Merrybegotten [Hardcover]

Fiona Williamson Pearson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 30, 2004

Hard landscapes and hard work provide the background for this tapestry of life and death. Fatalism, joy and blind emotion play havoc with the harsh realities expected on these islands, sewn like diamonds across the waters north-east of mainland Scotland. Romance is chaperoned by economic necessity, constrained by the difficulties of travel, and released by the serendipitous accidents of mortality. Unremitting hope brightens the simple lives of three generations of island folk. The persistent need to locate her family with a sense of time and place in a wider context led Fiona Pearson on a personal Odyssey. One result was a journal and sketchbook of the Northern Isles. An accomplished artist gradually became a novice script-writer, and subsequently a novelist. Fiona lives with her family in Yorkshire, England.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 312 pages
• Publisher: Kennedy & Boyd (August 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1904999034
• ISBN-13: 978-1904999034
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Family Portrait, Island Style, September 18, 2004

By 

Anne Slater (Ardmore (near Philadelphia), PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Merrybegotten (Paperback)

This is the author's fictionalised study of her family in Orkney, the island group just north of the mainland of Scotland. I found it well framed and written, with a glossary of Orcadian and Scottish dialect (although I needed it less than I had anticipated). The story is given color and depth with interesting tidbits of 19th/early 20th century farm and household technology, daily culture, and social reality. The characters are neatly drawn and well developed. A good read altogether.