I was drawn to this book because of the name. What are the teatime islands? They sounded like eccentric places where it’s always time for tea, like the Mad Hatter’s party. It turns out that Ben Fogle, as a little boy, would imagine exploring the faraway British outposts, scattering biscuit crumbs over the atlas as he pretended to explore. He’s always been fascinated by islands and at the time of this book’s publication, had recently become famous on the BBC’s Castaway 2000, an early reality show where a group of people lived on an island.

In this book, Ben travels by boat to Tristan da Cunha, St Helena, British Indian Ocean Territories, Pitcairn, the Falklands and Ascension Island. He presents an honest perspective of these islands; their isolation, history, governance and inhabitants. It was very interesting and informative, although sometimes the travel was given more space than the actual island. Unfortunately, after travelling for a month to Pitcairn, Ben was denied permission to stay, but he still managed to make a chapter out of it.

The book did not persuade me to visit any of these islands, but it was an ideal ‘armchair traveller’ read. As far as amusing and insightful travel narratives go, it wasn’t the greatest, but it was certainly a good read. I wonder how much has changed on the islands, since the book’s publication by Penguin, 2003.