Driftwood and Tangle

Driftwood and Tangle is a moving and poignant memoir of life in the north-west of Scotland just after the outbreak of the Second World War. Margaret Leigh recounts the years she spent in Wester Ross, Moidart, Coigeach and Barra as a crofter, an activity which enabled her to experience the land in all its moods and capture the essence of this remote and beautiful part of Scotland in finely crafted prose. In addition to her evocative description of the land itself, she also has much to say about the people who live there - their traditions and way of life which, at the time of writing, were under threat not only because of the inevitable march of 'progress' but also because of a war likely to engulf even this remote corner of Europe.

Margaret Leigh was the author of Driftwood and Tangle, Spade Among the Rushes, Highland Homespun, Harvest of the Moor and My Kingdom for a Horse. She was born in London in 1894, the cousin of novelist Dorothy L. Sayers and the daughter of an Oxford don. Her childhood was spent wandering Europe and beyond for her father's health, and following his death she became a governess, teacher and university lecturer. In what would become a life-long habit, Margaret changed tack dramatically and turned to agriculture to support herself and her mother, studying the subject and working farms and crofts, most notably in the north west of Scotland. She died in 1973.