UK Holidays - The Blue Cabin: Living by the Tides on Islandmore

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Binding: Paperback EAN: 9780856407932 ISBN: 0856407933 Label: Blackstaff Press Manufacturer: Blackstaff Press Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 212 Publication Date: 2007-04 Publisher: Blackstaff Press Studio: Blackstaff Press
Editorial Reviews: 'By Christmas we were living to the rhythm of the tides...' In 2002, following the collapse of his business and the loss of a much-loved family home, Mike Faulkner and his artist wife Lynn left Scotland for a cabin on Islandmore, an uninhabited island on Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland. Familiar to Mike as the holiday haven to which his father, the last Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, had gone with his family during the worst years of the Troubles, moving there to live year-round was a different prospect. With no mains electricity, an erratic water supply and access to the mainland only possible by boat, life on Islandmore is one part catastrophe - storms, broken generators, escaping dinghies - to three parts idyll - long walks on the shore, sunsets from Eagle Hill, year-round picnics, visits from friends. The result is a book imbued with sense of place; an honest, often funny, and moving account of one couple and two dogs living the kind of uncomplicated life that so many of us yearn for.
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: Wonderfully touching, entertaining and informative Comment: I read this book on the plane coming back from a Christmas visit back home to Ireland. I loved it! Granted, I am a huge fan of Strangford Lough and its environs -- it's one of the places I'm always sure to visit each time I'm back in County Down -- but the pleasure in the book wasn't limited to reading about this unique and wonderful area, which the author describes so wonderfully. Michael Faulkner is the son of Brian Faulkner -- the last Prime Minister of Northern Ireland -- and for me, some of the most interesting and gripping aspects of the book were the insights into what it was like to grow up in a political and very public family at the height of the Troubles. Reading it as I did, coming right off a visit to what is now a very different Northern Ireland, some of the stories about daily life for the Faulkners in the 70's made me quite nostalgic for the old days. The stories about the relationship between members of the Faulkner family and Brian Faulkner's bodyguards and security detail were interesting and sometimes very touching. I also found quite fascinating the tales about how Brian Faulkner managed his professional life in the pre-cell phone, pre-internet days. In addition to all of this, the book at times made me laugh so hard that tears ran down my face. A wonderfully diverting way to kill a few otherwise-boring hours in the air!! I highly recommend it. Customer Rating: Summary: Never laughed so much Comment: I was given this book last christmas and it turned out to be the best present of the season and one of of the most entertaining books I have read all year.It must be up there with the likes of Driving over Lemons by Chris Stewart. The descriptions of Mike Faulkners life with his wife and dogs are so real you are transported to their many picnics and near death experiences, I have never laughed so much in a long time, how could things change from being so romantically idyllic to near disaster in such a short space of time ? well get into a boat with Mike and one of his many artistic friends and you will find out, be sure to take a life jacket. Look forward to more tales from the blue cabin in the future. Ian (Edinburgh). More Reviews