Highland life

 

    I introduced Jane Duncan's novel My Friends the Miss Boyds the other day and gave a flavour of it on Saturday; now I've read the book I can tell you what a delight it is. Taking the form of a 'chronicle' written by Janet Sandison looking back to the events of her childhood (specifically when she was eight), it's an account of life in the Highlands at the end of the Great War. This is no sentimental, tartan and heather story, though; it's a warm and intelligent look at a vanished way of life.

    Janet lives with her extended family at Reachfar, a croft near the village of 'Achcraggan' in the Black Isle. Content much of the time with her own company or that of her dog, Fly, her uncle George or farmhand Tom, she runs errands for her grandmother, takes her turn with farm chores and works hard at school. The family's standing in the close-knit community means that they are highly respected and often looked to when help is sought, and when the Miss Boyds come to Achraggan, the Sandisons are indeed needed.

    The six spinster sisters from Inverness are the cause of a raised eyebrow or two in the village through their simpering, embarrassingly flirtatious ways, but when one of the younger Miss Boyds brings trouble on the house, things take a more serious turn.

    There are some great set-pieces and many passages which had me in stitches - the speech patterns and vocabulary ('deaved', 'half-yoking', 'fushionless', 'thrawn', 'spae-wife' - I'll translate if you want!) reminded me strongly of my grandmother who came from that part of the country and was just a little older than Janet was at the time the book's set; but it's also a poignant story, finely done and keenly observed. I loved the book and I hope that Millrace will re-issue more of Jane Duncan's novels.