James McVean
Ronsay, an idyllic Hebridean island set in a turbulent indigo sea. To the whale, wounded, desperate, hunted almost to exhaustion, it represented a single chance for survival, its shoals a very present help in time of trouble.
But for its inhabitants, Ronsay was a social and economic cul de sac, a relic of threadbare feudalism dragging its slow way towards extinction.
The arrival of the whale could perhaps change all that. To Alex Lindsay, proprietor of Ronsay’s only hotel, the whale meant hope – of profit, of a future. To Lady Strathmore, Ronsay’s laird, and her grand-daughter, it meant one more, perhaps the last and overwhelming problem in the grim struggle against decay. To the interloper Koenig, tycoon and despot, it represented the key to an ElDorado. To Billy Con, American naturalist, it was a Cause. But to the ordinary people of the island, the great animal was a prize round which to rehearse ancient enmities. – book cover
Contact the library to request this book
Ronsay, an idyllic Hebridean island set in a turbulent indigo sea. To the whale, wounded, desperate, hunted almost to exhaustion, it represented a single chance for survival, its shoals a very present help in time of trouble.
But for its inhabitants, Ronsay was a social and economic cul de sac, a relic of threadbare feudalism dragging its slow way towards extinction.
The arrival of the whale could perhaps change all that. To Alex Lindsay, proprietor of Ronsay’s only hotel, the whale meant hope – of profit, of a future. To Lady Strathmore, Ronsay’s laird, and her grand-daughter, it meant one more, perhaps the last and overwhelming problem in the grim struggle against decay. To the interloper Koenig, tycoon and despot, it represented the key to an ElDorado. To Billy Con, American naturalist, it was a Cause. But to the ordinary people of the island, the great animal was a prize round which to rehearse ancient enmities. – book cover
Contact the library to request this book
