I wanted her spared and, surprising myself, didn't care if it turned out to be by deux et machina if that's what it took. We know the Reverend is coming to interview her to learn more about a possible implication of King William of Orange in a clan massacre whereas Rev. Scottish folklore is full of stories about supernatural beings and Glencoe has its fair share: ghosts and bogles, a water bull ( tarbh uisge ) and water horse ( each uisge ), fairies and selkies – Ballachulish even has a dragon! For all ebook purchases, you will be prompted to create an account or login with your existing HarperCollins username and password. The breathtaking physical world of the Scottish highlands comes into sharp focus, as we travel with Corrag, a persecuted woman who flees the lowlands where she is labeled as a witch, as were her mother and grandmother before her.

I also went to my deck to consider the complex and fascinating character of Corrag (a true-to-life historical figure), about her heart and love of natural things and her ability to see goodness in a sinister world, even after so much mistreatment. Corrag herself is a consummately drawn character, a half-feral scrap of a thing with tangled hair and a great tenderness for all living creatures. I must warn that Guthrie does not use different intonations for Corrag’s story as she tells it to Charles and Charles’s letters to his wife about Corrag. What he finds is Corrag - a young woman who has been condemned as a witch and is awaiting death by burning as soon as winter thaws. Corrag agrees to talk to him so that the truth may be known about her involvement, and so that she may be less alone, in her final days.

Charles Leslie heard of the massacre and came to visit Corrag in her cell where she is chained and awaiting her death.

Corrag takes the old and beaten horse of a cruel neighbour, a grey mare who becomes her best and only friend, and spends the next year living off the land and making her way north-west where she arrives in Glencoe. She is visited in her cell by an Irish Jacobite, Charles Leslie, and agrees to talk with him as long as he will listen to her story from its beginning. When we meet Corrag, who narrates her own story, she is imprisoned and will be burnt as a witch once the snows of winter thaw. On the night of 30th June, the man went into a local bar to show off the old sword handle that he had discovered that day. While Corrag is still a girl her mother is burned as a witch, and Corrag is condemned to a life of wandering.Their shadows are thin, and to ride through these shadows on my mare felt like breaking them--but they sealed themselves again, in our wake. The conversion takes place while he is interviewing a witch in prison who is about to be burned for her crimes. I have been to many of the places spoken about by Corrag, my heart thumps with the memory of them, for although I am a sassenach "The hearts voice is your true voice" and mine lies in the Scottish Highlands.

The MacDonald clan was especially notorious for thieving cattle, hens, coins, and leather so the soldiers wished to destroy them. She had a lot of medical knowledge and religious attitudes that I'm not sure fit the time period, and she was really good at everything. Highly recommended for lovers of historical novels, especially those with an interest in the Scottish Highlands.

Yet Fletcher has weaved the sentiment into her story in a way (mostly) that endeared her characters to me. I'm not sure if that's why I waited so long to read this, or if I just wasn't ever in the mood at any given point, but I finally decided to take the plunge and let the chips fall where they may. Corrag delights in the tiny parts of life we mostly do not see, for hurrying-a bee in a bloom, the sound a fish makes with its mouth.