Hans J Marter

21 December, 2007

SOME PEOPLE take an unusual route to reach their destination. Andy Strangeway's must be one of the strangest of all.

The energetic 42 year old Yorkshireman has reached his goal by spending the night on all of Scotland's 162 islands measuring larger than 40 hectares, be they inhabited or uninhabited by man or sheep.

It took him five years to complete the round. He is now a wiser man having got under the skin of island life and is starting to reap the benefits of his life changing journey.

Since completing his adventure Andy has become a kind of celebrity. Earlier this month he was back in Shetland under the auspices of the Daily Mail who ran a long feature on his journeys. A few days earlier the Guardian newspaper had printed a full page on his travels, and only this week he spent a day with the BBC promoting his Island Man book and contributing to their many programmes.

'Naïve Beginnings' is the first book in a series of four. It covers the Scottish islands, including Shetland mainland and Foula, which Andy managed to visit between September 2003 and April 2005.

And it is well worth a read, with an appeal for those born or choosing to live on an island, anyone fascinated by their different rhythm of life, or someone who simply wants to follow this determined man.

The prose is diary style, put together from hundreds of entries made randomly during his travels. Reading through his notes one instantly is drawn into the pace of island life.

Andy, of course, discovers very quickly that life out here, on the fringe if you like, is very different from what he thought was normal after living most of his life in the small village of Nunburnholme, in the Yorkshire Wolds. And it is fascinating seeing him adapting to new rules.

Bernard Ingham describes Yorkshiremen as "richly endowed with that gritty determination, the wilful refusal to give up and sheer bloody-mindedness that eventually prevails".

Andy is proving his own "determination and bloody-mindedness" not only by completing his challenge, but also by the way he is marketing his book.

Not being prepared to go 50/50 with bookshops, 'Island Man. Naïve Beginnings' is only available via his website at www.island-man.co.uk/index.html at a price of £11.

If you order now your copy may not arrive in time for Christmas, but then there are still many long and dark winter nights ahead to spend following this man on his strange way.