Category Archives: Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap

THE MONDAY BOOK: The Light Between Oceans – M.L. Stedman

Posted on by
5

oceansI really wasn’t sure I’d like this book at all when I read the blurbs on the back. I mean – a book about a couple living on a remote lighthouse – surely nothing much would happen.

But Stedman’s writing very quickly sucked me in. Well crafted lines and beautiful descriptions, including some about the technicalities of lighthouse technology in the 1920s, kept me hooked.

But the real story isn’t about the lighthouse. The real story is about Tom, a First World War survivor, and his younger wife Isabel. After two miscarriages and a still birth, one day a small boat is washed up on the island containing a dead man and a living baby. Tom is determined to report this to the authorities ashore, but Isabel is equally determined to keep it quiet and bring up the baby as their own.

I loved the characterization of both the main players. Tom as the older, somewhat tortured veteran of the war, focusing on the routine of the lighthouse to keep out memories of the battlefield. Isabel – the younger kind of flighty and adventurous non-conformist trapped in a small remote coastal town.

“The log is the gospel truth. Janus isn’t a Lloyds station: it’s not one the ships depend on for forecasts, so once Tom closes the pages on the book, it is unlikely that any eyes will glance at it again, perhaps ever. But he feels a particular peace when he writes.”

“Looking into those eyes was like looking into the face of God. No mask or pretense: the baby’s defenselessness was overwhelming.”

There are many other memorable players in this drama and none of them are treated as ‘bit players’. Stedman gives them all of her best!

I won’t spoil your enjoyment by revealing any more of the story, just say umpteen thumbs up!

The Monday Book: THE POOR HAD NO LAWYERS by Andy Wightman

Posted on by
Reply

poorEvery year when I run my small group tour of Scotland I try to find a book for the times it’s my turn to guard the luggage on the bus while the group are visiting an attraction or having lunch. Of course, having a continuing interest in Scottish politics, I often seek out books about such matters.

This year my choice was ‘The Poor had no Lawyers’ by Andy Wightman.

 

This fascinating and very well researched book traces the scandalous story of what can only be described as blatant theft, all the way from the Reformation to the present day. It tells the story of land-owning Lords sitting in the non-elected upper chamber of the UK parliament deliberately sabotaging any attempt to modernize the law; of plucky crofters and islanders taking them on and winning; of the recently re-constituted Scottish parliament finally having the time and inclination to make changes that the House of Lords can’t block.

 

What I should also make clear is that the book mainly deals with the ownership of very large areas by a very few people with often highly dubious legal claims.

 

In case this sounds terribly serious and parochial, there’s a great deal of humor and not just from Wightman. Some of the official reports produced down the years by serious minded researchers are hilarious in places! There is also much comparison with land ownership in other parts of the world – particularly de-colonized countries in Africa and Asia.

 

What really sticks out is that the separate legal professions in England and Scotland are both tied tightly into the ruling (and land-owning) establishment and, rather than offering a means to redress the obvious injustices, tend to ‘circle the wagons’ and protect their own interests.

 

I found this book completely absorbing, eye-opening and revelatory. For anyone with even a passing interest in Scottish social history or politics this is a ‘must read’!