Peat Fire Memories: Life in Lewis in the Early Twentieth Century (Flashbacks series)

This collection of lively, detailed anecdotes provides a glimpse of what life was like for Kenneth Macdonald as he grew up in 1891 in the village of Sandwick, Isle of Lewis. A picture of a kind, sympathetic, and exceptionally popular teacher at the Nicolson Institute in Stornoway is painted, highlighting a man whose interest in ordinary folk was what motivated his whole life. Macdonald was regarded as one of the pioneers of socialism in the Isles at a time when leftist leanings were equated with Bolshevism. The embodiment of his feelings for the warm and close-knit Highland way of life prompted his poetry and plays in Gaelic, some of which were broadcast on the BBC, where he was also a Gaelic newsreader. Told largely through Macdonald's own words, these true stories provide a social history of a unique time and place.