ABSTRACT
I am a Professor of Island Geography; rather I am the Professor of Island Geography as I am not aware of any other person who holds the same title. The title maybe conveys more distinction than is merited. I was appointed as a Lecturer in Geography at Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland in 1975 and progressed through the various grades of the British academic system: Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Reader and Professor. Professors at Queen’s can choose their titles; I decided to be Professor of Island Geography. So there was not a contest to be appointed to a post of this name during which I beat off a stellar list of candidates; it is the title of my personal chair. However, given my long-standing interest in islands, my 132 (and counting) publications of all sorts on the topic, including the oft-cited A Geography of Islands (Royle, 2001) and the 767 (and counting) islands I have visited, my title is merited and I bear it with pride. Thus, I was pleased to be mentioned honourably in Godfrey Baldacchino’s editorial, ‘Five Years On’ (2010) in the volume of Island Studies Journal in which my inaugural address was published (Royle, 2010). I also had the opportunity to publish an earlier account of my island odyssey in Irish Geography from my Presidential Address to the Geographical Society of Ireland (Royle, 1999).
