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The Scottish Fiction Reprint Library
Wild Harbour
This is the world of universal future war. Faced with the threat of bombs, bacteriological warfare and poison gas, a married couple whose pacificism complels them to opt out of 'civilisation', take to the hills to live as fugitives in the wild. Plainly and simply told, Wild Harbour charts the practical difficulties, the successes and failures of living rough in the beautiful hills of remote Speyside. In this respect the book belongs to a tradition of Scottish fiction reflected in novels such as Stevenson's Kidnapped and Buchan's John MacNab . But it takes a darker and more contemporary turn, for although Hugh and his wife Terry learn to fend for themselves, they cannot escape from what the world has become. Their brief summer idyll is brought to an end as the forces of random and meaningless violence close over them. Written in 1936, Wild Harbour has lost none of its relevance in a post-nuclear age, nor its power to move and shock.
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1936
About the author
Ian MacPherson
10 books4 followersIan^^^MacPherson
Ian Macpherson was a Scottish novelist. He was born in Forres but moved to the Mearns, and was educated at Laurencekirk Academy, Mackay Academy and Aberdeen University. After two years of lecturing at the University, he gave it up to do a multitude of odd jobs, finally taking a farm on the edge of the Dava Moor. His first novel Shepherd's Calendar was published the year before Sunset Song. In the next five years he produced three further novels, including Land of Our Fathers (1933), and Pride in the Valley (1936), which are set in Speyside. His last book, Wild Harbour (1936) is also set in the Highlands but it tells the story of a world destroyed by a future war, forebodings of which were already discernible in Europe.
Macpherson was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1944.
Ian Macpherson was a Scottish novelist. He was born in Forres but moved to the Mearns, and was educated at Laurencekirk Academy, Mackay Academy and Aberdeen University. After two years of lecturing at the University, he gave it up to do a multitude of odd jobs, finally taking a farm on the edge of the Dava Moor. His first novel Shepherd's Calendar was published the year before Sunset Song. In the next five years he produced three further novels, including Land of Our Fathers (1933), and Pride in the Valley (1936), which are set in Speyside. His last book, Wild Harbour (1936) is also set in the Highlands but it tells the story of a world destroyed by a future war, forebodings of which were already discernible in Europe.
Macpherson was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1944.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
May 15, 2024
A very simple very Scottish post-apocalypse story that mostly reads like a How-To guide for surviving in the wild. First, as soon as you realise society is about to collapse, stock up on provisions :
Six pounds of tea, a pound of coffee as an occasional luxury. A stone of salt butter in an earthenware jar. A stone of split peas…six tins of fruit, a box of water biscuits, two dozen fresh eggs (p26)
They flee from town into the midst of the beautiful highlands where the deer are plentiful and Hugh just has to saunter forth and bag a stag before his wife Terry has made the tea. He in continually making improvements as he goes along :
When I skin this beast you must make a wrist-strap for me of its skin to carry bullets. You know, a piece of hide about two inches broad to fasten round my wrist with slits cut in it so that I can carry bullets in a handy way.
Ah yes – vegetarians might not like this story so well, beasts are being shot and butchered every other page, this couple appear to be total meatarians. The idea of going a day when they do not chew the haunch of an animal never occurs to them. So we have a lot of this kind of thing :
I gralloched the hind and severed her backbone. When the forequarters were happed with stones to keep them safe from carrion beasts and birds I got the hindquarters over my head, with a haunch on each side of my neck and the legs in my hands. Staggering, tripping, reeling, I blundered home.
Good Lord, it's like something from American Psycho.
1936
This short strong very compelling and gorgeously written book was published in 1936 and set in 1944. Another war was coming by 1936, this was well-known, and this novel is about what happens when it comes. But hold on, there’s something strange about this. Wild Harbour reads like a Scottish Walking Dead minus zombies – all of society immediately collapses and you better get yourself in survivalist mode or die. But this did not happen during 1914, the first world war. Why would society collapse in the second world war? It’s not a story about plausible eco-catastrophe, like The Death of Grass which I recently read, and it’s not a post-nuclear collapse – the reason why all of society suddenly falls apart is never explained.
Which gives the novel the aspect of being a parable; you can only survive away from society for so long, eventually you can’t stay away in your Crusoe idyll, but when you return you’ll wish you hadn’t. No one can live on love (and boiled deer) alone. Or something. Another fable-like element is that at no time in the 6 month period of the story does either Hugh or Terry express any concern for their parents, their families or their friends. This is quite odd. Mind you, the idea of Hugh faithfully writing all this stuff down in a journal, replete with pages of dialogue, while sitting in his cave after a hard day’s gralloching is fanciful too. But that’s a convention of all literature.
LOVE STORIES
Some readers will experience this book not as an apocalypse fable but as two love stories – the love of the natural world
It was a warm drowsy day; the heat of the yellowing sun, the sound of bumble-bees, the smell of heather in flower, lulled and drugged our senses half to sleep save our ears that harkened through the hours for sounds that did not come.
And even more the love of Hugh for his wife Terry
I have often tried many a time to keep my vexations secret and my unhappiness hid, but she finds them out, and I am glad when I am discovered.
These are both very intense almost enraptured relationships.
DOES IT DESERVE TO BE IN THE 1001 BOOKS YOU MUST READ BEFORE NEXT THURSDAY LIST?
Yes, a short sharp and very meaty Scotapocalpyse.
Six pounds of tea, a pound of coffee as an occasional luxury. A stone of salt butter in an earthenware jar. A stone of split peas…six tins of fruit, a box of water biscuits, two dozen fresh eggs (p26)
They flee from town into the midst of the beautiful highlands where the deer are plentiful and Hugh just has to saunter forth and bag a stag before his wife Terry has made the tea. He in continually making improvements as he goes along :
When I skin this beast you must make a wrist-strap for me of its skin to carry bullets. You know, a piece of hide about two inches broad to fasten round my wrist with slits cut in it so that I can carry bullets in a handy way.
Ah yes – vegetarians might not like this story so well, beasts are being shot and butchered every other page, this couple appear to be total meatarians. The idea of going a day when they do not chew the haunch of an animal never occurs to them. So we have a lot of this kind of thing :
I gralloched the hind and severed her backbone. When the forequarters were happed with stones to keep them safe from carrion beasts and birds I got the hindquarters over my head, with a haunch on each side of my neck and the legs in my hands. Staggering, tripping, reeling, I blundered home.
Good Lord, it's like something from American Psycho.
1936
This short strong very compelling and gorgeously written book was published in 1936 and set in 1944. Another war was coming by 1936, this was well-known, and this novel is about what happens when it comes. But hold on, there’s something strange about this. Wild Harbour reads like a Scottish Walking Dead minus zombies – all of society immediately collapses and you better get yourself in survivalist mode or die. But this did not happen during 1914, the first world war. Why would society collapse in the second world war? It’s not a story about plausible eco-catastrophe, like The Death of Grass which I recently read, and it’s not a post-nuclear collapse – the reason why all of society suddenly falls apart is never explained.
Which gives the novel the aspect of being a parable; you can only survive away from society for so long, eventually you can’t stay away in your Crusoe idyll, but when you return you’ll wish you hadn’t. No one can live on love (and boiled deer) alone. Or something. Another fable-like element is that at no time in the 6 month period of the story does either Hugh or Terry express any concern for their parents, their families or their friends. This is quite odd. Mind you, the idea of Hugh faithfully writing all this stuff down in a journal, replete with pages of dialogue, while sitting in his cave after a hard day’s gralloching is fanciful too. But that’s a convention of all literature.
LOVE STORIES
Some readers will experience this book not as an apocalypse fable but as two love stories – the love of the natural world
It was a warm drowsy day; the heat of the yellowing sun, the sound of bumble-bees, the smell of heather in flower, lulled and drugged our senses half to sleep save our ears that harkened through the hours for sounds that did not come.
And even more the love of Hugh for his wife Terry
I have often tried many a time to keep my vexations secret and my unhappiness hid, but she finds them out, and I am glad when I am discovered.
These are both very intense almost enraptured relationships.
DOES IT DESERVE TO BE IN THE 1001 BOOKS YOU MUST READ BEFORE NEXT THURSDAY LIST?
Yes, a short sharp and very meaty Scotapocalpyse.
May 30, 2011
NOTE to readers: Skip the introduction to this edition until you've read the novel. Also, my reflections below may contain spoilers.
Although I've never seen Wild Harbour mentioned in any list of science fiction, it really belongs to the genre of post-apocalyptic stories. Ian MacPherson imagined the next war (that was obviously looming in 1936) bringing the total collapse of society (as the introducer points out, the conditions he depicts would be accurate in parts of continental Europe, though not Scotland, the novel's setting). But how that happens is barely suggested; he is interested in the result, hunger, chaos, fear, every man's hand against another.
The main story is the two characters, both carefully developed, Hugh and Terry, as they try to flee entirely from the madness of the rest of humankind when the war begins, hiding in the wild Scottish hills. (They initially seem to think they're the only ones who feel that way.) To simplify, Terry's boundless kindheartedness makes her unwilling to participate even indirectly in killing, and Hugh needs freedom and independence and not to leave Terry. So part of it is a wilderness survival story and a tribute to the nature of the region. But they aren't hawks or deer, so they realize that not only did they not plan to stay away very long, and couldn't manage it, they wouldn't even want to. Terry never can forget other people nor stop caring how they're faring. And the terrible violence keeps encroaching on them. One main theme seems to be Hugh realizing just how much he has in common with the others, both that they're frightened and fleeing just like him, and that he's violent just like them. But the thread of optimism in this grim story is that there's also better ways to be, and Hugh realizes that he also has that potential.
Many post-disaster tales involve a group of survivors getting together to build a new society, and although this one gestures in that direction, it can't get that far. Just suggesting the possibility is as much optimism as MacPherson can allow. The mixture of tragedy and hope, beauty, love, and terror in this novel makes for an uncommonly moving reading experience.
Although I've never seen Wild Harbour mentioned in any list of science fiction, it really belongs to the genre of post-apocalyptic stories. Ian MacPherson imagined the next war (that was obviously looming in 1936) bringing the total collapse of society (as the introducer points out, the conditions he depicts would be accurate in parts of continental Europe, though not Scotland, the novel's setting). But how that happens is barely suggested; he is interested in the result, hunger, chaos, fear, every man's hand against another.
The main story is the two characters, both carefully developed, Hugh and Terry, as they try to flee entirely from the madness of the rest of humankind when the war begins, hiding in the wild Scottish hills. (They initially seem to think they're the only ones who feel that way.) To simplify, Terry's boundless kindheartedness makes her unwilling to participate even indirectly in killing, and Hugh needs freedom and independence and not to leave Terry. So part of it is a wilderness survival story and a tribute to the nature of the region. But they aren't hawks or deer, so they realize that not only did they not plan to stay away very long, and couldn't manage it, they wouldn't even want to. Terry never can forget other people nor stop caring how they're faring. And the terrible violence keeps encroaching on them. One main theme seems to be Hugh realizing just how much he has in common with the others, both that they're frightened and fleeing just like him, and that he's violent just like them. But the thread of optimism in this grim story is that there's also better ways to be, and Hugh realizes that he also has that potential.
Many post-disaster tales involve a group of survivors getting together to build a new society, and although this one gestures in that direction, it can't get that far. Just suggesting the possibility is as much optimism as MacPherson can allow. The mixture of tragedy and hope, beauty, love, and terror in this novel makes for an uncommonly moving reading experience.
March 21, 2021
3.5 stars. An interesting dystopian novel that becomes a gripping read for the last third of the book. The book was first published in 1936. The novel is set in the Scottish highlands in 1944. A couple, Hugh and Terry, decide to retreat from their home to the remote Scottish highlands, preferring to live with nature rather than be involved with fighting that has erupted. Whilst not detailed, the reader is given to believe that world disorder has occurred. For some months Hugh and Terry learn to survive in the wilderness and become content with their chosen lifestyle, however things change when men with rifles appear close to their cave home. Hugh’s pacifism is confronted with an encroaching war.
February 26, 2021
I'd recommend you to open an appropriate bottle, settle down, and enjoy this story, rediscovered by the British Library collection in 2019, set in the magnificent Speyside hills, and originally published in 1936.
The year of publication was the one that Nazi troops contravened the Treaty of Versailles and marched into the Rhineland. A sense of war was in the air, and Britain was in confusion. Bearing these things in mind, Macpherson's novel really is not so far-fetched. I suppose it describes an alternative future, rather than being science-fiction, but that's with hindsight, at the time, this would be much more realistic.
It is set in a Britain at war in 1944, with protagonists, husband and wife, Hugh and Terry uncomfortable that the fighting is coming too close to where they live. Hugh is a type of conscientious objector, certainly no coward, but does not want to fight. They take off into the nearby hills, to a cave they know, and forage and make their home there. These descriptions, and their adventures of survival against the elements form much of the novel, and are really well written. Macpherson uses actual place names; Loch Caolcair, Loch Glas Bhein, KInloch Laggan, a are a few examples, but he must have known and loved this wilderness area really well himself. I believe his other novels, though quite different and yet equally hard to categorise, all describe the Scotiish outdoor life, and I look forward to seeking them out and reading them.
What makes the novel a great one though, is that along with the nature and wilderness is the underlying threat of what is happening in the populated villages and towns; like Hugh and Terry, the reader is in the dark, and as this is gradually revealed the sense of fear and terror is extremely well portrayed.
I'd call this a war novel, and its the second very notable such book I've read this week (the other being Ágota Kristóf's The Notebook.
Originally from Aberdeen, Macpherson tried a number of jobs before settling into life as a farmer on the bleak and wild Dava Moor, not far from Grantown, where he did much of his writing. Sadly, he died young, in 1944 at the age of 39 in a motorbike accident. This is a book well ahead of its time, and can be appreciated every bit as much now as it was in the late 1930s.
The year of publication was the one that Nazi troops contravened the Treaty of Versailles and marched into the Rhineland. A sense of war was in the air, and Britain was in confusion. Bearing these things in mind, Macpherson's novel really is not so far-fetched. I suppose it describes an alternative future, rather than being science-fiction, but that's with hindsight, at the time, this would be much more realistic.
It is set in a Britain at war in 1944, with protagonists, husband and wife, Hugh and Terry uncomfortable that the fighting is coming too close to where they live. Hugh is a type of conscientious objector, certainly no coward, but does not want to fight. They take off into the nearby hills, to a cave they know, and forage and make their home there. These descriptions, and their adventures of survival against the elements form much of the novel, and are really well written. Macpherson uses actual place names; Loch Caolcair, Loch Glas Bhein, KInloch Laggan, a are a few examples, but he must have known and loved this wilderness area really well himself. I believe his other novels, though quite different and yet equally hard to categorise, all describe the Scotiish outdoor life, and I look forward to seeking them out and reading them.
What makes the novel a great one though, is that along with the nature and wilderness is the underlying threat of what is happening in the populated villages and towns; like Hugh and Terry, the reader is in the dark, and as this is gradually revealed the sense of fear and terror is extremely well portrayed.
I'd call this a war novel, and its the second very notable such book I've read this week (the other being Ágota Kristóf's The Notebook.
Originally from Aberdeen, Macpherson tried a number of jobs before settling into life as a farmer on the bleak and wild Dava Moor, not far from Grantown, where he did much of his writing. Sadly, he died young, in 1944 at the age of 39 in a motorbike accident. This is a book well ahead of its time, and can be appreciated every bit as much now as it was in the late 1930s.
November 24, 2019
An alternative to bone spurs...
When it looks as though war is inevitable, Hugh and his wife, Terry, decide that he will not fight – that killing is wrong especially when the reasons for it seem so obscure. So they decide to flee into the wild highland country of the north of Scotland, making their home in a cave to wait the conflict out. Hugh knows how to hunt and poach while Terry has a full range of country skills in preparing and preserving food, so they are better equipped than most to survive. But in the distance they can hear the guns of war, and they seem to be coming nearer...
This is issued as part of the British Library’s Science Fiction Classics series, but it doesn’t seem to me to sit comfortably there. First published in 1936 and set in a then future of 1944, I suppose it’s that speculative element that allows it to be categorised as science fiction, but in reality it’s more of a survival adventure with the bulk of the book being a man versus nature story. I use “man” advisedly here – although Terry is present throughout, she is certainly the weaker of the two, following Hugh’s lead and existing, it seems, merely to provide him with the domestic and emotional support that a good wife should.
Sometimes it’s difficult not to allow our own prejudices to colour our view of a book. I have great admiration for those conscientious objectors who refuse to fight in wars, but who either choose to serve in some other capacity – in the ambulance service, for example – or are willing to take a public stand and risk going to jail for their principles. I’m afraid I have very little respect for people who run away and hide while waiting for other people to return the world to safety for them. Macpherson does his best to show that Hugh’s decision is born of principle, but the whole premise made it impossible for me to sympathise with Hugh and Terry as I felt I was supposed to, as they endured the various hardships and misadventures of their life in the wild.
The book has two major themes, it seems to me: firstly, man’s relationship to the natural world and his ability to survive without the trappings of civilisation; and secondly, how even those so strongly-held principles can be eroded as the veneer of that civilisation is stripped away, quickly returning man to a state of survival instinct. The writing is at its strongest when Macpherson is describing the beauty and power of nature and man’s vulnerability to its whims. It is at its weakest when Hugh tells us again and again in exalted and overblown terms of his great love for and need of Terry – this idealized woman who seems to be mother to him as much as wife.
There is much killing and butchering of deer and other animals, but in the realism of the need for food rather than in any gratuitous way. There are also detailed descriptions of the practical steps Hugh and Terry take to make life in the cave possible, such as cutting peat and making a fireplace, making lamps from fish oil and animal fat, pickling eggs and salting venison, and so on. I veered between fascination and boredom throughout all of this, but fascination won in the end, and I found even the stalking and hunting scenes won me over, done with authenticity and a great sense of man’s deep connection to the natural world – something I, as a city girl, completely lack. The descriptions of the landscapes are great, although there were many times I felt the need for a map of the area. It was only once I’d finished reading that I discovered there is in fact a map, tucked in at the end of the book and not listed in the index – annoying.
The book is a bleak account of this survivalist life – there’s no attempt to present some kind of false idyll. As summer becomes autumn and then winter, the harshness of the weather, the scarcity of food and the fragility of health are all shown in full. And as the distant war rumbles closer, the story turns bleaker yet, with the tone becoming almost dystopian towards the end.
A strange book which I found compelling despite my distaste for the premise, which is a tribute to how well it is done. There’s a short essay from Macpherson included at the end (after the map!), written in 1940 when the real war had been underway for a year, and it’s intriguing to contrast his own views about participation in the war effort to those of his character, though they certainly seem to share their opinion of women. Recommended, but more to those who enjoy bleak survival stories than to science fiction fans.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, the British Library.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
When it looks as though war is inevitable, Hugh and his wife, Terry, decide that he will not fight – that killing is wrong especially when the reasons for it seem so obscure. So they decide to flee into the wild highland country of the north of Scotland, making their home in a cave to wait the conflict out. Hugh knows how to hunt and poach while Terry has a full range of country skills in preparing and preserving food, so they are better equipped than most to survive. But in the distance they can hear the guns of war, and they seem to be coming nearer...
This is issued as part of the British Library’s Science Fiction Classics series, but it doesn’t seem to me to sit comfortably there. First published in 1936 and set in a then future of 1944, I suppose it’s that speculative element that allows it to be categorised as science fiction, but in reality it’s more of a survival adventure with the bulk of the book being a man versus nature story. I use “man” advisedly here – although Terry is present throughout, she is certainly the weaker of the two, following Hugh’s lead and existing, it seems, merely to provide him with the domestic and emotional support that a good wife should.
Sometimes it’s difficult not to allow our own prejudices to colour our view of a book. I have great admiration for those conscientious objectors who refuse to fight in wars, but who either choose to serve in some other capacity – in the ambulance service, for example – or are willing to take a public stand and risk going to jail for their principles. I’m afraid I have very little respect for people who run away and hide while waiting for other people to return the world to safety for them. Macpherson does his best to show that Hugh’s decision is born of principle, but the whole premise made it impossible for me to sympathise with Hugh and Terry as I felt I was supposed to, as they endured the various hardships and misadventures of their life in the wild.
The book has two major themes, it seems to me: firstly, man’s relationship to the natural world and his ability to survive without the trappings of civilisation; and secondly, how even those so strongly-held principles can be eroded as the veneer of that civilisation is stripped away, quickly returning man to a state of survival instinct. The writing is at its strongest when Macpherson is describing the beauty and power of nature and man’s vulnerability to its whims. It is at its weakest when Hugh tells us again and again in exalted and overblown terms of his great love for and need of Terry – this idealized woman who seems to be mother to him as much as wife.
There is much killing and butchering of deer and other animals, but in the realism of the need for food rather than in any gratuitous way. There are also detailed descriptions of the practical steps Hugh and Terry take to make life in the cave possible, such as cutting peat and making a fireplace, making lamps from fish oil and animal fat, pickling eggs and salting venison, and so on. I veered between fascination and boredom throughout all of this, but fascination won in the end, and I found even the stalking and hunting scenes won me over, done with authenticity and a great sense of man’s deep connection to the natural world – something I, as a city girl, completely lack. The descriptions of the landscapes are great, although there were many times I felt the need for a map of the area. It was only once I’d finished reading that I discovered there is in fact a map, tucked in at the end of the book and not listed in the index – annoying.
The book is a bleak account of this survivalist life – there’s no attempt to present some kind of false idyll. As summer becomes autumn and then winter, the harshness of the weather, the scarcity of food and the fragility of health are all shown in full. And as the distant war rumbles closer, the story turns bleaker yet, with the tone becoming almost dystopian towards the end.
A strange book which I found compelling despite my distaste for the premise, which is a tribute to how well it is done. There’s a short essay from Macpherson included at the end (after the map!), written in 1940 when the real war had been underway for a year, and it’s intriguing to contrast his own views about participation in the war effort to those of his character, though they certainly seem to share their opinion of women. Recommended, but more to those who enjoy bleak survival stories than to science fiction fans.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, the British Library.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
June 2, 2024
A strange little Robinsonade – at times monotonous and sentimental, at times engaging and moving – it tells a story of a couple who flee society as the war is starting, and settle themselves in a remote cave. Their moods are shifting between joyful and loving, almost ecstatic, and depressive, despairing, as they don't know what is happening in the rest of the world (but clearly nothing good). There are a lot of descriptions of their everyday life: hunting, salting meat, counting rations, building a fireplace... The book picks up the pace considerably in the last third, and the ending .
October 29, 2022
Preppers, bags at the ready!!
This is a very curious tale, unsettling for the ambiguity Macpherson creates by pulling his two main characters out of society, and thus, never finding out what on earth is going on in the wider world.
The book was written in the 1930s, so the second world war was a threat, but it hadn't happened yet. Although Macpherson sets it in his future of the 1940s. Hugh, and (I'm assuming) wife Terry, live in Scotland. They were kids during the first world war, and saw how badly the COs were treated. So as war approaches now, they, as pacifists, want nothing to do with it, but with Hugh's draft arriving, they are frightened of what might happen to him. And so they pack up their gear and flee into the mountains to furnish a cave home at a site they'd found on previous wanderings, and try to live off the land. This is hampered by the fact that they need to remain unseen, firstly so that they're not rounded up for the draft, and secondly, so they're not attacked by the ongoing war that comes to the mountains (although who the two sides are and what they are fighting over remains completely unknown). They have to figure out how to live in the hard mountain environment, with the cold approaching winter, the hoards of midges and horseflies in the late summer, hunting for meat, not getting enough greens or dairy, and all the other complications. As many other dystopian writers discussed, they also see the issue between hiding out for a year or so - doable - or for the rest of their lives, which essentially means they can't rely on looting for certain supplies of food or tools. In that case you have to be able to make or grow everything you need.
There is a creeping uncertainty as to what is going on in the wider world. They go back to their house as Terry is feeling sentimental, only to find it completely trashed. Hugh goes to a farm one time to steal some turnips, to find it also trashed and abandoned. Sheep are left unsheared on the mountains much later than usual. Gun battles are heard in the distance. They have no idea what has happened.
And it seems no man can be an island, because they decide, after helping a dying, starving soldier, that they need to rejoin the human race and help people where they can. Perhaps naively strolling down the hills, and getting shot for their troubles.
The descriptions of the land and the account of these two people setting up their secret home in the mountains is so detailed as to make you think Macpherson actually trialed it out. I think the sense of the land is the best part of the book for me.
This is a very curious tale, unsettling for the ambiguity Macpherson creates by pulling his two main characters out of society, and thus, never finding out what on earth is going on in the wider world.
The book was written in the 1930s, so the second world war was a threat, but it hadn't happened yet. Although Macpherson sets it in his future of the 1940s. Hugh, and (I'm assuming) wife Terry, live in Scotland. They were kids during the first world war, and saw how badly the COs were treated. So as war approaches now, they, as pacifists, want nothing to do with it, but with Hugh's draft arriving, they are frightened of what might happen to him. And so they pack up their gear and flee into the mountains to furnish a cave home at a site they'd found on previous wanderings, and try to live off the land. This is hampered by the fact that they need to remain unseen, firstly so that they're not rounded up for the draft, and secondly, so they're not attacked by the ongoing war that comes to the mountains (although who the two sides are and what they are fighting over remains completely unknown). They have to figure out how to live in the hard mountain environment, with the cold approaching winter, the hoards of midges and horseflies in the late summer, hunting for meat, not getting enough greens or dairy, and all the other complications. As many other dystopian writers discussed, they also see the issue between hiding out for a year or so - doable - or for the rest of their lives, which essentially means they can't rely on looting for certain supplies of food or tools. In that case you have to be able to make or grow everything you need.
There is a creeping uncertainty as to what is going on in the wider world. They go back to their house as Terry is feeling sentimental, only to find it completely trashed. Hugh goes to a farm one time to steal some turnips, to find it also trashed and abandoned. Sheep are left unsheared on the mountains much later than usual. Gun battles are heard in the distance. They have no idea what has happened.
And it seems no man can be an island, because they decide, after helping a dying, starving soldier, that they need to rejoin the human race and help people where they can. Perhaps naively strolling down the hills, and getting shot for their troubles.
The descriptions of the land and the account of these two people setting up their secret home in the mountains is so detailed as to make you think Macpherson actually trialed it out. I think the sense of the land is the best part of the book for me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
December 28, 2016Started out like Swiss Family Robinson set in the Scottish highlands and then took a very dark turn into an exploration of the barely-hidden brute lurking inside the civilized human and the lengths to which frightened humans will go. This was on a "best books about humans in the wilderness" list, but I was expecting a more conventional "struggle to live in harmony with the land" narrative. Unsettling and relentless.
January 25, 2017
This was one of the most haunting books I have ever read. The setting in the Highlands of Scotland adds to the general feeling of oppression and futility felt by the main characters and reader.
February 16, 2022
3.5 to be exact. a unique account of individual response to war and an exploration of human relationship with the land
August 18, 2015
I had next to no information about this book when I picked it up, apart from it being on the 1001 list. Its theme came as a surprise. I have to admire the anticipation factor put into it. I felt the emphasis was too much on the couple's relationship and feelings (even if it was not mushy in any way) and too little on the social and cultural impact of their historical turn point. A good read, all in all, but I'd have gone for a little more pragmatism.
October 26, 2019
An enjoyable tale told mostly in the wilds of the Scottish highlands, with a husband and wife doing their best to survive in a cave after anticipating civilisation's collapse in town centres. The second I've read in the British Library's Science Fiction Classics series, which include useful introductions providing context to mid-century authors that might otherwise have fallen into obscurity.
March 21, 2023
This is an odd sort of book but I'm glad I read it and I'm glad the British Library bought it back into view in their Science Fiction Classics series. Since I would say it is mostly atmosphere driven I don't think it is a spoiler to say it divides into three aspects. The largest is the hero and heroine living off the land from a cave. This describes the Scottish landscape and its animals very evocatively. The second part is hints about a total social collapse precipitated by war and taking place at an unclear distance away which occasionally crosses over into the life of the protagonists. This "noises off" approach is also handled very well and adds mystery and tension to the "Robinson McCrusoe" aspect. The small part that rings much less true to me are the occasional frenzies that the hero and heroine get into about their relationship, their life in the cave and the normal life they ran away from to escape the disaster (which could have been destroyed but they cannot be completely sure). These come across as overwrought and inconsistent with the countryside idyll and its apparent distance from the disaster. I wonder if they are a side effect of a sensitive writer seeing the increasingly inevitable build up to WWII (which some people at the time honestly thought might involve devastating poison gas attacks within ten minutes of its beginning) and, as such, make the book an interesting sign of its times. But the end of the book is a a genuine shock and it would be a definite spoiler to say anything about that. An intriguing book that doesn't 100% come off in my opinion but well worth a try even so.
September 8, 2020
The central character of this novel is a perfect illustration of P G Wodehouse’s famous saying that it is never hard to differentiate a Scotsman with a grievance from a ray of sunshine. Hugh is such an unrelentingly miserable, dour git that it is a wonder why his long suffering and saintly wife puts up with him. He does frequently tell her how much he loves her in hangdog lachrymose fashion but then almost immediately reverts to type as an evil-tempered Jeremiah who is convinced, like Private Fraser in Dad’s Army, “we’re all doomed.” You can almost see him rolling his eyes and puckering his mouth to trill his r’s as he pronounces this with a grim and perverse satisfaction.
Of course, Hugh and Terry are doomed – this wouldn’t be an authentic Scottish novel if they were not – and there is a certain dark pleasure in the atmosphere of unfolding drama amidst the cold wet heather. Anyone who has tramped the Highland heather in miserable weather (and let’s face it there is rarely any other kind of weather up there) will recognise the effectiveness of the author’s recreation of the atmosphere. If you are sitting inside by a cosy fireside with a glass of malt whisky in your hand you might even get an enjoyable frisson from this – just as Private Fraser so obviously loved being miserable. The ending is a kind of distillation of all the misery and depression of the entire novel. From which you will gather that although I acknowledge the power of the writer’s craft, this is by no means a barrel of laughs.
Of course, Hugh and Terry are doomed – this wouldn’t be an authentic Scottish novel if they were not – and there is a certain dark pleasure in the atmosphere of unfolding drama amidst the cold wet heather. Anyone who has tramped the Highland heather in miserable weather (and let’s face it there is rarely any other kind of weather up there) will recognise the effectiveness of the author’s recreation of the atmosphere. If you are sitting inside by a cosy fireside with a glass of malt whisky in your hand you might even get an enjoyable frisson from this – just as Private Fraser so obviously loved being miserable. The ending is a kind of distillation of all the misery and depression of the entire novel. From which you will gather that although I acknowledge the power of the writer’s craft, this is by no means a barrel of laughs.
January 8, 2022
The excellent new edition from British Library Science Fiction Classics is well formatted, with a good introduction to MacPhearson and the text, and includes a relevant article by MacPhearson at the end of the novel that provides more context for the story.
I was delighted by how thoughtful and thorough MacPhearson’s treatment of the concept was. A married couple, unwilling to let themselves be drawn into fighting in the looming war but also unwilling to be jailed as pacifists, flee into the Scottish wilds to wait out the war. It reminded me of some of my favorite types of books as a young person- Island of Blue Dolphins and Hatchet- survival stories where a protagonist must rely on themselves and limited resources to survive. Are those books the reason I love apocalyptic fiction?
Too often in early 20th century apocalyptic fiction the writer relies on over-narration and a wide lens to get their (often moralizing) point across. MacPhearson instead focuses on just these two people and their relationship. They are as ignorant of the events of the world as the reader, and it creates a narrative tension that increases with each chapter.
While the ending felt a bit overwrought (for my money, it should have ended ambiguously two chapters earlier) the overall effect was moving and realistic.
I was delighted by how thoughtful and thorough MacPhearson’s treatment of the concept was. A married couple, unwilling to let themselves be drawn into fighting in the looming war but also unwilling to be jailed as pacifists, flee into the Scottish wilds to wait out the war. It reminded me of some of my favorite types of books as a young person- Island of Blue Dolphins and Hatchet- survival stories where a protagonist must rely on themselves and limited resources to survive. Are those books the reason I love apocalyptic fiction?
Too often in early 20th century apocalyptic fiction the writer relies on over-narration and a wide lens to get their (often moralizing) point across. MacPhearson instead focuses on just these two people and their relationship. They are as ignorant of the events of the world as the reader, and it creates a narrative tension that increases with each chapter.
While the ending felt a bit overwrought (for my money, it should have ended ambiguously two chapters earlier) the overall effect was moving and realistic.
March 21, 2024
This is a very strange book. It was written in 1936 and set in 1944. Something just happened in Europe. It’s not clear what, but in at the start of the book, the heroes, the two main characters are having to make a decision as to whether the man will go up to fight.
This really doesn’t feel like a science fiction novel, it isn’t really a realistic novel of life in the Highlands. Itfalls in between the two and it can’t make make up his mind what it wants to be. The introduction suggests calling it an Alternative History. But the point of view that you get is Hugh’s and Terry’s only, in a small area of the Highlands of Scotland.
On finishing this book I’m completely confused about what the author was trying to accomplish with whole book, and especially with the way the book ends.
Overall I don’t think I would recommend this book to many, especially to anyone expecting to read some Scottish Science Fiction.
This really doesn’t feel like a science fiction novel, it isn’t really a realistic novel of life in the Highlands. Itfalls in between the two and it can’t make make up his mind what it wants to be. The introduction suggests calling it an Alternative History. But the point of view that you get is Hugh’s and Terry’s only, in a small area of the Highlands of Scotland.
On finishing this book I’m completely confused about what the author was trying to accomplish with whole book, and especially with the way the book ends.
Overall I don’t think I would recommend this book to many, especially to anyone expecting to read some Scottish Science Fiction.
October 18, 2018
Given that I like a good outdoorsy survival story, I thought for sure that I would like Ian MacPherson's "Wild Harbour," but it really didn't appeal to me. It's interesting from a historical perspective -- as it was written in 1936 and predicted a major world war was coming... the survival story itself wasn't all that enjoyable.
The novel follows Terry and Hugh, a couple who decide to head to the hills and live in a cave instead of allowing Hugh to be drafted to fight in the war.
The big problem with this book definitely lies with the characters who were melodramatic and bordering on hysterical... it was hard to believe they would have any chance of surviving a few days in the woods. I rolled my eyes at every "Oh, Terry!" In life, I know a few people who could survive in a cave (and a few I'd like to send to one...) and none are anything like these flimsy characters.
The novel follows Terry and Hugh, a couple who decide to head to the hills and live in a cave instead of allowing Hugh to be drafted to fight in the war.
The big problem with this book definitely lies with the characters who were melodramatic and bordering on hysterical... it was hard to believe they would have any chance of surviving a few days in the woods. I rolled my eyes at every "Oh, Terry!" In life, I know a few people who could survive in a cave (and a few I'd like to send to one...) and none are anything like these flimsy characters.
March 18, 2023
I have to agree with those readers who found it slightly odd to find this novel in the British Library’s Science Fiction range - it’s set several years on from its composition, but there’s no technological or social advances (in fact the whole of the point of the book is that there’s less technology as the story goes on. Nevertheless, an interesting discovery although it does reward patience- the first third of the book almost reads like a prepper’s shopping list, until Macpherson starts to bring home that what we’d now call living off grid becomes an unremitting struggle for food and shelter. The protagonist (Hugh) initially retreats from society to avoid being conscripted into a pointless war, however we soon find that he has no compunction about slaughtering animals in order to survive and by the end of the novel he is prepared to kill strangers. As the unseen war is played out in the background, homes and gardens are plundered and sheep are rustled from the hills by night, until finally the fighting reaches Hugh’s retreat and it’s through caring for a dying man that he reconnects with the society around him, but too late.
November 21, 2017
This was quite an interesting read. Terry and Hugh are a married couple living in Scotland. They are convinced, based on the news of the day, that the world situation is quickly falling apart and that war is right on the horizon. In order to avoid conscription into the army and the coming apocalypse, they gather everything they can handle and escape into the highlands. They move into a cave that they had found on an outing one day in happier times. With a lot of hard work the cave becomes a fairly safe and comfortable shelter. However, as both winter and the war move closer, their safety becomes threatened and it becomes apparent that they need to rethink their life choices.
October 11, 2022
I think I was misled by the cover synopsis here. Lots about how to survive in the wild with a hunting rifle, very very little plot, a single paragraph I found made a worthwhile point about the coming war. The two characters are insufferable and their story is a drag I ended up skim reading. By the time things started happening towards the end, I’d mentally checked out. I just don’t care that much about hunting deer, which takes up a solid 90% of the book.
The structure is also terrible. Chapters begin by telling you the outcome of the chapter you’re about to read. No tension anywhere at all.
The structure is also terrible. Chapters begin by telling you the outcome of the chapter you’re about to read. No tension anywhere at all.
February 10, 2023
Read as one of the 1001 Books to read before you die.
I wouldn’t say that it’s great literature but it’s a good story told in an interesting manner and only spoiled for me by my own picturing of the two central characters as tv’s Terry and June. (The female character here is called Terry and that’s all it took).
I wouldn’t say that it’s great literature but it’s a good story told in an interesting manner and only spoiled for me by my own picturing of the two central characters as tv’s Terry and June. (The female character here is called Terry and that’s all it took).
May 22, 2017
Meh. Sorta boring. Big ending though. Not much characterization.
March 15, 2022
5/10.
April 12, 2022
Calling it science fiction is a bit of a stretch, but excellent and unfortunately prophetic speculative fiction it is. 4.5
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 26, 2023
Really enjoyed this. Probably because books about survival and historical fiction are some of my favourite things.
January 12, 2024
Not a comfortable read but probably a necessary one.
April 18, 2024
Interesting view into how a couple deals with impending war and the measures they take to survive.
June 3, 2021
This is an admonitory novel for survivalists, those heavily armed, body building thickos who firmly believe they will be the future of Earth's civilization come the day. For Hugh and Terry, a middle class Scottish couple living on the edge of the Highlands, the day comes in 1936 when, as is often said, “storm clouds were gathering” - mainly over Germany and Russia, dictators attract them. In his youth Hugh had served in the Territorial Army – the UK's army reserve. With his mates they had thought it would be an exciting adventure holiday paid for by the state. Now, as “storm clouds gather,” he understands that former Territorials will be first in line for conscription.
Hugh doesn't want to go. The horrors of the First World War are still in his mind and he persuades Terry that they could escape into the mountains and live securely in a cave until this new war had blown itself out. Fortunately Hugh has the outdoor skills and equipment to make a go of it: guns, ammunition, hunting techniques – basically survivalist proficiency. Terry is pulled in to wash the dishes, cook the food, and do the cleaning. Needless to say Terry proves to be the lynchpin when it comes to surviving and also holding on to civilization. Hugh remains one short step away from wearing animal skins and grunting.
All goes well. It is important to remember that in 1936 there was little technological ability available to keep in touch with the outside world. No internet, no mobile phones, not even a battery-powered portable radio. Hugh and Terry know little of what is happening, though there are hints: unsheared sheep and lambs on the hillsides – but no shepherds, express trains hurrying past in the distance when there shouldn't be express trains, and then the sound of rifle fire. I hope survivalists understand that their greatest threat will not come from the Army, or the Government, or the nice people who didn't like them very much. It will come from other survivalists, heavily armed and just as stupid.
Hugh and Terry have a steep learning curve to negotiate. If only others might learn from them.
Hugh doesn't want to go. The horrors of the First World War are still in his mind and he persuades Terry that they could escape into the mountains and live securely in a cave until this new war had blown itself out. Fortunately Hugh has the outdoor skills and equipment to make a go of it: guns, ammunition, hunting techniques – basically survivalist proficiency. Terry is pulled in to wash the dishes, cook the food, and do the cleaning. Needless to say Terry proves to be the lynchpin when it comes to surviving and also holding on to civilization. Hugh remains one short step away from wearing animal skins and grunting.
All goes well. It is important to remember that in 1936 there was little technological ability available to keep in touch with the outside world. No internet, no mobile phones, not even a battery-powered portable radio. Hugh and Terry know little of what is happening, though there are hints: unsheared sheep and lambs on the hillsides – but no shepherds, express trains hurrying past in the distance when there shouldn't be express trains, and then the sound of rifle fire. I hope survivalists understand that their greatest threat will not come from the Army, or the Government, or the nice people who didn't like them very much. It will come from other survivalists, heavily armed and just as stupid.
Hugh and Terry have a steep learning curve to negotiate. If only others might learn from them.
July 3, 2016
Written in 1936, this novel precedes the Second World War, but also predicts it. While the details of the war and it's cause are vague, and the events unlike the the real war. It is a clear portrait of the fear and anguish that often accompany war. Presented as diary of Hugh and his wife Terry who escape to the hills of Scotland after he is drafted, this book describes what befalls them for the two seasons they spent hiding in a cave, and what transpires when they find their retreat from the world invaded.
This book is long on description. In some books I like this, while in others I find it bores me. Unfortunately in the case of this book, I found it to be the latter. I often found, myself skimming the story. Sadly, I also found the characterization lacking. I just didn't really care all that much for what happened to either Hugh or Terry. Finally, the introduction gave away every major detail of the book. I don't object to knowing how a book will end. It is the whys and hows that I read for. The introduction stole even that from me. These factors combined made this a book I didn't find myself much compelled to read. What kept me going was simply the interest in how close to truth the author was able to get in prediction of a world plunged into war shortly after publication. I was also curious as to how much of this is tied to the author's beliefs on the nature of war. I do, however, think that this is a book that will work for many people, particularly fans of dystopian fiction, as long as they avoid the introduction.
This book is long on description. In some books I like this, while in others I find it bores me. Unfortunately in the case of this book, I found it to be the latter. I often found, myself skimming the story. Sadly, I also found the characterization lacking. I just didn't really care all that much for what happened to either Hugh or Terry. Finally, the introduction gave away every major detail of the book. I don't object to knowing how a book will end. It is the whys and hows that I read for. The introduction stole even that from me. These factors combined made this a book I didn't find myself much compelled to read. What kept me going was simply the interest in how close to truth the author was able to get in prediction of a world plunged into war shortly after publication. I was also curious as to how much of this is tied to the author's beliefs on the nature of war. I do, however, think that this is a book that will work for many people, particularly fans of dystopian fiction, as long as they avoid the introduction.
November 23, 2019
I saw that reviews were mixed on this little-known Scottish science fiction novel, but as the plot sounded very interesting to me I thought I'd check it out. I ended up enjoying it, albeit with a few caveats; the story is limited and rather ponderous at times, and although the physical action is hardy and a highlight here, there are too many psychological digressions and conversations between Hugh and Terry that become slightly repetitive and serve to slow the narrative down somewhat. The author also has an annoying habit of jumping forward in time to briefly describe new events before going back to describe them in detail; that does nothing for suspense.
On the plus side, this story is full of extraordinary detail about an ordinary suburban couple struggling to survive in a grim and hostile wild Scotland. I'm a nature lover who enjoys nothing more than going on nature walks where human presence is entirely missing, so I loved these passages and flew through them. MacPherson has something of the entirely Scottish rough-and-ready character to him and his prose reminded me of Gavin Maxwell's at times. Towards the end of the novel, violent events take over the storyline and these are frightening and realistic to read about, given that we've spent so much time in the heads of our characters in earlier sections. The ending is unforgettable too. Not a perfect book, then, but with much of interest to recommend it to a modern readership.
On the plus side, this story is full of extraordinary detail about an ordinary suburban couple struggling to survive in a grim and hostile wild Scotland. I'm a nature lover who enjoys nothing more than going on nature walks where human presence is entirely missing, so I loved these passages and flew through them. MacPherson has something of the entirely Scottish rough-and-ready character to him and his prose reminded me of Gavin Maxwell's at times. Towards the end of the novel, violent events take over the storyline and these are frightening and realistic to read about, given that we've spent so much time in the heads of our characters in earlier sections. The ending is unforgettable too. Not a perfect book, then, but with much of interest to recommend it to a modern readership.
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