Product Description

Some travellers stuck more to one area. But Johnnie Townsley, my mother's father, travelled all over. He walked along with a handcart and went to Inverness, Elgin, right down into Ayrshire and down to Dumfries. He travelled all through Fife, Angus and Perthshire - no, not in the wintertime, just in the summertime. But you see, he was a piper and a horse was no good to him. He played his bagpipes in the summertime, by the shooting lodges, big houses, hotels and that. And then he came back home to Argyll for the winter. In the summertime he took off again with his family. Duncan Williamson was the son, grandson and great grandson of nomadic tinsmiths, basket makers, pipers and storytellers. In this book he describes his life as a traveller with verve, candour and intimacy, recounting a childhood spent on the shores of Loch Fyne, work on the small hill farms in the summer, walking with barrows and prams and later with horse and cart, the length and breadth of Scotland. He recalls camping with hundreds of traveller families from the 1940s to the 1960s, his marriage to his cousin, Jeanie Townsley, and all the various traditional skills and arts which must be perfected for a man to maintain his family adequately. The Horsieman is also the story of traditions long vanished - of traveller trades, of building tents, of routes travelled and traditional camping sites, of stories, songs, music and cures which have been the heritage and tradition of travelling people in Scotland through the ages. Set mainly in Argyll, Tayside and all stations in between, Duncan Williamson's story is told with great warmth and humour and in the inimitable style of one Scotland's master storytellers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #192373 in Books
• Published on: 2002-11-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
'... bearer of the richest oral tradition in Europe' - The Glasgow Herald 'Duncan is a first-class storyteller.' - Northern Times

About the Author
With over ten books to his name, Duncan Williamson is both one of the last and best known of Scotland's traveller storytellers. His autobiography tells for the first time his own story of his life as a traveller, hawking his wares, collecting stories, and travelling through Scotland. He now lives in Fife. This is the first paperback edition of The Horsieman, which was first published in 1994 by Canongate.

Customer Reviews

yellow on the broom
This book is great.. Honestly well worth the read if ur a traveller. so funny i was laughing for ages.

A Must Read Book
This book gives you a recollection of the years gone-by, a must for anyone interested in how their ancesters lived, life was hard but you got a sense that above all they were happy and had a way of life that is very must missed in todays years, where everything it time, money, and motion. A great read and well worth the few hours that it took to read, Duncan Williamson is a true storyteller