Cloud Howe

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What really struck me in Cloud Howe was that Chris and her son Ewan are non-believers and they don’t hide it and are not quiet about it. A Scots Quair is revolutionary - innovative in its form, deft and humorous in its use of language, courageous in its characterization and politics. Anyway, I am digressing here, except to say I was reminded of this bizarre and unforgettable experience when I read this book. It's an excellent and often amusing account of small-town life, where gossip, mostly mean-minded and having no basis in fact, rules.

It felt as if Gibbons gave this one short shrift in character and plot development, and I am glad to be done with it. Cloud Howe spends most of its time in the early 1920s and spends significant time with our heroine Chris Guthrie, but increases the amount of ink devoted to her husband and her son Ewan. May contain markings such as bookplates, stamps, limited notes and highlighting, or a few light stains. It seemed to Chris when those first days came that she’d weary to death wiChris Guthrie, torn between her love of the land and her desire to escape the narrow horizons of a peasant culture, is the thread that links these three works. The last takeaway is that my battered copy of A Scots Quair will soon need to be retired to a place it can be seen, not read, and a new copy, hopefully hardback, will need to be bought. Review our guidance pages which explain how you can reuse images, how to credit an image and how to find images in the public domain or with a Creative Commons licence available. The cover may have some limited signs of wear but the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged.

Cloud Howe and Grey Granite take Chris from her rural homeland to life in an industrial Scotland and the desperate years of the Depression. Situated just 3½ miles from the coast and with easy access to Royal Deeside, guests can have energetic or relaxing holidays here - the choice of activities is endless! Kinraddie, Segget--the former a farming village, the latter a slightly more urban town, where most folk are gripping tight to their role amongst the bourgeoisie, neither working class ("spinner dirt") nor the aristocracy ("gentry dirt"), but still uneducated, saved from the ignominy of the third class by some kind of ownership, although they're all essentially owned by the Mowats. I love all of this a more about “Sunset Song” and was so sad when “Cloud Howe” did not live up the the perfection of “Sunset Song”.The scene has moved to the small community of Segget, where, after Ewan's death in the First World War, Chris has come to live with her second husband, Robert Colquhoun, an idealistic and liberal minister. Take a trip to Dunnottar Castle, a proud monument overlooking the sea near Stonehaven and the inspiration for the location of the Disney film, Brave. Always readable, never sentimental, A Scots Quair is one of the most important works of modern Scottish literature. And the equilibrium of that attempt to persevere in the most neutral of senses is what makes a good life.

I knew in advance that the first book had the reputation of being better than the other two, but I was still surprised at how big the difference was. They seem entirely mismatched and again Gibbon doesn’t show us their courtship, which happened off-page between books.

Sunset Song”, the first and most celebrated book of the trilogy, covers the early years of the twentieth century, including the First World War. I had enjoyed part 1 so much, I perhaps had built this up in my mind as being a dead cert for a great read. Behind and far up you would hear the hills quake, Robert would raise up his head and laugh, the twinkle-scowl in his deep-set eyes – The feet of the Lord on the hills, Christine!