The Lost Lights of St Kilda

Product Information

At one level, it is a simple love story: the love between one of the islanders, the young Chrissie Gillies, and Fred, a Cambridge student of geology who visits St Kilda in 1927 during the course of his studies. It is Fred’s frantic attempt at fleeing from France that set’s the pace and tension that leads to the stories climax. The plot-line for The Lost Lights of St Kilda is fairly classic: boy meets girl; boy falls in love with girl and she with him; circumstances tear them apart and years later, boy tries to find girl again and wonders if it’s too late. This is beautifully written, predominantly a fictional love story but so crammed with historical fact that it definitely deserves 5 stars for that alone.

The Lost Lights of St Kilda - Historical Novel Society

The storyline follows Chrissie, Fred, and Archie throughout the intervening years, right through the Second World War, where Fred is serving with the Cameron Highlanders. This page-turning story spans decades and charts their thwarted love following the evacuation of St Kilda in 1930.Yet as she must dedicate her life to St Kilda to ensure her family and community’s survival and he is a Cambridge undergraduate, their lives are worlds apart. Days after finishing this deeply moving story, written with such a simple yet lyrical prose, I still feel haunted by it and cannot imagine anyone being able to read it without being similarly affected. It was difficult to stay engaged in spots where the story seemed to focus more heavily on building the love story. A truly captivating story of love set in an unforgettable location beautifully brought back to life by this outstanding author. She learned by ear and she thinks it a great thing that I am learning to read sheet music at school, taking the grade exams and so on.

The Lost Lights of St Kilda by Elisabeth Gifford | Waterstones The Lost Lights of St Kilda by Elisabeth Gifford | Waterstones

Writing a dual time line story offers the fun of a detective story, and some of the philosophy of how we are affected in present time by the revelations from the past. St Kilda Elisabeth Gifford, author of the new historical novel The Lost Lights of St Kilda, talks to us about her experiences of the island and family connections to the Highland 51st Division whose World War II service is a key part of the plot. A gorgeous interwoven tale of a desolate island, and two lovers finding their way back to one another. I have a fascination with the history of St Kilda and this book told me so much I didn't know and captured the way of life so wonderfully. The story is also told during 1940 when Fred is in a prisoner-of-war camp, captured behind the lines in France, and planning his escape.

Archie too, thinks often of Chrissie, as he carries secrets yet to be revealed, that prove ever more burdensome as the years roll by. Archie Macleod is a charismatic but wayward young man who visits the island as a child and instantly causes trouble.

The Lost Lights of St Kilda - Books from Scotland The Lost Lights of St Kilda - Books from Scotland

It was inhabited from Neolithic times until 1930, although how and why it was settled I cannot imagine. Evacuated in 1930, she will never forget her life there, nor the man she loved and lost who visited one fateful summer a few years before. In the 1940 timeline, Chrissie recounts her life on the island to her daughter Rachel while Fred talks about his experience there to pass the time while he was a prisoner in a German prison camp. Chrissie gradually recounts her own story of growing up on St Kilda and her childhood friendship with laird’s son, Archie.I began to read everything I could find about the group of islands that make up St Kilda but it would be another ten years before I felt I had enough knowledge to begin to attempt to reconstruct that lost community in novel form. After all that waiting and time spent apart, they're love for each other carried them through the trials and struggles that were thrown at them each way.