This book is a quick read about a topic you (or at least me) thought you already knew something about–the smaller islands around England–but it turns out you’re wrong. The prose is informative without being dense, always a plus. My brain is still scarred from years of parsing academic articles. If I never hear the word ‘praxis’ again, fine by me. Anyway, this book. Victor Hugo lived for years in exile on Jersey? Who knew? I was hoping for more information about Iona, since one of my current projects is set there but the book was fascinating nonetheless, particularly in regards to explaining how/why/how much the scattered islands do/do not consider themselves part of England. Spoiler alert: more no than yes. The only real problem with the book is now I want to go see a whole bunch more places, all of which are relatively difficult to get to.