Customer Reviews

Life and Death of St. Kilda (A Fontana original)

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Imagine being told the life you and your ancestors have lived for thousands of years doesn't work any more. Secluded and peaceful, your island community has honored it's ancient traditions of hunting and gathering, ritual and socicety, and they've seen you through good and bad times, where life has been tough but meaningful. And now your simply told it doesn't fit with how outsiders think you should live.

Steel's magical account of the sacred island of St.Kilda - far out from the Scottish mainland and the straggle of archipeligo's that surround it - is both heart-warming and heat-breaking. He tells the tale of men and women whose lives are toyed with by authorities that felt they knew better than a people who for generations had lived almost completely isolated from what we call civilization.

This book describes St.Kilda when it thrived as a small, close-knit team, and when it worked together for the common good. It describes how St.Kildans hunted and gathered like prehistoric communities had thousands of years ago, and how they dealt with disasters and diseases that threatened their existence time and again. And ultimately, the story of a community that the world forgot for hundreds of years and then remebered again, just long enough to change forever the lives of the people of St.Kilda.

When I was lucky enough to be able to visit St. Kilda in June 2008, I bought this book at the little gift shop on the island. I sat down the next day while I was still in the Western Isles, and read most of it in one sitting; and I found it excellent. The author really brings everything to life, and makes it very readable. Their lives, hardships, everything. Not sentimental but rather factual and really riveting (not dry at all).