Intuitive travelers sense when they reach a waypoint, a welcomed, home-like resting stop on their journey. For Scottish writer Ian Stephen the west coast of his homeland, including the wild Outer Hebrides, is that kind of a place-a deep resonate home that has also launched many a sea adventure.Waypoints, Stephen's beautifully written account of sea journeys, combines memoir and storytelling, opening a window into the lives of the intrepid, hardy, resilient sailors of Scotland's remotest coast.

Each adventure tale in Ian Stephen's meditative collection features a unique, seagoing vessel, and each is a spell-binding retelling of a traditional tale about the sea. You'll sail with the ancient Norse and the cunning Gaelic sailors as they wrestle with the churning seas and the steep cliffs of this remote, haunting coastline. Stephen's writing is enchanting and lyrical, gentle but searching, and each tale is beautifully illustrated by his wife, artist Christine Morrison.

Waypoints is a delightful and absorbing read for anyone with a passion for sailing and the sea, Scotland's landscape and coastlines, stories, and the origins of language and literature. Readers of Adam Nicolson or Robert Macfarlane will greatly enjoy Waypoints.

Ian Stephen's profile page

Ian Stephen is a Scottish writer, artist, and storyteller from the remote and bewitching Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. He fell in love with boats and sailing as a boy, pairing this love affair with a passion for the beautiful but merciless Scottish coastline, an inspiration and motivating force behind his poems, stories, plays, radio broadcasts, and visual arts projects.A coast guarder for 15 years, in 1995 Stephen won the inaugural Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship and since then has worked fulltime in the arts. Since the late 70s his poetry and short fiction have been published in numerous UK journals, and in Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland, and the USA.