Bøger af Robin Lloyd-Jones

This is a classic book of kayaking adventures from a Booker Prize nominee. With striking new cover design and a specially written introduction by the author, Argonauts of the Scottish Isles is a vivid and exciting journey around Orkney, Shetland and the islands of Scotland, combining kayaking adventure with history.

William Hutchison Murray (1913 - 1996) was one of Scotland's most distinguished climbers in the years before and after the Second World War. As a prisoner of war in Italy he wrote his first classic book, Mountaineering in Scotland, on rough toilet paper which was confiscated and destroyed by the Gestapo. The rewritten version was published in 1947 and followed by the, now, equally famous, Undiscovered Scotland. In 1951 he was depute leader to Eric Shipton on the Everest Reconnaissance Expedition, which discovered the eventual successful route which would be climbed by Hilary and Tensing. From the 1960s onwards he was heavily involved in conservation campaigns and his book, Highland Landscape, commissioned by the National Trust for Scotland, identified areas of outstanding beauty that should be protected. It proved to be extremely influential. In 1966 he was awarded an OBE as he pursued a life of service, as is well illustrated by the various posts he held: Commissioner for the Countryside Commission for Scotland (1968-1980); President of the Scottish Mountaineering Club (1962-1964) and of the Ramblers Association Scotland (1966-82); Chairman of Scottish Countryside Activities Council (1967-82); Vice-President of the Alpine Club (1971-72); President of Mountaineering Council of Scotland (1972-75). He was a prolific author but a proper understanding of his life and work requires that we appreciate that his driving force was a quest to achieve inner purification that would lead him to oneness with Truth and Beauty. For many years the climber, author and teacher, Robin Lloyd-Jones (above) has been researching the life and work of Bill Murray and working steadily on this biography. It is not only a triumph of fine writing and interest, but a worthy accolade for this great man.

The west coast of Scotland casts a spell on anyone with a taste for adventure, a feeling for the past or a love of the wild, uninhabited places. With tidal currents of awesome power running between fascinating patterns of islands, it is a challenging place for any type of small craft. Robin Lloyd-Jones has been exploring here in his sea kayak for more than forty years. In this enhanced new edition of Argonauts of the Western Isles he takes us on many a memorable expedition to wild and beautiful shores. Amongst magnificent scenery and ever-changing seas, we are transported to Jura, Scarba, the Garvellach Isles, Mull, Staffa, the Treshnish Isles, the Monach Isles, Iona, Lewis and the Uists, Skye, the Orkneys, the Shetland Isles to places with music in their names, like Tir Nan Og the land of the ever-young, places which, once visited, become part of you. Along the way the author tells us a great deal about kayaking, about the wildlife and the history of the area but, more than that, he makes us feel that we are with him on his kayak. We experience what it is like to set out with one's destination below the horizon and nothing but open sea ahead, to bivouac under the stars, to spend the night aboard a wreck, to be 'hunted' by the vortex of the Corryvreckan whirlpool, to paddle into dark, booming caves, to feel an Atlantic swell rolling beneath the kayak and to become part of its rhythm. Through the author's vivid descriptions we know the terror of a force nine gale, the tranquillity of moonlit trips, and the lure of tiny bays and seal-meadows accessible only to a slim kayak. We encounter dolphins, otters, unidentified monsters and nuclear submarines. And when he writes of the magic of remote islands, the Robinson Crusoe in all of us is awakened. This is a book to set the imagination adrift, a book for those seeking wider horizons, be their vessel an armchair or a kayak.

A kayak trip in Greenland's Nuuk fjords through an area of amazing beautyTurreted fairytale peaks, glistening snowfields, waterfalls plunging over immense cliffs into the sea, a million tons of ice capsizing - this is the setting for Fallen Pieces of the Moon, an account of a kayak trip along the west coast of Greenland, paddling about 150 miles of coastline in the Nuuk fjords area. Into the day-to-day account of contending with unsettled weather such as fog, unstable icebergs, midges and bugs by the billion, are woven insights into Inuit culture - their language, their shamanic practices, their hunting and navigation techniques and much more. On the way, the reader learns a great deal about the Arctic animals, pollution and the Arctic environment. Information on the early Arctic whalers, when whole fleets were beset and crushed by ice, is included; and an appreciation will be gained of the hardships endured by the Viking settlers and explorers such as Frobisher and Franklin who suffered scurvy, frostbite and starvation. Told with humour, the book is endlessly informative and entertaining on topics ranging from cannibalism, kayak rolling and Inuit string games to cargo cults or how the invention of bully beef influenced naval tactics. Fallen Pieces of the Moon is a celebration of a sparse, billion-year-old landscape where the roots of things, both physical and human, seem less hidden. It conveys something of the wonder and awe that Greenland inspires in all who have been there. It describes days of absolute stillness, sliding though shoals of waxing suns; ephemeral cloudscapes on broad-winged breezes; a high corrie where jet black ravens float in a crystal bowl of Alpine air; and the ever-present icebergs like cathedrals of glass, like floating jewels, like fallen pieces of the moon.