Items related to Stargazing: Memoirs of a Young Lighthouse Keeper
When Peter Hill, a student at Dundee College of Art, answered an advert in The Scotsman seeking lighthouse keepers, little did he imagine that within a month he would be living with three men he didn't know in a lighthouse on Pladda, a small remote island off the west coast of Scotland.
Hill was nineteen, it was 1973 and, with his head fed by Vietnam, Zappa, Kerouac, Vonnegut, Watergate and Coronation Street, he spent six months on various lighthouses, "keeping" with all manner of unusual and fascinating people. Within thirty years this way of life was to have disappeared entirely.
The resulting book is a charming and beautifully written memoir that is not only a heartfelt lament for Hill's own youth and innocence but also for a simpler and more honest age.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review:
"What makes Stargazing such a beautiful book is that it is more than an elegy to a vanished profession. It is a elegy to youth and to the constellation of dreams, ambitions and anxieties that is more intense at 19 than it can ever be again." (Sunday Herald)
"Both an elegy to an extinct way of life and a tribute to the spirit and expertise of the men who embodied this romance of sea and sky." (The Observer)
"Few of these books, however, are as wistfully evocative or as thoughtful as Hill's Stargazing." (The Independent)
"A passionate account and a fine commemoration of the first profession ever to be made totally redundant." (Bella Bathurst, author of "The Lighthouse Stevensons")
"excellent" (The Scotsman Magazine)
From the Back Cover:
"Both an elegy to an extinct way of life and a tribute to the spirit and expertise of the men who embodied this romance of sea and sky." (The Observer)
"Few of these books, however, are as wistfully evocative or as thoughtful as Hill's Stargazing." (The Independent)
"A passionate account and a fine commemoration of the first profession ever to be made totally redundant." (Bella Bathurst, author of "The Lighthouse Stevensons")
"excellent" (The Scotsman Magazine)
"A generous book ... as full of lost dreams as a starry sky on a foggy night" Daily Telegraph
It is 1973 and Peter Hill, his head filled with the Vietnam War, Frank Zappa, Jack Kerouac, the Watergate trial and Coronation Street, is about to spend six months on various remote Scottish lighthouses, "keeping" with all manner of unusual and fascinating people.
This charming and beautifully written account of that time is not only a heartfelt lament for Hill's own youth and innocence but also for a simpler and more honest age.
"Poetic and evocative ... What makes Stargazing such a beautiful book is that it is more than an elegy to a vanished profession. It is an elegy to youth and to the constellation of dreams, ambitions and anxieties that is more intense at 19 than it can ever be again" Sunday Herald
"A gentle comedy of manners, which pitches the green-around-the-gills Hill - an adolescent idealist - into the intrinsically no- nonsense, manly world of the lighthouse" Independent
As read on bbc radio 4
Cover photograph: Courtesy of Photonica
Cover design: Ghost
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- PublisherCanongate Books
- Publication date2004
- ISBN 10 1841954993
- ISBN 13 9781841954998
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages336
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. The resulting book is a charming and beautifully written memoir that is not only a heartfelt lament for Hill's own youth and innocence but also for a simpler and more honest age. When Peter Hill, a student at Dundee College of Art, answered an advert in The Scotsman seeking lighthouse keepers, little did he imagine that within a month he would be living with three men he didn't know in a lighthouse on Pladda, a small remote island off the west coast of Scotland. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9781841954998
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Book Description Paperback / softback. Condition: New. New copy - Usually dispatched within 4 working days. When Peter Hill, a student at Dundee College of Art, answered an advert in The Scotsman seeking lighthouse keepers, little did he imagine that within a month he would be living with three men he didn't know in a lighthouse on Pladda, a small remote island off the west coast of Scotland. Seller Inventory # B9781841954998
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Book Description Condition: New. 2004. Main. Paperback. When Peter Hill, a student at Dundee College of Art, answered an advert in The Scotsman seeking lighthouse keepers, little did he imagine that within a month he would be living with three men he didn't know in a lighthouse on Pladda, a small remote island off the west coast of Scotland. Num Pages: 336 pages, map. BIC Classification: BGA; WGG. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 198 x 133 x 25. Weight in Grams: 242. 340 pages, map. When Peter Hill, a student at Dundee College of Art, answered an advert in The Scotsman seeking lighthouse keepers, little did he imagine that within a month he would be living with three men he didn't know in a lighthouse on Pladda, a small remote island off the west coast of Scotland. Cateogry: (G) General (US: Trade). BIC Classification: BGA; WGG. Dimension: 198 x 133 x 25. Weight: 242. . . . . . Seller Inventory # V9781841954998
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