The Caribbean Out-Islands are a long way out, just over the horizon. Christopher Columbus made landfall here. Atlantis is said to lie beneath the waves. The Out-Islands have been safe-havens for pirates, escaped slaves and the super-rich. Although these islands are mostly uninhabited today, they carry names like Paradise Island, Peace and Plenty Island and Eleuthera Island. When the ice-caps melt they will disappear forever.

Martin Edwards lived close to the Out-Islands for a number of years. Although he never found the time to visit them, they are still there, a long way out, but just over the wide horizon. The Out-Islands is a book about Paradise and its discontents, about homesickness and utopian longing, about travellers and tourists, surfers, swimmers and drowned sailors.