The Lighthouse Stevensons

By Bella Bathurst and HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

For centuries the seas around Scotland were notorious for shipwrecks. Mariners' only aids were skill, luck, and single coal-fire light on the east coast, which was usually extinguished by rain. In 1786 the Northern Lighthouse Trust was established, with Robert Stevenson appointed as chief engineer a few years later. In this engrossing book, Bella Bathhurst reveals that the Stevensons not only supervised the construction of the lighthouses under often desperate conditions but also perfected a design of precisely chiseled interlocking granite blocks that would withstand the enormous waves that batter these stone pillars. The same Stevensons also developed the lamps and lenses of the lights themselves, which "sent a gleam across the wave" and prevented countless ships from being lost at sea.

While it is the writing of Robert Louis Stevenson that brought fame to the family name, this mesmerizing account shows how his extraordinary ancestors changed the shape of the Scotland coast against incredible odds and with remarkable technical ingenuity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Jun 28, 2011
• ISBN: 9780062094742

Bella Bathurst

Bella Bathurst is the author of The Lighthouse Stevensons, which won the Somerset Maugham Award, and of the novel Special. Her journalism has appeared in the Washington Post, the London Sunday Times, and other major periodicals. Born in London, she lives in Scotland.

Reviews for The Lighthouse Stevensons

[dramman_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Worthwhile account of the remarkable Stevenson family, who were responsible for building some of the most important lighthouses, around the Scottish coastline.

[mouldywarp_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Extremely well written and a fascinating history.

[psutto_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

AverageThe subject itself is interesting, such as how did the lighthouses around the coast of Scotland get built? The biography of the family that did it, including Robert Louis Stevenson is also of interest. The historical time period itself from the late 1700’s to the late 1800’s is also inherently interesting. A good non-fiction writer can grip you with a narrative of the subject but sadly Bathurst failed to grip me. Oh there’s lots to like in here, a discussion of lighthouse technology, architecture, the reasons for lighthouses, the struggle to build them in remote places but it just wasn’t brought alive enough for me. For a subject so soaked in the ocean waves she managed to make it a little dry.Overall – Fascinating subject slightly too dry book for my tastes

[ma_washigeri · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Extraordinary story. Extraordinary work. Extraordinary family. And brilliantly told.

[helenliz_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is as much a hymn to Scottish lighthouses as a biography of the family who built them. As the author acknowledges in the introduction, this can't be a complete biography of the Stevenson family, that would simply be too long. Instead it concentrates on those members who built the lighthouses and looks at the lighthouses they built. The complicating factor is that one of their number wasn't an engineer, he was Robert Louis Stevenson and he's famous for an entirely different sphere of work. He wrote a book about his family, and that is referenced, several times. Individually the Stevensons are a mixed lot, some are nicer than others, some are more suited to being an engineer of this kind than others, but they all manage to be interesting, and the tales of the lighthouses they built (and which still stand) are on a common theme, but all present with different challenges. The book does tail off, with the next generation being introduced, but they are not followed beyond their youth. I didn't realise that (at the time of writing) lighthouses were still being built, with three being added in recent years for the oil tankers that ply the North sea. This manages to be interesting and informative about quite a specialist subject. It sets their achievements against the technical and social background of the task at hand and describes how the issues were overcome. It is limited in scope to just those of the family with a part in the family business, but it acknowledges that at the start - a complete biography of 4 generations of a family would be extensive. This is well worth reading.