In the wake of Calum and Catherine MacGillivray’s deaths, the novel follows their daughter Mary, who leaves Scotland to work for the wealthy Buchanan family in Jamaica. Against a backdrop of rebellion and starvation among freed slaves, Mary’s compassion and her father’s legacy of resistance to oppression shine through. Returning to her homeland years later, […]
Famine, clearance and the inspiration for a novel
It was over 50 years ago when Willie Orr found the seed of an idea for a novel about the Scottish potato famine and the Highland Clearances. He had a lot of living to do first, and the inspiration took root in a Scottish archive much later. Now the third of his series about Shiaba […]
Return to Shiaba by Willie Orr
Willie Orr’s second Shiaba novel follows the lives of two crofters struggling to come to terms with the Highland Clearances. While Catherine spreads her wings to find new talents for survival within herself, her husband, Callum, uses his stubborn loyalty to the land of his fathers to face down the increasing wrath of a political […]
Shiaba by Willie Orr
Many have heard of the Irish potato famine, but few know that Scotland suffered a smilar fate, with disastrous consequences for those who worked the land. Calum MacGillivray is a man on the brink of ruin, his harvest failed and his prospects gone. The temptation of a new life in Canada beckons, but Calum is […]