The Second Surge of the Sea - The Circle of Time

This book is scheduled for release on 14th November 2024. Any orders including this title will be dispatched to coincide with this release date.

This gripping new novel by Liz MacRae Shaw, author of the best-selling book ‘Love and Music Will Endure’ about the life of Gaelic poetess Mairi Mhòr nan Òran, is also set in Skye. 

Instead of enjoying her summer holiday in the 1960s with her friends in the south of England, the disgruntled teenager Margaret finds herself banished to stay with her grandparents on the Isle of Skye. However, she discovers an unexpected kinship with her grandfather as he gradually reveals the story of his early life on the island before and during the First World War. An extraordinary tale of adventure, danger and betrayal is brought to life. 

The novel also contains much social history about life in Skye during the 20^th century.

 Liz writes:

Some of the characters in the story have been inspired by my own family history and photographs, such as the images shown on the back cover of my grandmother Dolina MacRae (née Nicolson), her brother Murdo Nicolson, and the iconic Skye terrier.

The title is a reference to ‘An Ataireachd Ard’ (‘The Surge of the Sea’), a beautiful Gaelic song about the pain of exile and loss that hails from the Isle of Lewis in the Western Isles.

Anne Lorne Gillies writes in ‘Songs of Gaelic Scotland’ how ‘the sea, since time immemorial a source of sustenance to the people, also took people away, never to return.’ ‘The second surge’ refers to the power of storytelling to return the tide of memory.

Published: 2024

ISBN: 978-1-907443-89-3