The Light Inaccessible

Peter Bell has been a frequent visitor to the Scottish Hebrides for many years now. His book transcends mere travel writing and is filled with philosophical musings and keen observations. The defining spirit of the Hebrides [is] light, in it multifarious guises: apocalyptic dawns and sunsets; bright colours in the crystal clear air; the shades of all the seasons-thus, even on a treeless isle, the russet gold of autumn is visible in the myriad blades of grass, as kaleidoscopic as the patchwork embroidery of spring flowers along the machair. Until I came to the isles, I never realised there were so many hues of grey: in the ever-shifting cloudscapes, on the seals’ shining pelts, and along the surface of the silver sea. Light’s spell is there in the fleeting emerald flash of the sun’s diurnal death, and in the shimmering tapestry of frosty nights, Aurora Borealis, when the Merry Dancers are abroad in the heavens. Diverse muses have infused my thoughts-melancholy, uncanny, sacred, wild, ancient-yet suffusing my vision ever flows the miracle of light.