The book I never read…
The book that started this play off never came into my hands.
As far as I know, it may not exist and – in a wonderful way – it doesn’t need to.
Instead, it was the subject of a conversation which sparked the play off.
I was staying in the Crinan Hotel, in Argyll.
I always enjoyed a blaither with the proprietor, Mr Ryan, now sadly passed away.
He was charismatic man, always keen to tell a story.
One morning, as I was going to my car to begin a clinic in Lochgilphead, we were carrying on talking as we went out to the front of the hotel.
It was a beautiful sunny spring morning.
Across Crinan Bay was the breathtaking sight of Jura and the Corryvrekkan.
We were talking about Culloden, the battle, because I had been reading Duffy’s excellent book of the same name.
Mr Ryan said he had once read a book called Children of the Mist – he didn’t have it anymore and didn’t know if it was out of print. It was about the children who survived in the immediate aftermath of the battle, surviving as best they could on Culloden Moor and its surrounding area.
Instantly, I felt a tingle down my spine and I knew I had to write about them. I’m pretty sure I saw the three main characters in my mind’s eye, as I was getting into my car.
