Book 10 - Crowdie and Cream

Crowdie & Cream by Finlay J. Macdonald - first published in 1982
I am not generally very keen on biographies and autobiographies but this one is very well written, informative and entertaining.  The author was born on the Isle of Harris in 1926.  When he was about 4 years old his family moved to another part of the island when one of the large estates on the west coast of Harris was broken up on the orders of the government and rented out to 8 crofters, who had to build their own houses and farm the land.   

Crowdie & Cream covers Finlay’s life up to about the age of 10.  He also wrote 2 other memoirs – Crotal and White (1983) and The Corncrake and the Lysander (1985), which are currently out of print and which presumably cover the later years of his childhood.  Crowdie and Cream is still in print. Under its Gaelic title - 'Gruth is Uachdar – it was serialised in a BBC Scotland drama production in 2002.The author has a remarkable eye for detail and a real gift for storytelling and the book is a joy to read.  He was also a radio and television producer and died in 1987.  For those who don't know crowdie is a type of soft cheese.  8/10

Islands covered - Harris

One of several glorious beaches on the west coast of Harris

This Land Raiders Memorial is actually at Balallan on the Isle of Lewis. 

 It is one of 4 on the island to commemorate the struggles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by impoverished local people to obtain land for them to farm from mainly absentee landlords, who used their vast estates for shooting and fishing. The land raiders are mentioned in Crowdie & Cream.

Book 9 - Heartland

Heartland by John MacKay - first published in 2004

This novel has many plot characteristics in common with Peter May's The Lewis Man.  The main character - Iain Martin - returns to his native Isle of Lewis to rebuild his family's ruined black house after the breakdown of his marriage and resigning from his job in mainland Scotland.  The plot of both novels centres around the discovery of a corpse buried on the island.

Iain discovers a skeleton beneath the floor of the black house on the west coast of Lewis but decides to keep his discovery to himself while he tries to work out who it is and how long it has been there.  A crime has been committed but this isn't a crime novel.  It is more about the relationships that Iain has with his mother and old friends Catriona and Neilie.  When they were teenagers a mutual friend called Rob disappeared and was presumed drowned while on a fishing trip.  Soon after Catriona married Neilie, although Iain has always wished that she had married him.  Iain suspects that the skeleton might be Rob's and that Neilie murdered him.  7/10

Islands covered - Lewis

 Butt of Lewis at the north end of the Isle of Lewis

 Traigh Ghearadha - north of New Tolsta

 - on the east coast rather than the west but it is very similar to the one in described in Heartland near to where Iain is rebuilding his family's black house.

Book 8 - The Lewis Man

The Lewis Man by Peter May - first published in 2012

This is the 2^nd book of the Lewis Trilogy, which began with The Blackhouse.  Fin Macleod returns to his native island of Lewis after his marriage breaks up and he resigns from the police force in Edinburgh.  He plans to rebuild his late parents’ ruined house and then to live in it.  Then a well-preserved corpse is discovered in a Lewis peat bog when some islanders are cutting peat to dry and use as fuel.  The body is a DNA sibling match to a retired local farmer Tormod Macdonald.  However Tormod is very elderly and suffering from senile dementia and he had always told his family that he was an only child.  Tormod’s daughter Marsaili is Fin’s ex-girlfriend and she enlists him to help solve the mystery.  Fin’s investigation takes him first down to the Isle of Harris and then further south to the Uists and Eriskay. 

Although this book is complete in itself I think that if I hadn’t read the first book in the trilogy I would have found some aspects of the story confusing.  The pace of the story is slower than the Blackhouse, although it does have a dramatic ending.  I enjoyed it even more than the Blackhouse, partly because all the locations mentioned in the book, apart from Fin’s home village of Crobost, are real and it brought back memories of a happy holiday in the Outer Hebrides.  I look forward to reading the 3^rd book in the trilogy – The Chessmen, which has just been published.  8/10

Islands covered - Lewis, Harris, South Uist and Eriskay 

An Taobh Tuath (Northton), Harris

This is one of the places that Fin visits while trying to find out who Tormod really is.  The Seallam Visitor Centre, which Fin visits is nearby.

Prince's Beach, west coast of Eriskay 

Bonnie Prince Charlie is supposed to have first set foot in Scotland when he landed on this beach in 1745.  There is a memorial cairn at the back of the beach on the west coast built to commemorate this event.  The beach plays an important role in The Lewis Man.


Prince's Beach, Eriskay

Peat cut, dried and stacked

Book 7 - The Stornoway Way

The Stornoway Way by Kevin MacNeil - first published in 2005

I’m not really sure how to describe this novel.  It is the ramblings of a 30-year-old alcoholic artist about the realities of life on the Isle of Lewis.   He has recently moved back to Stornoway after some years away in Edinburgh and abroad and spends most of his time drinking with his friends and acquaintances.   The book is funny and sad at the same time and don’t expect a happy ending because there isn’t one.  It won’t make you want to visit Lewis but it is a strangely compelling and unusual book.  I liked the translations of Gaelic words and phrases given as footnotes on many of the pages but thought a pronunciation guide would have been useful.  7/10

Islands covered – Lewis and Harris

 Stornoway

 Stornoway from Lews Castle grounds

Book 6 - Written in Bone

Written in Bone by Simon Beckett - first published in 2007
Forensic anthropologist Dr David Hunter and two local police officers are sent to the small fictional island of Runa, which is supposed to be in the Outer Hebrides.  David Hunter is asked to examine a body, which is lying in a ruined house.  On arrival they are met by Andrew Brody, who lives on Runa and who is a retired police officer.   The body has been almost completely incinerated apart from the feet and one hand, although the rest of the room did not burn.  The local police are convinced that it is an accidental death but David Hunter is not so sure.  The next day an Atlantic storm arrives, which cuts off all power and communication with the mainland.  Then a second person is killed and a third…  David Hunter learns that you can trust no one.  I really enjoyed this book and stayed up until after midnight one night reading it.

Written in Bone is a sequel to The Chemistry of Death, which also features Dr David Hunter but which is set in Norfolk.  The 3^rd and 4^th in the series are Whispers of the Dead and The Calling of the Grave.

8/10

Book 5 - The Black House

The Black House by Peter May - first published in the UK in 2010
This is the first book of the Lewis Trilogy.  The story is complete in itself but the main character Fin Macleod continues on to the 2nd and 3rd books.  The second book is The Lewis Man, which was published in 2012 and the 3rd book The Chess Men was published at the beginning of 2013.  The author now lives in France and The Black House was first published in French as L'Ile des Chasseurs D'Oiseaux - Island of the Bird Hunters.

Fin Macleod is a police detective in Edinburgh.  He is investigating a murder there when a very similar one is committed on the Isle of Lewis, where Fin was born and grew up.  He is sent to Lewis to see if the 2 cases are connected. 

The murder victim on Lewis is Angel Macritchie, who was a bully that Fin went to school with and as he begins his investigations he relives many events in his own past that he would rather forget.  Each summer 12 men from the Ness area in the north of Lewis spend 2 weeks on An Sgeir, an isolated rocky islet many miles north of Lewis, catching, killing and processing gugas (baby gannets).  These are prized as a local delicacy on Lewis.  When he was 17 years old Fin reluctantly went with them and the island has a pivotal role in the story and the dramatic ending to it.  I look forward to reading the other 2 books in the series.

The grey, damp and windy weather and the bleak landscape described in the book mirrors the hard lives Fin’s school friends that he left behind on Lewis have had to endure and the islanders aren’t portrayed in the best light.  

An Sgeir doesn’t exist but the men of Ness do still go to the rocky island of Sula Sgeir each summer to harvest gugas.  Sula Sgeir is located 40 miles to the north of Lewis.  The hunting of seabirds is banned but the men of Ness have been granted an exemption under EU and UK law to enable them to continue their hunt.

Islands covered - Lewis, Sula Sgeir

Score 8/10 

Butt of Lewis Lighthouse - this is located at the north end of Lewis