On the whole though, Whisky Galore is considerably less anti-authority than the film version. The attempts by the government to prevent misbehaviour on the island are somewhat half-hearted, and the locals need to resort to fewer high jinks to prevent the officials seizing their ill-gotten gains.

Whether you’re trying to expand your knowledge, discover new drams or just want an easy bedtime read, there are a range of fantastic books ready to be explored. You will not meet a single alcoholic in the book, even on a quiet island with little to occupy the locals. Nobody’s health is ruined by alcohol. Indeed the local doctor makes sure that an ailing patient receives a new pipe and a crate of whisky because smoking and drinking are good for him. As stated, the book is charming, filled with Scots Gaelic speech with a glossary at the end for Sassenachs who speak no Gaelic (like “Muggles” in Harry Potter). It describes island life and island attitudes and beliefs, from the deep importance of whisky in Scots’ lives to encounters with various kinds of “Little People” and Skerries – seals who come on land and become people, but who can also return to the sea as seals! Rawlings, Roger (2017). Ripping England!: Postwar British Satire from Ealing to the Goons. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. ISBN 978-1-4384-6733-7.There are a variety of comic characters in the script with one of them George Campbell well under his mother's thumb. So much so that when he wants to marry Catriona he dare not mention it to his mother so he sweats on the outcome of the relationship for some considerable time. A battle of wits ensues between Waggett, who wants to confiscate the salvaged cargo, and the islanders. Waggett brings in Macroon's old Customs and Excise nemesis, Mr Farquharson, and his men to search for the whisky. Forewarned, islanders manage to hide the bottles in ingenious places, including the ammunition cases that Waggett ships off the island. When the whisky is discovered in the cases, Waggett is recalled by his superiors on the mainland to explain himself, leaving the locals triumphant.

The reason I waffled so much is that I found the plot hilarious but had some trouble with the Scot dialects (I have trouble reading dialects of all kinds). The interspersed Gaelic didn't give me as much trouble as my edition had a glossary of Gaelic terms with how to pronounce them & their meaning. Perhaps there is a kernel of truth in the stereotypes. Perhaps members of the stereotyped groups find a certain comfort and amusement in accepting the widely-held beliefs about them and repeating them. Perhaps the only way of producing commercially acceptable products is to reproduce those familiar representations. I am not sure. Dibdin, Tom (15 April 2015). "Uisge-Beatha Gu Leor/Whisky Galore". the Stage . Retrieved 30 October 2015.But an arguably even more intriguing aspect of the SS Politician story remained unknown to all but a few until some 60 years after the event. Religious conflicts play a small part here. One island is Protestant and the other Catholic. A Catholic matriarch is disapproving of Protestants, and almost everything else. The islanders take their religion seriously enough to reluctantly put off stealing the whisky on the Sabbath, but not to the tune of temperance. By June 1941, four months after the SS Politician’s demise, branches of the Barclays and Midland Banks in Liverpool began reporting the presentation of water-damaged Jamaican 10-shilling notes. Strictly speaking, this English stance on freedom has as little to do with genuine freedom as libertarianism has to do with true liberty. In both cases there is a certain insularity and bigotry that merely opposes the outsider who seeks to interfere in their lives, however well-meant.