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Children of the Clearances
An eye-witness account by a young girl whose family has to leave their home when the Highlands are cleared of people so the landlords can keep sheep.
30 pages, Hardcover
First published April 30, 2001
About the author
David Ross
51 books4 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
David Sutherland Ross is a fully fledged member of that well-established species, the Scottish literary exile. Born in Oban, Argyll, he was removed at an early age to his ancestral county of Ross and Cromarty, where he grew up and went to school. Furnished with a little knowledge about all sorts of things thanks to a Scottish education, he migrated to London expecting to become a journalist, but became a publisher instead.
Having learned from blurb-writing how to represent a tangle of ill-assorted elements and random events as a unified whole, he realised he was eminently qualified to write the history of Scotland, and produced Scotland: History of a Nation. Nowadays, as chairman of a small Scottish-based publishing company, he combines publishing with writing and the compilation of anthologies, including Awa’ and Bile Yer Heid, a collection of Scottish insults and invective. Although he enjoys it all immensely, sometimes he wonders whether it isn’t too late to try something completely different, like utilising his ability to do water-divining; or perhaps opening a beach restaurant in Bali.
His favourite place in Scotland is the summit of Ben Venue; his favourite Scottish food, new-baked scones with raspberry jam; his favourite Scottish book, The Scottish National Dictionary, and his favourite Scottish phrase, “Just a sensation.”
David Sutherland Ross is a fully fledged member of that well-established species, the Scottish literary exile. Born in Oban, Argyll, he was removed at an early age to his ancestral county of Ross and Cromarty, where he grew up and went to school. Furnished with a little knowledge about all sorts of things thanks to a Scottish education, he migrated to London expecting to become a journalist, but became a publisher instead.
Having learned from blurb-writing how to represent a tangle of ill-assorted elements and random events as a unified whole, he realised he was eminently qualified to write the history of Scotland, and produced Scotland: History of a Nation. Nowadays, as chairman of a small Scottish-based publishing company, he combines publishing with writing and the compilation of anthologies, including Awa’ and Bile Yer Heid, a collection of Scottish insults and invective. Although he enjoys it all immensely, sometimes he wonders whether it isn’t too late to try something completely different, like utilising his ability to do water-divining; or perhaps opening a beach restaurant in Bali.
His favourite place in Scotland is the summit of Ben Venue; his favourite Scottish food, new-baked scones with raspberry jam; his favourite Scottish book, The Scottish National Dictionary, and his favourite Scottish phrase, “Just a sensation.”
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
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January 20, 2023Not taught in my school in England. Should have been.
June 2, 2015
I enjoyed this short book and the illustrations helped to convey the historical scenes. I liked that various points of view are given though no resolution is reached for the children and their grandmother thrown out of the croft on Skye to make room for sheep. Six or seven might be a good age to read this book.
I suggest reading So Far From Skye for a longer tale about a girl during the Highland Clearances.
I suggest reading So Far From Skye for a longer tale about a girl during the Highland Clearances.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews