The Flight of the Heron

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a b Diana Wallace, The Woman's Historical Novel: British women writers, 1900–2000. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. ISBN 1-4039-0322-0, pp. 7 and 29. Major Keith Windham is a career soldier with the English Army - seemingly the antithesis of Ewen. He is jaded, worldly and loyal to the Crown but, ultimately, an outsider. The first book of historical fiction that I clearly remember reading was The Flight of the Heron by D.K. Broster. My father gave me a copy for my twelfth birthday. It was a book he had read years before and loved. And he re-read it once I had finished. I won’t spoil the rest, but there is lots of fleeing across the moors, fighting, capture, misunderstandings, “my love or my loyalty” conflicts, admiring each other's bodies and courage, and being cradled in each other’s arms. So, you know, if you like that sort of thing… Just after Bonnie Prince Charlie has landed in Scotland, Windham is captured by Cameron (due to no fault of his own - his horse shying at a heron rising in front of it, which only slightly injures him but breaks the horse’s leg - leaving him all but defenceless.) Windham is surprised to find Cameron not the barbarian of his expectations but a gentleman with fine and chivalrous manners. Having given his parole, Windham is indebted to Cameron for intervening when on a stroll he comes across locals retrieving their arms cache from the thatched roofs of their houses and is thereby thought to be a spy. In the meantime, we find that Cameron’s foster-father - who is a seer - has predicted that Cameron and Windham will meet a total of five times, leaving the reader totting up their encounters. Sure enough the pairs’ paths cross again in Edinburgh after the Battle of Prestonpans when Windham has sallied from the castle in an attempt to capture the Prince - to whom Cameron is now aide-de-camp – who is visiting a house nearby, and once again Windham finds himself indebted to Cameron for allowing him to escape the clutches of Highlander reinforcements.

The late Finlay Currie starred in this rather epic Scottish Television serialisation of the 1925 novel by D.K. Broster which centred on fictional events at the time of the non-fictional Jacobite Rebellion of 1746 and leading up to the Battle of Culloden. I enjoyed the writing itself as well and the characters' longing for various things and I feel like the highlands in particular were granted a kind of otherworldiness but in a good way. The storyline was not what I expected. This is not really a historical novel in the true sense. It focuses on relationships, particularly the growing friendship between the hero, Ewan Cameron, and an English officer, Keith Windham, as each man realises that the other, nominally an enemy, is in fact a man of great integrity, honesty and dignity. The Flight of the Heron, by D. K. Broster". Country Life. London. 14 November 1925 . Retrieved 25 March 2023.

If you cannot open a .mobi file on your mobile device, please use .epub with an appropriate eReader. Some of the accents however were written phonetically and were nearly impossible to read. In some cases I had no idea what was being said and just skimmed over it. Also I think it was a bad idea to present two major characters with "L" names that had such similar construction. I also think the ending was a little weak and while I appreciate the strange bond between the lead characters ... Ewen is sceptical, but the prophecy proves true when he meets Englishman Keith Windham - and a gripping tale of adventure, danger and true and lasting friendship is set into motion. You're really going to let your foster-brother run off and get shot? Really? Because he killed Windham and you knew why he did largely do to a misunderstanding and you're still like I never forgive you? Your chokehold loyalty has very strange conditions.

It is the most popular of Broster’s works, having remained in print throughout the twentieth century and been adapted multiple times for radio, television and the stage. Broster wrote two sequels, The Gleam in the North (1927) and The Dark Mile (1929); while these were originally published as loose sequels, some later descriptions and omnibus editions use the title ‘The Jacobite Trilogy’ for the three novels. Dorothy Kathleen Broster (1877 - 1950) produced 15 popular historical novels between 1911 and 1947. Angus MacMartin (Finlay Currie) was the blind soothsayer who foresaw the flight of the heron, which was meant to herald the coming together of a young highland chieftain and an English officer. His prophecy is fulfilled by Ewen Cameron (Ian McCulloch) and Captain Keith Windham (Jon Laurimore), who-although on opposing sides, come to know and respect each other. However, history is set on course for one of the bloodiest battles ever fought on British soil, and one that would tear apart the clan system in Scotland forever. The production was Scottish Television's most expensive at that time for a children's drama and their investment amounted to around 60,000 pounds. Much of this was recouped by repeating the series on the same night but in a late-night slot for adults illustrating the strength of children's drama in the 1960s. Extra credence was given to the series by filming all the location scenes right on the spot where the actual events had taken place some 200 years before. Male friendship—here a growing friendship between men whose loyalties make them enemies—is another important theme, and also shared with other books by Broster. The attraction between Ewen and Keith can be read as homoerotic, the expression of this repressed desire being facilitated by the fantasy element in the plot—the prophecy foretelling their destined meetings through the agency of the heron. [4] Reception [ edit ]The title comes from the fact that a seer predicts that Cameron will meet Windham five times by water, each time signaled by the flight of a heron. Broster served as secretary to Charles Harding Firth, ( Regius Professor of History from 1904 to 1925) for several years, and collaborated on several of his works. Her first two novels were co-written with a college friend, Gertrude Winifred Taylor: Chantemerle: A Romance of the Vendean War (1911) and The Vision Splendid (1913) (about the Tractarian Movement). [4] The focus here is very much not on the battles of that rebellion but on the relationship between Jacobite Ewen Cameron (of Ardroy) and a Government Army Officer, the Englishman Captain (later Major) Keith Windham of the Royal Scots.

Angus McMartin (Currie) was the blind soothsayer who foresaw the flight of the heron, which was meant to herald the coming together of a young highland chieftain and an English officer. Scottish TV had made their own 8 part version for ITV in 1968 starring Ian McCulloch as Cameron. The BBC also adapted the book twice for radio, in 1944 and again in 1959. Wallace, Diana (2005). The Woman’s Historical Novel: British Women Writers, 1900-2000. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. pp.33–34. ISBN 1403903220. Ewen Cameron is admiring his beloved loch when he sees his loyal but not too bright foster-brother Lachlan trying to kill a heron. Ewen stops him, and Lachlan reveals that his father, who has second sight, has predicted that a heron will bring about a meeting between Ewen and a man. They will meet five times, and it will end in grief.

Broster avoided personal publicity. During her lifetime, many of her readers wrongly assumed she was both male and Scottish. [4] She died in Bexhill Hospital on 7 February 1950, aged 73. I'm fairly sure Broster knew what she was doing. She certainly doesn't take it to the sexual, but there is intimacy galore. Other, earlier books of hers (Mr. Rowl, The Wounded Name, even to some extent the religious novel she co-wrote, The Vision Splendid) have similar pre-slash - or, if you prefer, romantic friendship - elements. But this is the one that is most perfectly conceived, and when I scribble, I still find myself unconsciously imitating moments from "The Flight of the Heron." Set in Scotland in the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion, this is the story of an unlikely friendship between Keith Windham, a career soldier in the British Army, and a young Highland chieftain who follows Bonnie Prince Charlie in his bid for the throne.