This memoir tells of the struggle of the people of Luing to sustain and grow their community. Norman Bissell was inspired to express the Earth creatively by the Scottish poet-thinker Kenneth White and became Director of the Scottish Centre for Geopoetics in 2002. On his journeys to Ireland, to the American west and east coasts, and in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, he reveals how women like Joan Eardley, Rachel Carson, Katharine Stewart and Nan Shepherd were forerunners of geopoetics as well as men like Robert Burns, Hugh Miller and George Orwell. This fascinating story ranges widely in place and time and touches the heart.

‘Living on an Island: Expressing the Earth is an extremely readable book that combines personal memoir with an in-depth account of the history of the geopoetics movement, seen in particular from Scotland. It’s a seminal and timely work and an informative and engaging account of this significant and growing approach to living.’ Author Carol McKay

‘… an extraordinary compendium of a book, a wonderfully readable autobiographical account of a poet’s accommodation with the ecology of life on a small island…’ Alan Riach, Professor of Scottish Literature, University of Glasgow

‘… an accomplished and prolific writer, and long-time champion of geopoetics in Scotland… a frank and personal look behind the scenes of the geopoetics movement…’ Professor Máiréad Nic Craith, Institute for Northern Studies, University of the Highlands and Islands

Norman Bissell is the author of the poetry collection Slate, Sea and Sky, a Journey from Glasgow to the Isle of Luing and Barnhill a Novel about George Orwell when he wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four on Jura. A former Principal Teacher of History and Area Officer of the Educational Institute of Scotland, he lives and writes on the Isle of Luing.