Book Your Spot on The Isles of Scilly – Still the Most Amazing Islands in Britain (from just £5!)

Pelistry Bay

Book Your Spot on The Isles of Scilly – Still the Most Amazing Islands in Britain (from just £5!)

Only a month now until the Scilly Isles beckon once more.  We’re staying in an old cottage close to the harbour and are very excited.  Which might come as a surprise as this will be our fifteenth or sixteenth family holiday in this corner of paradise.

It’s a bit of trek – we used to fly from Southampton, which was a stroll down the A34, but now the nearest airport with connections to St Mary’s is Exeter, and the flights from there are twice the price of the fifteen-minute jaunt from St Just. (Which is close to Land’s End, for those whose knowledge of Cornwall is passing at best.)

My first book ever was about Scilly.  I published it in 2017 and was astonished to find that people actually bought it.  For which I am eternally grateful.  Of course, like any would-be millionaire author, I’d like to say that the country pile in which we now live (if only) was paid for with the proceeds.  Or even that the keys to the Merc are emblazoned with the cover picture for the book.  Not true.  But the ten-year-old Seat Mii which graces the gravel of our front garden is down to the book.  At, least, the front left wheel is.  That’s the problem with being a writer, it doesn’t pay very much.  Even successful authors, selling in their tens of thousands, might only reap an income of between £8000 and £12000 per annum.  That’s not a lot, especially given the considerable pleasure we give to you, our wonderful, beloved and generous readers.

And we do so much for you.  So much, in fact, that I’ve just published my second Scilly book (the first had become horribly out of date – for a location stuck in the 1950s things really do change apace), and I recommend, urge, beg, plead with you to read it.  (Actually, I don’t care too much if you read it or not, just buying it will be enough for me.  You see, the Mii has started to make strange rattling sounds and the airbag warning light refuses to go off.  I’m not making accusations, but if the car fails on the M5 next month…well, I just hope that guilt is not an emotion from which you suffer.)

It’s completely new.  The book that is, not the Mii.  Except for a small section about shipwrecks around the islands.  You see, there haven’t been any (fortunately) since the last book, so I admit that bit might seem familiar to my countless leagues of fans.  Oh, and a couple of short stories and blogs I included for colour, flavour and entertainment on the beach. They have been abducted from my collections of short stories.  But everything about Scilly is as fresh and refreshing as the breeze off Samson on a summer’s morning.

The book covers the essential boring stuff about going on holiday in a thoroughly entertaining and uplifting way.  You know, fly or sail, the A 303 v the M5, the determination of every farmer with a tractor in Cornwall to make you late for an appointment.  Or flight. (Actually, that bit isn’t boring, but it is extremely annoying.  They lay in wait, tucked down lanes hidden by bushes, and trundle out when it is just too late to get past them without being squashed by the baler coming the other way).  In fact, you’d never think a four hour car drive and wait at a tiny airport could be half as fun as I make it.  Don’t believe me?  Well, get onto Amazon and find out for yourself.  There’s lists of things to do on all the islands, treats such as visiting Bryher’s museum, so small and perfect you could fit it into one of those old red telephone boxes.  (Guess what – it does fit into one of those old red telephone boxes).  Or a detailed description of a walk round St Mary’s, including (and this is important) advice on how to avoid being decapitated by the 12.25 from Newquay. There’s quite a lot about the old burial chambers and cairns which provide a dark but surprisingly accessible entry into the islands’ distant past.  Right back, in fact, to when they weren’t islands at all.  Bet you didn’t know that, did you?

There is a comprehensive list of the best places to eat.  Information about getting about, getting there and how to avoid the Scilly equivalent of ‘mentioning the war’. Quite a lot about Harold Wilson, and here’s the cleverest bit of all – some of my reviews and blogs of interesting places to visit on the mainland.  You see, I’ve been travelling the country for a while now, visiting places which people don’t realise are of interest.  Places like Winslow in Buckinghamshire, or Dunstable, or the remains of Lady Jane Grey’s house in Leicestershire, or Southend on Sea.  It was all a part of a scheme to write a travel book on unsung places in the UK, which I’d visit in my 1968 Morris Minor.  (It was bought as a wedding car, but then covid arrived, and weddings stopped. Nothing like a sense of timing.) Sadly, the concept was flawed as the Morris could only travel 28 miles before overheating.  Places to Visit within 28 Miles of Milton Keynes didn’t seem a likely best seller, plus the Morris finally steamed its last, and took its final drive to the A422 in the sky.  So I was left with all these witty, incisive, coruscating reviews of little England but had nowhere to show them off. (I even went to places located more than 28 miles from Milton Keynes – in the end I gave up trying to widen the Moggy’s horizons and took a more reliable vehicle on my adventures).  Well, now they are cleverly inserted into this book on Scilly.  So, even if you have no interest in the islands, you should still buy the future bestseller.  Who knows, your town might even be included in it.  Although, not in a good light, as my aim is to show the wonder of Scilly by comparing it to places which are simply not as nice.

(As I was writing the paragraph above, I realised what an opportunity I’ve missed. ‘The Mii and Me’ – perfect book title.  If the rattle proves to be nothing more than an empty coke can in the boot, I’ll get started on that post-haste, provided the haste bit doesn’t exceed 60mph – in the middle lane, of course; that’s the safest bit of the motorway to travel on).  Suggestions welcome.  Keep your eyes peeled, that page turner will be on Amazon soon. Possibly.

But time to get back to Scilly, which is what we really want to do.  The book is full of beautiful photographs (taken, of course, by yours truly), tear inducing descriptions of the Eastern Isles – I have a terrible soft spot for these wonders – as will you, if you read my book and get onto Skybus or the Scillonian asap.  There’s tales of billionaire football club owners, and sea-born tragedies.  There’s even an account of Sir Cloudesly Shovell, surely the greatest name ever to be bestowed on a sailor. Harold Wilson features quite strongly as well. (In fact, so regularly does the pipe smoking former PM appear that I’ve even now mentioned him twice in this blog.  And that’s not something many people can say.)

So, enough of this.  Apparently, these days, articles should always end with a call to action.  Below is a link to the book. If you haven’t worked out what to do next, then I’m not going to tell you.  To be fair, I don’t expect you to spend £40 on a hardback copy, although, if you want to…that’s fine with me.  Actually, due to Amazon’s weirdly designed payment system, I make the most per copy if you simply download the eBook – and that’s only a fiver.  Surely, not a lot for hours of entertainment, life enhancing knowledge and the inspiration to visit these most amazing islands.  They really are worth it.

(And so’s the book.  Honestly.)

The Isles of Scilly: Still the most amazing islands in Britain by Alan Peters

Amazon.co.uk : The Isles of Scilly: still the most amazing islands in Britain Alan Peters

eBook – £5

Paperback – £10

Hardback (full colour) – £40

So thanks if you bought the book, bugger off if you didn’t. (Although, if you’re wise, you’ll bugger off to Scilly.  Or Southend.  Or even Dunstable).

I am also a funeral celebrant, and offer a bespoke service to write memoirs, biographies and life stories of the living and those who have died.  Visit www.abpeterscelebrant.co.uk or email on abpeterscelebrant@gmail.com for more details.