The Blue Cabin: Living by the Tides on Islandmore

Following the collapse of his business, Michael Faulkner and his wife moved from Scotland to a cabin on Islandmore, an uninhabited island on Strangford Lough.

With no mains electricity, an erratic water supply and access to the mainland only possible by boat, life on the island is one part catastrophe – gale, storm and tempest, broken generators, disappearing dinghies – to three parts idyll – long walks on the short with their Westie and Cairn terrier, the arrival of the terns, year-round picnics, sunsets from Eagle Hill.

The result is a book reminiscent of the writing of Peter Mayle (A Year in Provence); an honest, often funny, and moving account of one couple and two dogs living the kind of life that so many of us yearn for.