At the Loch of the Green Corrie (2010)

I've only read 2 of Andrew Greig's books, When They Lay Bare and That Summer, but he is one of my favourite authors. Early on in this book I didn't warm to the man himself, but it is beautifully written and he won me over by the end. I suspect a man full of charm, but an author full of good judgement. The change from the single thread of the trip to the Loch of the Green Corrie to the last quarter of the book which flits in and out of a second trip works really well. ( )

Loved this memoir of McCaig. I want to go to the green Corrie in Scotland. ( )

A luminous, poetic reflective book which is impossible to categorise. Partly a tribute to Grieg's friend and mentor, the late poet Norman MacCaig and the people and landscape of Assynt in the North West Highlands that MacCaig loved, it is also a memoir and reflection on life, love, friendship, poetry, whisky and fishing. Highly recommended. ( )

This book was so nearly very good, but sadly it subsided into morbid self-obsession.

Andrew Greig has published a few novels (including "The Return of John Macnab", which would certainly rank among my fifty favourite novels) along with several volumes of verse, and it was his work as a poet that brought him to the attention of elderly Scottish poet Norman MacCaig. At a meeting not long before MacCaig's death Greig promised to fish at the Loch of the Green Corrie, a site in Assynt (the far North West of Scotland). This book details the expedition that Greig and two of his friends undertook to make good that promise.

Greig's prose is generally lucid and incisive (presumably as a consequence of his talent as a poet), and when he is describing the landscape of Assynt the book is enchanting, as it also is when he talks about (and extensively quotes from) MacCaig's poems. However, too much of the book dwells on torrid episodes from Greig's own past, and to my mind these mar the flow of the book.

I am glad that I read this, but I would hesitate to recommend it to anyone who does not have my own love of the Highlands, Read his "The Return of John Macnab" or even John Buchan's original "John Macnab" instead. ( )

I always enjoy Andrew Greig's writing, so it was no surprise that the prose in 'At the Loch of the Green Corrie' is superb. It's one of those books you should savour, and being no good at that kind of thing, I devoured it in a day. Definitely one for the re-read list.

So many things stick in my memory about this book. The way that Greig captures the atmosphere of the Scottish wilderness, the people he meets and his musings on what it means to be Scottish. Definitely recommended for anyone who enjoys reading about Scotland. ( )