David Yeadon – författare

For many armchair travelers the Outer Hebrides of Scotland epitomize the beauty and remoteness of island life. And the most dramatic of all the Hebrides is Harris, where the legendary Harris Tweed is woven by local crofters, reflecting the strength, durability, and integrity of life on Harris. Harris has dramatic mountains and huge, pristine sandy beaches bordering the open Atlantic. Yeadon captures in words and through his evocative line drawings the life of the island people, their folkways and humour and the simple life of crofting and fishing which have hardly changed in hundreds of years. Although sometimes threatened by the inroads of commerce and tourism, Harris remains in many ways idyllic, the most resonant and romantic of all the Hebridean islands. Yeadon also makes side trips to Barra, the southernmost of the Hebrides, to the Shiant Islands with author Adam Nicolson and to the fabled St. Kilda, the most remote of all the Scottish islands, 50 miles out in the Atlantic, wreathed in legend and history. There are 35 line drawings by the author.

In recent years, Ireland has enjoyed a newfound prosperity as Europe's most affluent nation. But tucked away in a far corner of the so-called "Celtic Tiger," that other enduring and authentic country-that small, hidden place of simple magic and romance-still exists. Acclaimed travel writer David Yeadon and his wife, Anne, set out to find it. On the Beara Peninsula of southwest Ireland, the Yeadons discovered their own "little lost world," an enticing Brigadoon of soaring mountain ranges and spectacular coastal scenery, far removed from the touristic hullabaloo of Dublin, Killarney, and the Ring of Kerry. Here is the fabled "Old Ireland," alive and well with music seisuins, hooley dances, and seanachai storytellers-a haven for searchers, healers, artists, and poets hardy enough to have braved the same narrow and winding mountain roads that keep the package-tour coaches out. Bursting with color and life, At the Edge of Ireland is an intrepid wanderer's celebration of a magical, unspoiled, and unforgettable Eire.