Why a Booktrail?
1927: The last community ever to live on St Kilda..only they don’t know it yet.
The Lost Lights of St Kilda
What you need to know before your trail
1927: When Fred Lawson takes a summer job on St Kilda, little does he realise that he has joined the last community to ever live on that beautiful, isolated island. Only three years later, St Kilda will be evacuated, the islanders near-dead from starvation. But for Fred, that summer – and the island woman, Chrissie, whom he falls in love with – becomes the very thing that sustains him in the years ahead.
1940: Fred has been captured behind enemy lines in France and finds himself in a prisoner-of-war camp. Beaten and exhausted, his thoughts return to the island of his youth and the woman he loved and lost. When Fred makes his daring escape, prompting a desperate journey across occupied territory, he is sustained by one thought only: finding his way back to Chrissie.
Travel Guide
Travel Booktrail style to St Kilda and The Lost Lights
St Kilda is a remarkable place in real life.It’s an isolated archipelago situated 40 miles west-northwest of North Uist and contains the westernmost islands of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. The largest island is Hirta, whose sea cliffs are the highest in the UK!
The author says:
“I have tried to render the islands of St Kilda as faithfully as possible and she hopes that the readers will be able to feel that they have experienced some of the unique way of life that once existed there. The characters in the story, while many are based on the people who lived on St Kilda, all remain necessarily fictional as there is not enough information available to write their actual stories.”
The islands are evoked with style in the novel. The wind is powerful and strong; the ocean loud and raw; those cliffs dangerous and vertiginous. The struggle of the people on the island to survive is increasingly clear. People are leaving for the mainland if they can, particularly the young. Due to the bad weather and remote location, boats can’t always dock and so the islanders are effectively abandoned for days on end with no contact with the outside world.
This is a love letter to St Kilda and the people who lived on it.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: The Lost Lights of St Kilda
Destination/location: St Kilda, Outer Hebrides Author/guide: Elisabeth Gifford Departure Time: 1927
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