Feathered friends

by Ian Niall

The author recounts his lifetime's obsession with birds, from his childhood on his grandparents' farm in Galloway, to his own family's involvement with birds on the North Wales coast

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1984

About the author

Ian Niall, born John Kincaid McNeillie, was a writer from Galloway in Scotland. He wrote his works under both names. He was born in Old Kilpatrick, to parents from the Machars in South West Scotland. He moved back to Galloway at eighteen months old, and the area formed a basis for his early fiction.

McNeillie wrote over forty books. These include No Resting Place (1948), a tale of Machars traveller folk, filmed in Co. Wicklow by Paul Rotha. His classic The Poacher’s Handbook (1950) also derives much from the Machars where McNeillie spent part of his early childhood, with his grandparents at North Clutag farm, as told in his memoir A Galloway Childhood (1967).