Where Angels Fear to Tread — Setting an historical novel in your own backyard

Shona MacLean

West Church Hall, Cromarty

The writing of The Bookseller of Inverness was born of a desire to come closer to home in Shona’s writing, and to delve more deeply into her own history and culture. She will consider some of the challenges of writing a fictional adventure set in the Jacobite period, and discuss (with photographs) how she went about the research for the book, much of which was written in periods of lockdown. She will then speak briefly about a longprojected novel set in 1830s Cromarty, set aside twice, which she is now working on in earnest.

Shona MacLean was born in Inverness and brought up in a series of small Highland Hotels in Lochaber, Easter Ross and the Black Isle. After Dingwall Academy, she attended Aberdeen University and has a PhD in C17th Scottish History. Married with 4 now grown up children, she is the author of two series of C17th‐set historical crime novels, as well as the recent standalone, The Bookseller of Inverness. She has twice won the Crime Writers’ Association dagger for best Historical Crime novel of the year.

Cromarty History Society now meets on the the third Tuesday of each month, September - April