Gometra Press
Gometra Press is a small, independent publisher based on the remote island of Gometra in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. We produce books, pamphlets, and special editions rooted in nature, activism, rural life, and the unique realities of off-grid living. Grounded in place but speaking to the wider world, our work aims to inspire reflection, action, and lasting change.
About
Gometra Press was founded by writer, artist and dissident Roc Sandford, who has held the island of Gometra since 1992 and whose family connections to the island go back many centuries. Deeply connected to the island’s landscape, history, and ethos of low-impact living, the press reflects a way of life centered on sustainability, independence, and consideration.
We publish works exploring the intersections of nature, protest, remoteness, and radical ideas for dangerous times. Our titles speak to climate and nature collapse, mitigation and adaptation, and self-reliance, together with the social wisdom which will help us survive—with writing that's rooted in experience.
Our vision is outward-looking. Voices from the margins sometimes have the best stories to tell.
Featured Publications
Rebel Rebel
"Rebel, Rebel: An Emergency Dialogue" by Susana Medina and Roc Sandford is an experimental 2024 non-fiction work about being climate activists in early Extinction Rebellion. Using collage-style writing (dialogue, poetry, emails), it captures the urgency of XR's 2019-2020 London protests and the journey from ordinary citizens to environmental rebels.
Friends and Purpose
In this book you find out what people say when they come across a sofa, some armchairs and an entire living room in the middle of the street. What you hear are some remarkable and often very funny and very touching stories. Either side of these chapters, Maff Potts shares some of the more surprising things he has learnt about humans and humanity when working in the social justice world with people who have very tough lives. He finds the answer lies in humans, not institutions.
Burnt Rain
"Burnt Rain" is a powerful polemic by veteran eco-protestor Roc Sandford about his 30-year experience buying a bleak Hebridean island to live alone and manage for wildlife. Offering both lyrical nature writing and rational analysis of environmental stresses, the book explores how his island refuge took on a different destiny than planned, blending personal memoir with urgent environmental activism.
