Philip Marsden

Surrounded by sea and sky: the irresistible draw of islands

Gavin Francis is happiest in some of the world’s remotest archipelagos, including the Andamans and Norway’s Lofoten islands

The Andamans are among Gavin Francis’s ‘dream’ destinations. Credit: Getty Images 
issue 03 October 2020
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  • Island Dreams: Mapping an Obsession

    Gavin Francis

    Canongate, pp. 256, £20

Holiday islands, desert islands, love islands, islands of eternal youth, siren islands, islands filled with screaming demons. Of all the earth’s topographic features, islands are the most elastic, the most adept at accommodating the wilder projections of our imagination. Why it should be so is a question that has exercised writers from D.H.

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