"[A] spry, fittingly outlandish account of his six months as a lighthouse keeper...written with an incandescence that would make a beacon proud."

--KIRKUS REVIEWS

"An elegy to an extinct way of life and a tribute to the spirit and expertise of the men who embodied this romance of sea and sky."

--OBSERVER (LONDON)

"Stargazingis a generous book--as honest and heartwarming as the cheddar-topped digestives served at the 2 A.M. shift change And as full of lost dreams as a starry sky on a foggy night."

--DAILY TELEGRAPH (LONDON)

In this sublime reminiscence of the pleasures of solitude, the wonders of the sea,and the odd courses life takes, Peter Hill writes, In 1973 I worked as a lighthouse keeper on three islands off the west coast of Scotland. Before taking the job I didn’t really think through what a lighthouse keeper actually did. I was attracted by the romantic notion of sitting on a rock, writing haikus and dashing off the ocasional watercolour. The light itself didn’t seem important: it might have been some weird coastal decoration, like candles on a Christmas tree, intended to bring cheer to those living in the more remote parts ofthe country.

  Hill learned quickly, though, of the centuries-old mechanics of the lighthouse, of the life-and-death necessity of its luminescence to the seafarers, and of the great and unlikely friendships formed out of routine. With his head filled with Hendrix, Kerouac, and the war in Vietnam, Hill shared cups of tea and close quarters with salty lighthouse keepers of an entirely different generation. The stories they shared and idiosyncrasies they exhibited came to define a summer that Hill has memorialized with great wit and a disarmingly affectionate style.

Introduction - Ahoy!

Part One - How I Landed the Job

The Tavern Bar

The Interview

Getting There: By Train, Boat and Tractor

Part Two - Pladda: Learning the Ropes

The Mysteries of the Light Chamber

Instructions for a Nuclear War

Better than an All-Day-Breakfast

Summer of the Creep

Cooking up a Storm

A Change of Crew

Heard Chunking from Rangoon to Mandalay

Great Chieftain o’ the Pudding Race

A Brief History of Lighthouses

Shore Leave I: A Surfeit of Choice

Part Three - Ailsa Craig

Paddy’s Milestone

Rock of Ages

The Lost World

The Island Visitors

Fire bombs in Dresden - Mackerel off Ailsa Craig

Sex in the Bush

Light Without Flesh

Shore Leave II: The Edinburgh Festival

Part Four - Hyskeir

The Seamen’s Mission, Oban - The Whirleybirds

The Dalek Invasion of Hyskeir

Nautical Scrabble

Hitchcock Revisited

Postscript

Ocean Necklace