Whittles Publishing 1997, G4,152pp, £11.95
Now that the last manned Lighthouse around the coasts of Britain and Ireland has been automated, the lonely life and the personalities of the keepers comes alive in an account of a sponsored walk by one of them! In 1986, the author set out to visit twenty of the lighthouses on the Scottish mainland: it took him 58 days and at least 1100 miles on foot, often in appalling weather. His tale is enlivened by Scots humour, and interspersed with cartoons and aerial photographs of the lighthouses; it was the spontaneous hospitality of former colleagues and their families - and sometimes complete strangers - that facilitated his progress.
For me it was a "book at bedtime" efficateous at sending me to sleep with the pleasant expectation of more to read on the morrow. JFP