Gwyneth Hoyle’s biography of Isobel Wylie Hutchison, Flowers in the Snow, tells the life story of an incredible Scottish plant collector and explorer. In her pursuit to learn about the Arctic flora, Hutchison reached the Norwegian Lofoten islands, the American Aleutians and travelled across Greenland and Alaska. And all that at a time, when women were conventionally taken care of household and childcare – Hutchison lived from 1889 to 1982. Rebecca Solnit’s Wanderlust: A History of Walking has been on my bedside table ever since I got it as a Christmas present in 2019. I haven’t come round reading it yet, but I would not be surprised if I get itchy feet once I do. The fall from grace begins just a few weeks into her time on Lismore, or wherever it’s supposed to be, when, alone for the day, she is sunbathing topless and a couple of drunken local men appear, apparently ready to re-enact ‘Straw Dogs’.

I had arranged by telephone to meet John Gilbertson at the jetty in Elgol on Skye, the nearest village to Soay. John was a fisherman and skipper of his own boat so he was able to take me the four miles from Elgol to Soay bay to view the house. I had been fortunate with the weather, he said, it was going to be possible to get across to the island that day. It had never entered my mind that I might not get over there. Princess Andre breaks silence on her seventh sibling as dad Peter prepares to welcome a new baby with wife Emily Al Pacino's girlfriend Noor Alfallah makes pitstop for coffee while out with her mother in LA... nearly six months after arrival of baby Roman My life on Soay has opened my eyes to the precarious and untenable state of modern civilisation in the twenty first century. It covers the area from Cherbourg and the Contenin peninsula to Ushant and the harbours of the Chenal du Four.

Some of the Scottish connections in the books are several of Jen Rendall’s photographs from around the Scottish Highlands, Edinburgh-based writer Sandy Bennet-Haber’s short story Do You Remember Me Turkey Blue? and Alison Grant’s poem Affric. I would have liked to have given this book 5 but decided to give it 4 because,there are sections of the book which require a lot of concentration to understand but I suppose talking about knots and woodworking along with other similar activities isn't easy. Also, the book could have benefited from better proof reading as there are missing words etc which, on occasion,finds the reader needing to re read the sentence.

Smith then lists 26 ideas for adventures around the UK of which 12 lead to Scotland. Ideas include hikes like the Range of the Awful Hand in the Galloway & Southern Ayrshire Biosphere, a trip to the isolates Knoydart peninsula and bothy hikes in the Northern Highlands.In a postscript to the first edition of Island on the Edge she considers the prediction of an earlier inhabitant, Gavin Maxwell, that islands like this were destined to become uninhabited. Kim Kardashian's fans go wild over what she does with her tongue in pouty selfies to plug SKIMS: 'A bit X-rated Kimmy!' Stacey Solomon rolls round on the floor in panic as she attempts to rescue a bird trapped under her sofa - whilst husband Joe Swash films the whole thing Loved this book. It's a very honest, down-to-earth account of a young woman who abandons her professional life in London to live in a run-down cottage in remote Scotland without stopping to think about what the move entails. She is so ignorant about her new home that at first, she didn't even realise the cottage was on an island!