Ȍuriosity led me to find out a little about who these people were. On each there are usually a few more words that conjure a thought and a moment of reflection. In weekly wanderings around these quite nature reserves and parks I've grown familiar with the benches and the names. On them are the names of people now departed, who have been honoured with words of remembrance by those who knew them. Peaceful spot: the memorial bench for Geoffrey Burns,Įach bench tells a story. The combined edition, A Life in the Hills, is published by Berlinn Ltd. I read the book in A Life in the Hills, The Katharine Stewart omnibus published posthumously in 2018, which also contains Stewart's books from the 1990s, A Garden in the Hills, A School in the Hills, and A Post in the Hills. I found this book's greatest joy in the moments where the author shares more deeply her thoughts on what it means to have taken this direction in life, and the fulfillment from simple pleasures far from the city lights.Ī Croft in the Hills is regarded as an important record of a time, now 70 years distant, and the indomitable spirit of the Stewarts and those they knew on the hillsides high in the Highlands of Scotland.
In joining the Stewarts, the reader experiences the turning of the seasons and glimpses a life built on a small, tight-knit community familiar with sparse and enduring hardships, but ready and willing to help one another without quibble or question. Some of the characters mentioned were already local legends, and many were soon to be gone. Stewart captures a world and way of life that, even as she and her family embarked upon it, was coming to an end. It involves sacrifices, impoverishment and the unconditional support of neighbours.Īt times, everything seems perfect with good fortune shining and life going their way, but there are also setbacks, adjustments and reassessments of what is possible.įirst published in 1960, an additional end piece to the book was added by the author in a 1979 update. It is the 1950s, and the young couple and their daughter learn the ways of the land and how to run a smallholding. The Stewarts chose a location that was susceptible to fearsomely harsh weather and to soaring wonderment and beauty.
It is the story of how they pursued that desire for a self-sustaining livelihood "on the edge". The memoir begins with an account of what led to the family waving goodbye to suburban life and embarking on a shared vision and passion to eke out a living in a remote place. In A Croft in the Hills, Katharine Stewart chronicles the years that she, her husband Jim and their daughter Helen lived high in the hills bordering Loch Ness. A vanishing world: Katharine Stewart's celebratedĪ Croft in the Hills is contained in A Life in the Hills,Īn omnibus edition featuring four of her books
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