Thomas Thwaites  has visited Knoydart twice now to collect mica for his infamous Toaster Project which is now going to be part of a TV series he is working on for on Channel 4. In an equally tenacious project Thomas set out to build a household toaster from scratch using raw materials to demonstrate our relationship to industralisation.  Knoydart has Britian’s only mica mine, used during the second world war but long since been abandoned. (It is mica that makes the sand on Knoydart’s beaches sparkly). And every household toaster contains the mineral mica. Even without the mica mine Knoydart is a very good place to think about ideas of industrialisation because we are so remote and often have to do things a little differently here. The locals here are brilliant at spontaneous improvisation when it comes to any kind of technical problem.

I’ve got to know Thomas well over his visits.  On the first he was an MA student and on the second he was a presenter for channel 4 and  he has become a good friend as a result. Thomas sent me this in response to my post In Search of a Happy Ending. Very pertinent and much appreciated.