Hebridean Biographies & Autobiographies

  • Cover scan of Beautiful Just!
    Beautiful Just! Lillian Beckwith
    On the Hebridean island of Bruach, life among the crofters is as happy and full of humour as ever. Beckwith tells enchanting tales about the islanders' wit, their canny resourcefulness and their gossipy interest in outsiders.
  • Cover scan of Children Of The Black-House
    Children Of The Black-House Calum MacFhearghuis
    This work is a glimpse into life on the Hebridean island of Lewis from the closing years of the 19th century up to the 1970s. The author employs an unusual narrative technique, drawing on his mother Mairead's reminiscences, and presenting her experiences and conversation in the first person.
  • Cover scan of From The Alleghenies To The Hebrides
    From The Alleghenies To The Hebrides: An Autobiography Margaret Fay Shaw
    After studying music Margaret Fay Shaw returned to live on South Uist. The collection of Gaelic lore and song she compiled is unique, and her photography evocative of a vanished world. Her memoirs feature a remarkable life and a plea for Gaelic culture.
  • Cover scan of The Furrow Behind Me
    The Furrow Behind Me: The Autobiography Of A Hebridean Crofter Angus MacLellan
    Angus tells of his boyhood on South Uist, and of how the people then lived, of Manx smugglers coming to Loch Eynort and how he left Uist to go into camp with the militia, before working for farmers on the mainland in Perthshire and Argyll.
  • Cover scan of The Hebrideans
    The Hebrideans Gus Wylie
    Gus Wylie's personal and intimate photographic tribute to a landscape and people with whom he has a deep empathy features over 200 images taken over the last three decades, including a number from his most recent photographic essay on North and South Uist and a completely new series of portraits and interiors.
  • Cover scan of I Remember
    I Remember: Memories Of Raasay John Nicolson
    John Nicolson's memoirs cover his early life on Raasay, one of the least-known jewels of the Hebrides, up to when he left in 1941. It offers the story of the island and its people during the war years and provides a glimpse of a lost way of life.
  • Cover scan of Lewis In The Passing
    Lewis In The Passing Calum MacFhearghuis
    Positioned at the uppermost tip of Britain and facing the battling winds of the Atlantic, the Isle of Lewis has always had a strong identity of its own. This work contains 21 autobiographical sketches of Lewis natives, all born before the Second World War.
  • Cover scan of A Life Of Soolivan
    A Life Of Soolivan: Based On The Recollections Of John MacLeod, Gael, Traveller, Rebel, Convict And Raconteur Calum MacFhearghuis
    A born rebel, Iain Tharmoid Uilleam left his native Lewis when he was 16, running off to a life at sea. Completely unsuited to a settled existence, he soon found adventure - and trouble - in many parts of the world. This is the story of a remarkable life.
  • Cover scan of Rosemary, Castle Cook
    Rosemary, Castle Cook: Recipes From Rosemary Shrager's Cookery School On The Isle Of Harris Rosemary Shrager; Sue Gaisford
    Published as a tie-in with Rosemary's cookery series on Channel 5, this first book by Rosemary is a revelation. Trained by Pierre Koffmann and Jean-Christophe Novelli, Rosemary shows how to produce the very best cuisine at home in 100 or so recipes.
  • Cover scan of A School In South Uist
    A School In South Uist: Reminiscences Of A Hebridean Schoolmaster, 1890-1913 F. G. Rea
    These are the memories of a teacher from England who became headmaster of Garrynamonie School in South Uist in the 1890s. Frederick Rea caused a sensation, not only for being an Englishman, but also the first Catholic to be awarded the post.
  • Cover scan of Sea Room
    Sea Room: An Island Life Adam Nicolson
    Adam Nicolson's father had answered a newspaper advertisement in the 1930s: Uninhabited islands for sale. Outer Hebrides. 600 acres. Adam Nicolson inherited the islands when he was 21, and in this book he tells the story of his own experiences there.
  • Cover scan of Tales From An Island
    Tales From An Island Christina Hall
    In her memoirs, Christina Hall writes about her childhood on the Hebridean island of South Uist in the 1940s and '50s, her schooldays on the mainland, her time at teacher training college in Glasgow, and her return to South Uist as a primary school teacher.
  • Cover scan of A Very Civil People
    A Very Civil People: Hebridean Folk History And Tradition J. L. Campbell
    This collection features essays and shorter pieces by Campbell chosen to reflect the range and diversity of his scholarship. It includes essays on St. Kilka, South Uist and Barra with studies of figures such as Compton Mackenzie and Father Allan Macdonald.