What do you think?
Rate this book
SHINE OF RAINBOWS
Mairi and Sandy live on a lonely Hebridean island, content with each other - despite their lack of children. When Mairi brings home Thomas, a child from the orphanage, Sandy is jealous of Mairi's affection for him and disappointed in the boy's stammer and fragility. With time, Thomas grows in confidence and draws nearer to his foster mother, but still Sandy keeps an emotional distance - until tragedy results in a new understanding.
95 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
About the author
Lillian Beckwith
47 books74 followersLilian Comber wrote fiction and non-fiction for both adults and children under the pseudonym Lillian Beckwith. She is best known for her series of comic novels based on her time living on a croft in the Scottish Hebrides.
Beckwith was born in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, in 1916, where her father ran a grocery shop. The shop provided the background for her memoir About My Father's Business, a child’s eye view of a 1920s family. She moved to the Isle of Skye with her husband in 1942, and began writing fiction after moving to the Isle of Man with her family twenty years later. She also completed a cookery book, Secrets from a Crofter’s Kitchen (Arrow, 1976).
Since her death, Beckwith’s novel A Shine of Rainbows has been made into a film starring Aidan Quinn and Connie Nielsen, which in 2009 won ‘Best Feature’ awards at the Heartland and Chicago Children’s Film Festivals.
Beckwith was born in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, in 1916, where her father ran a grocery shop. The shop provided the background for her memoir About My Father's Business, a child’s eye view of a 1920s family. She moved to the Isle of Skye with her husband in 1942, and began writing fiction after moving to the Isle of Man with her family twenty years later. She also completed a cookery book, Secrets from a Crofter’s Kitchen (Arrow, 1976).
Since her death, Beckwith’s novel A Shine of Rainbows has been made into a film starring Aidan Quinn and Connie Nielsen, which in 2009 won ‘Best Feature’ awards at the Heartland and Chicago Children’s Film Festivals.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
June 18, 2021
Mairi and Sandy were happy living on a croft on the small Hebridean island of Corrie. Mairi wanted to adopt a child after having several miscarriages. She grew up in an orphanage so she wished to give an orphaned child a loving home. Her husband was surprised that she chose Thomas, a frail little boy with spectacles and a stammer.
Thomas flourished with her love, and enjoyed helping with the chores on the croft. He also developed a special relationship with the seals on the rocky Scottish coast. But the family had some unexpected troubles.
This was a sweet, charming short novel. Although much of it was predictable, it was also very heartwarming. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of the island of Corrie and the lives of the crofters. Corrie is known for its misty weather that produces spectacular rainbows.
Thomas flourished with her love, and enjoyed helping with the chores on the croft. He also developed a special relationship with the seals on the rocky Scottish coast. But the family had some unexpected troubles.
This was a sweet, charming short novel. Although much of it was predictable, it was also very heartwarming. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of the island of Corrie and the lives of the crofters. Corrie is known for its misty weather that produces spectacular rainbows.
August 8, 2014
The only problem with reading one of Beckwith's books is that it makes me want to pack a bag, stowaway the dogs, and move to a croft on a Scottish island. Is this orphan tale predictable and almost too-sweet? Yes. Is it charming? Oh double-yes! If tales of good people living hard, but simple lives in settings of extraordinary natural beauty appeal to you, then any of Beckwith's books will enchant.
March 11, 2023
Written in 1984, similar to the movie The Quiet Girl (2022) but with a happy ending. Charming descriptions of a basic crofters life in the Hebrides without glamourising it at all. Sensitive emotional portrayal of all characters. Will read others by this author.
December 7, 2009
Though this was published (and presumably written?) in the 1980's, it has a 50's feel to it. The plot is very predictable, but so what? I am a sucker for stories that feature an orphan who finally finds a loving home. Mairi the devoted, kindly mother and Sandy the taciturn father are pretty stereotypical, but the characterization of the boy, Thomas, is a bit more nuanced. And most anything could be forgiven, anyway, for a chance to soak in the harshly beautiful seascape.
May 8, 2019
"With the skill of a consummate story-teller, Lillian Beckwith tells the tale of Thomas, a shy, frail orphan who goes to live with foster parents on the windswept Hebridean island of Corrie. His new parents, Mairi and Sandy, are a loving couple, their happiness marred only by the fact that they are unable to have children of their own.
"But when Mairi brings Thomas back from the orphanage, Sandy is bitterly disappointed by the boy's timidity and physical weakness. Mairi seeks to nurture Thomas, remembering the sadness of her own childhood as an orphan, while Sandy remains distant. Despite his foster father's aloofness, Thomas blossoms under Mairi's attentive care, growing stronger and more confident. He roams the island and learns to 'speak' with the dolphins, no longer afraid that his exercise of freedom will be rebuked, as it was in the orphanage. Thomas quickly comes to love the island, and along with it, his new home with Sandy and Mairi.
"But Thomas' jay world is suddenly shattered by tragedy. Writing with charm and sincerity, Beckwith weaves a tale of love lost and love found in the moving conclusion of this marvelous little volume."
~~front flap
Um ... that would be seals, not dolphins. Don't the people who write these blurbs ever read the books they're writing about?
Another book about the hard crofting life, and the dourness that life often produces in the inhabitants. Andy is dour, and self-contained to the point of grimness, which scares Thomas into silence and fear around him, no matter how much Thomas longs to have Sandy as his father. The story progresses through tragedy and shattering heartbreak, but resolves itself in the end. I read the book with trepidation,. since the last 2 didn't have a HEA of any kind. I was relieved not to have to carry away more memories of grim lives unrelieved by any kind of happiness.
"But when Mairi brings Thomas back from the orphanage, Sandy is bitterly disappointed by the boy's timidity and physical weakness. Mairi seeks to nurture Thomas, remembering the sadness of her own childhood as an orphan, while Sandy remains distant. Despite his foster father's aloofness, Thomas blossoms under Mairi's attentive care, growing stronger and more confident. He roams the island and learns to 'speak' with the dolphins, no longer afraid that his exercise of freedom will be rebuked, as it was in the orphanage. Thomas quickly comes to love the island, and along with it, his new home with Sandy and Mairi.
"But Thomas' jay world is suddenly shattered by tragedy. Writing with charm and sincerity, Beckwith weaves a tale of love lost and love found in the moving conclusion of this marvelous little volume."
~~front flap
Um ... that would be seals, not dolphins. Don't the people who write these blurbs ever read the books they're writing about?
Another book about the hard crofting life, and the dourness that life often produces in the inhabitants. Andy is dour, and self-contained to the point of grimness, which scares Thomas into silence and fear around him, no matter how much Thomas longs to have Sandy as his father. The story progresses through tragedy and shattering heartbreak, but resolves itself in the end. I read the book with trepidation,. since the last 2 didn't have a HEA of any kind. I was relieved not to have to carry away more memories of grim lives unrelieved by any kind of happiness.
May 20, 2023
Story ended on page 78. It ended on a good note. I'm happy for Thomas. Always a pleasure to read clean literature... When a word is used in its original meaning and intention and not as a repurposed meaning meant to denigrate women, it is not offensive at all.
October 21, 2017
Lillian Beckwith, RDC-M #3, 1984, 1/87. A couple, content with their life, despite the lack of children, runs into discord when the wife brings home an orphan boy and the husband is jealous of the attention lavished on the boy, until a tragedy brings a new understanding. Okay = 2 ☆'s.
November 17, 2010
Loved it! The movie is very well made and worth watching.
September 30, 2011
I have no idea how I ended up with this book - maybe by searching adoption in the library card catalog? I like the length of the novel and the story was well written, but I felt it was slow.
December 26, 2013
I came across this book accidentally and I loved it. I have read it 3 times and all three times I cried. I hated the movie and the acting in it. The movie does not do the book any justice.
March 18, 2019
Shining hope.
As always Miss Beckwith's stories are a joy. Keep the paper hankies near to mop up stray tears. This is the story of a lonely croft on a small Hebridean island. Mairi who has lost babies and was an orphanage child herself brings back a small puny bespectacled lad to the horror of her taciturn husband. Her love and encouragement allows the boy to flourish. Eventually she grows I'll and her grieving husband is left with this cuckoo in the nest. What happens? Read and see. Powerfully but plainly written, never sentimental, direct and honest, the story plays out and I cried like a baby. Read it and weep. Read it and celebrate the power of human love. Please, read it. These stories are timeless, becoming folklore.
As always Miss Beckwith's stories are a joy. Keep the paper hankies near to mop up stray tears. This is the story of a lonely croft on a small Hebridean island. Mairi who has lost babies and was an orphanage child herself brings back a small puny bespectacled lad to the horror of her taciturn husband. Her love and encouragement allows the boy to flourish. Eventually she grows I'll and her grieving husband is left with this cuckoo in the nest. What happens? Read and see. Powerfully but plainly written, never sentimental, direct and honest, the story plays out and I cried like a baby. Read it and weep. Read it and celebrate the power of human love. Please, read it. These stories are timeless, becoming folklore.
January 14, 2019
This is a book that I collected at the library when I didn't have much time to browse. I went down a couple of aisles and made quick decisions about what to pull off the shelves. It's a sweet, sad, rather short novel, an easy read, but with beauty in it and a heartfelt ending. It is not my usual kind of book, but I am glad that I read it. Especially because it takes place on the Hebridean island of Corrie, with plenty of description of the land and the weather.
March 9, 2023
Sweetly innocent is what comes to mind from this book. I read the Reader's Digest version of this from a collection I had not read from 1985!
It was a lovely story based in some respects of the author's own experiences in the Hebrides as a crofter. The moving story of the small child coming to terms with living with a frosty man, and a loving woman certainly tests him. I found my heart warming for him and the challenges he faces after losing two women in his short life.
Delightful story.
It was a lovely story based in some respects of the author's own experiences in the Hebrides as a crofter. The moving story of the small child coming to terms with living with a frosty man, and a loving woman certainly tests him. I found my heart warming for him and the challenges he faces after losing two women in his short life.
Delightful story.
October 14, 2023
What a dear little story! I came by this book after watching the very moving, cinema adaptation, which I enjoyed so much that I was almost reluctant to read the book thinking it couldn't be an improvement. I was wrong. I think the movie does the book justice but cannot compare. Definitely one I would like to own in my little bookshelf.
October 9, 2021
Not too many chuckles in this one. Of Lillian Beckwith's books, I had previously only read her Bruach series. A Shine of Rainbows is also set in the Hebrides, and there are crofts and sheep and cattle and fish, but the story is quite a departure from Bruach.
March 2, 2022
A heartwarming story about a couple that takes in an orphan boy. The boy manages to bond with his foster father in a beautiful way. A great short read with gorgeous descriptions of Scottish landscapes.
October 20, 2025
Lillian Beckwith’s A Shine of Rainbows is a tenderly incandescent meditation on love, belonging, and the redemptive alchemy of compassion.
More at
https://vramonline.wordpress.com/2025...
More at
https://vramonline.wordpress.com/2025...
July 1, 2017
Sweet little book. Definitely some tear inducing parts..but it had a lovely ending. :)
October 29, 2017
A nice story that captures the essence of living in a remote place and trying to belong somewhere. Easy to read and was a great find for 50 cents.
February 6, 2019
Love how seals feature in the sweet novel. I grew up near a seal rookery, they're special creatures. Rainbows, of course. Bittersweet tale, but life-affirming.
December 19, 2020
I love the film based on this book.
October 5, 2021
An enjoyable and heart warming take of love overcoming adversity.
February 6, 2022
Sentimental, maudlin codswallop. Read her Bruach Hebridean trilogies series instead.
October 20, 2023
A beautiful poignant story set on a Hebridean island.
May 30, 2024
Very well written, heartwarming, but a bit predictable
July 17, 2024
Splendid written.
June 8, 2013
Beautiful story.
May 14, 2015
A very sweet and gentle book. I thoroughly enjoyed this sad, but uplifting story.
December 10, 2017
Novella-length, but a slow start makes me wonder if she is (was) up to straight fiction. I love her memoirs, but....
Abandoned/DNF. Not for me. Disappointing.
Abandoned/DNF. Not for me. Disappointing.
June 3, 2008
A nice read.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews