Why a Booktrail?
1790: Inspired by a very real story….
The Repentants
Why a Booktrail?
1790: Inspired by a very real story….
What you need to know before your trail
Two women are forced to publicly repent in church, one for adultery the other for breaching the sabbath. Wealthy housewife, Florrie, and salt serf, Eliza, form a quick and unusual bond over their mutual humiliation. So when Florrie’s husband decides she must accompany him on a trade venture to Iceland, she insists Eliza comes as her maid.
Far from home, isolated and fearful, the two women grow ever closer. Then Florrie’s husband reveals his sinister plan: he will leave her in Iceland, banished for the shame she has cast upon him. Florrie must escape, but when she turns to Eliza for help she realizes nothing is quite as it seems . . .
Locations
Reset- Scotland - Fife - St Monans
- A: St Monans Auld Kirk
- B: Cemetery
- C: St. Monans Harbour
- D: Fife Coastal Path St Monans to Pittenweem
- E: St Monans Cove
- Iceland - Reykjavik
- F: Reykjavik harbour
Travel Guide
St Monas, Fife
1790: Inspired by an attempt by Scottish merchants to annex Iceland as a remote prison for the British Empire.
Thousands of women were tried and executed for practising witchcraft in the 16th and 17th century in Scotland. There is a museum in Leven, Fife which was opened in 2024. It covers many witch trials including the one in St Monans as evoked in the novel.
Iceland
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries (specifically between 1785 and 1813), there were proposals for Britain, sometimes spearheaded by Scottish individuals, to annex or take possession of Iceland, which was a dependency of Denmark.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: The Repentants
Destination/location: St Monans, Fife, Reykjavik Author/guide: Kate Foster Departure Time: 1790
Back to ResultsWhere Next?
