by Chris Webster

People have lived on Lundy for at least 10,000 years but the traces they left behind are often very subtle. Archaeologists have been investigating these remains since the 1770s, culminating in numerous excavations in the 1960s and detailed survey work in the decades since.

This booklet is the third to describe the archaeological remains of the island following works by Keith Gardner (1971) and the National Trust (2002). It provides a description of the sites on Lundy, the story of the archaeologists who investigated them, and a modern interpretation of how they fit into Lundy’s story and the wider world.

Chris Webster is an archaeologist based in Somerset who had been interested in Lundy since the late 1980s. His work on the island has involved geophysical survey, test pit surveys and writing up the unpublished excavations of earlier archaeologists.

32 pages – full colour – all obvious sites described.

Price: £5.00 plus postage (to a UK address) of £1.20

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by Alan Rowland

The third edition of this popular guide to the letterboxes to be found on Lundy is now available from Lundy’s Shop or direct from the author.

A convenient A5 size it contains images of all the cachets that have been placed on Lundy since 1987 and highlights those that are currently to be found.  Packed with background information, it is now in full colour and includes photographs of each cache.

112 pages – full colour – all letterbox stamps illustrated.

Price: £9 plus postage (to a UK address) of £3.50

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by John Hedger and David George

This colourful book the first detailed photographic guide to the mushrooms and toadstools of Lundy is just one of the outcomes of over 70 years of work by the Lundy Field Society on the biology, geology, history and archaeology of this unique island and its surrounding seas. Up to the 1970s these studies did not include the fungi, but now the accumulation of knowledge since that time has been published. The book is dedicated to the memory of one of the early recorders, Tony Walker. It celebrates his success and that of other Lundy Field Society members in identifying over 500 species to date. The guide is authored by the two people, John Hedger and David George, who, since 2003, working with willing helpers, have contributed most to the recording and photography of fungi on Lundy. It describes and illustrates over 250 species of the often colourful, and sometimes bizarre, fungi that occur there, and highlights their important roles in the Lundy ecosystems by presenting them in the habitats in which they are found.

Price: £15 softback, £20 hardback plus postage (to a UK address) of £3 softback, £4 hardback

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by A F Langham

After considerable research, the last work by Tony Langham has been found and published by the LFS with the consent of Tony's widow, Jenny. It is a 48-page black and white illustrated booklet with a preface by MCH's daughter Diana Keast and introduction by Tony's biographer, Roger Allen.

Out of print but copies may be available from Lundy General Stores.

by Graham Lewis

A 31 page book about the two German Heinkel bombers that crashed on Lundy during the Second World War.

Price: £5 plus postage (to a UK address) of £2

Available from the author at 22 Penbrea Road, Penzance, Cornwall TR18 3NY

by Roger Allen

An 86 page A4 book comprising all the poems related to Lundy that you could possibly want. Fully illustrated with Roger's own watercolours, John Dyke thumbnails, pictures and photographs. There are not just poems but also anecdotes and explanations giving background to the poems. The poems range from the earliest by Edmund Spencer in 1595 to one by Anne Westcott in 2010.

Price: £15 plus postage (to a UK address) of £2

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by Members of the Lundy Field Society

To help celebrate a notable birthday for the last member of the Harman family to have been a joint-owner of Lundy, the Lundy Field Society is publishing this privileged view of the island when it was the property, the home and the abiding passion of the Harman family.

Covering the period from the 1920s to the late 1960s, it includes some stories which have never been told before and others which are well known but told here with new illustrations. The period photographs are from the collections of Diana Keast and other Lundy Field Society members, and many of them are published here for the first time.

Memories and anecdotes from Diana Keast are the icing on the cake of a unique insight into a crucial period of Lundy's history.

Diana Keast (née Harman) is the younger daughter of Martin Coles Harman, who bought Lundy in 1925. She and her two brothers and sister did much of their growing up on Lundy, and she still visits the island regularly. Her personal knowledge of Lundy and its people from before World War II to the present day is unsurpassed, and her collection of Lundy photographs - and anecdotes - is unmatched.

Price: £12.99 plus postage (to a UK address) of £3

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by Keith Hiscock and Robert Irving

Marine conservation has been undertaken at Lundy for forty years and this book describes the major landmarks, illustrates some of the marine-life highlights and celebrates the success of all of those who have been involved over the years. This book also documents some of the early studies of marine life that used scuba diving and the methods that had to be developed for sampling and monitoring.

Each copy is numbered and signed by the authors.

More details

Price: £5.00 plus postage (to a UK address) of £2.95

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by Simon Dell

This book explores the island using photographs, many of which have never or rarely been published before, looking at the buildings, the land and the very life and soul of this popular destination for birdwatchers, holiday makers or those seeking quiet and solitude. It will be of great interest to those who have come to know and love this beautiful island haven. Simon Dell has had privileged access to many private archives in compiling this unique record about Lundy, an island which he first visited as an Appledore schoolboy when it was still in the private ownership of the Harman family.

Price: £15.99

Available from Simon Dell's website

by Myrtle Ternstrom

A comprehensive history of the island and its owners, from prehistory up to the present day. While the early history of Lundy is obscure in many periods, over half the book details the well-documented nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in particular ownership by the Heavens and Harmans.

Price: £12.99 (UK postage included)

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by Brian French

Lundy's maritime history far outweighs its small size. It has been the refuge of pirates, a smuggler's hideaway, an impregnable fortress, and a convict settlement. It has boasted the highest lighthouse in the UK and the most expensive shipwreck, the brand new battleship HMS Montagu which ran aground there in 1906. This book presents Lundy's maritime story, bringing together various sources and complementing them with the author's own photographs taken on visits to Lundy in 2010 and 2011 together with detailed maps of the location of vessels wrecked.

Price: £13.00 (UK postage included)

Available from the author at 7 Fulford Close, Chesterfield, S40 3RJ or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

by Michael A Williams

Lundy attracts many thousands of visitors each year who spend either a few hours on the island or a holiday lasting several days. The Lundy Companion will make your stay more enjoyable. All the named features on the island are described in detail and are complemented by three guided walks. In addition to a number of full colour photographs, the artist, Peter Rothwell, provides an excellent selection of line drawings making this pocket book an ideal walking companion. In this brand new second edition all the entries have been revised, the walks brought up to date and many more photographs added. There is a brand new colour map.

Price: £8.99 (UK postage included)

Available from The Old Light Press

by Philip Henry Gosse with an introduction by Michael A. Williams

"we had spent a few days of almost unmingled gratification."

PH Gosse was a naturalist and popularised natural science through his informative and engaging writing style. He visited Lundy in July 1852 at the invitation of Hudson Heaven and spent a week there studying the island's natural history. His work was subsequently published as a series of articles in the Home Friend in 1853 and was later reprinted alongside other articles in Land and Sea.

Copies of both the Home Friend and Land and Sea are now difficult to obtain. This reprint of the articles from the Home Friend attempts to fill that gap by making the original text more widely available. Every endeavour has been made to reproduce the original text and layout in a sympathetic manner to reflect the style of Gosse's original work thus maintaining his absorbing account of the wildlife on Lundy in the nineteenth century.

96 pages illustrated with Gosse's original engravings. Bound as a beautiful hardback book in a limited edition of 200 numbered copies.

Price: £9.99 (UK postage included)

Available from The Old Light Press

by Peter Rothwell and Myrtle Ternstrom

This book describes the development of the Lundy Granite Company from its beginnings in 1863 until its failure in 1868. It gives details and diagrams of the workings, and the developments that have had a lasting impact on the island. It also details the sorry story of the mismanagement that led to the collapse of the company, and the four years of legal wrangles that followed.

by Tim Davis and Tim Jones

A joint publication with the Devon Birdwatching and Preservation Society, this book covers all 317 species on the Lundy list, with notes on another 32 species that have been reported from the island and surrounding waters. Each entry includes the species' status, pattern of occurrence, historical records and unique anecdotal insights as well as an analysis of ringing movements. There are also background chapters on the island and suggestions for the best times and places for birdwatching. Updates since publication in 2007 and corrections are available at the Birds of Lundy website.

Out of print, but may be available online on either eBay or from abebooks.co.uk.

by Myrtle Ternstrom

This book gives the history of the Old Light, and its keepers, from the construction in 1820 to its closure in 1897. It describes the work of the keepers, the lives of their families, and the augmentation of the warning system by the installation of a fog signal station on the west coast in 1862. Unfortunately this very fine tall lighthouse was often shrouded in fog, and so was ultimately replaced by the north and south lighthouses at lower levels. The book also cites the wrecks that the lighthouse was not successful in preventing

Price: £14.99

Available from Whittles Publishing

by Ann Allen

Specially produced as an introduction to the fascinating study of the over 350 species of lichens on Lundy. Over 50 colour photographs accompany descriptions of selected lichens grouped into community habitats. There is also a map of locations, an illustrated glossary and other background information.

Out of print but there may be copies remaining in the island shop and at the Natural History Bookshop.

by R A Irving, A J Schofield and C J Webster (editors)

The fiftieth anniversary of the Lundy Field Society was celebrated in 1996 by, among other things, publishing Island Studies. The chapters of the book were intended to cover the history of research on the island, the early years of the Lundy Field Society and also to give an overview of the latest findings. The authors, many of whom have researched on Lundy for many years, are all experts in their field but the book is also intended for the non-specialist.

Island Studies is now out of print but scanned chapters are available here.

by Myrtle Ternstrom

A celebration of 750 years of the castle on Lundy (1244-1994). It tells the story of the building of the castle on the orders of Henry III after the capture on Lundy of the rebellious William de Marisco and his execution in London in July 1242. In the Civil War the castle and island were held for the king by Thomas Bushell and in the eighteenth century were the property of Thomas Benson who housed prisoners who had been "transported". After subsequent use as a signal station and post-office the cottages built into the castle are now holiday homes.

Price: £6.99 (UK postage included)

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by Peter Rothwell

A book of sketches by well-known Lundy artist Peter Rothwell.