The Aland Islands

David & Charles, 1975. Hardcover. Very Good/Good. h/b 183 pages, condition is very good, this is an ex library book with the usual stamps. The DJ is slightly faded. Scandinavia has two faces: to the west and the Atlantic, to the east and the Baltic with the largest concentration of islands in the world, 'differing', as Defoe wrote, 'from all the rest of the world for rocks and little rocky islands'. None of these lovely archipelagos has a clearer identity than the Finnish Aland Islands, lying some forty kilometres off Sweden, just north of Stockholm and opposite Helsinki. Most travellers approach them from the west, the route followed by the earliest settlers which is frequently ice-covered in winter. In summer there is a wide choice of boats, many of the ferries having good restaurants and duty-free shops. The islands lie low in the sea, announcing themselves discreetly, their broken rim of granite coppery red on a bright day and capped by the dark green line of the forest. The principal port of Mariehamn is protected by a girdle of rocky islets and reefs, the outer ones uninhabited except for sea birds and the occasional home of a pilot. Aland, aptly named the Garden of the Northern Hesperides, is unusually rich in flora, more so than the Finnish mainland itself and the great coastline favours invasion by animals. The beaches are exquisite and the woods and boglands throb with natural life. Professor Mead and his Finnish co-author, Professor Jaatinen, who are both distinguished geographers, have spent many months on the islands over the years and they describe them in all their aspects - early and modern history, geology and geography, the wildlife and, of course, the life there today with details of all the delightful facilities offered to the tourist. Above all, perhaps, they catch the beauty and poetry of the archipelago that all true lovers of islands will appreciate.