Donald and his seven cows by Angus Peter Campbell

Donald and his seven cows by Angus Peter Campbell

Perhaps Donald Michael MacDonald invented the round mile, all 2,240 yards of it. Donald and his seven cows, walking the same steps each day through the past and the future, the fairy knoll and the poison pool, the eternal truths and the unknowable possibilities. Rarely does Donald venture beyond the round mile, for he has no need to: all of history can be found on his land.

Yet the wind farms, the spaceport, and the American billionaire with his Big House all threaten the peace Donald has cultivated and guarded as fiercely as he protects his animals. He loses a part of himself – and most of his herd – before an unexpected old friend helps Donald and his seven cows to reclaim their path, even as their island is transformed by a new age.

ANGUS PETER CAMPBELL is an award-winning novelist, poet, journalist, broadcaster and actor. He was born and brought up on the islands of South Uist and Seil. He attended Oban High School where his English teacher was Iain Crichton Smith, then graduated with Honours in History and Politics from the University of Edinburgh. His novel, Memory and Straw, won the Saltire Society Fiction Book of the Year 2017, Electricity was shortlisted as the Saltire Society Fiction Book of the Year 2023, and his second crime novel, Constabal Murdo 2, won the Gaelic Literature Awards Fiction Book of the Year 2022.