Mr Almond has twice won the Whitbread Children's Book award and has written novels such as Skellig and My Dad's A Birdman.

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Try not to look down at the crashing waves as you gingerly climb the vertiginous steps that cut into the face of Skellig Michael, an uninhabited Unesco World Heritage-listed monastic settlement that was established sometime between the 6th and 8th Centuries.

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