Nairn in Darkness and Light

Description

This memoir of David Thomson's childhood in Scotland won the NCR Book Award for Non-Fiction in 1988. Set in the 1920s, it recreates the varied community of Nairn, with its fishermen and townsfolk, its crofters and its prosperous upper-middle classes. The town has witnessed many of the triumphs and tragedies of Scottish history, and these are recalled here. But the book also charts the author's formative years, during which, whilst playing rugby, he suffered an eye injury which nearly blinded him, and shaped his whole future.

David Thomson was born in India in 1914 to Scottish parents, but grew up in Scotland and Derbyshire. He is the author of The People of the Sea, In Camden Town and Woodbrook. He developed a career in writing and at the BBC. He died in 1988.

The effect might echo Proust, or Alain-Fournier; the tone is completely distinctive -- Roy Foster * Observer * Long matured, an exceptional malt of the mind... David Thomson's book is one that can be returned to time and time again to refresh with its vision and the brilliance of its writing * Herald * His writing combines a feel for the "this-worldness" of his characters' lives with an understanding of the "otherworldness" they keep a place for in their consciousness. Which is a way of saying that the stylistic achievement depends upon a deep imaginative sympathy * Guardian * A brilliantly original mix of love story, memoir and history -- Brian Moore