Another treat of a book to travel with, and it feels right to be taking it to Inverness and the Moray Firth.

Eland included a short press release with this copy, and it emphasises that the ‘voice’ in the book is that of Christian Watt. She was born in 1833, and it is her words used, as found in the papers and notes she left when she died in 1923. Apparently she was encouraged to write as a type of therapy to help her through the loss at sea of a son, her husband, and four of her seven brothers. The family kept all her work together and after her death passed them on to David Fraser, who organised and edited the collection ready for publication. The first copy was published in 1988, with this edition coming out this year.

I have only just started the book but already the voice and its context are drawing me in. The hardships endured sound terrible. Christian Watt was not even nine when she began work as a domestic servant. She then returned to work back by the sea where her family where from, and eventually married a fisherman.

The introduction to the book ends with these words: “The times through which she lived were hard, and the folk they produced were not only hard but brave and tender. It is fortunate indeed that they come to meet us through the words of so worthy, witty and fluent a chronicler.”

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023