"'Gavin Francis is a wonderful writer - thoughtful, engaging, immensely knowledgeable and supremely human' - BILL BRYSON 'For those who have missed travelling this year, and for anyone who has pondered the meaning of ""isolation"", there is an ideal present - a beautiful and highly illustrated book called Island Dreams, by Gavin Francis, exploring the place of islands in our psyche - from Lamu to the Lofoten Islands, the Faroes to the Falklands, Avalon to the Azores' - HILARY MANTEL 'Highly absorbing . Francis combines memoir from a lifetime of travel and the practice of medicine, observations on the geography and history of islands across the globe, and reflections on how islands illuminate his own life and the human condition' - Guardian 'An intoxicating voyage during which maps become fictions and fictions verifiable facts. Myths of returning and older legends carry us out in a shared fugue of obsession and release. Here is a worthy companion to the dream labyrinths of Borges' - IAIN SINCLAIR 'A thrilling book - beautiful and spare at once . A real achievement' - TIM DEE '' -".