The People Of The Sea

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as haunting as the cry of a seal - Rated
Anyone who has any sort of feeling for tradition, stories and mystery, basically all the things that are going down the drain in our increasingly urban culutre, will love this book. I bought the book for the seal legends, but what fascinated me even more was the careful story-telling (no word too much said)and the beautiful, often sad episodes spun around the legends themselves. Thomson's writing is evocative and such a lot is to be gained from what he doesn't say. An absolute must for anyone who would prefer to be doing something useful in life rather than sit in the city at a suit-and-tie job.

evokes both seal-lore and the people who hand it down - Rated
I saw Seamus Heaney's intro in the paper and bought the book: it has lived up to his praise. You get a picture of the hospitality, generosity and way with words of the people on the remote Atlantic coasts of Scotland and Ireland in the times before TV took over from storytelling. You also hear how the seals, selchies, can assume human form, rescue fisherman, and many wonderful things besides.