bookshelves: victorian, paper-read, published-1883, nonfiction, britain-scotland, epistolatory-diary-blog, one-penny-wonder, under-10-ratings, history, winter-20142015, tbr-busting-2015, reference

Foreword by John Prebble

The author: Alexander Mackenzie, FSA Scot (1838 - 22 January 1898) was a Scottish historian, author, magazine editor and politician. He was born on a croft, in Gairloch. In 1869 he settled in Inverness, where he later became an editor and publisher of the Celtic Magazine, and the Scottish Highlander. Mackenzie wrote numerous clan histories. He was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. In 1894, the Gaelic Society of Inverness elected Mackenzie as an 'Honorary Chieftain'.

Opening: Donald Macleod's "Gloomy Memories," originally appeared as a series of letters in the Edinburgh Weekly Chronicle.




"'The clergy also, whose duty it is to denounce the oppressors and aid the oppressed, have all, the whole seventeen parish ministers in Sutherlandshire, with one exception, found their account abetting the wrong-doers, exhorting the people to quiet submission...' Excerpt taken from Letter II"

Infinitely sad.

Excellent additional resource for serious investigation of the subject.

 

bookshelves: series, britain-scotland, summer-2013, published-1933, winter-20142015, aberdeenshire, under-500-ratings, paper-read, one-penny-wonder, fradio, play-dramatisation, class-war, industrial-action, general-strike, tragedy, tbr-busting-2015, historical-fiction

Edited with an introduction by Tom Crawford
Dedication: To George Malcolm Thomson.
Map of Segget

Opening: The Borough of Segget stands under the Mounth, on the southern side, in the Mearns Howe, Fordoun lies near and Drumlithie nearer, you can see the Laurencekirk lights of a night glimmer and glow as the mists come down.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0505l3m

BBC description: Lewis Grassic Gibbon's powerful sequel to Sunset Song dramatised by Donna Franceschild. Atmospheric drama about Grassic Gibbon's best-loved character, Chris.

Now married to Robert, a young and idealistic minister, Chris and her family move from the crofting village of Kinraddie to the mill town of Segget in Aberdeenshire. Living in the wake of the Great War and during the build up to the General Strike, they find themselves instrumental in the small town's epic class struggle.

Tensions within the town grow as Chris and Robert help the spinners prepare for strike action. But nothing can prepare the family for the tragic events that are about to unfold.
Starring Amy Manson and Robin Laing.
Directed by Kirsty Williams.

It seems highly likely that both author and spinners had read Tressell's 1914 'The Ragged Philanthropists'.

"Not a penny off the pay,
not a minute on the day."

5* Sunset Song
4* Cloud Howe

 

bookshelves: published-1932, britain-scotland, winter-20112012, series, aberdeenshire, paper-read, one-penny-wonder, bucolic-or-pastoral, epic-proportions, families, historical-fiction, period-piece, bedside, wwi, winter-20142015, re-visit-2015, conflagration, lit-richer, classic, class-war, incest-agameforallthefamily, poison, suicide

REVISIT VIA BBC: Listen here

Description: Divided between her love of the land and the harshness of farming life, young Chris Guthrie finally decides to stay in the rural community of her childhood. Yet World War I and the changes that follow make her a widow and mock the efforts of her youth.

Episode 1/2 (1 hour): Chris is torn between the love of the land and her ambition to be a teacher.

Episode 2/2: After her father's death, Chris is determined to work the farm, alone if needs be.

watch a dramatised production. Not the best of quality but hey! who's going to be so picky at this stage. There is, allegedly, a new film in production as we speak.




PAPER READ: fireside, sipping scotch and toasting Rabbie Burns.

Edited with an introduction by Tom Crawford. Map of Kinraddie

Dedication: To Jean Baxter

Arbuthnott is the real Kinraddie

Opening - KINRADDIE lands had been won by a Norman childe, Cospatric de Gondeshil, in the days of William de Lyon, when gryphons and such-like beasts still roamed the Scots countryside and folk would waken in their beds to hear the children screaming, with a great wolf-beast, come through the hide window, tearing at their throats.

Dunnottar Castle.

I know there are many historical-fictionistas out there who dislike dialects and there is a further modernist warning:

Gibbon's style is one of the great achievements of the trilogy and should be seen in relation to Scottish forerunners like John Galt as well as in the context of modernist innovators such as James Joyce, Gertrude Stein and William Faulkner (Tom Crawford, Canongate Books)

bookshelves: hardback, paper-read, britain-scotland, giftee, tbr-busting-2014, published-1972, drilling-mining-digging, under-500-ratings, fife, autumn-2014, families, slit-yer-wrists-gloomy

Description: The Camerons is the story of the indomitable Maggie Drum, who washes the grime of coal-mining Pitmungo town from her beautiful face and sets out to find a man worthy of fathering her family. It is the story of the big, poor-but-proud Highlander who marries her, gives her seven children, and challenges her with an unyielding spirit of his own.

Portions of this book originally appeared in PLAYBOY MAGAZINE and in THE LADIES' HOME JOURNAL.

Dedication:

For
Kyle Crichton,
who helped inspire this story,
and
Robert Gottlieb,
whose hand helped shape it.

Opening: She was awake.
Sound asleep one moment, her eyes wide open the next, staring up into the blackness of the ceiling.

It can be forgiven to initially think that poor Gillan did not deserve what happened to him - he wandered into the crosshairs of Maggie Drum's scope and became as poached as the night-landed salmon in the firth.