This is a user-friendly and very readable handbook to assist me in my ongoing struggle to clear a piece of land 5 metres by 25 metres from weeds taller than myself and grow some vegetables fit to eat. There is a big rush on for the next two months to get all of my crops in.
I am drawn to remote and lonely places. I have spent three holidays so far in the Outer Hebrides and will definitely go there for more. But Kauffman takes this quirk in my nature to a totally different level.
This is a very strange but fascinating book about one of the remotest places on earth and what it was like to go there. Written originally in French, it has been translated without losing the French character of Kauffman's authorial voice. I once read a book by Captain Bernhard Rogge of the German navy (WW2) who played havoc with Allied shipping as skipper of the German raider
Atlantis, which the Royal Navy knew as 'Raider C': his account of spending two weeks in Gazelle Bay in the deserted Kerguelen islands made me curious to learn more. The excellent Patrick O'Brian book Desolation Island also made me want to find out more.
Once you read Kauffman's book, anything you still don't know about the Kerguelen Islands can only be learned by going there for yourself.