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REVIEWS When the Heather Blooms When Victoria Pringle receives a request to visit Catriona in the hospital, she discovers that her long-dead twin, Mark, left a teenage son. Peter is invited to Langmune and soon becomes popular with the entire extended family but most especially young Mimi, seven years his junior. While Libby and Billy are adjusting to marriage, fortysomething Victoria and Andrew suddenly find themselves proud parents for the fourth time. As the youngest generation of Pringles grows into adulthood in the 1960s, change comes slowly but inevitably to Darlonachie in Kirkwood’s tender wrap-up of the Heather trilogy (Secrets in the Heather, 2007; Call of the Heather, 2007), concerning a small Scottish farming community and featuring an unflinching portrayal of both the joys and sorrows encountered in that world and way of life. ~ Booklist, 1st July 2008 The 1960’s is a time of huge changes in the agricultural world but it is family affairs that pre-occupy the Pringle family with the discovery of a nephew they never knew they had. The family welcomes a young man determined to learn all he can about his farming family roots. Once again Gwen Kirkwood has woven an absorbing chapter in the life and times of rural Dumfriesshire. She effortlessly combines fact and fiction, lacing both tragedy and joy into the lives of the community to create an evocative and memorable saga. The authenticity of farming practices described in the story and the observations of the changing attitudes of the time add to the depth and charm of this story. ~ S. J. Bryden, Dumfries & Galloway Standard 6th June 2008 Call of the Heather Kirkwood’s matter of factly narrated but nonetheless emotionally gripping sequel to Secrets in the Heather spans the war years and the following decade, as the second generation in her farming saga grows to maturity, trains for careers, marries and begins their own families in the Scottish dairy and sheep raising industries. ~ Booklist In call of the Heather we share in the lives and the loves of the Lennox family and their friends and we see the changes in the social history of that time. Gwen Kirkwood draws on her experiences in the rural community of which she has such knowledge. This delivers a realism and warmth which has become the hallmark of her books. ~ Dumfries & Galloway Standard Secrets in the Heather "Victoria is the darling of her great-grandmother and the last of her line in a family that has served the lairds of Darlonachie faithfully for centuries. But much has changed in the years following the Great War, and when Victoria is suddenly left alone in the world, Mr. Luke’s wife makes her life as cook’s assistant miserable. Andrew Pringle, her best friend, is several years older and hopes to make her his wife when she is grown, but he fears competition in the form of young Mark, closer to Victoria’s age and sharing her interests. Kirkwood begins a charming new family saga set in southwest Scotland during the years between the world wars with this lushly descriptive, warmly evocative, and unblinkered glimpse at a mostly neglected yet certainly significant time in history." ~ Booklist Home to the Glen "Fans of the Maxwell saga will want to read this latest instalment, but the book has enough background information for it to work well as a stand-alone volume. A family tree included in the front of the book makes it easy to track the many Maxwells who populate this poignant story of life on a Scottish dairy farm in the 1980’s." ~ Shelley Mosley, Booklist. (American) Gwen Kirkwood continues her Dumfriesshire farming saga which follows the fortunes of the Maxwell family into the latter part of the 20th century with cousins Paul and Ryan. Their plans are not without obstacles and affairs of the heart will ultimately shape their destinies. Born in Yorkshire, Gwen Kirkwood has spent almost all her adult life in the farming community and her real life experiences give a special depth to her stories. Once again she weaves an absorbing tale, intertwining fact and fiction. ~ Dumfries & Galloway Standard & Advertiser Children of the Glens The Laird of Lochandee
“A dramatic period tale set in the villages and countryside of Lowland Scotland”. ~ Fife Free Press “An enjoyable family saga of life in nineteenth century Scotland,
when country people lived close to starvation and were subject to the
whim of the laird.” ~ South Hams Free Press
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