Anyone who believes that all Scots are alike obviously does not know their history. Those living in the Lowlands of Scotland had a hearty disregard for Highlanders, a sentiment returned in full by said Highlanders.
Brooks, based in Tasmania, and with a family interest in brewing and distilling, has revealed these differences in her rollicking story of 1780s Scotland, the black economy of the area fuelled by illegal whisky-making, and the impact on a village by the arrival of a strong-minded Lowlander, a woman from Edinburgh.
Not only was Greer Reed an ‘incomer’ who did not understand Gaelic, but she was the widow of an English excise officer.
She became housekeeper for widowed Tam Gordon, cousin of the clan laird. Tam held the village together, with its members scratching a subsistence living and needing their many illegal whisky stills to pay annual rents to the laird and provide an income.
Greer became an integral part of village life. Her deaf daughter, who had learned ‘finger talk’ at a school for the deaf in Edinburgh, eventually taught many villagers, with that sign language vital for the smugglers taking their whisky along back roads.
Whisky really was the major currency, used for bribing officials, offered at all hours to family and friends, given to women giving birth and even their minutes-old babies.
This story, involving enmity and murder, is set around the start of the Clearances, when many Highland villages were replaced by sheep farms. Brooks’ research into that time revealed the women running stills as well as households, enmity felt to English militia and excise officers by Highlanders, and fierce loyalty to their whisky-fuelled way of life.
There is mystery in this novel, a swearing pastor, romance and even the possibility of faeries. It is as subtle and fiery as a Highland whisky.
Reviewed by Jennifer Somerville
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Karen Brooks is an Australian author, columnist, social commentator and academic. She writes fantasy novels for children and young adults, under both Karen Brooks and Karen R. Brooks and has also published short stories and non-fiction works.
Karen’s first novel, a young adult fantasy, It’s Time, Cassandra Klein, was published by Lothian in July 2001. Her second, The Gaze of the Gorgon was released August 2002, followed by The Book of Night in 2003, and The Kurs of Atlantis in 2004. One reviewer in Melbourne, Ray Sherriff, going so far as to describe Kurs as being “technically superior to any contemporary text I have read in the past few years. The research, experience, planning and prudence throughout its preparation have allowed the progression of the narrative and plot to incorporate its complexities organically. The result is a very entertaining, speedy, atmospherically lucid and enjoyable story.” Karen’s fifth novel, The Rifts of Quentaris, which is part of the highly successful Quentaris shared world series of Michael Pryor and Paul Collins was published in February 2005.
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