Designing and making has been Andy Shackleton’s life. For over thirty years he taught those skills to others. In his spare time he has tackled anything from simple DIY to major house and classic car renovation. Following early retirement he sought further creative challenges. And added writing to well known skills with wood, metal, stone, and more. An avid traveller, runner, skier, cyclist ..... and unbelievably poor surfer .... Andy is no stranger to physical challenges. It is only natural that his first book should concern the biggest challenge of his life. A regular marathon runner, he freely admits that cycling round Iceland was the hardest thing he has ever done. Young on the inside, married for more years than he cares to consider, family grown up ..... Andy’s home is on the Lancashire/Yorkshire border, where he regularly pops over the garden wall to run on the hills.

I have always had a great yearning to see the wild places of the Earth. If you feel the same, but perhaps don’t feel quite ready to leave the comfort of the armchair, Andy Shackleton has been out there, to bring to life a quartet of interesting and endlessly fascinating places: Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Shetland and Orkney. Read, enjoy, shiver - and prepare to be impressed!"

Nicholas Owen, TV presenter.