Dazzling … Conrad is a writer of exceptional fluency and gauge. He shimmies beguilingly from detail to detail, creating patterns more rococo than baroque. He offers brilliant asides’ – The Guardian‘A beautifully bound literary travelogue … Conrad’s stylistic composure and classical learning are indisputable’ – IconFor most people, islands are optional – places to dream about, the ideal site for holidays or honeymoons, times when you want to put a watery distance between yourself and a busy, vexatious reality … My book is about the fantasies of runaways, beachcombers and children who refuse to grow up.
– Peter Conrad

Peter Conrad, who was born in Tasmania, has produced an original and highly personal account of the role islands play in our dreams and nightmares.

With his customary wide range of reference and quick wit, he visits every corner of the globe to explain why islands appeal to us, and on the way covers everything from the myth of Atlantis to Watteau’s erotic Cytherea, from Prospero’s magical kingdom to Nelson Mandela’s prison. Whether we live on an island or merely fancy escaping to one, we can all learn something from this thought-provoking book.

Peter Conrad lives in NewYork, London, Lisbon and Oxford, where he teaches English at Christ Church. A polymath, he has written many books, including The Song of Love and Death, monographs on Hitchcock and Orson Welles and Creation: Artists, Gods and Origins.