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Sto caricando le informazioni... The Crofter and the Lairddi John McPhee
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Iscriviti per consentire a LibraryThing di scoprire se ti piacerà questo libro. Attualmente non vi sono conversazioni su questo libro. Everyone knows about the Scottish clans; a little, at least. And most have heard about the strange feudal system of crofting. By moving his family to Colonsay for a few months and living side-by-side with a crofter and his wife, McPhee explores the people, mythology, history, landscape, and daily lives and concerns of the island via a wide-ranging series of episodes. McPhee writes lightly, with humour, and with a discerning and sceptical eye. And, as Iain Crichton-Smith points out: (McPhee is) neither sentimental nor judgemental. I loved this book. I was in a delightful little indy bookstore in the Scottish town of Fort William when I encountered The Crofter and the Laird by John McPhee, a 153 page quick read that originally appeared in “The New Yorker.” The book describes the geography and sociology of a small (17 square miles) island (Colonsay), about 25 miles off the West Coast of Scotland to which the author had traced his ancestry. One hundred and thirty-eight people still lived on that island in 1969, when the book was written. I could hardly pass up the book since my wife and I were scheduled the next day to visit the Isle of Skye, a somewhat larger island a few miles north of Colonsay. McPhee describes a close-knit, insular society little changed from the 18th century. Families on the island trace their progenitors back centuries, but with no industry and few jobs, the islanders fear their island may become uninhabited like Pabby, Sandray, Taransay, Scarba, Soay, Mingulay, and St. Kilda - other now unpopulated islets in the Hebrides. Land ownership and legal relationships on the island are nearly feudal, with a single landlord (the Laird) owning nearly the entire place. Tenant farmers (the crofters) work the land and pay rent to the Laird. The island is home to just a few professionals who handle all the lawyering and doctoring needed. McPhee has an exceptionally good eye for detail, and his descriptions of the colorful residents of Colonsay give the reader a comprehensive sense of their unusual, if constricted, existence. This is not one of McPhee’s best or most interesting books, but it was very timely and topical for me on my Scotland vacation (JAB) An interesting series of anecdotes about life on Colonsay, written in the 1960s. I was expecting a book in the "family moves to unusual place and struggles to adapt to life there" line, but that's not what McPhee has written. An enjoyable read, probably only suitable for those with a real interest in Scotland. nessuna recensione | aggiungi una recensione
When John McPhee returned to the island of his ancestors--Colonsay, twenty-five miles west of the Scottish mainland--a hundred and thirty-eight people were living there. About eighty of these, crofters and farmers, had familial histories of unbroken residence on the island for two or three hundred years; the rest, including the English laird who owned Colonsay, were "incomers." Donald McNeill, the crofter of the title, was working out his existence in this last domain of the feudal system; the laird, the fourth Baron Strathcona, lived in Bath, appeared on Colonsay mainly in the summer, and accepted with nonchalance the fact that he was the least popular man on the island he owned. While comparing crofter and laird, McPhee gives readers a deep and rich portrait of the terrain, the history, the legends, and the people of this fragment of the Hebrides. Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
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Google Books — Sto caricando le informazioni... GeneriSistema Decimale Melvil (DDC)390Social sciences Customs, Etiquette, Folklore Customs and folkloreClassificazione LCVotoMedia:
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into horrific clam murders and pursuits.
While readers may side with the Scottish crofters who are not allowed to buy their land or homes, the English laird's
perspective is also freely offered. ( )