From Cape Wrath to Finisterre: Sailing the Celtic Fringe (Armchair Traveller) - Softcover

Larsson, Bjorn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1907973184 ISBN 13: 9781907973185

Publisher: Haus Publishing, 2012

Synopsis

From Cape Wrath to Finisterre is a travelogue and an homage to Celtic lands and waters, from their northern to their south western landfalls. Cape Wrath points towards the Arctic Circle at Scotland's furthest northerly limit. "Perhaps I was looking for a homeland, perhaps not, or at any rate a place where it would be worth trying to live for a while as well as one can for as long as it lasts." Finisterre, the furthest point in Galicia in northern Spain, was so named for being "The End of the Earth," Larsson's contemplative musings on life as seen from the cockpit and deck of his yacht enliven this journey from Denmark around Scotland, through the Irish Sea and onwards to Brittany and Spain. "Yes, I admit to rootlessness and impermanence," he admits. "But restlessness, on the other hand, is a scourge. It and its modern variant, stress, the futility of running round in circles, are to be avoided at all costs. It is far from certain, of course, that this way of life would suit everybody, but if it instils in someone the desire to experiment with alternatives. I shall be happy."

About this title

About the Author

Björn Larsson was born in central Sweden in 1953, and was soon smitten by an irresistible wanderlust. At the age of fifteen he spent a year at high school in Arizona. As he puts it himself, "I only went back to Sweden in order to sit my exams, to collect my study loans, and to go to prison."

Björn Larsson has published several academic and technical volumes, ranging from a treatise on the use of French adjectives to an instruction book for deep-sea diving, but he has now achieved considerable success as a novelist, and may soon have to decide whether to give up his day job and devote himself full-time to his boat and his writing.

His first literary book was a collection of short stories, Splitter (Splinters, 1980). But he really made his mark in 1992 with The Celtic Ring, a novel whose main character Larsson says is his boat Rustica. That may be tongue-in-cheek, but it is set largely in Scotland and Ireland where he and Helle spent a year on board Rustica (wintering in Kinsale) before sailing over to Brittany, the Bay of Biscay and Galicia. A key theme in the book is the desire of the Celtic nations to break free from England and form a federation of their own. It is interesting to note that Larsson started to write the novel before the Berlin wall came down, and before devolution came to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. He seems to have anticipated a trend that became widespread throughout Europe but as he says, it is our good fortune that the process has proceeded rather more smoothly in northern Europe than in Yugoslavia. That was not obvious in 1991 when The Celtic Ring was being written.

Freedom and the seafaring life was also at the heart of Björn Larsson’s second novel, Long John Silver (1995).

Review

'He has written an unusual book which must stimulate any reader to consider how they experience the world.' -- John de Falbe The Spectator "It's a paen to the virtues of restlessness and liberty." -- Giles Foden Conde Nast Traveller May 2012

About this edition

• Publisher: Haus Publishing
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1907973184
• ISBN 13: 9781907973185
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 140