Nell Hannah: Aye Singin an Spinnin Yarns

by Margaret Bennett, Doris Rougvie (Illustrations)

Nell Hannah was born in rural Aberdeenshire in 1920 and grew in Turriff, where her family scraped a meagre living as domestic and farm servants. After the outbreak of World War Two, Nell and her sister Margaret moved with their mother to Perthshire, where all three got jobs at the Stanley Mill . At the time, it was running full tilt to produce webbing for military requirements and despite long hours and austere conditions; Nell recalls her years as a mill lassie as being memorably happy.

In conversation with folklorist Margaret Bennett and long-time friend and fellow-singer, Doris Rougvie , Nell shares a life-time of reminiscences and songs. In recalling the hey-day of an industry that shut down in the 1980s, she constructs an oral history of life in war-time Perthshire. Then, following life’s paths with its twists and turns, Nell tells how, at the age of sixty-nine, she discovered her gift of singing and entertaining. Having made her first recording, a cassette, at the age of seventy, and her fifth, a CD, at the age of 90, Nell can hold an audience in the palm of her hand.

144 pages, Paperback

First published July 24, 2013

About the author

Folklorist, singer and writer Margaret Bennett is from the Isle of Skye and comes from a long line of traditional singers and pipers — Gaelic on her mother’s side and Lowland Scots on her father’s. She credits her family upbringing with her expertise in Scottish Folklore and folksong, though she has a post-grad Master’s in Folklore and a PhD in Ethnology.

Widely regarded as “Scotland’s foremost folklorist” she is known to “wear her scholarship lightly,” lecturing, singing and storytelling on both sides of the Atlantic. Scottish Arts critic Judy Moir wrote “It’s rare to witness such a charismatic and fascinating raconteur.”

Prize-winning author with 15 books to her credit, her awards include The Michaelis Ratcliffe Prize for Folklore (1991), The Scotch Malt Whisky Society award “for notable service… rendered to the people of Scotland” (1994), the Master Music Maker Award “(USA, 1998) in celebration of a lifetime of musicianship and teaching”, Canadian Historical Association/Société historique du Canada: Cleo Award for History (1999), the Celtic Women International 2003 award for “lifelong service to Scottish and Celtic Culture” and Le Prix du Québec (for contribution to Quebec cultural studies (2011).

She has also featured in theatre, film and documentaries and with her son Martyn Bennett (1971–2005) collaborated on recording projects, including the lament in the National Theatre of Scotland’s critically acclaimed play, ‘Black Watch’.

Since 2009 she has been the driving force behind the charity Grace Notes Scotland, (“Dedicated to handing on tradition”), organizing and teaching community workshops as well as recording local traditions.

Also, since 2009, she has been a Patron of the Traditional Music and Song Association. In 2011, for her services to traditional music she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama; in 2012 the Royal Scottish Academy elected her Professor of the RSA; in 2014 she was inducted into the Traditional Music Hall of Fame; in 2017 the Saltire Society (Highland Branch) presented her with an award “for outstanding work in conserving and sustaining the oral traditions, music and song of the Highlands and Islands“. In 2019, the Saltire Society awarded her their Outstanding Women Award, as one of ten women who have made an outstanding contribution to Scottish society.

As the late Hamish Henderson wrote, “Margaret embodies the spirit of Scotland.”