Product Description

A searingly honest, funny and moving memoir of growing up in a dysfunctional aristocratic Scottish family: a non-fiction I Capture the Castle

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #50079 in Books
• Published on: 2006-06-06
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

Country Life
`A modern tragedy ... Written with great courage ... A stark tale of profligacy and injustice.'

Mail on Sunday
'A very powerful, painful story...I have never read such a compelling study of addiction...An exceptional writer.'

Sunday Times
'Campbell tells the wild, sorry tale with a sharp, offhand wit.'

Customer Reviews

An amazing book
A compelling tale of a family struggling with the weight of its own history. The story is both unbelievably sad and hopeful at the same time. The optimism comes from the author who had to live with the abuse levied out by her addicted father but survives to tell the tale in a way that is completely free of self pity. Cambell is obviously a very intelligent and sensitive woman - and it has to be hoped that writing the book was in some way cathartic for her.

Buy this book
"Title Deeds" is a fascinating book. It charts the destruction of a family which lived in the actual castle that was the setting of Shakespeare's Macbeth. Author Liza Campbell, (actually Lady Elizabeth Campbell), was born into a line of Scottish aristocrats dating to 1295. This is her autobiography, and it's a very sad story. Her philandering father boozed, crashed and wasted the family's considerable wealth. Worse was his emotional brutality towards his five children and their mother. It's impossible not to feel deep sympathy for Liza and her siblings as the story of her destructive father unfolds.
The book opens with the death of her father, a man of great privilege and poor character. Her last words to him are: "I love you very much dad." His mean reply: "Oh, don't be so boring."
Their huge home, Cawdor, is open to the public these days and appears in Scottish tourist books. Their clan, the Campbells, have a famous and controversial role in Scottish history, having sold the country to the English. Liza Campbell's draws parallels between the Campbell's history over the centuries and her upbringing at Cawdor. It's very effective. She weaves the Highland's bloody history into her family's, dispassionately and with psychological insight.
If I had a criticism it's that Campbell's skilled writing is sometimes a little too clever. She uses the adjective "metronomic" three times. It's also a shame it wasn't a happier story. She has such a terrible upbringing that you would forgive her a moment of self-pity. She asks for none. The book is written with complete detachment (except for a sentence in the prologue), giving it great strength. S ome readers might feel it's too sterile. I didn't.
If you're looking for a book on Scotland which goes way beneath the superficialities of tartan, bagpipes and castle ruins, this book is the goods.

Another world...
I've been going to Stackpole for many years; it's in clear sight of heaven. I've often wondered who owned this beautiful place, and now I know. How could her charming, but frankly barking father bear to part with it? No wonder Liza Campbell feels the pull of Wales still. She tells an odd story quite wonderfully, with less rancour than I'd feel.I think I had an easier time of it as part of my unexceptional, underprivileged family than she and her siblings did. A very enjoyable read. Oh, and the author's art isn't half bad, either!