The Keening

Author/Guide: Margaret Pinard

Why a Booktrail?

1800s: A book to take you to a rapidly Changing Scotland and to the alluring isle of Mull

ISBN: 978-0989850650
Genre: Fiction, Historical

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What you need to know before your trail

A book to take you to a different time and place from a traditional island where the crofters were a familiar site and where the challenges of this changing industry was causing problems for those in the thick of it.

The McLean family are just one family amongst many but they see what the islanders see – change in every wind, every raindrop and of course the changes which follow war. War brings turmoil and grief wherever it goes but it also has subtle changes elsewhere – Sheila worries about her children getting ahead in work, first born son Neil worries about acting as the head of the family and carrying the hopes of others on his shoulders.

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Travel Guide

1800s Scotland with its culture, traditions and struggles is a fascinating place to be. The lives of one family – the McLean family reveals an island of community and tradition slowly changing and slowly succumbing to the changes it at first rejects.

These times are difficult ones as there is so much at stake from a very traditional family life and the industries and way of life that come with it.

The collapse of the kelp industry is also a worry in later years and as the world changes even more, as industrialization takes place, suddenly what was once a way of life becomes a living history and nothing stays the same.

This is a book of history and hope, changes and challenges and a peek into Scottish history through the eyes of one Scottish family who live, breathe and experience it all.