The Last Woman Born on the Island - Sharon Black

The Last Woman Born on the Island is an exploration of the past and the present, and a celebration of the landscapes, bothphysical and emotional, that make up our lives. What are the colours of the language or languages we speak, and how dothey infl uence the ways we live?Much of this collection is set in the author’s homeland of Scotland. Some poems contemplate the history and traditions of theHighlands and Islands – from the HMS Iolaire disaster off Lewis in 1919 to the knitting of Eriskay ganseys, from the legend of the White Cow at Callanish stone circle to herring girls at the start of the twentieth century. Others consider Scottish languages and parlances, the country’s wildest and most beautiful landscapes, and the effects of tourism on the culture of the Hebrides. Is there is a diff erence between something lost and something merely forgotten? How do we fi nd what we don’t know we everhad? And what is belonging to a place, let alone to two places? In one long poem, the author stands between her home countryand her adopted country of France, letting her feet talk us through the places they have been. Who is the last woman andwhere is the island?
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