OPERATION SURVIVAL
A celebration of People and Nature in Scotland Sally-Ann Wilson

This impressive glossy hardback is a direct follow-up to BBC Scotland's major natural history series of the same name which was broadcast on television last year.

The island made a special contribution to this series when a TV crew spent a summer capturing the secretive life of the corncrake on film, later screened as the documentary. The Call of Coll. An entire chapter of this lavishly produced book is devoted to Coll, the corncrakes and the islanders whose lives closely touch that of the corncrake.

The inspiration behind the television series had been to show the ways in which people and wildlife can coexist harmoniously. Within these pages this theme is amplified, also bringing in `the story behind the filming'. Thus we read about the trials, tribulations and discomforts of wildlife photography and we `meet' the people who made the programme.

Coll is portrayed in all its beauty: full colour photographs of windswept beaches, flower covered machair - not to mention one of hard working farmer, Brian Maclntyre senior, engaged in 'corncrake friendly farming'. An interesting snapshot of the sheep judging at the Coll Show was obviously taken some years ago - look at Ian Cochrane for instance!

An added bonus for the reader of the book are the seven other fascinating chapters on Scottish wildlife.

Written in conjunction with Scottish Natural Heritage and with the support of the Scottish Post Office Board, Operation Survival is, according to the blurb on the dustjacket, "the story of those who are engaged in a real survival operation for Scotland's unique natural heritage: the farmers and the fishermen, the conservationists and amateur enthusiasts". It is also a pleasant record of one TV film crew's summer on this island.

Operation Survival is published by Mainstream Publishing Company and costs £20.00.

BOOK REVIEW

Tellers of Tales-Contemporary tales from the Inner Hebrides
Illustrated by Tamara Hedderwick

From early conception of the idea to final execution and production, this book was more or less produced on the island.

Editor Martin Lunghi has gathered together 23 short stories and poems, as written by individuals whose only criterion for eligibility to be included was that they should live on an Hebridean island.

Contributors hail from Tiree, Jura, Luing, Benbecula and Coll and, although the Editor offered no constraints on subject matter - that is, they were not asked to write specifically about island living (although most of them did)- the sea, the mountains and small island communities serve as an ever present backdrop in these contemporary tales.

Despite these traditional settings , the collective result is a selection of writing that is to an extent a refelction of the modem world. Further, as all stories submitted were used without any process of selection, it is suggested that they might present something of a contemporary social record.

Not that this is why one might choose to read them. Settling down for a really good read might be a better reason.

Copies of Tellers of Tales are available locally from Martin Lunghi - but hurry, there are not all that many left.