In the summer of 2002 Ian Mitchell set sail aboard the 30-foot yacht Foggy Dew on a voyage that took him from Islay through the Western Isles to Orkney and Shetland, and on to the west coast of Norway. Then, for five weeks, against the backdrop of one of the world's most spectacular coastlines, he sailed from the Nordfjord, via Bergen, to Utsira and back to Britain across the North Sea to Inverness. The object of his journey was much more than simply a desire to enjoy a summer on the open sea. In this sequel to the much acclaimed Isles of the West (1999), Ian Mitchell not only continues his investigation into the unsuccessful attempts by official Britain to administer rural areas for the combined benefit of people and nature, but also widens his scope of enquiry to show how Norway, a country outside the EU and thus free to manage its own affairs, has far more successfully dealt with the same issues on the islands off its western seaboard. The comparisons are striking, and lead Mitchell to consider what Britain can learn from the Norwegian approach. As in Isles of the West, he tells the larger story by way of well researched narrative, the specific experiences of people he met on hi