Island of Dreams: A Personal History of a Remarkable Place

Dan Boothby had been drifting for more than 20 years, without the pontoons of family, friends or a steady occupation. Finally, unexpectedly, an opportunity presented itself. After a lifelong obsession with Gavin Maxwell’s Ring of Bright Water trilogy, Boothby was given the chance to move to Maxwell’s former home, a tiny island on the western seaboard of the Highlands of Scotland. Island of Dreams is about Boothby’s time living there, it’s about the people he meets and the stories they tell, and about his engagement with this remote landscape, including the otters that inhabit it. Interspersed with Boothby’s own story is a quest to better understand the mysterious Gavin Maxwell. Beautifully written and frequently leavened with a dry wit, Island of Dreams is a charming celebration of the particularities of place.