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The Valley at the Centre of the World
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 271

The Valley at the Centre of the World

Longlisted for the Ondaatje Prize Shortlisted for the Highland Book Prize 'The thing he felt ending was not just one person, or even one generation; it was older, and had, in truth, been ending for a long time . . . It was a chain of stories clinging to stories, of love clinging to love. It was an inheritance he did not know how to pass on.' Shetland: a place of sheep and soil, of harsh weather, close ties and an age-old way of life. A place where David has lived all his life, like his father and grandfather before him, but where he abides only in the present moment. A place where Sandy, a newcomer but already a crofter, may have finally found a home. A place that Alice has fled to after the...

Sixty Degrees North
  • Language: en

Sixty Degrees North

From the northern wilds of Greenland and Scotland to the far away reaches of Scandinavia and Siberia, a moving meditation on the allure of travel and the meaning of home. The sixtieth parallel marks a borderland between the northern and southern worlds. Wrapping itself around the lower reaches of Finland, Sweden, and Norway, it crosses the tip of Greenland and the southern coast of Alaska, and slices the great expanses of Russia and Canada in half. The parallel also passes through Shetland, where Malachy Tallack has spent most of his life. In Sixty Degrees North, Tallack travels westward, exploring the landscapes of the parallel and the ways that people have interacted with those landscapes, highlighting themes of wildness and community, isolation and engagement, exile and memory. An intimate journey of the heart and mind, Sixty Degrees North begins with the author's loss of his father and his own troubled relationship with Shetland, and concludes with an embrace of the place he calls home.

The Un-Discovered Islands
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 190

The Un-Discovered Islands

  • Type: Book
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  • Published: 2020-11-05
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  • Publisher: Birlinn Ltd

'It's a joy to island-hop through the book. After wowing the world with Sixty Degrees North, Tallack's second book is shaped by the same, clear, sharp prose and keen curiosity. Packed full of intelligent musings on everything from religion to astronomy, alchemy to the occult' - National Geographic Traveller 'This has been a vintage year for books about cartography: Malachy Tallack gave us The Un-Discovered Islands - a swashbuckling romp through 20 islands of the imagination, some of which featured on sea charts for centuries before being proven not to exist' - Scotland on Sunday 'Malachy Tallack is an engaging and fluent writer of essential kindliness' - John MacLeod, Scottish Review of Book...

Illuminated By Water
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 194

Illuminated By Water

  • Type: Book
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  • Published: 2022-07-07
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  • Publisher: Random House

Shortlisted for the Richard Jefferies Award 2022 Growing up in Shetland with its myriad lochs and burns, Malachy Tallack and his brother would roam the island in search of trout, and in so doing discovered a sense of freedom, of wonder - and an abiding passion. But why is it that fishing - or the mere contemplation of catching a fish - can be so thrilling and so captivating? Why is it that time spent beside water can be imprinted so sharply in memory? Why is it that what seems a simple act - of casting a line, waiting and hoping - can leave so much room for mystery? Here award-winning author and singer-songwriter Malachy Tallack tells the story of his own infatuation with fishing, a pastime that has brought him joy (and frustration) since early childhood. And in bringing together memoir, nature writing and reflections on culture and history, he explores why angling means so much to so many. Beautifully written and hugely engaging, it is a book about attention, about nature, and that sense of wonder; it is about a way of engaging with the world, of reaching out - and feeling it reach back.

Antlers of Water
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 230

Antlers of Water

'Luminous' The Times 'Beautiful’ Caught by the River Bringing together contemporary Scottish writing on nature and landscape, this inspiring collection takes us from walking to wild swimming, from red deer to pigeons and wasps, from remote islands to back gardens, through prose, poetry and photography. Edited and introduced by Kathleen Jamie, and with contributions from Amy Liptrot, Jim Crumley, Chitra Ramaswamy, Malachy Tallack, Amanda Thomson and many more, Antlers of Water urges us to renegotiate our relationship with the more-than-human world, in writing which is by turns celebratory, radical and political.

I Am An Island
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 275

I Am An Island

  • Type: Book
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  • Published: 2020-05-07
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  • Publisher: Random House

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'Memoir of the year' - Vogue 'A wondrous, sensuous memoir of salt-stung survival . . . clear-eyed and poetic prose' Sunday Times 'A fascinating memoir' - Daily Mail When Tamsin Calidas first arrives on a remote island in the Scottish Hebrides, it feels like coming home. Disenchanted by London, she and her husband left the city and high-flying careers to move the 500 miles north, despite having absolutely no experience of crofting, or of island life. It was idyllic, for a while. But as the months wear on, the children she'd longed for fail to materialise, and her marriage breaks down, Tamsin finds herself in ever-increasing isolation. Injured, ill, without money or friend she is pared right back, stripped to becoming simply a raw element of the often harsh landscape. But with that immersion in her surroundings comes the possibility of rebirth and renewal. Tamsin begins the slow journey back from the brink. Startling, raw and extremely moving, I Am An Island is a story about the incredible ability of the natural world to provide when everything else has fallen away - a stunning book about solitude, friendship, resilience and self-discovery.

An Orkney Tapestry
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 304

An Orkney Tapestry

  • Type: Book
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  • Published: 2021-06-03
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  • Publisher: Polygon

First published in 1969, An Orkney Tapestry, George Mackay Brown's seminal work, is a unique look at Orkney through the eye of a poet. Originally commissioned by his publisher as an introduction to the Orkney Islands, Brown approached the writing from a unique perspective and went on to produce a rich fusion of ballad, folk tale, short story, drama and environmental writing. The book, written at an early stage in the author's career, explores themes that appear in his later work and was a landmark in Brown's development as a writer. Above all, it is a celebration of Orkney's people, language and history. This edition reproduces Sylvia Wishart's beautiful illustrations, commissioned for the original hardback.Made available again for the first time in over 40 years, this new edition sits alongside Nan Shepherd's The Living Mountain as an important precursor of environmental writing by the likes of Kathleen Jamie, Robert Macfarlane, Malachy Tallack and, most recently, Amy Liptrot.

Free to Go
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 263

Free to Go

  • Type: Book
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  • Published: 2022-07-07
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  • Publisher: Hachette UK

'An exhilarating story of freedom and constraint, told with a confident and unwavering verve. This is a journey driven by boundless curiosity, and by the desire for connection - across borders, across languages, across time' MALACHY TALLACK When Esa Aldegheri and her husband left their home in Orkney, Esa didn't know that their eighteen-month motorbike adventure would take them through twenty international frontiers - between Europe and the Middle East, through Pakistan, China and India - many of which are now impassable. Charting a story of shrinking and expanding liberties and horizons, of motherhood, womanhood, xenophobia and changing geopolitical situations, Free to Go examines the challenges of navigating a world where many assume that women ride pillion, both on a motorbike and within relationships. Part around-the-world adventure, part-literary exploration of womanhood, Free to Go is about the journeys that shape and transform us.

The Outrun
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 242

The Outrun

NOW A MAJOR FILM STARRING SAOIRSE RONAN WITH A NEW AFTERWORD FROM THE AUTHOR THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE PEN ACKERLEY PRIZE AND THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE After spending her twenties in London, Amy Liptrot returns to her home in Orkney where she comes to terms with the addiction that has consumed the past decade of her life. On the remote island, Amy spends her mornings swimming in the cold sea, her days observing wildlife, and her nights searching the sky for any signs of the Northern Lights. She soon discovers how the natural world can restore life, heal old wounds and renew hope.

The Museum of Whales You Will Never See
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 274

The Museum of Whales You Will Never See

  • Type: Book
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  • Published: 2020-05-12
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  • Publisher: Penguin

“Filled with charming illustrations, this delightful book about Iceland’s 265 museums is as quirky and mesmerizing as the country’s dreamscape itself.” —Forbes Mythic creatures, natural wonders, and the mysterious human impulse to collect are on beguiling display in this poetic tribute to the museums of an otherworldly island nation, for readers of Atlas Obscura and fans of the Mütter Museum, the Morbid Anatomy Museum, and the Museum of Jurassic Technology. Iceland is home to only 330,000 people (roughly the population of Lexington, Kentucky) but more than 265 museums and public collections. They range from the intensely physical, like the Icelandic Phallological Museum, which col...