Islands Beyond the Horizon

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Islands have an irresistible attraction and an enduring appeal. Naturalist Roger Lovegrove has visited many of the most remote islands in the world, and in this book he takes the reader to twenty that fascinate him the most. Some are familiar but most are little known; they range from the storm-bound island of South Georgia and the ice-locked Arctic island of Wrangel to the wind-swept, wave-lashed Mykines and St Kilda. The range is diverse and spectacular; and whether distant, offshore, inhabited, uninhabited, tropical or polar, each is a unique self-contained habitat with a delicately-balanced ecosystem, and each has its own mystique and ineffable magnetism. Central to each story is also the impact of human settlers. Lovegrove recounts unforgettable tales of human endeavour, tragedy, and heroism. But consistently, he has to report on the mankind's negative impact on wildlife and habitats - from the exploitation of birds for food to the elimination of native vegetation for crops.By looking not only at the biodiversity of each island, but also the uneasy relationship between its wildlife and the involvement of man, he provides a richly detailed account of each island, its diverse wildlife, its human history, and the efforts of conservationists to retain these irreplaceable sites.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Wrangel
• 2 Chinijo Archipelago
• 3 Jan Mayen
• 4 Mykines
• 5 Guam
• 6 San Blas Islands
• 7 Ascension
• 8 Fernando de Noronha
• 9 Mingulay
• 10 Pico
• 11 Tristan da Cunha
• 12 Vigur
• 13 St Kilda
• 14 South Georgia
• 15 Halfmoon Island
• 16 The Skelligs
• 17 Isle aux Aigrettes
• 18 Solovetski Islands
• 19 St Peter and St Paul Rocks
• 20 Tuamotu Archipelago
• Epilogue
• Scientific Names of Species
• References

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

A bit of a geography nut, Lovegrove (former director, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds; Silent Fields), has an affinity for obscure islands. For his latest book, he chose 20 of them to write about, spread across five oceans and spanning pole to pole. Some names (e.g., Guam, Ascension, Tristan da Cunha, the San Blas) will be recognizable to most readers, but many more will leave them without a clue. Who among us can easily pick out Wrangel, Mykines, St. Kilda, Halfmoon, and Great Skellig on a map? In each easy-to-digest chapter, Lovegrove paints a geological and historical picture of the island then provides a thorough description of its flora and fauna, both current and extinct. (Remember the dodo?) One island is so herpetologically beset that it makes Snakes on a Plane seem like a Disney movie. VERDICT A bird expert himself, Lovegrove shares liberal lists of the many feathered denizens on each island. But for readers who can't distinguish a kite from a tern, these narratives can become a bit tiresome. Recommended for all birders and readers who enjoy learning about quirky places.-Lee Arnold, Historical Soc. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Welsh naturalist Lovegrove (Silent Fields) examines the flora, fauna, and peoples of far-flung and inaccessible islands that dot each of the major oceans to better understand both their allure and natural history. His field knowledge is extensive and exhaustive; few besides master ornithologists will be able to identify such birds as the Arctic skua on Mykines (in the Faroe Islands of the North Atlantic) or Leach's petrels on St. Kilda (off Scotland's western coast). Lovegrove fascinates when describing indigenous peoples' folkways and struggles for survival, such as his graphic description of how the inhabitants of Pico (in the Azores) capture sperm whales. He also makes clear his belief that human settlement by nonindigenous people has made for "long-term ecological desecration" in such once pristine settings as Ile aux Aigrettes, a satellite island of Mauritius in the western Indian Ocean. Occasionally, Lovegrove can be cursory and almost condescendingly romantic, as in his depiction of the Cuna natives of San Blas (off Panama's Caribbean coast) as "a fine-looking race, friendly and happy," who "maintain their old religion, closely related to their medicinal beliefs." However, this brief, idiosyncratic, colorful book introduces readers to oases of biodiversity that few are likely to visit and whose distinctiveness may soon be lost in an increasingly homogenized world. 20 b&w illus., 8-page color plate section, maps. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

CHOICE Review

Conservationist Lovegrove, former longtime director of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in Wales, provides an individualistic travelogue: historical insights and environmental notes on wildlife, especially birds, observed on 20 islands scattered about the globe. The islands are either very small, remote, or climatically challenging. Humankind's influence is evident on most. Guam, once a "tropical utopia," is now "little more than a complete biological disaster." War and military construction over many decades have resulted in the comprehensive elimination of its native wildlife. On Mingulay and St Kilda in the Outer Hebrides, people struggled to make a living for hundreds of years, principally through commercial bird catching. But the harsh climate and difficult access caused all its inhabitants to leave the islands by 1930. Wrangel Island, 100 miles north of Siberia, "hopelessly remote" from the mainland and icebound for much of each year, is home to the world's most concentrated population of polar bears. One of the Canary Islands is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve; another in the Azores is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A table listing island sizes and national affiliation would have been useful. However, the volume includes 40 illustrations (half in color), notes, and an appendix with scientific species names. Summing Up: Recommended. All readership levels. K. B. Sterling formerly, Pace University

Booklist Review

Over the centuries, exotic, faraway islands have inspired dozens of fanciful literary and cinematic escapades, from Robinson Crusoe to TV's recent sci-fi series Lost. For the genesis of this captivating travelogue profiling 20 of the world's most remote islands, author and birding enthusiast Lovegrove credits a blissful week spent at a bird sanctuary on Skokholm Island, near Wales, when he was only 16. Not all the islands chronicled here are quite so idyllic, however, and few have the tropical climate depicted in the Defoe classic. Halfmoon Island, located in the Arctic Ocean, for example, is the definition of desolation and soullessness, according to Lovegrove. Some islands are well known, such as Guam, where the author witnesses the environmental devastation caused by military installations, whereas others are not, such as the lush mid-Atlantic outpost Tristan da Cunha, where a tiny society flourishes despite its extreme distance from the mainland. Together with maps and eight pages of color plates, Lovegrove's vividly written essays will provide hours of vicarious enjoyment for housebound island hoppers and geography lovers everywhere.--Hays, Carl Copyright 2010 Booklist