Riddoch on the Outer Hebrides

by Lesley Riddoch

Setting off on a cycling tour of the Highlands, Lesley Riddoch was expecting aching legs and midge bites - what she did not anticipate was discovering a race of people on the brink of losing their ancient ways of life forever. In this book she looks at the people of the Hebrides, exploring the threats to their traditions.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2008

About the author

Lesley Anne Riddoch (born February 1960) is a Scottish journalist and radio broadcaster. Born 1960 in Wolverhampton, England, Riddoch moved with her Scottish parents to Belfast in 1963, then to Glasgow in 1973, where she attended Drewsteignton, a fee-paying private school then located in the affluent suburb of Bearsden. In 1978 she attended the University of Oxford and graduated with an honours degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. She was also elected president of the student union in 1981. After graduating she studied for a postgraduate diploma in journalism at Cardiff University.

From 1989 to 1994 she presented the BBC Radio Scotland programme Speaking Out and was one of the presenters of Radio Four programme You and Yours. In 1993 Riddoch won a Cosmopolitan woman award for Communication and in 1994 her Radio Scotland production team won best talk show award. One of the Speaking Out programmes took the Silver Quill Law Society award that same year. Between 1999 and 2005 she had her own daily radio programme the Lesley Riddoch Show on Radio Scotland.

Reviews

[Michael Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the book interesting in that I had visited many of the places through which Lesley Riddoch travelled. I enjoyed the majority of the book, but would not describe it as a page turner ; parts of the book did not hold my interest, yet others did. The author's views were often controversial and I did not always concur with them. If you have an interest in the Western Isles, it's culture, history and its people, it is worth a read