Orwell, chafing at the restrictions and privations of wartime London, wrote in his diary in 1940 that he was “thinking always of my island in the Hebrides”. Yet Great Britain is not an island; it is made up of at least 5,000 islands, around 130 of which are inhabited. In Utopia, Thomas More wrote how King Utopos created an island from an isthmus by digging a channel 15 miles wide. The island, set apart, both expressed and offered spiritual advantages. Stevenson based Treasure Island on the small island of Erraid off south-west Mull.

Source: The Guardian October 08, 2016 12:00 UTC