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The Grampian Quartet #3
A Pass in the Grampians
The village of Boggiewalls is somewhat startled by the intrusion of Dorabel Cassidy, once Bella Cassie, and now a famous singer with a knack of making the adjectives fly.
245 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1933
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About the author
Nan Shepherd
17 books252 followersNan (Anna) Shepherd was a Scottish novelist and poet. She was an early Scottish Modernist writer, who wrote three standalone novels set in small, fictional, communities in North Scotland. The Scottish landscape and weather played a major role in her novels and were the focus of her poetry. Shepherd also wrote one non-fiction book on hill walking, based on her experiences walking in the Cairngorms. An enthusiastic gardener and hill-walker, she made many visits to the Cairngorms with students and friends. She also travelled further afield - to Norway, France, Italy, Greece and South Africa. Shepherd was a lecturer of English at the Aberdeen College of Education for most of her working life.
Shepherd was a friend of the writers Agnes Mure Mackenzie and Neil M. Gunn and a mentor to Jessie Kesson.
Shepherd was a friend of the writers Agnes Mure Mackenzie and Neil M. Gunn and a mentor to Jessie Kesson.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 11, 2015
Another extraordinary work - the young woman pulled between city and country, between deep rooted nature and wild modernity, between old family and new friends, between book learning and land learning...no choice "right" and no choice "wrong", and yet some choice must be made.
August 22, 2019
The village of Boggiewalls lies in the lee of the Grampians; beneath a pass through which various military commanders have travelled on their transitorily important campaigns. It is one of those deceptively sleepy communities wherein lie universal human dilemmas and dramas, hidden or otherwise.
From it the Kilgour family had spawned scholars. His three brothers had all gone off to University and made a place for themselves in the world but Andrew Kilgour had preferred to stay on the farm. The impact of two deaths, his wife’s and his son’s (in the Great War) had led his daughter Mary first to give up her ambition to follow in her uncles’ footsteps until the second provided the chance for the widow, Milly, to come, with her daughter Jenny, to tend to the house - allowing Mary to fulfil her desires, and eventually set up a typing school in London. Jenny is the apple of Andrew’s eye but, now she has grown, her friendship with elderly local shepherd, Durno, who lives with his spinster sister Alison, is seen as no longer seemly.
But the return of well-known singer Dorabel Cassidy, the one-time Bella Cassie, whose mother Peggy had fallen to her death from a hayrick in Andrew’s farmyard and whose welfare he had seen to by taking her in as part of the family - leading to the inevitable gossip - before she took off to make her way in the wider world, her building a modern house within sight of the Kilgour farm, her unconventional behaviour, all threaten the delicate balance of the relationships in the village. Dorabel has a capacity to enthrall others. She has an artist, Barney, in tow, on a string, obedient to her every whim and Jenny, too, falls under her spell. Andrew Kilgour is less enamoured.
There is an awful lot packed into these 120 pages, a network of complications, obligations and acceptances. A whole existence of self-abnegation is summed up in a phrase relating to Milly’s “eternal grey jersey – this year’s, last year’s, sometime’s.” We all know uncomplaining women like this. And it is conveyed in just eight words.
Shepherd’s usual eye for landscape description is demonstrated and the economy with which the plot unfolds, we find the true reasons for Peggy’s death, and the real identity of Bella’s father is exemplary.
There is an aside on good Scots stories, “For salt and subtlety these ..... were unmatched, and, at their best, great art, in which, as in a perfect lyric, not a word could be altered.” You could say the same for Shepherd’s writing.
From it the Kilgour family had spawned scholars. His three brothers had all gone off to University and made a place for themselves in the world but Andrew Kilgour had preferred to stay on the farm. The impact of two deaths, his wife’s and his son’s (in the Great War) had led his daughter Mary first to give up her ambition to follow in her uncles’ footsteps until the second provided the chance for the widow, Milly, to come, with her daughter Jenny, to tend to the house - allowing Mary to fulfil her desires, and eventually set up a typing school in London. Jenny is the apple of Andrew’s eye but, now she has grown, her friendship with elderly local shepherd, Durno, who lives with his spinster sister Alison, is seen as no longer seemly.
But the return of well-known singer Dorabel Cassidy, the one-time Bella Cassie, whose mother Peggy had fallen to her death from a hayrick in Andrew’s farmyard and whose welfare he had seen to by taking her in as part of the family - leading to the inevitable gossip - before she took off to make her way in the wider world, her building a modern house within sight of the Kilgour farm, her unconventional behaviour, all threaten the delicate balance of the relationships in the village. Dorabel has a capacity to enthrall others. She has an artist, Barney, in tow, on a string, obedient to her every whim and Jenny, too, falls under her spell. Andrew Kilgour is less enamoured.
There is an awful lot packed into these 120 pages, a network of complications, obligations and acceptances. A whole existence of self-abnegation is summed up in a phrase relating to Milly’s “eternal grey jersey – this year’s, last year’s, sometime’s.” We all know uncomplaining women like this. And it is conveyed in just eight words.
Shepherd’s usual eye for landscape description is demonstrated and the economy with which the plot unfolds, we find the true reasons for Peggy’s death, and the real identity of Bella’s father is exemplary.
There is an aside on good Scots stories, “For salt and subtlety these ..... were unmatched, and, at their best, great art, in which, as in a perfect lyric, not a word could be altered.” You could say the same for Shepherd’s writing.
January 2, 2017
El progreso es hacer chalets feos, vivir como quieres sin pensar en los demás y llenar de pájaros la cabeza de las adolescentes. La tradición es ser serio, razonable, maltratador e incestuoso. Elige tu propia aventura.
August 14, 2024
I do not love "A Pass in the Grampians" as much as I love "The Quarry Wood", but this 1933 novel is the most modernist of them. Again it's a small community between Cairngorms & the ocean that is disrupted by modernity forcing its way in: in this novel is Bella Cassie, orphaned child then - famous singer now, who builds a modern bungalow above everybody else in the glen. With her jazz, her motorcar, her men, her body size and her utter lack of shame, Bella transfixes 16yo Jenny who thinks about leaving Scotland with Bella. The underlying question of Bella's father & other secrets from the past emerge gradually with Bella's arrival & change the lay of the land metaphorically and literally forever. The novel is very short, not as confusing as "The Weatherhouse" but also not as intense in its social observation. The Doric is not a problem for me and I enjoy the linguistic variety. I love how Jenny comes to find a way between extremes and that she does not commit to one thing and does away with the other. This is solid advice for my life too. 4 stars
January 30, 2024
An exploration of the choices women have to make between family and education. The choice of staying and treasuring the place you are in or seeking something more expansive.
Very much a choice that Nan Shepherd would have had to make herself.
Very much a choice that Nan Shepherd would have had to make herself.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 6, 2024
Shepherd is so descriptive in her text and her characters are always believable. The plot is never deep or complicated but readily recognised by all who have been faced with choices and the fear of making the wrong one.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews