The Gravity of Feathers: Fame, Fortune, and the Story of St Kilda

REVIEW BY CH Located more than 100 miles from the Scottish mainland, the cluster of islands collectively known as St Kilda have variously been mythologised as a romantically remote place whose hardy inhabitants were torn from their traditional way of life by circumstances beyond their control, or a lesson in hubris, a doomed attempt at colonising an impossibly extreme environment. Today the Hebridean islands are a World Heritage Site (see CA 263, CA 312, and CA 369) renowned mainly for birdlife; the last human inhabitants departed in 1930. This relocation is often painted in tragic shades, but the story of St Kilda is much more complex – as this comprehensive new book by Andrew Fleming