Cottar
& Croft to Fermtoun, by Mary Michie.
£11.95 pp free UK.
Mary Michie had a
dream; to leave Mormond Hill for the University. But she gave up
her dream to join a young ploughman in his dream of renting a croft of
their o
wn.
They started poor but they worked hard and invested wisely. This
book follows their steady progress from tied cottar house to rented
house, to croft, to bigger croft and so on until they had a big farm and
were bonnet lairds.
The book is
remarkable for it's detail of a life which covered most of the 20th
century and endures still. But it is most unusual in that it was
written by a woman and from a woman's perspective. While all this
scheming and saving was going on, Mary was bringing up a family.
She remembers the cost of a half loaf, the price of a wireless to
listen to how the war was going or how the fat cattle did at Maud
Market, and how much the grocer would give you for a dozen eggs.
Cottar and Croft was short listed for Scotland's leading literary prize,
the £10,000 McVities Book of the Year when it was published in
1995. It appeared twice in the Scottish Best Sellers list and is
now in it's fourth printing.
Hardback.
Pp271. 29 photographs.
