Allan Campbell McLean (1922–1989)

I was delighted to re-discover this book which I first read some forty years ago, and I was most impressed to find it as gripping as I had when I was a mere nine years old.
The book recounts the adventures of Alasdair Cameron, a thirteen year old lad living in London with his mother and aunt in about 1955. Alasdair's father had been killed when his battleship sank during World War II. Having had a bad bout of bronchitis Alasdair is packed off to Skye to recuperate, and it is arranged that he will stay in his father's old croft in the village of Achmore. Indeed, unbeknown to him, the coft actually now belongs to Alasdair, though it is currently occupied by the dubious Murdo Beaton, a lugubrious widower who keeps himself very much to himself.
On his journey to Skye ( which McLean descibes with loving care) Alasdait encounters two strange men and gradually realises that one is pursuing the other. The man being pursued manages briefly to shake off his pursuer and clandestinely passes a note to Alasdair, but doesn't have time to offer any explanation before jumping fom the making train. His pursuer goes after him, leaving Alasdair o grapple with the riddle that has suddenly come his way.
The descriptions of Skye are gorgeous, and McLean makes the hillsides come alive, though he never lets the pace of his novel falter. Re-reading this book, and revisiting pat of my own past, was a huge pleasure!… (more)

Great author of youth fiction about 19th and 20th century Scotland. This book focuses on the resistance to clearance on the Isle of Skye in the late 1800s. During this time, landlords in Scotland and Ireland evicted tenants (whose small farms or crofts were not economically lucrative) to make way for the blackface sheep, a breed that provided much of the wool for manufacturing interests in England. In some cases, the people fought back in numerous "Crofters' Wars" and were brutally repulsed. Though these events aren't that well-known here in the U.S., they are responsible for a lot of emigration from northern Scotland to the U.S. and Canada.

Anyway, this book is about a young boy (maybe 13?) who joins the resistance movement under a charismatic leader. McLean's writing is quick to read and he creates gripping adventure stories with a historical focus. I think these are probably difficult to find over here (I bought my copies in Scotland), but if you can find them, it is worth reading this one and its sequel, A Sound of Trumpets.… (more)