There exists inside each of us a strange longing to be shipwrecked. From the swashbuckling pirate tales of childhood to the desert island dreams we take refuge in as adults, the irresistible idea of life lived away from the mainland – and the mainstream – retains a tenacious hold on our imagination. In The Islands Issue we examine the contradictions these dreams create – isolation versus interdependence, tradition versus reinvention, borders versus freedom.