Island Stories

Nicola here. Since the time I first picked up a book I’ve been fascinated by islands, both in real life and as the setting for stories. Whether it's Five on a Treasure Island or The Island of Adventure by Enid Blyton, or Robinson Crusoe or Lord of the Flies (well not so much that one, perhaps) there is something magical about an island.

Islands offer the idea of escape and retreat and also the opportunity to start afresh. They are places set apart where you can take time and space to think. They appear solitary and pure in some ways, an earthly paradise. But they can also be too isolated, even savage, which is perhaps they make such great settings for crime novels. An island, if you can’t get off it easily, is the perfect “locked room” mystery as Agatha Christie proved and countless other crime and thriller authors have used the setting.

An island can also be a character in itself, floating serenely above the water or disappearing into the mists. The people who live on islands are also often portrayed as having special characteristics; tolerance, pragmatism and resourcefulness as well as a sense of community. In Compton Mackenzie’s book Whisky Galore there is a mischievous, defiant spirit in the way that the islanders defy authority from outside. Islands feel like little kingdoms in their own right surrounded by an actual moat in the form of the sea.

It’s certainly true that when you live on an island, you’re going to need to be resourceful and organised in all sorts of ways. There are times when the weather is bad and the ferries can’t sail, something breaks and can’t be immediately replaced, or you run out of supplies. I guess the message is: If you can’t cope with that sort of life, don’t go there! It’s a great “fish out of water setting” for a story.

My love of islands prompted me to return to one of my favourites a few weeks ago. Lundy Island, off the coast of Devon, is somewhere I’ve visited quite a few times although not for several years. When it comes to being a little kingdom, Lundy is right up there. After the Heaven family bought it in 1836 it became known as the “Kingdom of Heaven.” A later owner, Martin Harman, even issued his own stamps and coinage although this was ruled illegal in the UK courts. Even now you can send postcards with special Lundy stamps though!

Going back a thousand years and Lundy was already a place of myth and legend. It was the Vikings who gave it the name “Lund-ey” meaning Puffin Island and excavations of the ancient graveyards have uncovered both Norse and Christian burials. The old churchyard is for me the most atmospheric place on the island, still containing engraved stones dating back to the 6^th century, one of which is said to be one of the sons of Vortigern, a ruler from Arthurian legend. Another is the tomb of a saint, the grandfather of St Patrick of Ireland. Rich material for some time travel book ideas!

But back to the idea of the private kingdom. In the middle-ages it was the De Marisco family who set themselves up as the rulers of Lundy. Evidently this gave them such delusions of grandeur that one of them tried to assassinate the King of England, Henry III, and was executed for treason. It must have been galling for Henry that the castle he built to prevent the island being used as a base by traitors again has forever after been known as Marisco Castle. These days there are four apartments there where you can stay, presumably in greater comfort than in the 13^th century!

The island held out loyally for King Charles I during the English Civil War and also has a rich history as a base for piracy and various other criminal activities. The forces of law and order were always trying to get the place under control. As its use for illegal purposes waned in the early 19^th century it became the sort of place you read about in Regency romances, won and lost at the card table on a night of hard gambling! One of my early Regency novels, Lady Allerton’s Wager, was inspired by Lundy Island and it’s still one of my favourite stories. In reality, in the Regency era Lundy belonged to Sir Harry Vere Hunt who, in typical fashion, was walking through London on his way home from the debtor’s prison when he overheard an auction taking place. On going inside he heard the auctioneer boasting that Lundy, which was for sale, “never paid tax nor tithe, nor acknowledged King or Parliament…It’s proprietor is Pope and Emperor of his domain.” Like so many other people, Sir Harry fancied having his own private kingdom and bought it for £5000 pounds!

Lundy Castle was in ruins by the 18th century so the later proprietors of the island built a new house to live in (part of which was the cottage we stayed in.) By the Victorian period, when pleasure steamers were visiting Lundy, this became a hotel which was in use into the mid-20th century. Various wonderful black and white photographs on the island show ladies in long skirts playing tennis on the lawns and taking tea on the terrace. Meanwhile, the Heaven family had built a beautiful classical style villa down the valley with tropical walled gardens. A slice of heaven indeed!

During our visit we experienced every weather condition that Lundy can provide, from blazing sunshine to high winds, fog and pouring rain. We explored all the monuments to a thousand years of history, from the lighthouses to the Dark Age burials and met a fascinating mixture of people who had all come to the island for different reasons, whether a love of nature and solitude or to climb the cliffs or to run a half-marathon around the island. It was a fantastic experience. Lundy is owned by the Landmark Trust and National Trust, so if you fancy a stay there or just want to find out more about it, here's the link.

I can’t wait to feature Lundy Island in another of my books but in the meantime, I’ve been on a bit of an island book binge including Wench Mary Jo’s  Shattered Rainbows, set on a wild Cornish isle, and Sarah Morgan’s Puffin Island trilogy. 

Islands are just perfect for romances - not only can you sit gazing at the stars and watch the sun set over the sea, it's a little world where the hero and heroine can be alone together. Do you have any favourite books, romantic or other, that are set on islands?

Comments

[Mary Jo Putney]

Nicola, as you know, I share your passion for islands! That feeling of difference, of being a place apart.... One could consider Great Britain and Ireland, among others, to have that island vibe!

I'd love to visit your Lundy Island--I'd never heard of it until you told the Wenches about it. The island that dominated the last part of my SHATTERED RAINBOWS was inspired by the Isle of Sark in the Channel Isles, one of the last feudal domains anywhere.

And dthes days, billionaires buy their own islands, probably in a warm, sunny place like the Caribbean!

[Sue McCormick]

I believe that the only Island I am truly familiar with is Manhattan; as it is so completely urban, it doesn't count. I have visited Great Britain, but the size of that Island takes away the Island feeling which you are discussing (as is in fact evident in your writing, since Lundy is an island off the coast of Great Britain.

So I sincerely thank you for this look at islands and how they may change your thinking pattern.

And, as an aside, the St. Louis area is very clearly mainland; never the less, you do not leave the city area without cossing a bridge over fairly sizeable river. In fact many of the crossings are across the upper Mississippi, the Misouri, or the Mississippi after the two rivers had joined. When we lived in the Manhattan area, I had no need to get accustomed to crossing the river.

[Kareni]

Lundy sounds like a fascinating place, Nicola; thank you for introducing it to me.

I lived on a number of islands as a young person -- New Zealand and Australia (do they count?), Guam, and Jamaica. While islands have a lot to recommend them (sunrises and sunsets over water amongst other things), I don't think I'd want to live on a smaller island at this time as I suspect I'd start experiencing the island equivalent of cabin fever.

[Nicola Cornick]

That's interesting, Mary Jo. I wonder how big an island has to be before it doesn't have that sense of being a place apart?

I'd love to visit Sark. There is definitely a sense of special identity about the Channel Islands.

[Nicola Cornick]

I'd love to experience Manhattan, Sue. An urban island would be different and interesting. Apparently there are 5000 islands off the coast of Great Britain although I'm not sure how many are inhabited or more than just a rock in the ocean!
Crossing a bridge over a river definitely gives a sense of physical removal from place to another, doesn't it.

[Nicola Cornick]

That's fascinating, Kareni! I do wonder whether island nations count - is it all to do with the size of the island, I wonder?
I'm sure that many of us visiting a small island for a short time think it's blissful whilst for people who are there for months it could feel quite restrictive.

[Bridget C in France]

Sark is very peaceful and a throwback to a lost age, I found.

[Annette N]

I have always believed that I would love to live on an island - and be happy. Lundy sounds like a great place to live. In reality, I am not sure it would be true that I would be relaxed enough not to worry about being completely cut off.

But, you know, it would be wonderful to be able to try for a short period of time.

I hope everyone is well and safe and happy and able to be connected to the mainland if they need that.

[Janice]

I find islands a little claustrophobic. When you are on an island, especially a smaller one, you are stuck with whoever else is there at the same time - and they're stuck with you.

You are also a prisoner of the tides.

I once took a UCLA Extension Course in which we were to take a boat ride to the Channel Islands off the California coast to view whales and other sea life and check out an island that hadn't been lived on by humans since the Chumash moved out. We were to be there by 5 am so as to catch the tide. The boat guys didn't arrive until 6:00 am and couldn't get the engine started until 7:00 am. We were therefore not in sync with the tide. We saw no whales; I guess they were napping elsewhere. We saw seals but we could have seen them from the dock. Entertainment was provided, however, by Mr. Vain (after the song "(You're So Vain"), who arrived with entourage carrying a posh picnic basket. He got too seasick to eat or drink the contents so we all had a bit of his champagne.

The little beach spot we had landed on was flooded by the time the tour was finished (we saw stone fire circles which I suspect were much more recent than the 19th century), so we had to clamber down a breakneck rocky cliff path to a narrow shore below to get back to the boat. I still have a scar on my right palm where a rock cut me. I hate heights but I would not be shamed by the elderly couple with canes (the wife said "Well, Harry, I will if you will," so they did).

I came away with much respect for my grandparents' generation, contempt for boat guys who beer up the night before, and an understanding of the importance of watching the tides. Also a sense of disbelief about intrepid heroines in long skirts who race down vertical cliff steps to rescue the half drowned hero. Pfui :)

[Donna H.]

You asked about authors and/or books pertaining to islands. I remember reading, way back in the early 1980's, a series of books by Lillian Beckwith. Her island was in the Orkneys and were so enjoyable and amusing with all the amazing characters. They were about an English lady who retired to the island and met all the fishermen and their families. I just loved them (the books) and it made me want to hop on a boat and sail off to live on an island.

[Donna H.]

I have to make a correction - Lillian Beckwith wrote about the Hebrides, not Orkney. Sorry about that.

[Nicola Cornick]

That does sound idyllic!

[Nicola Cornick]

I think that's one of the most interesting things about islands, isn't it, Annette. For a short break it's lovely and restorative but you face a whole lot of different issues if you live there!

[Nicola Cornick]

LOL, Janice, that is a brilliant story about your trip even if it does display the downside of islands more than the upside! The boat crew demonstrate the need for discipline when working in that sort of environment. Interesting about heroines in long dresses scampering up and down cliffs; on Lundy there were some photographs of people exploring a wreck in the early 1900s - one lady had a long dress and a parasol!

[Nicola Cornick]

Thank you, Donna - I had forgotten about Lillian Beckwith's books but remember we had them when I was a teenager. In fact there was quite a fashion for books about people moving to remote islands in that period and my grandmother bought them all. Maybe she had a longing to escape somewhere like that as well!

[Teresa Broderick]

When I saw the Famous Five cover at the start of this post I was immediately grabbed. I grew up on this series and it whiled away many a lonely day. I still read them from time to time.
I love stories set on islands and always wanted Kirren Island to be a real place.
I read a book some time ago called The Lost Lights of St Kilda by Elizabeth Gifford. A wonderful read set on the island of St Kilda. Fiction but with the last people to inhabit the island included.
Also a light hearted one I read some years ago but which stuck with me, Breakfast at Darcy's by Ali McNamara. It's about a girl who inherits a small island but it comes with conditions attached. Good fun.
Lovely post Nicola. Hadn't heard of Lundy. Sounds idyllic.

[Chris Klatecki]

I too love islands! My all time favourite books about islands are Elisabeth Ogilvie books about Bennett’s Island. I think there are 8 in all. The first is High Tide at Noon which you can now buy on Amazon. It’s so true that the island itself becomes a character. Love these books!!

[Alice Mathewson]

Hi Teresa. I have read The Lost Lights too and was thinking of it as I read Nicola's post. Also a YA book Where the World Ends by Geraldine McCaughrean covers an event in St Kilda's history. We went to Lewis for our honeymoon - not quite the Caribbean but lovely beaches and sea all the same!

[Michelle H]

As age and a few health issues that have popped up in the last decade or so, I've lost the adventurous spirit I had when I was young and wanted to do everything! I get my enjoyment of adventure out of books now. YAY for books.

Loved this post, Nicola. First, I need to look up and read Lady Allerton's Wager. Second, I really need to reread MJP's Fallen Angels series again which I've been nagging myself to do for ages now.

I thought of a book I read most recently in which an island played a big part. That is Regina Jeffers' book 'Losing Lizzy, a P&P vagary.' It included some truly creepy scenes that take place on and island called Dead Man's Island, a real place. The real story of the the island is perhaps even more creepy than in the book, and that contained some truly frightening scenes. The real island is off the coast of Sheppey, Kent. It was a burial place for plague victims and the diseased and quarantined victims off of ships. https://reginajeffers.blog/2020/05/22/deadmans-island-setting-as-character-in-losing-lizzy-a-pride-and-prejudice-vagary/

I've read a lot of very nice island fiction, and plenty of those mysteries that take place on them. The above is just the most recent and stood out in my mind. Lundy sounds like a great place to visit and explore.

[Michelle H]

Teresa, Elizabeth Gifford's book sounds great. Have you read 'The Sea House?' That one sounds equally good.

[Nicola Cornick]

Teresa, I've heard such great things about The Lost Lights of St Kilda. I must read it! I also love the sounds of the Ali McNamara book. Thank you so much for the recommendations!

[Nicola Cornick]

Alice, thank you for recommending the Geraldine McCaughrean book. I love her books and hadn't come across that one. A honeymoon on Lewis sounds gorgeous! The Scottish Islands may not be as warm as the Caribbean but the white sand beaches are beautiful aren't they.

[Nicola Cornick]

Another great recommendation. Thank you, Michelle!

[Nicola Cornick]

Hi Chris! I'm off to look for those books right now. Thank you!

[Nicola Cornick]

Thank you so much, Michelle. I'm glad you enjoyed the post and hope you like Lady Allerton's Wager! The background to the Regina Jeffers book is fascinating if as you say, rather creepy!

[Teresa Broderick]

Thanks for the recommendation Michelle. I'll definitely look it up. Hadn't heard of it.

[Teresa Broderick]

Alice I love the sound of this one and have added it to my TBR. Thank you so much for the recommendation. That's what I love about this blog. Lots of lovely new stuff to read.

[Chris Klatecki]

I hope you like them! I reread them every year!!

[Nicola Cornick]

I'll let you know!