Islands of Imagination

Islands have long provided an inspirational setting for authors, and this year’s book festival programme proves that their allure is far from waning. For novelists Frances Bingham and Meaghan Delahunt, the appeal of islands stems primarily from their remoteness, the isolation they provide. “There’s only really one way on and one way off an island,” says Delahunt, author of To The Island, the story of a woman journeying to a Greek prison island to find her biological father. “You’re surrounded by sea, so you’re constantly looking out at horizons. You have this feeling of being at the edge of something – you get this real view of horizon and possibility. And just being surrounded by the sea, I think that’s amazing.”

For Bingham, the sea actually functions as a character in her novel The Principle of Camoflage, the story of a family living on a remote islands in the midst of the second world war: “its moods both reflect and influence those of the people who live beside it," she says. "Its destructive power eventually overwhelms the beach, but this is also a benign event, as it sweeps away the pollution of war too.”

Delahunt agrees: “There’s something mysterious and powerful about it… the rhythm of the waves, in fact the whole rhythm of island life is quite different to city life – you’re much more elemental.”

This separation from the outside world that islands enforce creates a microcosmic setting, where characters’ lives intertwine with the rhythms of nature in a way that would not be possible in a city. Hence, perhaps, their idea of islands as an escape, or a catalyst for change. Bingham feels that island life can reveal particular truths: “In a literary sense, the journey to the island, the quest or voyage of discovery usually brings some self-knowledge or redemptive vision – followed by the inevitable return to 'real' life.

"This could well be because the island is a microcosm, and the characters' experiences within it reveal truths about themselves and clarify their thoughts about life. Profound enlightening change as a result of pilgrimage or journey is a recurring theme, and so often the symbolic place is an island of the imagination, an Ithaka or Ultima Thule.”

Modern life makes it harder and harder to find somewhere truly remote. Bingham says that while “the idea of escape is attractive, I think it’s illusory, in fact, not only because we take our own worlds with us, but also because the outside world comes visiting, even if unwelcome.”

Perhaps this is why literature turns to islands. Though they may be connected to the internet these days, Delahunt believes “they are one of the few places we can still escape to. There’s an opportunity to live in quite a seasonal and rhythmic way, and be connected to something ancient, and I think that is the allure of islands.”

Clearly, whether as a base for writers seeking isolation or as a literary location, islands—and the ideas of escape inherent in them—have an enduring place in our imaginations.