Crofter and the Laird - Couverture souple

McPhee, John

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0374514658 ISBN 13 : 9780374514655

Editeur : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1992

Synopsis

The Crofter and the Laird When John McPhee returned to the island of his ancestors--Colonsay, twenty-five miles west of the Scottish mainland--a hundred and thirty-eight people were living there. About eighty of these, crofters and farmers, had familial histories of unbroken residence on the island for two or three hundred years; the rest, including the English laird who owned Colonsay, were "incomers." Donald McNeill, the crofter of the title, was working out his existence in this last domain of the feudal system; the laird, the fourth Baron Strathcona, lived in Bath, appeared on Colonsay mainly in the summer, and accepted with nonchalance the fact that he was the least popular man ...

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur :

McPhee is a grand master of narrative non-fiction. Guardian

In 1969, John McPhee moved his family from New Jersey across the Atlantic to live in the land of his forefathers, the island of Colonsay seventeen square miles of dew and damp twenty-five miles off the coast of Scotland. They rented a crofthouse, his children enrolled at the local school, and they soon were accepted into this tightly circumscribed community of 138 people.

Intertwining history and legend, McPhee gives us a comprehensive portrait of this remote and misty land. He battles the fierce gales on the outer shoals of the Ardskenish Peninsula, listens to the crofters complain of the laird over drams in the island s sole pub, and meets perhaps the last of the Great Highland bagpipers.

A blend of anthropology and travelogue, The Crofter and the Laird presents us with a perfect mirror of daily-life in the Highlands. McPhee writes with insight, sensitivity, and fondness for these hardy people resulting in an account that's as honest, humorous, and frank as the locals themselves.

Astonishing. Even the Gaelic names are spelt correctly. The book is in many ways unusually frank and the portraits incisive ... neither sentimental nor judgmental, but clear-cut and sensible. Iain Crichton Smith

Revue de presse :

McPhee s genius is that he can write about anything. --Robert Macfarlane

One always has the sense with McPhee of a man at a pitch of pleasure in his work, a natural at it, finding out on behalf of the rest of us how some portion of the world works. --New York Times

A small masterpiece of penetrating warmth and perception. --Time

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Date d'édition: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0374514658
• ISBN 13: 9780374514655
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 176
• Illustrateur: Graves James