Papa Westray

the long version

"Papa Westray, mystical island of the monks, is hardly more than a dot on the map of Scotland, yet it has a remarkable record of habitation which spans more than 5,000 years - a continuity of settlement difficult to match anywhere in the world. Only in the past 20 years, though, has the world at large come to know the treasures of Papa Westray." "This far-flung Orkney isle and journalist Jim Hewitson found each other in the early 1980s. With its 25 households, 70 or so permanent residents, a mini-economy based on cattle, sheep and shellfishing, the island sustains only a fraction of the population it did a century ago." "Clinging to the Edge brings together eight years of articles, essays and diary jottings which portray a fascinating island battered not just by Atlantic storms but by the pressures of contemporary economics. It provides a series of snapshots of life on the ocean fringe; the strains, stresses and joys of being part of a compact community still living, more than most, in a world apart."--BOOK JACKET.