Product Description

If you keep your eyes and ears open in the Scottish countryside, even today, you can catch a glimpse of an ancient, aboriginal people, known in the 18th century Highlands as the luchd siubhail, literally, the travelling people. Their ways of livelihood may have altered, but their tradition has preserved the precious customs of kinship and hospitality as well as the stories and songs that our schools, political system, social snobbery and the media have caused us almost to forget. Sheila Douglas has enjoyed the friendship of a number of the travelling people for over forty years, including Willie MacPhee. He owned very little and never lived in a house, but he was rich in traditional culture, music, song and piping. All his life, Willie loved to ceilidh with his family and friends and retained in his memory all the stories he had learned, providing a link between the ancient history of his people and their situation in present day Scotland. In "Last of the Tinsmiths", Sheila Douglas has collected Willie's songs and stories, along with recollections about him from friends and family. The result is an entertaining and powerful book, vital in preserving the ever-vanishing culture of the luchd siubhail.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #336305 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-01
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 195 pages

About the Author
Sheila Douglas was born in Yorkshire but moved to Renfrew as a child. She was educated at Paisley Grammar, before studying English at Glasgow University. She trained to be a teacher at Jordan Hill College and worked as a specialist English teacher for 30 years. Her interest in the folk revival of the 1960s led her to meet the travellers who she came to know and write about. In the 1980s she completed her PhD at Stirling University. Her other published books include Sing a Song of Scotland, The King o' the Black Art and The Sangs the Thing, which was shortlisted for the Katherine Briggs Folklore Award. She lives in Scone, Perthshire.

Customer Reviews

Not true
I disagree that travelling people are Aboriginal. I dont know how this came to be. as Travellers have always been here. Perhaps it is the other way round

A good story but not well told
There is a good story to tell of the way of life of the travellers of the Highlands, but this is not it, sadly. I found the style of writing to be dull and repetitive. The recording of Willie's stories is better, and, interestingly, stylistically much better. Buy this for the stories, not the narrative. Timothy Neat's seminal work 'The Summer Walkers' is a much more interesting read.