Peatstack

Martin Martin, Samuel Johnson, and yes now please welcome to the stage of great opinionated outsiders from across the centuries none other than that colossus of contemporary thought, Lesley Riddoch.
Why the flambouyant rage and outspoken opinions about a mediocre broadcaster? Well, The Peatstack has just stumbled across a press release for the new Lesley Riddoch book and associated promotional tour dates, and can safely say that the book is the least anticipated potential addition to these shelves in a long time. If the promo blurb - stuffed full as it is with tasty snapshots from the mind of the great Riddoch - is any thing to go by it is clear that her bike is not the only thing LR has been peddling about these islands. This surely has to be the example of the cult of personality gone mad, and on our shores.
The book is blandly titled 'Riddoch on the Outer Hebrides' and comes with the sort of 'feisty' blurb and in-your-face opinions one has come to expect from this journalist who clearly and frequently mistakes 'feist' for anything of real value in her broadcasting and journalism. It is also a shame (or is it?) that LR can only find time for one date in her tour actually in the Hebrides.
But that's the rub, isn't it? For here's yet another outsider telling island people how to live and what they should do with their futures. Riddoch on Gaidhlig, Riddoch on incomers, why oh why do publishing houses think it a good idea to gather and publish the thoughts of broadcast journalists? And have you been to the Riddoch website? The sound clips from the programme begger belief - one has the journalist cycling with two Gaidhlig storytellers (uncertain and for no obvious reason on their bikes) to Uig beach and en-route learning a choice phrase or two of the Gaidhlig tongue. Its gripping stuff.
Anyway, that's enough of that. I'd like to promote a competition on behalf of publishers to marry broadcast journalists with diverse archipelagoes (achipelagi?) - how about a new book from Tam Cowan on the future of St Kilda, or Robbie Shepperd on the way ahead for Ibiza? And of course, what about Kenny T-Y-G on the future of the Cook Islands? Now you're talking.