Picture of author.

Mollie Hunter (1922–2012)

Author of A Stranger Came Ashore

35+ Works 1,566 Members 22 Reviews 1 Favorited

About the Author

Mollie Hunter was born in Longniddry, East Lothian, Scotland on June 30, 1922. At the age of 14, she got a job at a flower shop in Edinburgh and educated herself by studying in the National Library. Most of her children's books were based on Scottish history and legends. Her works include A Sound show more of Chariots, The Kelpie's Pearls, The Thirteenth Member, and The Lothian Run. She won the Carnegie Medal in 1975 for The Stronghold. She died on July 31, 2012 at the age of 90. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: scotsman.com

Series

Works by Mollie Hunter

A Stranger Came Ashore (1975) 279 copies
The Mermaid Summer (1990) 201 copies
The King's Swift Rider (1998) 125 copies
The Kelpie's Pearls (1964) 108 copies
The Walking Stones (1970) 104 copies
The Haunted Mountain (1972) 96 copies
A Sound of Chariots (1973) 78 copies
The Stronghold (1974) 71 copies
Patrick Kentigern Keenan (1963) 45 copies
The Spanish Letters (1964) 39 copies
The Lothian Run (1971) 38 copies
The Thirteenth Member (1971) 34 copies
The Wicked One (1977) 34 copies
A pistol in Greenyards (1965) 28 copies
The Third Eye (1979) 26 copies
Gilly Martin the Fox (1994) 24 copies
Thomas and the Warlock (1986) 23 copies
The Ferlie (1968) 19 copies
Escape from Loch Leven (1981) 19 copies
I'll Go My Own Way (1985) 18 copies
The Ghosts of Glencoe (1966) 17 copies
Day of the Unicorn (1994) 14 copies
The Dragonfly Years (1983) 12 copies
The Three-Day Enchantment (1985) 11 copies
Hold on to Love (1983) 9 copies
Hi Johnny (1986) 3 copies
The Brownie (1986) 2 copies
The Enchanted Boy (1986) 1 copy
Cat, Herself 1 copy

Associated Works

The Thorny Paradise: Writers on Writing for Children (1975) — Contributor — 15 copies
Cricket Magazine, Vol. 5, No. 10, June 1978 — Contributor — 2 copies

Tagged

Common Knowledge

Legal name
McIlwraith, Maureen Mollie Hunter McVeigh
Birthdate
1922-06-30
Date of death
2012-07-31
Gender
female
Nationality
UK
Birthplace
Longniddry, East Lothian, Scotland, UK
Place of death
Inverness, Scotland, UK
Places of residence
Inverness, Scotland, UK
Education
Preston Lodge School, East Lothian, Scotland
Occupations
novelist
author
teacher(creative writing)
children's book author
fantasy writer
Playwright
Organizations
Society of Authors (past chairman, Society of Authors in Scotland)
Awards and honors
May Hill Arbuthnot Lecturer (1975)
Child Study Association of America's Children's Books of the Year citations, for The Ferlie, 1968, The Walking Stones, 1970, The Thirteenth Member, 1971, A Sound of Chariots and The Haunted Mountain, both 1972, The Stronghold, 1974, A Stranger Came Ashore, 1975, Talent Is Not Enough, 1976, A Furl of Fairy Wind, 1977, and Cat, Herself, 1987; Book World's Children's Spring Book Festival honor book citation, 1970, for The Lothian Run; New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year citations, for The Haunted Mountain and A Sound of Chariots, both 1972, and A Stranger Came Ashore, 1975; Children's Book Award from the Child Study Association of America, 1973, for A Sound of Chariots; Scottish Arts Council Award, 1973, for The Haunted Mountain; Silver Pencil Award (Holland ∙ Holland)
Short biography
Mollie Hunter was born and raised near Edinburgh, Scotland, and married Thomas McIwraith in 1940. She made her debut as a writer with the novel Patrick Kentigern Keenan, published in 1963 in the UK and released in the USA as The Smartest Man in Ireland. She went on lecture tours of the USA in 1975 and New Zealand in 1976. She served as a writer-in-residence at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia and also taught creative writing at the Aberlour Summer School. In addition to her more than 25 novels and plays for children and adults, she also produced nonfiction works about writing, and wrote numerous articles and essays for newspapers and magazines. She's considered one of the most popular and influential 20th-century Scottish fiction writers.

Members

Reviews

This novel for children is a good introduction to the sad events in the Scottish Highlands known as the Clearances, when people who had farmed the highlands for centuries were brutally evicted from their land to make way for sheep raising. Such people were left destitute and forced to emigrate to the Americas, because their former chiefs sold off the land in order to enjoy the luxury of lowland Scottish living standards, without a care for those who had served their ancestors for centuries. Harsh laws imposed after the English defeat of the Scots at Culloden ensured that the Highlanders could not bear arms, to defend themselves or resist eviction, on penalty of death.

Set in 1854, the story is narrated from the viewpoint of a 15 year old boy, Connal Ross, who at first is excited by the preparations to watch for the arrival of officials to serve the eviction notice although he is also trepidatious after an old man, Blind John, has visions of seeing violence done to Connal's mother and his sister Katrine. Connal retrieves an old pistol from hiding in the thatched roof of his house where it has been kept since their great grandfather's escape at Culloden. At first, there is hope because the agent who has to sign the eviction notices swears in writing that he will not be a party to signing them, but officials soon arrive with notices (which the people cannot open or they will be deemed to have accepted service of the notices).

The first pair are turned back good naturedly, as the community has determined on a path of passive resistance with the women taking the lead, in the erroneous belief that violence will not be offered against unarmed women and girls. But when two drunken officials turn up and one of them, McCraig, holds a pistol to the head of Connal's mother, Connal uses his old pistol to force McCraig to back down, and from then on things turn ugly, with the story given out that the highlanders have 'rioted'. After that, they are fair game for vicious reprisals to be taken against them, and Hunter does not spare her readership from some of what that entails.

From then on, Connal becomes a fugitive, and he and Katrine have to try to free their mother who has been jailed as a scapegoat as Connal cannot be found, and to avoid the vindictive McCraig who hounds them even as they attempt to board a ship to America after her trial.

It is a fast paced story from the young man's viewpoint, told in flashback as he writes his account for a lowlander Scottish doctor who at first views the Highlanders as savages who got what they deserved, but who comes to respect them by the end.
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kitsune_reader | Nov 23, 2023 |
 
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archivomorero | Jun 28, 2022 |
I remember this being a particular favorite re-read of mine in my mid-teens. The description of the tinkerers/travellers way of life was described in a way that really made it come to life...even the harrowing bits, but I think what I loved most of all about the book was its heroine Cat.
 
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Litrvixen | Jun 23, 2022 |
** spoiler alert ** A sweet book. Lovely how everything works out. Good characters, I really felt like I got to know them. So much was focused on Bridie's passion for writing, but we never really learned if she was any good. I had hoped to learn more about that. I was disappointed that she never found a mentor or someone who would support her efforts or direct. her. It did awaken in me the idea that stories are all around us.
 
Flagged
njcur | Jan 28, 2021 |

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Statistics

Works
35
Also by
3
Members
1,566
Popularity
#16,474
Rating
½ 3.7
Reviews
22
ISBNs
175
Languages
3
Favorited
1

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