Children of the Glens [Hardcover]

Gwen Kirkwood (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2004

Another title in the very popular Scottish farming saga In 1950s Scotland the farming industry is on the brink of huge change, becoming more mechanised and less human. But for the Maxwell family who farm at Lochandee it is also a time of hope and promise for the future. As matriarch Rachel contemplates her assorted children and grandchildren, she has every reason to feel proud of her clan. Conan's transport business is prospering, and he and his wife Fiona have plans to develop into the burgeoning tourist industry. Rachel's daughter Bridie is as happily married as Rachel herself, and she and Nick are working at building their own cattle farm. The only cloud on the horizon is a young woman named Gerda Fritz-Allan, who seems to have caught the eye of Rachel's youngest son, Ewan. Beautiful, ambitious and utterly selfish, Gerda has the power to wreak untold damage, changing the lives of the Maxwell family for ever

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The good folk of Lochandee, the Maxwell family dairy farm, have survived diphtheria, accidents, hoof-and-mouth disease, deaths, poverty, wars, bombings by the Germans, fire, floods, blizzards, and countless other catastrophes. But they've never had to deal with Gerda Fritz-Allan, a gold digger so diabolically despicable that she threatens to tear the very fabric of their existence by marrying Ewan, Ross and Rachel's good-hearted but gullible grandson. Beginning in 1962, this third book of the Maxwell saga, following Laird of Lochandee and A Tangled Web (both released in 2003), chronicles the third generation and acts as a cautionary tale about marrying strictly for looks. An interesting subplot concerns such changes in the world as Kennedy's assassination, the moon walk, and the Vietnam War. And changes in the methods of dairy farming are also detailed by Kirkwood, who writes with great authority, having attended agricultural college and married a Scottish dairy farmer. Readers who like soap operas, miniseries, and sagas such as Colleen McCullogh's The Thorn Birds or John Galsworthy's Forsythe Saga will also go for Kirkwood's Scottish series. Shelley Mosley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Kirkwood was born on a Yorkshire farm. She went to Agriculture College before marrying a Scottish dairy farmer.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 294 pages
• Publisher: Severn House Publishers; 1st World Ed edition (November 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0727861220
• ISBN-13: 978-0727861221
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,582,232 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I live in Scotland U.K. and I have written 15 family sagas with authentic farm and country backgrounds, mainly set in Scotland. So far I have written them in series spanning three to four generations. Each book stands alone but I believe they are more enjoyable read in sequence. They are available in many UK libraries and on the internet. I have also written 6 shorter romantic novels under the pseudonymn Lynn Granger. I am presently uploading these as E-readers under my own name to avoid confusion.
I have been a member of the Romantic Novelists Association for many years and enjoy the yearly Conference. I won the Elizabeth Goudge Trophy in 2000.

I went to school in Yorkshire, then Agricultural College, but I have lived most of my adult life in Scotland. My own background is dairyfarming but I enjoy gardening, cooking, reading, walking and my grandchildren.