Cassie McCullough

All the way through, these things are being put to death or dissected or having their necks wrung or being deprived of oxygen.

And so as much as he loves them and he's describing how beautiful they are, he's also snuffing out their little lives in the name of science, which is a kind of intriguing element, an intriguing part of his character.

Oh, God, you're making me out like I'm some old sea lass.

I'm really sure I ain't that.

You are, aren't you?

But...

Look, I did like the description of the boat itself, which is this Danish schooner, the moon bird, and it's made of a particular timber, and no-one quite knows whether it's spruce or pine or whatever it is, but it emits this glorious aroma.

And as soon as Eliza sees it in the harbour, she just falls in love with it.

She says, ''She was short, stout and sleepy-looking, and yet the very moment I saw her, I felt a deep affection I cannot explain.''

She was the tired hound that wants to sleep at your feet, idle yet watchful, able to tell the shadows of easy repose from those that should be barked at.

And she looked nothing like her neighbours.

So she's quite a distinctive little boat.

And for the course of most of this story, she's home to this strange collection of individuals.

Yeah, I think this book for me is primarily about mood.

It creates a world and it creates a feeling within this world which is unique and really quite lovely, quite elegant.

Besides Dr Gideon's description of the animals, we are having the sea and nautical moments

landscape described to us the whole way through is in an immersive maritime book.

And there's the sky, there's the water, the colour, the sand, the rocks, the shells, the kelp, the...

Everything is described with brevity, but also a sharp eye.

And so far more than inevitably the story that is told, I enjoyed it for its evocation of place and of a time and of the lives that were being lived on these really brutal, cold islands.