Kirsty MacDonald is a crofter on the idyllic Westisle in the Hebrides, an island she now owns. Her son, Wee Ruari, has started school on the mainland, travelling by boat across the Sound to Clachan, and being separated from her son during the week is a wrench for Kirsty. Twice widowed, she misses the boy's father, who was tragically drowned, and also her husband's brother, who became her second husband – and secretly loved her. Kirsty is not left entirely alone though. As autumn arrives she is kept busy preparing for the winter and finds herself fully involved in the lives of her fellow islanders: fisherman Jamie, who is like her own son, his friend Euan and new arrival Enac. However, it is the appearance of a Canadian and his daughter that causes the biggest waves in the small community. Kirsty is opposed to change but soon comes to learn that not all change is to be resisted. 'Her Highland crofters emerge from the pages as true friends'...

In her charming account of the rural village of Bruach, Lillian Beckwith paints a vivid picture of life as a Hebridean crofter, introducing a cast of colourful locals including village clown Johnny Comic and the irrepressible Erchy and Hector. With her trademark warmth, wit and lively humour, "Miss Peckwitt" spins a sparkling, unsentimental tale of an idyllic, long-lost way of life. 'For an unsentimental, lively, apparently photographically accurate picture on a Hebridean island, Miss Beckwith's essays or memoirs or stories would be hard to beat.' The Times 'A sparkling book which could well become a Scottish humorous classic' Weekly Scotsman

". . . I got the impression that they could imagine only two reasons why a woman should choose to settle down in Bruach: either that she was running away from the police, or escaping from a lurid past." Neither reason applies to Lillian Beckwith, in this memoir of her convalescence on an isolated Hebridean island where "even the sheeps on the hills is lonely". On Bruach island, she observes, muses at and joins the native crofters in their unique rhythm of life; where friends fistfight in the evening and discuss bruises the next morning; where the taxi-driver is also the lorry driver, coal merchant and undertaker; where the locals don't remove their hats during a funeral so their heads won't get cold; and where the post-office's 'opening hours' fit around the daily milking of cows and not the other way round! In a series of vividly drawn sketches, taking in birth, death, marriage and the seasons of life, Lillian Beckwith's writing is shot through...

He was a grey-black mongrel; tough canny, loyal – and abandoned. The fisherman called him The Spuddy. The only person to care for The Spuddy in the busy Hebridean village of Gaymal is Andy, a young mute boy staying in the town with relatives. For both of them, their meeting brings friendship after loneliness; but when the new companions are taken up by Jake, skipper of the Silver Crest, events take a swift and unexpected turn. This moving, surprising story will warm the hearts of the many admirers of Lillian Beckwith's Hebridean stories and win her new friends.

Lillian Beckwith takes her experiences of moving to a croft of her own, and uses them as the basis of these comic adventures, once again set on the island of Bruach. Adapting to a totally different way of life provides many excuses for humour. In one story, beachcombing yields a strange find; in another, a Christmas party results in a riotous night's celebrations. The eccentric cast of characters guarantees there is never a dull moment on Bruach 'The most amusing book to come my way' Sunday Times 'It would be very difficult not to enjoy The Sea for Breakfast . . . for the charm and simplicity of its writing, not to mention the wonderful, warm people who inhabit its covers' Scotsman

'When I had first come to the Hebrides Morag, my landlady, had advised me always to "take a rope – in case," . . . Over and over I had proved its usefulness. I might need it to catch a calf or a sheep; to carry a bundle of hay to the cow or a can of paraffin from the grocer; to tie a bundle of driftwood I had collected, or a sack of peat; to secure a boat; make a temporary repair to a sagging fence or a halter for a horse . . . Excepting when they were going on holiday or to church, the Bruach crofters were rarely without a length of rope, either coiled around an arm or protruding from a pocket.' The fourth of Lillian Beckwith's books on her life on Bruach, A Rope - In Case is packed with hilarious stories and delightful characters. Yet it is never sentimental – always observant. 'Hugely enjoyable fourth book of Hebridean humour and characters' Manchester Evening News

'. . . in Bruach when a single woman or a widow owns a net which is borrowed for the fishing that woman is entitled to a share of the catch and there came a day when, my net having been borrowed and the herring having obligingly swum into it, I found myself the recipient of a whole creelful of fresh fish.' The Hebridean island of Bruach provides the setting for more enchanting tales of life among the crofters. Rich in incident and humour, Beautiful Just! sees Lililan Beckwith at the top of her form. 'This is crofting life at its strenuous best . . . masterly story-telling.' Press and Journal 'hilarious' Sunday Times 'absorbing . . . its humour is happy, easy and natural.' Daily Mirror

'What but whisky will take the ache out of lovin', the fire out of a fever an' the meanness out of a miser?' challenges Tearlaich when 'Miss Peckwitt' teases him about his reverence for the 'water of life'. Of course she cannot tell him. Here in this seventh book about the Hebridean village of Bruach and its inhabitants Lillian Beckwith again assembles a galaxy of characters. Some, like Erchy and Morag, the benignly philandering Hector and the artlessly indelicate Tearlaich, are already well known to her readers, but now we meet Willy, the fisherman with his sometimes strange, sometimes bawdy stories of life at sea and in port. We meet the tinkers and we hear how the devout Shamus's determination not to allow the Bruach Sabbath to be profaned led to a small mystery which 'Miss Peckwitt' is unlikely every to be able to solve. But as well as human 'characters' in this book we are introduced to some of the animals and birds she encountered or nursed...

'The Lord puts the salmon in the river like he puts the berries on the trees. They're there for all of us, not just for the laird.' The way the Bruachites saw it, poaching wasn't a crime though you did have to keep an eye out for the local police. And it wasn't just fishermen like Erchy and Hector who were experts – even a visiting vicar had been tempted by the fat salmon that filled the island's streams and pools. Like Lillian Beckwith's other books about life in the Hebrides, Lightly Poached is packed with the enchanting and hilarious adventures of her island friends. 'A beautiful book this, smelling of earth and sea, carrying the atmosphere of the crofts, and forcing you to laugh aloud' Oxford Mail 'Delightfully tangy and stylish' Sunday Express

A haunting story of love and loss in the Hebrides . . . Island-born Kirsty MacLennan marries Ruari MacDonald in order to escape city life and a menial job in a guest house, and return to her beloved homeland. As she rediscovers her roots, and adapts to married life on the idyllic Westisle, there is only one thing standing in the way of her future happiness – the brooding presence of her brother-in-law, who shares Kirsty and Ruari's home.