Forty years ago I shared an office in Oxford with the author of this book and he had, even then, clocked up an impressive range of island visits. He has kept going ever since and this book chronicles visits to islands in all five of Earth’s oceans.
Mike Brooke’s visits to islands ranged from very short to long and so his relationship with each of over 40 islands (or island groups) ranges from brief handshake to long-term. It’s clear that he fell in love with many but not all of these sites and there were a few love-hate relationships too. We learn about the islands themselves but also about their histories and the mix of people present on the author’s visits.
Most of these visits were linked to scientific research, often on seabirds and this book tells the reader about those studies too. Carrying out fieldwork in remote or attractive locations is still work, and the demands of that work can limit how much you can experience the opportunities that tourists can take, but the rewards are that everything feels like a bonus and you sometimes have those moments when you think ‘I’m being paid to see that sunset. Wow!’.
Bouvet and Cousin Islands don’t have much in common except having salty water around them which makes this book a very varied series of different places at different times. As an armchair read this takes some beating as vicarious adventuring.
The author is prone to sea-sickness, whereas I’ve never had a sniff of it on my sea journeys; if only I could gift him immunity from throwing up over the guard rail in return for the feast of insights, anecdotes and wisdom which are scattered through this thoughtful and enjoyable read.
The cover? Those blue feet are quite a long way away and certainly on an island. I’d give it 8/10.
No Island too Far: searching for seabirds on remote specks of land by Michael Brooke is published by Pelagic
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