Book Description
"On 14 October 1881, forty-five fishing boats set out from Eyemouth harbour, heart of the Scottish Borders's fishing industry. Only twenty-five returned. A small community was torn apart by the loss of husbands, brothers, fathers and sons. Get Up And Tie Your Fingers dramatises the daily lives of the herring lassies and fishwives who lived in this community: lives dominated by work, overshadowed by the moods of the sea, but released in the telling of stories and the singing of songs." "Safe plunders story-telling techniques of a different kind - namely fairytales - to investigate a very contemporary concern: the safety versus freedom debate for parents and children. As a group of parents gather in a disused warehouse to construct a carnival float, fairytale conventions and symbols begin to invade reality, and the parents have to face up to the dilemmas of modern parenting and the failings of their own fathers and mothers." "Devil's Ground is the story of an historical act of genocide, told through the personal tragedy of one Reiver family. These are parallels with Mafia families and with twenty-first century gang-warfare in this determinedly unromantic slant on the lives of sixteenth century bandits in the Scottish Borders. The political cynicism of James VI in ridding himself of old supporters who had become embarrassing liabilities also has contemporary echoes. An exploration of what happens to a family when left with no option but to stand and face its own destruction."--BOOK JACKET.
