Stroma is Caithness’s only island, now uninhabited.  At Caithness Horizons this Tuesday, family members amongst the last people to live there gathered to celebrate the launch of STROMA [The Islands Book Trust, 2011], a new book which bears witness to the richness of life the island enjoyed up until  1962.  Caithness writers Ali Murray and George Gunn, and Muir-of-Ord based photographer Roddy Ritchie spent more than two years on what Ali Murray describes as ‘a labour of love for all three of us’.

John Manson was one of the last islanders to leave Stroma.  Along with other islanders who contributed interviews to the book, he and his family were at Tuesday’s launch, and were very moved by the occasion.  ‘It was lovely to be with the islanders again.  Sad to see so few left.’

Ali Murray, who interviewed the islanders featured in the book, and whose essay introduces it, paid warm tribute to the community during the launch, as he introduced them to the book’s publisher, John Randall of The Islands Book Trust.  John had travelled from Stornoway especially to be there.  Poet George Gunn read from his poem, which provides a lyrical but provocative narrative spine for volume, accompanying stunning photographs by Roddy Ritchie.  Accompanied by fiddler Dave Broughton, local musician Donald McNeill played his own beautiful composition, also entitled ‘Stroma’, before Ali Murray presented all the islanders who contributed with copies of the book, a gift from the publisher.  Caithness Horizons also had a surprise for the islanders, gifting to each of those whose portraits accompany interviews in the book the print that had been part of an exhibition at the end of last, previewing the book.

The final surprise of the evening was an impromptu speech made by Jimmy Simpson, also an ex islander, and owner of Stroma for many years.  Clasping his copy of the book in which he now features, Jimmy told the audience of over seventy people how folk had asked him ‘why are you buying an island when everyone is leaving’.  Like the other islanders, Stroma had been his home, and – like the other islanders – sadness that those days have gone is balanced by an appreciation of the unique way of life they enjoyed, and perhaps even a hope that, as Jimmy Simpson says in his interview, ‘…we may see people on Stroma again’.

STROMA is now on sale in Caithness Horizons and many other local outlets, as well as directly from the publisher, or by contacting Ali Murray – www.theislandsbooktrust.com

Source: Caithness Horizons