Customer Reviews

The Sea For Breakfast

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The Sea for Breakfast is Beckwith's third book in this series about life on a small Scottish island in the 1950's. Her first and second books, The Hills Is Lonely and The Loud Halo, chronicle her arrival on the island for a summer sabbatical and her subsequent encounters with the local "characters". In this book she buys a cottage and becomes a resident of Bruach. Back are all the lovable and humorous characters of previous books along with several new ones. This book is filled with homely descriptions of the challenges of establishing a home on this wild and isolated island, told with Beckwith's unique flair for finding subtle humor in everyday events. Her growing love for this beautiful island and her grudging respect for the rural wit and wisdom of its inhabitants is expressed with rare articulation. Her descriptions of rustic neighbors and the often hilarious events of their daily lives make this book hard to put down.

The enchantment continues as Ms. "Peckwith" moves into her own cottage by the sea on the island of Bruach. The charm of the villagers is matched only by the vivid descriptions. While she learns the Philosophy of Peats, she brings to the village of dour Calvinists the joy and celebration of Christmas. This is my favorite of the three Bruach books (a book well worth owning!), the author has painstakingly and with an abundance of kindness, portrayed the foibles of the island folks - the lisping Romeo named Hector, the antics of the old men, the gypsies, and cows. A poignant and picturesque escape.

Anyone who has ever spent time on any of the coastal islands around Britain, and particularly off the west coast of Scotland, will enjoy this tale very much. Lillian Beckwith's real strength lies in being able to recreate the atmosphere of those unique island environments on paper. Like an artist working away with a fairly stiff brush, she paints the people, architecture and wildlife of this Scottish island (to which, she claims, she was only going for a holiday), with firmness and purpose. One wonders how long the holiday really lasted and one suspects a lifetime. These are indeed places to fall in love with: cut off from mainland life to the extent that, even today, forty years after the publication of "The Sea for Breakfast," one can still find a world that is not subjected to the strains and odours of our industrial society. Anyone heading to Scotland should definitely find a copy - it's an amiable text from a competent pen.

I've just finished the paperback of"The Sea for Breakfast" and was enchanted by it's gentle humour.This isn't a tale which has you going into great guffaws,but rather,keeps a smile on your face right through the book. Anyone who enjoys rustic humour and quiet wit, will thoroughly enjoy this charming,gentle look at life in the Hebrides.

This was the first book I read by Lillian Beckwith but far, far from the last. A dozen books later, and many re-reads, I am a commited life-time fan. Her ability to relate a story is genius and no matter what the topic or situation it bursts with life and humor. You'll love all the characters and marvel at the sheer durability of the Croft people. Give as a gift to anybody in the dull-drums and read for lift of your own spirits. It' better than any pill out there!

Hannah Gordon brings this story of life in the Hebrides to life. Something one can listen to over and over again. Highly recommended.

An excellent and amusing description of an english woman's attempt at having a restful vacation on an island off the coast of Scotland.she is so entertained by the place that she returns in her second book 'THE HILLS IS LONELY' to have her own place there.