Return to Muck

I received an ARC of, Return to Muck, by Marg Greenwood. This is a great guide book. I have never heard of Muck before, it looks like a great bucket list trip.

The author I'd a retired school teacher, who has spent her spare time over the last two and a half decades exploring Scotland's Western Isles, and particularly her beloved Muck.
I loved this book, which I'd clearly a work of passion, written from the heart, and illuminating every aspect of these small islands from their history, to folklore, the natural world, and the people who live there now.
In the future I plan to retire to a Scottish Island, perhaps as a fan following in the footsteps of George Orwell, but now I will proudly follow in the illustrious footsteps of Marg Greenwood. Long may she continue her own adventures on Muck.

This struck me as quite a distinctive travel book. If people come to it thinking it a straight reportage of a few Scottish islands, a plain telling of what is where and which boat does which trip and how much it all costs, they may well turn against it. But I guess planning to see those islands opens you up to having the affinity for the pause, the willingness to face a diversion, the mindset to accept the most unexpected lesson or experience, and all those are on these pages. Our author, not hindered at all by her teaching and musical backgrounds, has helped herself into the communities of several of the islands near Mull, principally Muck, where she has stayed for up to five weeks at a time, taught her songs to the school kids and got a vestige of a community choir going. She's gone to several other islands, from the Uists and down to Islay, visiting the kids but also questioning locals about their wartime schooling, and their childhoods in communities that have never really thrived but at least had more people about them than they do now.

And it's all quite appealing, from the way it's delivered here. Midges are barely mentioned, and instead we see otters, rare birds, a welter of special plants, and prehistoric stones and palimpsests galore. The Gaelic language is still echoing from these hills, whether in the classrooms or the professionally-delivered songs, and it's also in the sandy stretches of semi-submerged terrain between the islands at low tide and in the stones suffering the wind and cold up there. This is also highly pictorial, with copious photos of what the text is talking of, although I'll leave my opinion of her poetry to another time. This will actually serve as a poor souvenir of the region, in that she will undoubtedly have seen so much you missed, causing you to wait anxiously for that never-never day when you return. Instead it is a really pretty decent volume for the armchair traveller, as we see the author imbued with the spirit of the islands over copious trips and many years' worth of visits. So no, it's not intending to be a "these are the options and this is how it's done" factual guide, and it's not a day-one to day-last narrative, but in being a quietly enthusiastic love letter to all these places it's really quite affecting. A strong four stars.

really enjoyed going with the author on her travels. I had never heard of Muck, but sounds like a great place. really enjoyed traveling with the author.

Really enjoyed this travel book.Enjoyed traveling with the author while I sat in my reading chair.#netgalley #returntomuck.