of the healing power of the forgotten wildernesses close by us - Dr Bijan Omrani, author of Caesar's Footprints
ROBERT TWIGGER has won the Newdigate Prize for poetry, the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award and the Somerset Maugham Award. His twelve books have been translated into over twenty languages and cover both fiction and non-fiction, memoir and travel. He spent a year training with the Tokyo riot police, crossed Canada in a homemade birchbark canoe and was the first person to traverse entirely on foot the Egyptian Great Sand Sea. His quarterly comic of memoir and travel, This Simple Life, is available at roberttwigger.com