I have been a fan of Elisabeth Gifford's writing for many years and have reviewed all three of her previous novels here on Random Things. I had very high expectations for The Lost Lights of St Kilda, based on her previous work, and I have not been disappointed. The novel opens in a prisoner-of-war camp in 1940. Fred Lawson, captured and beaten by the Nazis is haunted by the memory of Chrissie, his lost love. She was 19 when Fred arrived on the desolate island in the summer of 1927 along with his friend Archie Macleod, the Laird’s son. Cautiously Fred and Chrissie develop a friendship which secretly develops into something deeper. Yet as she must dedicate her life to St Kilda to ensure her family and community’s survival and he is a Cambridge undergraduate, their lives are worlds apart.

The Lost Lights of St Kilda | Elisabeth Gifford - NetGalley The Lost Lights of St Kilda | Elisabeth Gifford - NetGalley

Established in 2011 and based in Edinburgh, Polaris Publishing Ltd are immensely proud to publish award-winning works by world-class authors. We are committed to unearthing exciting voices and publishing important, thoughtful and gripping stories with … Summer 1927: When Fred Lawson takes a summer job on St Kilda, little does he realise that he has joined the last community to ever live on that beautiful, isolated island. Only three years later, St Kilda will be evacuated, the islanders near-dead from starvation. But for Fred, that summer - and the island woman, Chrissie, whom he falls in love with - becomes the very thing that sustains him in the years ahead. To be honest I felt like I was being beaten repeatedly about the head with how tough things were just to survive on St. Kilda. How remote it was. How much they relied on passing ships for the basic necessities. What I never really felt was any connection with the characters, they seemed to merely be there as a foil for the setting and that made for the worst of all things, a boring read. Yes, there is a lot of action and tension around Fred's escape attempts but it is diluted so much that I found myself losing interest. A real missed opportunity as there are some interesting themes to be explored here but without living and breathing characters it was never going to work and the characters just didn't work for me.

I had no idea where we were headed, no idea what lay before us. All I knew was I was ready to travel the length and breadth of France if the world would give me one more chance to spend one more hour with you – to say I’m sorry. St Kilda is the most remote part of the Outer Hebrides, another 50 miles out in the mighty Atlantic swell. You can’t really describe that remarkable chain of islands unless you have been blown away by the sheer beauty of the colours of the sky, the sea and the unspoilt grasslands - and blown flat by the incredible power of a Hebridean winter wind.

Book Review: The Lost Lights of St Kilda by Elisabeth Gifford Book Review: The Lost Lights of St Kilda by Elisabeth Gifford

I confess I’d always thought St Kilda was an island but, as I learned from the book (and from the maps that form the gorgeous endpapers), it is in fact a group of islands. Hirta is the main island and the only one inhabited in 1927, when part of the book is set. However, to avoid confusion I’m going to refer to it, like the blurb does, as St Kilda. This beautifully evocative novel reimagines the dying years of a community whose story is deeply rooted in the wild landscape. Now, far away from her beloved St Kilda, Chrissie thinks longingly of Fred, but neither knows where the other is. Will Fred survive the war? Will Chrissie ever get to say the things she should have said all those years ago? I think if there had been more focus on the war and history and less on the romance it would've been superb.An absolutely stunning novel that plays out on St Kilda, the tiny North Atlantic archipelago that contains the westernmost islands of the Scottish Outer Hebrides, and which - for more than 2000 years - was home to a small population of hunter-gatherers who knew very little of the mainland and international politics. Gifford's tale follows the St Kilda community in the three years before it was finally evacuated in 1930, and its depictions of the islands and the people it supported, as well as the sweeping love story that lies at its heart, will live long in the memory.

ELISABETH GIFFORD

Ahhhh, The Lost Lights of St Kilda truly captivated me. It is written in such a beautiful, subtle manner that evoked a deep impression on me. With its evocative sense of setting, emotional portrayal of true events and its understated love story, I was completely mesmerised reading this book. Corvus Atlantic’s commercial fiction list which includes women’s, historical, romance, sci-fi, crime and thriller. Home> Fiction from Scotland> The Lost Lights of St Kilda The Lost Lights of St Kilda By (author) Elisabeth Gifford The story moves between time periods effectively. Integrated into the novel are details of life on St. Kilda including religion, values, their language, and survival. The novel included these seamlessly. I learned how both World Wars impacted Scottish soldiers, especially Highlanders who lost their lives in great numbers. One of my favorite episodes involved two Gaelic-speaking soldiers making their way through Spain to attempt to get to safety. They are in the northern Basque-speaking area being hidden by a local family. When the woman of the house hears them speaking Gaelic, she recognizes that like her, they speak a minority (and oppressed) language. This spurs her to do more to see them to safety. As a linguist, and lover of minority languages (I studied Irish for more than 5 years), I found this scene very possible. I have witnessed similar bonds between minority language speakers even when they speak different languages.The reformed 51st in parade kilts The themes of weather and nature on the St Kilda islands are essential to the plot and the characters - how did you research these unique elements of the story? I felt sad when I finished it and I feel that this fantastic book will stay with me for a long time. There was a lot of interesting history. Much of it new for me as I'd never heard of St. Kilda before. I also enjoyed the storyline about the soldiers.