{"id":937,"date":"2016-09-17T12:00:35","date_gmt":"2016-09-17T11:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chimneyrabbit.com\/?p=937"},"modified":"2016-09-12T09:41:17","modified_gmt":"2016-09-12T08:41:17","slug":"review-fir-for-luck-by-barbara-henderson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.johnkfulton.com\/?p=937","title":{"rendered":"Review: Fir for Luck by Barbara Henderson"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nFir for Luck<\/a>, by Barbara Henderson, is a tale of the Highland Clearances, based on the true story of the township of Ceannabeinne in Sutherland.<\/p>\n

The Highland Clearances were a dark time in the history of Scotland, when the landowners acted with high-handed callousness in evicting tenants who had worked the land – some of them for generations – in favour of sheep farming. It’s a subject that tends to get me really quite angry – although not a Highlander myself by birth, most of my childhood was spent living in the Highlands and Islands, so it’s a subject close to my heart.<\/p>\n

Which means that my yardstick for measuring the effectiveness of a book based on the Clearances is whether it makes me angry or not.<\/p>\n

By that token, Fir for Luck<\/i>\u00a0is an excellent book!<\/p>\n

12-year-old Janet lives with her family in Ceannabeinne. One day in 1841, while all the men-folk are away cutting thatch, she sees a Sheriff Officer approaching the village – and that can mean only one thing: a writ of eviction.<\/p>\n

During the Clearances, whole townships were sometimes evicted with a little as a day or two’s notice – and once you accepted the writ, touched the paper, even, that was it – there was nothing you could do.<\/p>\n

But if the Sheriff Officer doesn’t manage to hand over the writ, the eviction notice just hasn’t been served. So Janet makes a split-second decision to take the fate of her village into her own hands, and do something about it.<\/p>\n

So begins the conflict between the villagers and the manager of the estates. It’s a war with several battles, and Janet is at the forefront of each of them. It’s a war they can’t win, of course – while justice is on their side, the law is another matter entirely.<\/p>\n

The whole village knows what’s at stake. Janet’s own grandmother went through a brutal eviction in 1814, an eviction that led her to settle in Ceannabeinne, and Henderson weaves interludes from Granna’s story throughout the book. This is an important point – the Clearances went on over generations, and families driven from one home were sometimes driven from another just a few years later. It’s an injustice that should never be forgotten.<\/p>\n

Sorry. Got a bit angry again.<\/p>\n

Fir for Luck<\/i>\u00a0does more than just tell the true story of Ceannabeinne, though. It provides a rich portrait of Highland life in the mid-19th century, evocative and convincing, and populated by highly believable Highland characters. It’s also a gripping read, and Janet’s bravery really keeps your attention. Each little victory is a triumph, and each new setback is a disaster; the tension rarely lets up.<\/p>\n

This is an excellent debut, atmospheric and thrilling. Highly recommended – even if it does make me angry.<\/p>\n

Fir for Luck blog tour<\/h4>\n

I was delighted to take part in the Fir for Luck blog tour with a guest post by Barbara on the real-life location<\/a> that inspired Fir for Luck.<\/p>\n

Where to buy<\/h4>\n

Available now to order from your local bookshop, or the usual online suspects:<\/p>\n

Amazon<\/a>\u00a0(also on Kindle<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Foyle’s<\/a><\/p>\n

Waterstone’s<\/a><\/p>\n

Wordery<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fir for Luck, by Barbara Henderson, is a tale of the Highland Clearances, based on the true story of the township of Ceannabeinne in Sutherland. The Highland Clearances were a dark time in the history of Scotland, when the landowners acted with high-handed callousness in evicting tenants who had worked the land – some of… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":935,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Review: Fir for Luck by Barbara Henderson @scattyscribbler from @cranachanbooks #firforluck","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.johnkfulton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/img_0264.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p37h7H-f7","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.johnkfulton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.johnkfulton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.johnkfulton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.johnkfulton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.johnkfulton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=937"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.johnkfulton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1008,"href":"http:\/\/www.johnkfulton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937\/revisions\/1008"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.johnkfulton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.johnkfulton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.johnkfulton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.johnkfulton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}