On an island

'Somewhere among the notebooks of Gideon I once found a list of diseases as yet unclassified by medical science, and among these occurred the word Islomania, which was described as a rare but by no means unknown affliction fo spirit. There are people, Gideon used to say, by way of explanation, who find islands somehow irresistible. The mere knowledge that they are on an island, a little world surrounded by the sea, fills them with an indescribable intoxication. These born "islomanes", he used to add, are the direct descendants of the Atlanteans, and it is towards the lost Atlantis that their subconscious yearns thoughout their island life.' (p.19, Burnt Bones by Michael Slade)