From the Alleghenies to the Hebrides by Margaret Fay Shaw

From the Alleghenies to the Hebrides by Margaret Fay Shaw

Margaret Fay Shaw's life spans a century of change. In her early teens she was dispatched from the idyllic surroundings of the Alleghenies to stay with a distant cousin near Glasgow. It was here that her love of Scotland was born. After studying music at New York and Paris, she returned to live for six years with two sisters in a cottage on South Uist. Life on South Uist at this time had barely changed from earlier centuries, and the island contained a repository of Gaelic lore and song. Margaret Fay Shaw's collections of this archive and her photography capture a world vanished from the Hebrides. Her autobiography is also a plea in defence of a Gaelic culture and world that is disappearing.

'This autobiography is a miniature masterpieceIt is direct, straightforward, often funny, sometimes moving, never sentimental, always serving to evoke what was so valuable about ways of living, which in the last half century, have been set irretrievably aside'

* Times Literary Supplement *

Margaret Fay Shaw’s life spans a century of change. Leaving home and school in Pennsylvania and Philadelphia aged 16, she crossed to Scotland to spend a year at school near Glasgow. It was there that her love for Scotland was born. After studying music in New York and Paris, she returned to live for six years with two sisters in South Uist. Life on the island had changed little from previous centuries, and material comforts were few. But the island was rich in music and tradition, and Margaret Fay Shaw’s collection of Gaelic lore and song are amongst the most important made this century, whilst her photography evocatively captures the aura of a vanished world.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781841580067
ISBN 10	1841580066
Title	From the Alleghenies to the Hebrides
Author	Margaret Fay Shaw
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Birlinn General
Year published	1999-07-20
Number of pages	160
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.