Spindrift

Author/Guide: Tamara McKinley

Why a Booktrail?

1904 onwards – The search for the truth takes one woman from Tasmania to the Isle of Skye in Scotland…

ISBN: 978-1782066675
Genre: Fiction, Historical

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What you need to know before your trail

Christy has always dreamed of making the journey from her home in Tasmania back to the wild and beautiful Scottish island where she was born – the Isle of Skye, nicknamed ‘cloud island’ by the Old Norse people. And now, in her sixty-fifth year, Christy has finally decided to go, her mistrustful daughter Anne and beloved granddaughter Kathryn acting as companions.

This is no step back into the past however – Anne and Kathryn don’t realise that Christy’s past is darker and more secretive than they could know. Returning to Skye is not going to be the holiday they had hoped for. It’s on this tiny, remote Scottish Island that they will unearth bittersweet memories long-buried – memories that will ultimately change the course of the three women’s lives forever.

Locations

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Travel Guide

Author tour of the Isle of Skye:

In Gaelic The Isle of Skye is known as An t-Eilean Sgiathanach and it takes its name from the Old Norse, sky – a meaning ‘ Cloud island’. This is a Viking reference tp the mist enshrouded Cuillin Hills that dominate the island.

Life on this island back in the 1900s was hard. Life was hard and most people at the time were employed in the crofting industry which is portrayed in the novel. The potato famine which took place back then, destroyed more than the food – it changed the lives of those living in rural communities for ever. The Highland Clearances came and destroyed even more – the eviction of many took place and homes were burned if they refused to move. It was a scary and troubling time which has wide spread consequences as seen in the novel.

There are scant reminders of that time on Skye today but there are a few crumbling remains of crofts and a few well- preserved field walls.

“In the still of a Highland day, when the clouds veil the Cuillin Hills and deserted glens, the atmosphere tells its own story”

Note – MacInnes Bay and Gilleasbuig are only fictional settings but they evoke the landscape and nature of villages affected by the crofting clearances

Tasmania

“The sheltered harbour in the Tamar estuary of Tasmania was banned Port Dalrymple in 1798 and in 1804 George Town was settled on the port. A years later, Paterson founded another settlement further upstream, which he called Patersonia – it was renamed Launceston in 1907 in honour of Governor Philip King, who came from Launceston in Cornwall, England”

The novel in Tasmania is set in Bellerive in Hobart and is where Christy moves from onto her epic journey inorder to revisit her past. She looks out on to Storm Bay and her mind floats back to the time of the Highland Clearances and the Isle of Skye. Two remote and stunning locations linked by years of history and pain and a search for the truth.

Booktrailer Review

Susan: @thebooktrailer

A very moving and heartbreaking story about a woman travelling across the world to literally step into her past and see her childhood again. This obviously causes more problems that she realises and if you’ve ever done similar, those feelings will leak out. Heartbreaking however for her past and her memories as they flicker into view and in the middle of a conversation with her daughter, that life comes to the fore as if a black and white photo of the past is placed over the colour present day.

This is definately a novel where the locations are central to the story line. Two central stories play out on two opposite ends of the world but it was the one in Skye which really captured my imagination. The scenes played outt here were awful and a shameful view of the past but evocative and raw. You can still ‘ smell’ and see them as Christy revists them for real. It’s a neat technique which more than carries the novel along

Even the way in which she travels to Tasmania and back to Skye all those years later is eventful. This is the story of a journey in every sense of the word. As she is remembering her life in Skye, life as she knows it is unravelling on the other side of the world.

I have to say that the characters, Christy’s family were interesting if a little harsh towards their mother. I did enjoy meeting Gregor MacGregor with his horse and trap – a man who knew the past and the present like the back of his hand. I wanted to spend time with him in his cottage with a hot cup of tea and ask him about the history of this place.

This is Christy’s story though and a one which unravels slowly but surely. It was slow moving but that just allowed the idea of how we are tethered to our past and where we’ve lived, to really shine through.

I always enjoy a bit of Scottish history and this was a tale which blended the emotional but the here and now.