Stargazing Peter Hill Book
by Peter Hill

I have always had a fascination for lighthouses. I have visited many of the Scottish ones, and I have even been lucky enough to climb to the top of some of them.

Whenever I see a lighthouse flashing in the darkness, I feel safe, even when I'm on dry land! - think I must have been a sailor in a past life!! :o) I enjoyed this book hugely. I am one of those people that feel a great loss and sadness that the lighthouses are now all automated.

Taken from the back cover of the book:

"I was nineteen when I was interviewed for the job of relief keeper by the Commissioners of the Northern Lights in the Edinburgh. My hair hung well below my shoulders. I had a great set of Captain Beefheart records and I walked around with a permanent grin on my face as if I had recently, finally, lost my virginity. I rolled my own cigarettes, was a member of Amnesty International and had just read Kerouac's Desolution Angels. In short, I was eminently suitable for the job"


"This book is a wonderful memoir of an occupation that no longer exists: the lighthouse keeper. It is also a snapshot of the 1970s: the fashions, the politics, the music. Peter Hill is an engaging and humble narrator, with an eye for nature and an appreciation of human character. The various men he meets on the lighthouses are all described with affection and a sharp eye for detail, which adds up to a very amusing and absorbing account. However, the fact that these men are a dying breed is never far away. This lends a bittersweet tone to the writing, and by the end of it you wish that lighthouses were still maintained by people, not machines. Beautifully written and memorable"