A Book Of Death And Fish

Peter MacAulay sits down to write his will. The process sets in motion a compulsive series of reflections: a history of his own lifetime and a subjective account of how key events in the post-war world filter through to his home, Stornoway. He reveals his passions for history, engines and fish, and witnesses changing times - and things that don't change - in the Hebrides. The novel is driven by its idiosyncratic narrator, but with counterpoints from people he engages with - his father, mother, wife, daughter, friends. It's all about stories, a litany of small histories witnessed during one very individual lifetime.

Ian Stephen is a writer, storyteller, artist and sailor from the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. His prose, poetry and drama has been published around the world and garnered several awards, including the Robert Louis Stevenson Award. He was the first artist-in-residence at StAnza, Scotland's annual poetry festival.