McPhees genius is that he can write about anything. Robert Macfarlane In 1969 John McPhee moved his family from New Jersey across the Atlantic to live in the land of his forefathers the island of Colonsay seventeen square miles of dew and damp twentyfive miles off the coast of Scotland. They rented a crofthouse his children enrolled at the local school and they soon were accepted into this tightly circumscribed community of 138 people.With his uniquely observant eye and trademark perceptive