Rhum, Eigg, Muck and a distant Skye seen across Samna beach
Rhum, Eigg, Muck and a distant Skye seen across
Samna beach
THE
GIRL WITH THE PHONY NAME takes the heroine, Lucy MacAlpin Trelaine, and her
colorful employer, Tak Wing, to the island of Lis
in the Scottish Hebrides.
There is no real island of Lis (the name is from Irish myth),
but it bears a great resemblance to the Scottish isle of Skye.
So am I intimately acquainted with Skye and the other islands in the
Hebrides?
The answer is no. Edinborough is the only place in Scotland I've
been.
It's a funny thing about place
research for books -- personal familiarity with a location isn't necessarily an
asset. In fact the opposite is often true. If a writer knows a place
there's a huge temptation to fit in every little detail, which often bogs down
the story. Verisimilitude isn't really necessary. A writer, after
all, doesn't really create a place in the reader's mind. He creates
the illusion of a place, just as he doesn't create real people, merely
the illusion of people -- that's what characters are.
With mere words I painted a picture of Scotland and the Scottish Hebrides in my
mind's eye. May we all have a chance to go and see the real thing.
| Isle Of Skye |
| Official Register of all Scottish Tartans |
| Isle Of Mull |
| Gateway to Scotland |
| Ancient Scotland |
| Clans of Scotland |
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