The Atlantic Islands; A Study of the Faeroe Life and Scene by Kenneth Williamson, 1948
The Atlantic Islands (1948) is Williamson’s detailed and lyrical account of life in the Faroe Islands, drawing from his wartime posting. The book blends natural history with cultural observation, enriched by photographs and maps. Praised for its authenticity and insight—partly due to the author's personal ties to the islands—it captures both the ecology and the everyday life of the Faroese people.
Kenneth Williamson (c. 1914–1977) was a British ornithologist born in Bury, Lancashire. After early work in journalism and natural history at the Manx Museum, he was stationed in the Faroe Islands during World War II, where he married a Faroese woman. He later directed the Fair Isle Bird Observatory and served as Migration Research Officer for the British Trust for Ornithology. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1959, he was a leading figure in British ornithology until his death in 1977.
The Atlantic Islands; A Study of the Faeroe Life and Scene by Kenneth Williamson. With a Foreword by Eric Linklater. Pen-and-ink drawings by the Author, thirty-five photographs and four maps.
Published by Collins, London, 1948 first edition.
A good blue cloth hardback housed in original dustjacket. The cloth has a blind stamped printed silver whale design to the front cover and silver titles to spine. Spine and top edge are sun-faded. The dustjacket is rather worn with frayed extremities and split down most of the front outer joint (with archival tape repairs to rear), with an area of loss to the spine. Spine is darkened and worn. Not price-clipped. The jacket is now housed in clear protective, removable plastic sleeve. With pictorial map endpapers. With some give in the spine with front inner hinge weak.
The text block in itself is bright and clean throughout, and is free of spotting. Well illustrated throughout.
Text in English.
360pp + Plates. All plates present as called for.
Dimensions: approximately 225mm tall x 150mm wide x 30mm deep.
Weight: approximately 548g (unpacked).