Grateful that it came into my life and opened up a whole new world for me here in the other side of the world. This was the first of many challenges Roseanne and Mike faced during their ten years on the nature reserve, from coping with periods of isolation when they were the island's only inhabitants, to dwindling food supplies during the winter when rough weather made provisioning from the mainland impossible.

At times it seems the winter’s can be harsh and grizzly, almost unpleasant payments for the sweeter months of summer and spring. There’s at least no way to underestimate the power of mother nature in this place, a feeling Alexander so elegantly imbues in the reader through her vibrant prose that it’s like waking up from a dream when you’re closing the pages of this book.She then started whining that she had to get married to take the job and she didn't want to do that before she was 27.

It is an important breeding ground for many birds, and shearwaters, puffins and kittiwakes – and the seals – become a source of pleasure and companionship.For both the amateur and the professional astronomer it is an intriguing guidebook to the changing night skies over Wales in each season. We have always known the stars in our skies by the names traditionally given to them from Greek mythology: Martin Griffiths reveals the equally traditional names they have long held from the annals of Welsh lore, names like Blodeuwedd and Rhiannon for the Andromeda constellation, Ceffyl-Dwr and the Mount of Rhiannon for the Pegasus constellation, Sarn Gwydion for the Milky Way galaxy — and also from the fourth branch of the Mabinogion, Llew Llaw Gyffes represents Perseus, and Arianrhod is the Welsh name for the constellation Coronae Borealis. I personally wish that she had included more descriptions of her personal life apart from her relationship with the natural world. A storm is brewing: the orange blue colour of an angry sky juxtaposes with an aquamarine hope in the top right-hand corner; these colours are intensified by a warm paradise sun, peeping just beyond the spine.