There's something about islands: the way they shift and change with the weather, the promise of escape, the pull of the sea. Often remote, almost always idyllic, they lend themselves to metaphor and marvel as well as to escape and indulgence.

In these essays, thirteen writers capture the magic and mirage of islands. Octavia Bright remembers a formative trip to the fish-shaped island of Elba in Tuscany with her best friend; Megan Nolan sees Manhattan anew after discovering the joys of wandering the city alone; Noreen Masud flies to Tasmania, hoping to catch sight of a duck-billed platypus; and K Patrick takes a two-hour ferry from the Isle of Skye to the Isle of Lewis.

Taking us from the glimmering coast of Cornwall's St Ives to the populated archipelagos off the coast of Ireland, from the warm water and glowing sun of Phuket to feasts of halloumi and chilled watermelon along the shores of Cyprus, Over the Water urges us to consider: what is an island?