Message in a bottle

A plain brown envelope was waiting for me today at the Dark Isle Hotel in Benbecula.
I had arrived after a short flight from Stornoway in thick low cloud and pouring rain. Dark Isle more than apposite.

I arrived with a team from Outer Hebrides Tourism for phase two of their conference to promote tourism in the islands in general, and the Peter May Literary Trail in particular, taking in locations from the Lewis Trilogy.

But this unexpected letter, posted from Aberdeen, related not to the trilogy, but to my latest book, Entry Island. The story in the book takes place in two timelines - one is a contemporary crime story set in the Madeleine Islands of Quebec in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada; the second set in mid-19th century Hebrides during The Clearances. The latter follows the fortunes of a character evicted from his land and forced aboard a boat sailing for Quebec.

My letter explained: "Having just read Entry Island I thought this may be of interest to you. I found it on the Ardivachar beach (South Uist) approximately twelve months after it was cast into the sea." The "it" referred to was a bottle, wherein was a scroll of paper with a message scrawled on it. Attached to my letter were a photo of the bottle, and the scroll with the message - a message cast into the sea 12 months earlier in the Madeleine Isles, 3000 miles away.

And this was the message (written in French, Spanish and English): "Greeting to you we throw this bottle in the see (sic) so we can come and discover its destination... write us!" And there was an email address attached.

So this bottle had made the reverse journey of my character in Entry Island. It had taken twelve months, but it had survived. The finders contacted the senders to their great delight. And I was greatly delighted to receive this letter with its touching story of hands (and minds) reaching across the ocean.