A beautiful and mesmerising account of nautical voyages, rugged Scottish coastlines, and the power of storytelling
Ian Stephen is a Scottish writer, artist and storyteller. A
coastguard for 15 years, in 1995 he won the inaugural Robert Louise
Stevenson Award and since then has worked full-time in the arts.
Since the late 70s his poetry and short fiction have been published
in numerous UK journals, and in Austria, Australia, Belgium,
Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland and
the USA.
Ian's first novel A Book of Death and Fish was published in October
2014 by Saraband. It was launched at Faclan, Hebridean Book
Festival, with an interview with Robert Macfarlane. The book was
positively reviewed in the Guardian by Kirsty Gunn and Robert
Macfarlane listed it first in his 2014 Books of the Year choice for
the Guardian. It received many other positive reviews elsewhere,
especially in the Scottish press.
A really beautiful book ... movingly and saltily real
*Adam Nicolson*
Charming and engaging. Beautifully written, this is a book you'll
find it hard to put down.
*Lifeboat magazine (RNLI)*
Former Isle of Lewis coastguard Ian Stephen has created a lyrical
and gentle commentary on the nautical past and present.
*Sailing Today*
It is a dazzling book in that somehow, magically, you bring your
experience as a sailor, wed to this the exquisite craftsmanship of
those who make the boats, and then produce these exquisite thoughts
on the art of storytelling as if all three are inextricable. That
is a major feat.
*Marius Kociejowski*
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