I Am An Island : THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

When Tamsin Calidas first arrives on a remote island in the Scottish Hebrides, it feels like coming home. Disenchanted by London, she and her husband left the city and high-flying careers to move 500 miles north, despite having absolutely no experience of island life. It was idyllic, for a while. But as the months wear on, the children she’d longed for fail to materialise, and her marriage breaks down, Tamsin finds herself in ever-increasing isolation.

Injured, ill, alone and without money, she is pared right back, stripped to becoming simply a raw element of the often-harsh landscape. But with that immersion in her surroundings comes the possibility of rebirth and renewal. Tamsin begins the slow journey back from the brink.

Startling, raw and extremely moving, I AM AN ISLAND is a story about the incredible ability of the natural world to provide when everything else has fallen away – a stunning book about solitude, friendship, resilience and self-discovery.

About the Author

TAMSIN CALIDAS is a writer and photographer living in the wilds of the Scottish Hebrides. She graduated from Oxford University in 1992 with a BA Hons and worked in various role in advertising, publishing and the BBC before giving it all up in 2004 to move from Notting Hill to a tiny, remote island in Scotland to run a derelict croft with sheep and horses.

PRAISE FOR I AM AN ISLAND

‘Memoir of the year’ VOGUE

‘A wondrous, sensuous memoir of salt-stung survival … clear-eyed and poetic prose’ SUNDAY TIMES

‘Calidas is a supple, sensuous writer – deeply empathetic … Her account is shot through with moments of intense brightness.’ GUARDIAN

‘A beautifully written, emotionally intense memoir’ SUNDAY EXPRESS

‘The island is a metaphor for anyone who has ever been alone… It is about what happens when everything you are used to falls away, which is something we are all experiencing at the moment.’ DAILY MAIL

‘The trials and triumphs of isolated living are laid bare in this often shatteringly honest read.’ READER’S DIGEST

‘As in the case of Tara Westover’s Educated, it is impossible not to marvel at all the author has been through.’ TLS
‘A glittering (and controversial) account.’ METRO

‘A mesmeric tale of emotional resilience and the recuperative powers of the natural world… Essential reading.’ THE EVENING STANDARD

‘Powerfully observed’ BBC COUNTRYFILE MAGAZINE