For decades the printmaker Norman Ackroyd cbe ra has been fascinated by the Hebrides, the archipelago lying to the north-west of mainland Scotland. Inhabited since prehistoric times, some of these islands are now deserted and rarely visited. The urge to see them for himself has been the impulse behind Ackroyd's many journeys to the region. This book brings together a selection of the original plein-air watercolour sketches, some produced under arduous conditions of weather and sea, which have provided the basis for many of his most memorable etchings. A gazetteer section at the back contains the artist's thoughts and further information about the locations of the sketches. Norman Ackroyd CBE RA was born in 1938 and studied at the Royal College of Art, London. He turned to landscape painting in the 1980s, and since then his prints of the ruggedly beautiful British coastline have been widely admired around the world.