The Lost Lights of St Kilda: *SHORTLISTED FOR THE RNA HISTORICAL ROMANCE AWARD 2021*

By Elisabeth Gifford

*SHORTLISTED FOR THE RNA HISTORICAL ROMANCE AWARD 2021*

*LONGLISTED FOR THE HIGHLAND BOOK PRIZE 2020*

'Desperately romantic, lyrically written and with a fascinating plot' Katie Fforde
Chrissie Gillies comes from the last ever community to live on the beautiful, isolated Scottish island of St Kilda. Evacuated in 1930, she will never forget her life there, nor the man she loved and lost who visited one fateful summer a few years before.
Fred Lawson has been captured, beaten and imprisoned in Nazi-controlled France. Making a desperate escape across occupied territory, one thought sustains him: find Chrissie, the woman he should never have left behind on that desolate, glorious isle.
The Lost Lights of St Kilda is a sweeping love story that crosses oceans and decades, and a testament to the extraordinary power of hope in the darkest of times.
'A gorgeous, melancholy love story.' The Times
'An undeniably haunting love story.' Sunday Times

• Language: English
• Publisher: Corvus
• Release date: Mar 5, 2020
• ISBN: 9781786499066

Elisabeth Gifford

Liz Gifford has written articles for the Times and Independent newspapers on education, and is currently completing an MA in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway University with Sir Andrew Motion.

Reviews for The Lost Lights of St Kilda

[john257hopper · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have for a long time been fascinated by this tiny group of islands far off the coast of Scotland, the furthest flung inhabited part of the British Isles until the final small population of 36 souls were evacuated in 1930. Their survival had become increasingly precarious due to their economy of bird products and tweed being unable to keep up with the changing world in the late 19th and early 20th century, and the population having diminished as young people and whole families left the island to seek a future elsewhere.This story concerns the visit of two eager young Cambridge archaeology students - Archie Macleod, son of the island's owner, and his friend Fred Lawson - to the island in summer 1927 and how they interact with the locals, particularly with young Chrissie Gillies. We are also presented with Fred Lawson being a prisoner of war in France in 1941 and through jumps between time zones, the novel traces the course of events between 1927 and 1941, and the happy ending that results for our leading characters. For once in a novel set partly in the Second World War, the War is not the main focus, the islands of St Kilda are the real hero of the story - a beautiful and terrifying set of rocks essentially in the open Atlantic and subject to that ocean's raw power and fury.Birds were the very essence of the islanders' lives, the source of protein and one of the main economic strengths of the islanders: "the sky is alive with bird wings.. The black-tipped bent spikes of the great gannets’ wings, the flutter of scissorbeaked kittiwakes, fulmars, skewars, puffins, petrels – the same birds that supply most of the islander’s primitive diet." Even now, when St Kilda is a World Heritage site, it is "home to a tenth of the British Isles’ seabird population". Its inhabitants understandably saw it as the centre of their universe and its way of life against the encroachment of the outside world. As Chrissie says, "I believed in my heart that there was no better place or family that a child might have than this island, this jewel that had fallen from the pocket of God and where all men feel Him near and find the blessed solace of being welcome at every hearth along the strand of lighted bothies, be it even in the greatest and the darkest of storms."

[stroudley-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I felt a special connection to this book, as my wife's family originally came from St Kilda, and were evacuated in the 1930s. I have also been to St Kilda, but not to land, just sailing around the group of islands and sea stacs. The whole environment and way of life is captured very clearly and in a very evocative way, including the follow-up of the families settling in very unfamiliar surroundings on the mainland. The story of the characters works well, but for me the real star is the island itself.

[catrn_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Lost Lights Of St Kilda is a dual timeline novel of lost love and quite beauty. The locations are 1940’s France and 1927 St Kilda, a grouping of islands off the west coast of Scotland.The female protagonist is Chrissie Gillies a young woman born and raised on St. Kilda. Life there is slow and filled with love but the harsh weather and conditions on the island make living there very difficult. Chrissie wishes to never leave. Fred Lawson is a young man who spends the summer of 1927 on St Kida’s to complete his geology thesis for Cambridge University. Both figure prominently in the 1927 St.Kilda timeline as they meet, and no spoiler here, fall in love. The 1940’s time line centers mainly on Fred. He is a soldier caught by the Germans at the battle for St. Valery where many Scotsmen were killed or captured, as the army retreated. It is his attempt to escape the Germans, flee France and remember his lost love of St Kilda that comprises his 1940’s story. Chrissie in the1940’s is living in Scotland with her teenage daughter. At her daughter Rachel Anne’s insistence she begins too recall life on St Kildas and eventually her lost love.Fred.This novel is very well written. St Kilda is a small cluster of volcanic islands that are heavily windswept and desolate. Through Ms. Gifford’s lyrical prose I was able to envision the stark, natural, and unspoiled beauty of st. Kilda’s so well that looking at pictures online I found that my visions were accurate. That takes talent on the part of an author! She also demonstrates her talents as she describes the people of St. Kildas. They are a hardy group of strong people who take joy in the simple things and love their island fiercely. Ms. Gifford shows us their quiet courage and dignity. They become another character in the novel. We as readers care about them. We worry about their future as it becomes clear that their numbers are dwindling and there may be too few of them to survive winter.I loved that the characters become real people. We learn not just their descriptions and actions, but their beliefs, hopes and dreams. We learn the motivations behind their actions. They are allowed to change, grow and mature as the story unfolds. That this is such a rarity in fiction is a shame since it added a very satisfying dimension to the story.This is an emotional read. Through the authors prose we not only see the calm beauty of first love but also the horror of war. It is this juxtaposition of the two that forms the core of the novel. It is Fred’s frantic attempt at fleeing from France that set’s the pace and tension that leads to the stories climax. Will Fred escape France? Will he and Chrissie ever see each other again? These are questions that you’ll have to read the book to answer!4 stars! Highly recommended for fans of historical fiction and romance.I received an ARC of this book from the publisher, Dreamscape Media and NetGalley. This fact in no way influenced my review.

[nicx27 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have very fond memories of Elisabeth Gifford's first book, Secrets of the Sea House. That was a dual timeframe story with a similar setting to The Lost Lights of St Kilda, that being the islands of Scotland. In The Lost Lights… the two aspects of the story take place quite close together, in 1927 and 1940. The earlier story is set on St Kilda, a very isolated island where the villagers are far from thriving. They are largely forgotten, even the mail ship doesn't stop there. Fred Lawson and Archie Macleod visit one summer and Fred is captivated by Chrissie, a young islander. But the path of love does not run smoothly for them. We see events from Fred's point of view and from Chrissie's. Then in 1940 Fred is in France during WWII, one of the Cameron Highlanders. We witness his daring attempts at escape but what it also gives him is a reason to live and to try and return to Chrissie.This is a beautifully written, lyrical and lilting novel. I'm always so drawn to island stories, especially Scottish islands. I think there's a romantic feel to the windswept, stark nature of them, although in reality it's far from perfect and is often such a difficult life. Elisabeth Gifford puts across perfectly the difficulties that the St Kildans faced and she's obviously done a lot of research into the island and the people who called it their home. Their plight in having to leave is plain to see.This is not a quick or fast paced read and I didn't always find it the easiest of reads as it's quite intense, but it's full of atmosphere and is such a moving story. It's a book to savour as the setting draws the reader in and the sparse but poetic writing put me right there, whether it be on St Kilda or in France. It's ultimately the unfolding of a love story over a number of years but it's just as much a love letter to St Kilda too.

[linda.a. · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In 1927 two young undergraduates from Cambridge spend the summer working on St Kilda, one is Fred Lawson and the other is his friend, and the laird’s son, Archie Macleod. During his time there Fred falls in love not only with the island, but with Chrissie, a young islander. Little does Fred know that only three years later this wild, isolated and beautiful island would need to be evacuated because, following yet another harsh winter when supply boats were unable to reach the island, all the islanders would be close to death from starvation. Although a misunderstanding meant that he lost contact with Chrissie after that summer, he never forgot either her or the summer he spent on the island and in 1940, when he is a prisoner of war behind enemy lines in France, his memories of that time, and of the woman he had loved and lost, become ever more vivid. Following a daring escape he faces a dangerous journey across occupied territory to reach a neutral country and freedom. The one thought which sustains him throughout all the hardships he faces is that he must find his way back to Chrissie, to find out if, after all these years apart, there is any possibility of a future together. With the timeline switching between 1910-1930 on St Kilda, 1930-1940 on Morvern Peninsular on the west coast of Scotland, and 1940 in occupied France, and the narrative switching between the voices of Chrissie, her daughter Rachel Anne, and Fred, this is a compelling and beautifully written novel. The gradually unfolding love story which underpins Chrissie and Fred’s relationship feels both convincing and very poignant, but it is matched by a parallel love story, the one symbolising how the islanders felt about St Kilda and for a way of life which was so precious to them. In many ways this felt like paean not just to a wildly beautiful place, but also to the loss of a unique community. The constantly changing timelines never felt confusing, instead they were used in an assured way to effectively weave the different strands of the story together, gradually adding depth to the developing storyline. I felt drawn into the unique way of life of the islanders of this remote community, with all the pride they took in the skills they had developed to endure the privations and challenges they faced, and with the powerful sense of community which had evolved in order to ensure mutual support. The landscapes of the islands and of war-torn France, were each very vividly and convincingly described. However, for me it was the author’s evocative descriptions of the savage beauty and wildness of the storm-battered islands, the powerful ocean, the pounding waves against the steep sea cliffs and the vast colonies of noisy sea-birds nesting on them which felt the more powerful, making me feel that I was experiencing something of that wild beauty for myself. Before I read this story I had always thought that St Kilda was the name of the inhabited island but, as I discovered, that’s the collective name for this archipelago and the name of the main island is Hirta. Although I was aware of the fact that the island had been evacuated in 1930, one of the things I enjoyed most about this story was how much I learnt about what led up to that momentous event, putting it into an historical and social context. I hadn’t realised how significant a part WWI had played in the gradual decline of the island’s population when, not only had the young men gone off to war but, with the archipelago being the most westerly islands of the UK, they had a vitally important military significance. As a result, the Royal Navy established a manned signal station on Hirta in the early years of the war and with this came not only more regular and reliable contact with the outside world for the islanders, but also more reliable access to essential supplies and the gradual establishment of a money-based economy. This slightly easier way of life during the war-time period probably undermined self-reliance to some degree, something compounded by the fact that many young men didn’t return to the island after the war; some had been killed but for those who did survive, returning to a life of hardship held little appeal. This growing realisation that they didn’t have to put up with living such a precarious existence then led to a steady exodus of young people from the island, with the population falling from seventy-three in 1920 to just thirty-six when, following successive crop failures and a particularly harsh winter, in August 1930 everyone on the island agreed to be evacuated to Morvern.The author’s gradual revelations of the events which led up to this momentous event very effectively captured the islanders’ sense of despair about the loss of their unique way of life, which however unsustainable it had by then become, had nurtured them for generations and was all they knew. She also demonstrated how tourism, whilst providing a source of income for the islanders – from the sale of their homemade tweed and birds’ eggs – also did much to undermine their self-confidence, as the visitors, seeing their simple, unsophisticated way of life and the identical nature of their dress, portraying them as objects of derision and curiosity, almost as though they were exotic exhibits rather than fellow human beings. As a result of all these insights, she enabled me to empathise with the profound sadness of their loss, as well as their fears and anxieties about what the future held for them.Days after finishing this deeply moving story, written with such a simple yet lyrical prose, I still feel haunted by it and cannot imagine anyone being able to read it without being similarly affected. This is the first of Elisabeth Gifford’s books I’ve read but, with writing of this quality, and her ability to create such unforgettable characters, I now want to read some of her earlier novels.