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The Grampian Quartet #2
The Weatherhouse
The women of the tiny town of Fetter-Rothnie have grown used to a life without men, and none more so than the tangle of mothers and daughters, spinsters and widows living at the Weatherhouse. Returned from war with shellshock, Garry Forbes is drawn into their circle as he struggles to build a new understanding of the world from the ruins of his grief.
In The Weatherhouse, Nan Shepherd paints an exquisite portrait of a community coming to terms with the brutal losses of war, and the small tragedies, yearnings, and delusions that make up a life. The second installment in The Grampian Quartet, The Weatherhouse is widely considered Shepherd's masterpiece and one of the most important works of Scottish modernism.
In The Weatherhouse, Nan Shepherd paints an exquisite portrait of a community coming to terms with the brutal losses of war, and the small tragedies, yearnings, and delusions that make up a life. The second installment in The Grampian Quartet, The Weatherhouse is widely considered Shepherd's masterpiece and one of the most important works of Scottish modernism.
207 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1930
About the author
Nan Shepherd
16 books272 followersNan (Anna) Shepherd was a Scottish novelist and poet. She was an early Scottish Modernist writer, who wrote three standalone novels set in small, fictional, communities in North Scotland. The Scottish landscape and weather played a major role in her novels and were the focus of her poetry. Shepherd also wrote one non-fiction book on hill walking, based on her experiences walking in the Cairngorms. An enthusiastic gardener and hill-walker, she made many visits to the Cairngorms with students and friends. She also travelled further afield - to Norway, France, Italy, Greece and South Africa. Shepherd was a lecturer of English at the Aberdeen College of Education for most of her working life.
Shepherd was a friend of the writers Agnes Mure Mackenzie and Neil M. Gunn and a mentor to Jessie Kesson.
Shepherd was a friend of the writers Agnes Mure Mackenzie and Neil M. Gunn and a mentor to Jessie Kesson.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews
December 22, 2016
Nan Shepherd was largely forgotten until her extraordinary piece of nature writing The Living Mountain was championed by the likes of Robert Macfarlane. This has become something of a cult classic, and Shepherd's portrait now adorns some Scottish banknotes. The success of that book has prompted the publication of this edition of her second novel, originally published in 1930.
This is a story of a small community in rural Scotland (Shepherd was from Aberdeenshire) during the First World War. The Weatherhouse of the title is populated by a family of women - the 90-year old matriarch Lang Leeb and her three daughters (two spinsters and one widow). Much of the story concerns Garry Forbes, who is trying to rebuild a sense of purpose after coming back from the war. The story explores the way small communities work, in which small incidents are magnified to become local folklore. Shepherd gives space to develop all of her characters, some of whom are verging on madness.
The book contains a lot of Scottish dialect - there is a glossary but it only contains a small proportion of the many local words and phrases used, particularly in the dialogue. I wondered whether she picked out the ones she felt the reader needed to understand, intending the rest to be more alien.
There is plenty of the nature writing that later reached fruition in The Living Mountain - the characters often experience little epiphanies while "stravaiging" and Shepherd revels in describing the seasons, wildlife and the changing of the light.
I found this slow going at first, but a spell is gradually woven and I enjoyed the later parts.
This is a story of a small community in rural Scotland (Shepherd was from Aberdeenshire) during the First World War. The Weatherhouse of the title is populated by a family of women - the 90-year old matriarch Lang Leeb and her three daughters (two spinsters and one widow). Much of the story concerns Garry Forbes, who is trying to rebuild a sense of purpose after coming back from the war. The story explores the way small communities work, in which small incidents are magnified to become local folklore. Shepherd gives space to develop all of her characters, some of whom are verging on madness.
The book contains a lot of Scottish dialect - there is a glossary but it only contains a small proportion of the many local words and phrases used, particularly in the dialogue. I wondered whether she picked out the ones she felt the reader needed to understand, intending the rest to be more alien.
There is plenty of the nature writing that later reached fruition in The Living Mountain - the characters often experience little epiphanies while "stravaiging" and Shepherd revels in describing the seasons, wildlife and the changing of the light.
I found this slow going at first, but a spell is gradually woven and I enjoyed the later parts.
August 24, 2024
This moving story published in 1930 shows how mental health issues developed during war time, for men at the front and women back home. The author also explores the detrimental and lasting impact that gossip can have on your reputation in a small community in rural Scotland.
Beautiful descriptions of the landscape and nature bring a real sense of the rural setting. Birds are forever flying and singing from the pages. Probably singing in the Scots language, which is delightfully prominent throughout the book with a sprinkling of the local Doric.
Beautiful descriptions of the landscape and nature bring a real sense of the rural setting. Birds are forever flying and singing from the pages. Probably singing in the Scots language, which is delightfully prominent throughout the book with a sprinkling of the local Doric.
April 20, 2018
There was something about this book that made me stubbornly persist with it, but I didn’t really have a feel for it - much less enjoy it - until well over the halfway mark. The introduction to my edition, by Amy Liptrot, was excellent; and its absolute conviction of the book’s brilliance was all that kept me going at first. Part of the problem was the Scottish dialect. Despite a glossary at the back (which I wish that I had discovered sooner), at times it felt like I was reading this book in a foreign language. I also had trouble grasping the characters and finding the thread of the narrative.
The three Craigmyle sisters (all of late middle-age) live with their mother ‘Lang Leeb’ in a cottage called The Weatherhouse, which lies on the edge of a small village called Fetter-Rothnie. The book begins with this female-dominated clan (which includes the middle sister Ellen’s daughter Kate), but in actuality, only Ellen is really important to the plot. I want to amend that to: “the plot, such as it is”. The book takes place during World War I, but in some senses, Fetter-Rothnie feels very distant from the war. You wouldn’t describe it as a war novel. The village feels more like it is outside time; and the outside world, with its own large and tragic conflicts, seems mostly irrelevant. Yes, the village is mostly populated by old men, but men - for the most part - are superfluous to the plot. There is one exception: the Captain Garry Forbes.
Garry Forbes has been invalided home, and his uneasy presence in the village is the wheel on which the plot turns. Louie Morgan, the minister’s daughter, is claiming to be engaged to David Grey, recently deceased. As Grey’s friend, Garry Forbes very much doubts this engagement and he is determined to discover the truth of it from Louie. Miss Lindsay Lorimar, Garry’s sweetheart, is distressed by what she perceives as an ungentlemanly assault on a lady’s honour. Ellen Craigmyle, on the other hand, thinks that Garry has the right of it and is determined to aid him in discrediting Louie Morgan.
The idea of truthfulness is important in a novel in which mental fragility is all too common. The idea that Garry Forbes must be arbiter of what is true or not is especially ironic, and poignant too, because he is ‘cracked’ in his own way. Ellen and Louie are both prone to living in a fantasy world which provides a kind of sustenance lacking in their ‘real’ world. Although the plot-line sets them at odds, the two women have much in common. There doesn’t seem much point to their existence, and both keenly feel that. All three characters suffer from living in a place quick to pronounce judgement, and not much inclined to either forgive or forget.
In the Introduction, Amy Liptrot writes that “continually colliding with this controlled society is a wider desire for joy and understanding for Lindsay, Garry and others. There are several passages of quivering beauty and connection, where time and the individual cease to matter.” Although I struggled with this book, strangely enough, when I finally did finish it I was tempted to start it again. Something eluded me, but I did sense its presence.
The three Craigmyle sisters (all of late middle-age) live with their mother ‘Lang Leeb’ in a cottage called The Weatherhouse, which lies on the edge of a small village called Fetter-Rothnie. The book begins with this female-dominated clan (which includes the middle sister Ellen’s daughter Kate), but in actuality, only Ellen is really important to the plot. I want to amend that to: “the plot, such as it is”. The book takes place during World War I, but in some senses, Fetter-Rothnie feels very distant from the war. You wouldn’t describe it as a war novel. The village feels more like it is outside time; and the outside world, with its own large and tragic conflicts, seems mostly irrelevant. Yes, the village is mostly populated by old men, but men - for the most part - are superfluous to the plot. There is one exception: the Captain Garry Forbes.
Garry Forbes has been invalided home, and his uneasy presence in the village is the wheel on which the plot turns. Louie Morgan, the minister’s daughter, is claiming to be engaged to David Grey, recently deceased. As Grey’s friend, Garry Forbes very much doubts this engagement and he is determined to discover the truth of it from Louie. Miss Lindsay Lorimar, Garry’s sweetheart, is distressed by what she perceives as an ungentlemanly assault on a lady’s honour. Ellen Craigmyle, on the other hand, thinks that Garry has the right of it and is determined to aid him in discrediting Louie Morgan.
The idea of truthfulness is important in a novel in which mental fragility is all too common. The idea that Garry Forbes must be arbiter of what is true or not is especially ironic, and poignant too, because he is ‘cracked’ in his own way. Ellen and Louie are both prone to living in a fantasy world which provides a kind of sustenance lacking in their ‘real’ world. Although the plot-line sets them at odds, the two women have much in common. There doesn’t seem much point to their existence, and both keenly feel that. All three characters suffer from living in a place quick to pronounce judgement, and not much inclined to either forgive or forget.
In the Introduction, Amy Liptrot writes that “continually colliding with this controlled society is a wider desire for joy and understanding for Lindsay, Garry and others. There are several passages of quivering beauty and connection, where time and the individual cease to matter.” Although I struggled with this book, strangely enough, when I finally did finish it I was tempted to start it again. Something eluded me, but I did sense its presence.
July 25, 2014
This novel is indeed a masterpiece. And yet Nan Shephard? Never heard of her. This is truly an undiscovered classic. Takes place in a rural region of Scotland; this novel is about the web of life, the people, the history, the birds, the land and sky. A soldier broken by war in the trenches struggles to understand the nature of his world: factual, plain truth, and the greater complexity of deeper meaning. He is alternately scared by the apparent darkness of the universe and surprised by the joy of the people who work the land who break out into spontaneous dance. Nan Shepard has found an entertaining story to tell that is rich in meaning. Her lyrical, beautiful language brings to life rural Scotland. She possess extraordinary powers of description, vivid pictures of scenery, weaving together the life of humans and the rhythms of nature. I discovered Shephard from a reference to her work in Robert Macfarlane's "The Old Ways." Funny how one good book leads to another. I also thank Macfarlane for introducing me to Edward Thomas.
September 8, 2015
Deeply moving - both in the perfection of its prose and the truth of its subject. One of the truly great writers of the land and of the women who struggle to live and love upon it.
November 6, 2019
Having read the other reviews, I feel that they offer all that needs to be said about the 'story' in this book, and its lyricism. My comments relate to the complaints by English readers about what they call the 'dialect' in the novel and how it made them feel as if they were reading a 'foreign' book.
Let us be clear: the author was not primarily writing for readers from another country (England). Her main audience was, naturally, her own country, Scotland. For some reason these readers from England expect writers from other countries to subordinate their language to that of another. Interestingly my German friends had no problem applying themselves to understanding this novel and other great works such as 'Sunset Song' by Lewis Gibbon which is, much more than the book under discussion, primarily in the Scots tongue. They particularly enjoy the Norse aspects to Scots.
And here is another lesson for the reviewers whom I am discussing: the Scots tongue is no more of a dialect than English is a dialect of Scots. Both developed from the tongues of German and Norse invaders. For hundreds of years Scots was the prestige language in Scotland, spoken at Court when there was no United Kingdom, and fulfilling all the requirements of language in terms of syntax, complexity and richness. Scots law is based on this and uses Scots language. It was the union with its larger neighbour that saw the Scots language subordinated; not some innate inferiority.
I will end upon this note: if I as a Scot can take time to unravel the alien nature of Shakespearean English in order to derive benefit from the works therein, English readers can throw off their arrogance and make an effort with great works of Scottish literature especially those such as 'The Weatherhouse' that are mostly written in modern English.
Let us be clear: the author was not primarily writing for readers from another country (England). Her main audience was, naturally, her own country, Scotland. For some reason these readers from England expect writers from other countries to subordinate their language to that of another. Interestingly my German friends had no problem applying themselves to understanding this novel and other great works such as 'Sunset Song' by Lewis Gibbon which is, much more than the book under discussion, primarily in the Scots tongue. They particularly enjoy the Norse aspects to Scots.
And here is another lesson for the reviewers whom I am discussing: the Scots tongue is no more of a dialect than English is a dialect of Scots. Both developed from the tongues of German and Norse invaders. For hundreds of years Scots was the prestige language in Scotland, spoken at Court when there was no United Kingdom, and fulfilling all the requirements of language in terms of syntax, complexity and richness. Scots law is based on this and uses Scots language. It was the union with its larger neighbour that saw the Scots language subordinated; not some innate inferiority.
I will end upon this note: if I as a Scot can take time to unravel the alien nature of Shakespearean English in order to derive benefit from the works therein, English readers can throw off their arrogance and make an effort with great works of Scottish literature especially those such as 'The Weatherhouse' that are mostly written in modern English.
January 1, 2018
I had read one of Nan Shepherd's books before coming to The Weatherhouse. The Living Mountain is a glorious meditation upon the natural world, and I very much admired the way in which Shepherd's descriptions were able to build such a full picture of the Cairngorms, which she so adored. The Weatherhouse was my first foray into her fiction.
The Weatherhouse takes place in a small fictitious town in Scotland named Fetter-Rothnie. Many of the men have left in pursuit of war, and the women who remain have become accustomed to living in a female-dominated community. As in The Living Mountain, the sense of place is built vividly from the outset, and Shepherd's imagery is beautiful. She writes, for instance: 'On the willows by the pool the catkins were fluffed, insubstantial, their stamens held so lightly to the tree that they seemed like the golden essence of its life escaping to the liberty of air.'
Shepherd's portrayal of the women who live in Fetter-Rothnie is fascinating in its shrewdness. Of one of her protagonists, she writes: 'She did not know human pain and danger. She thought she did, but the pain she knew was only her own quivering hurt. Her world was all her own, she its centre and interpretation; and she had even a faint sweet contempt for those who could not enter it.'
The use of Scotch dialect is effective, but it did feel a touch overdone and impenetrable for the English reader in places. The fact that some of the language used was rather old-fashioned did not aid me at all in being able to translate it, I must admit. This unfortunately prohibited me from connecting with, or understanding, the characters, which was a real shame, and it certainly affected my reading of the novel.
I feel a little disappointed by The Weatherhouse; for me, it just did not reach the heights that I was expecting. Whilst the descriptions were lovely, and often quite original, the general prose verged on lacklustre, saturated as it was with details that did not interest me. It did feel as though Shepherd lost focus at times, and the whole did not come together in a way which I felt was either creative or satisfactory. Perhaps this is my own fault; The Weatherhouse is the second part of Shepherd's Grampian Quartet, which I was not aware of when beginning this particular novel.
The Weatherhouse takes place in a small fictitious town in Scotland named Fetter-Rothnie. Many of the men have left in pursuit of war, and the women who remain have become accustomed to living in a female-dominated community. As in The Living Mountain, the sense of place is built vividly from the outset, and Shepherd's imagery is beautiful. She writes, for instance: 'On the willows by the pool the catkins were fluffed, insubstantial, their stamens held so lightly to the tree that they seemed like the golden essence of its life escaping to the liberty of air.'
Shepherd's portrayal of the women who live in Fetter-Rothnie is fascinating in its shrewdness. Of one of her protagonists, she writes: 'She did not know human pain and danger. She thought she did, but the pain she knew was only her own quivering hurt. Her world was all her own, she its centre and interpretation; and she had even a faint sweet contempt for those who could not enter it.'
The use of Scotch dialect is effective, but it did feel a touch overdone and impenetrable for the English reader in places. The fact that some of the language used was rather old-fashioned did not aid me at all in being able to translate it, I must admit. This unfortunately prohibited me from connecting with, or understanding, the characters, which was a real shame, and it certainly affected my reading of the novel.
I feel a little disappointed by The Weatherhouse; for me, it just did not reach the heights that I was expecting. Whilst the descriptions were lovely, and often quite original, the general prose verged on lacklustre, saturated as it was with details that did not interest me. It did feel as though Shepherd lost focus at times, and the whole did not come together in a way which I felt was either creative or satisfactory. Perhaps this is my own fault; The Weatherhouse is the second part of Shepherd's Grampian Quartet, which I was not aware of when beginning this particular novel.
April 13, 2017
Vivid descriptions of the landscape and the effect it has on the characters. Different ways of life long gone described with humour and affection. Some of the dialect was a bit impenetrable, but it didn't spoil the enjoyment of the book.
May 2, 2023
I am still digesting this one and not sure of what to make of it all. I had come to it as I just loved Shepherd's Living Mountain and I wanted to take a look at her fiction writing. I feel that this is one that would need multiple readings to get everything out of it. Although not long there is a lot packed in, and I have to admit that especially in the beginning I got confused as to which sister was which, as well as the old mother all living up at the weather house. There were a lot of introductions, names and nick names right at the start. I suppose it is about community and the interconnectivness of all the folk and their lives, rather as you get out in nature.
It is set in the north of Scotland during the first World War. The weatherhouse is home to three sisters in their sixties and their old 90-odd mother who sits and sings folk songs or watches with her spider silence. What an expression. They are not always kind to one another. Ellen's daughter, sensible Kate, in her 30s also lives with them. 19 year old Lindsay is sent to live with them a while in the hopes she will give up the notion of marrying so young. But the object of her affection just happens to be on leave from the front and staying with his mad aunt down the road. Then there's the self absorbed and delusional school teacher Louie who is putting it about that she was engaged to Garry's dead friend. Something he can't believe and is furious about on behalf of his friends honour, desperate to get the truth out. Although even that grows complicated as he learns more of the truth and considers the impact on the people involved and the local community.
It is set in the north of Scotland during the first World War. The weatherhouse is home to three sisters in their sixties and their old 90-odd mother who sits and sings folk songs or watches with her spider silence. What an expression. They are not always kind to one another. Ellen's daughter, sensible Kate, in her 30s also lives with them. 19 year old Lindsay is sent to live with them a while in the hopes she will give up the notion of marrying so young. But the object of her affection just happens to be on leave from the front and staying with his mad aunt down the road. Then there's the self absorbed and delusional school teacher Louie who is putting it about that she was engaged to Garry's dead friend. Something he can't believe and is furious about on behalf of his friends honour, desperate to get the truth out. Although even that grows complicated as he learns more of the truth and considers the impact on the people involved and the local community.
October 4, 2025
Purchased while vacationing in Scotland, I wanted this to accentuate my trip. Written in 1931, the novel takes place in the countryside during WWI and centers primarily a family of late middle aged sisters all currently unmarried and living together.. and a recovering shell shocked man whose Aunt is also from the village.
It was not an easy read, and I did feel at a disadvantage for not having an ear for the colloquial turn of phrase and the accent. Eventually it was like reading Shakespeare where you kind of pick up what is going by osmosis (lol).
I think it had a lot of insight into how people are constantly criticizing and judging one another and of the self doubts we all have but somehow fail to see that others have as well.
It was not an easy read, and I did feel at a disadvantage for not having an ear for the colloquial turn of phrase and the accent. Eventually it was like reading Shakespeare where you kind of pick up what is going by osmosis (lol).
I think it had a lot of insight into how people are constantly criticizing and judging one another and of the self doubts we all have but somehow fail to see that others have as well.
March 8, 2024
3.5-4.0
May 4, 2024
Having loved ‘The living Mountain’ and enjoyed her other novel ‘The Quarry Wood’ I eagerly sought this book out secondhand as it appears to be out of print once again. I tried, I really tried, but the use of Scottish dialect for all dialogue in the novel made it impossible to follow. I am happy to accept other readers’ verdict that the book is a masterpiece.
February 11, 2017
I really struggled to rate this novel. For three quarters of it, I was incredibly bored and was forcing myself through each page. I couldn't understand what anyone was saying, I didn't care much for the characters and the plot seemed entirely lacking. And then suddenly, at a crucial point, I found it interesting and touching and I was gripped. The characters came to life in all their flawed humanity and what seemed such a mundane plot to carry through the book actually made a lot of sense when you understood the impact of it.
I also enjoyed her descriptions of the wildness of the landscape and the weather, particularly where the young romantic, Lindsay, was involved. It really gave you a sense of the place and the writing is really quite beautiful.
I can't justify more than three stars given how I felt about it for most of the ride, but I can appreciate how others have given it more. Perhaps if I were better versed in Scottish vernacular I would have enjoyed it more. I'd urge anyone else who is struggling with this book to read it to the end. Try to get past the language and not worry about understanding everything. I found it profoundly moving towards the end. I'm still thinking about the characters and how they felt and what it all meant...
I also enjoyed her descriptions of the wildness of the landscape and the weather, particularly where the young romantic, Lindsay, was involved. It really gave you a sense of the place and the writing is really quite beautiful.
I can't justify more than three stars given how I felt about it for most of the ride, but I can appreciate how others have given it more. Perhaps if I were better versed in Scottish vernacular I would have enjoyed it more. I'd urge anyone else who is struggling with this book to read it to the end. Try to get past the language and not worry about understanding everything. I found it profoundly moving towards the end. I'm still thinking about the characters and how they felt and what it all meant...
November 29, 2016
A moving and intense story set in rural Scotland during the First World War. The two main characters are women, largely overlooked by their family and neighbours, leading lives restricted by poverty or lack of opportunity, their dreams frustrated by their circumstances. Both try to gain esteem in family and society with disastrous results.
Once I had come to terms with the dialect speech and the complicated writing style, I enjoyed this book. It is a rather bleak tale - the drama unfolds gradually, punctuated with detailed description of the countryside. I was gripped by the characters and their dilemmas, and by Ellen in particular, hopeful of an independent family life. Ellen and Louie, their actions and motives, are written with great empathy and delicacy - heartbreakingly realistic.
With thanks to Canongate via NetGalley for the chance to read this classic.
November 7, 2017
I don’t normally pick up a book according to its cover but I did in this case. It helped that the novel was by Nan Shepherd whose The Quarry Wood I enjoyed a year or so ago. Yet I was also attracted by the illustration which is almost in the style of a 1930s railway poster – a very Art Deco form – even down to the lettering. The house shown is actually wrong though; in two ways. It is much more of an English type of building rather than Scottish and it bears no relation at all to the hexagonal construction described in the text. Pretty, just the same.
That titular Weatherhouse is the home in Fetter-Rothnie of the Craigmyle family, which consists of matriarch Lang Leeb plus her daughters Annie, Theresa and the widowed Ellen. The story though, is more to do with how Garry Forbes, the intended of Lindsay Lorimer, in turn the daughter of Andrew, Lang Leeb’s cousin, came to become a proverb in Fetter-Rothnie.
The former Minister’s daughter, Louie Morgan, claimed after Forbes’s friend David Grey had died in the Great War that she and Grey had been secretly betrothed and carries Grey’s mother’s ring about her neck as proof. Forbes, home from the war as a convalescent, is convinced that can not be the case. He attempts, first to bring the falseness of Louie’s claim to the attention of the Kirk Session (which upsets Lindsay) and then to prevent his knowledge of Louie’s theft of the ring becoming more widely apprehended.
Despite what appears to be a focus on small matters The Weatherhouse nevertheless has a wider resonance, and has some humorous observations. The incidental mention of the man who, because of his brother, waited twenty years to wed his fiancée (who nevertheless brought him children “as a wedding gift”) shows life in those times was not entirely as straight-laced as might perhaps be thought.
Human dilemmas and emotions occur in all places and at all times. Shepherd shows us the humanity of her characters, in all their complexity. This is a fine companion piece to The Quarry Wood. Both these novels bear some similarities to Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s Sunset Song and Cloud Howe but don’t quite have the sweep of the first of those.
That titular Weatherhouse is the home in Fetter-Rothnie of the Craigmyle family, which consists of matriarch Lang Leeb plus her daughters Annie, Theresa and the widowed Ellen. The story though, is more to do with how Garry Forbes, the intended of Lindsay Lorimer, in turn the daughter of Andrew, Lang Leeb’s cousin, came to become a proverb in Fetter-Rothnie.
The former Minister’s daughter, Louie Morgan, claimed after Forbes’s friend David Grey had died in the Great War that she and Grey had been secretly betrothed and carries Grey’s mother’s ring about her neck as proof. Forbes, home from the war as a convalescent, is convinced that can not be the case. He attempts, first to bring the falseness of Louie’s claim to the attention of the Kirk Session (which upsets Lindsay) and then to prevent his knowledge of Louie’s theft of the ring becoming more widely apprehended.
Despite what appears to be a focus on small matters The Weatherhouse nevertheless has a wider resonance, and has some humorous observations. The incidental mention of the man who, because of his brother, waited twenty years to wed his fiancée (who nevertheless brought him children “as a wedding gift”) shows life in those times was not entirely as straight-laced as might perhaps be thought.
Human dilemmas and emotions occur in all places and at all times. Shepherd shows us the humanity of her characters, in all their complexity. This is a fine companion piece to The Quarry Wood. Both these novels bear some similarities to Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s Sunset Song and Cloud Howe but don’t quite have the sweep of the first of those.
January 15, 2025
“She had never felt so much abased, so lonely in the multitude of living things.” Nan Shepherd, best known as the nature writer/memoirist of The Living Mountain, published her strange, sad second novel The Weatherhouse in 1930, in between the two wars that catalysed much of her writing. The Weatherhouse is set during the First World War, in a fictional town in Scotland, where the supply of men is, on account of war and illness, depleted, and women have taken the reins of the community. In terms of plot, it is largely focused on three protagonists: Captain Garry Forbes, who arrives in town on leave from the war; Lindsay Lorimer, who he falls in love with; and Ellen Falconer, who becomes obsessed with Garry, sick as she is of her life. Shepherd concerns herself with truth and narrative and the tension between them: “It was not often one could deliver so clear a blow against falsehood”, and elsewhere, “She let her thought hover upon her own past. It was a glancing embroidery now, pleasant to sight.” The idea of narrative as needing to be aesthetically pleasing is notable. And yet this is a novel preoccupied with ugliness as much as beauty, seeing light and dark as two sides of the same coin. The omnipresence of light, its promise as well as its threat, recurs throughout: “She threw the curtains about her, drew on a pair of galoshes, and ran into the night. The night astonished her, so huge it was. She had the sense of escaping from the lit room into light itself. Light was everywhere”. Inclined as Shepherd became towards philosophical thought, particularly in her later and more famous work, the seeds could be seen as early as her second novel, its characters lost, unhappy, uncertain, and still moving.
March 28, 2024
At first read, “The Weatherhouse” is not as simple as the cover and reviews may imply. Scottish dialect and turn of the century vocabulary may leave an unprepared reader frustrated as they attempt to read what they believe will be a quick and simple novella. Yet for me, this burden had a useful purpose. Slowing down the pace made me contemplate the plot, reflect on the dialogue, and meditate on the meaning of the author’s message. It is my opinion that there are several. The first, is that we as humans are complex. Just as the nature of Scotland (the setting of this story) can appear beautiful so too can it be a destructive force. And vice versa. A pious woman may also be a liar. A foolish farmer is capable of being a loyal friend.A madwoman who is decrepit and old, whose words are seen as nonsense can secretly inspire a recluse child. The Scottish lands can create vivid mountains and their winds can bring sweet breezes. However, so too can their soils and harsh weather conditions bring famine and misfortune.
To me, the message was that perfection and imperfection, just and unjust, all is relative. It is perspective. Just as the war, which they called Great was also destructive. For all the good, so too comes bad. We as humans must be mindful of what we are capable of in both capacities.
To me, the message was that perfection and imperfection, just and unjust, all is relative. It is perspective. Just as the war, which they called Great was also destructive. For all the good, so too comes bad. We as humans must be mindful of what we are capable of in both capacities.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 22, 2024
I picked up The Weatherhouse at The Writers' Museum in Edinburgh because I have never been spared by a gift shop, and I absolutely loved Nan Shepherd's The Living Mountain. Though I've never been to the Cairngorms, the way Shepherd wrote about nature and the need to really turn off our heads and tune into it with our senses appeals to anyone who goes for a hike, I think! Some of that reverence for nature is also included in The Weatherhouse.
A soldier who's had a bit of a mental breakdown leaves the frontlines in World War I to recover back in rural Scotland, where the majority of the people still around are women, many of them aging and with their own personality quirks. As the soldier learns a story he believes to be untrue about a dearly departed friend, he embarks on a moral crusade to set things straight. As he does so, though, the danger of living in our own minds - and not relating to and understanding the world and people for what they are - becomes apparent. This touches multiple characters in different ways.
The Scottish dialect can be a bit of a head scratcher, but this is the sort of book that makes you think about how much you may need to get out of your own head, too, and there are heartfelt descriptions of nature that hearken back to The Living Mountain. I very much enjoyed it.
A soldier who's had a bit of a mental breakdown leaves the frontlines in World War I to recover back in rural Scotland, where the majority of the people still around are women, many of them aging and with their own personality quirks. As the soldier learns a story he believes to be untrue about a dearly departed friend, he embarks on a moral crusade to set things straight. As he does so, though, the danger of living in our own minds - and not relating to and understanding the world and people for what they are - becomes apparent. This touches multiple characters in different ways.
The Scottish dialect can be a bit of a head scratcher, but this is the sort of book that makes you think about how much you may need to get out of your own head, too, and there are heartfelt descriptions of nature that hearken back to The Living Mountain. I very much enjoyed it.
May 29, 2024
linsday: i can't believe this girl that's delusional and self-absorbed lied about being engaged to a dead guy and stole a family heirloom to prove it. i've seen all that is Evil and Wretched that the world has to offer. how can i ever be happy again?
garry, who's on sick leave because he almost died and went insane in the trenches of ww1: girl-
anyway, i don't even really know if i liked this book, so we'll do the good and not-so-good.
the good: the writing is really good! Nan Shepherd is talented. the descriptions of nature are really pleasant, the use and degree of use of patois is a very convenient indicator of hierarchy in a small society, for both writer and reader, and it's used very intelligently here. the characters are consistent within themselves. the plot isn't very important since this is more of a slice of life/character study, but it's well-woven. some characters were really interesting, and i particularly liked how their perceived morality and immorality was explored - especially nell, louie morgan and bawbie.
now, for the not-so-good: before you even start the novel, there's two issues. i have the canongate edition, and the prologue is bad. i've never had a book where i read the foreword and then started the book and was more confused. i myself took a while to finish the novel, but the foreword felt as though its author had read the book a couple years before and written it from memory. it's vague, and i never recommend to skip forewords, even when they have spoilers and especially for classics and older books, but yeah, don't read it, it's not changing anything. then we have the character list. terrible. 0/10. tons of characters are missing, including some that share first names with others on the list, and a lot of nicknames are omitted too. irrelevant information though? oh you bet it's in there. 90% of the information i would have needed isn't there, and 90% of the information that is is useless and irrelevant. a lot of characters are introduced in quick succession, and i kept having to go back to the list, only for it to be useless. my last point - and biggest issue with the novel - is that, for a character study, the characters sure aren't good. and i don't mean they're bad people or badly written. they're well-written, and i could not care less about the moral compass of a character when I'm judging the writing of a book. they just... kinda suck. they fall flat, and strange.
there are a Lot of examples of that. Lindsay, who kind of is the/a main character, is a whiny, stupid brat. she's daft, and uninteresting, and incapable of forming a thought for herself. sure, she's only 19, but it doesn't make her any more compelling, and it doesn't excuse her complete and total lack of evolution throughout the book. she's a pale caricature of what a middle-age man might believe teenagers are like. Garry has his moments, but he's just insufferable half of the time. Johathan, who's supposed to be some sort of creator of rumors and mockery and sayings, is just a buffoon, and i couldn't understand what he was saying or what he was mocking half of the time, which certainly didn't make him less annoying.
i think the worst part of it is how Everyone behaves around the Louie Morgan thing. basically, louie is delusional, self-important and addicted to being the center of attention - the problem is that she lacks any qualities that would make this happen organically. so she uses the fact that a man who used to live in the village just died of illness - soon after his mother passed - to start lying about their having been engaged for attention. when she realises her story is flimsy, she steals an heirloom ring from the grieving father/husband. garry, who was friends with the deceased, immediately calls bull, and is outraged that the whole village just... bought it. surely this is going to be a compelling plot and commentary on small societies? nah. when he tries to call her out on it, lindsay says he can't do that because that'd be... questioning a woman's character? that was one of the stupidest moments of the book, for sure. women are treated as a dozen different kind of creatures throughout the book, none quite as human or fleshed-out as the men, and it's grating at best. anyway the whole village loses their mind at the idea of a woman lying or stealing, and act like it's the end of the world, when none of them even remotely liked louie before, and only started pitying her because they just bought her lie. they all act like them finding her out and telling the truth is a bigger crime than... disrespecting a dead man's memory for your own personal gain and stealing valuables from his family? what even.
i might sound harsh, but a lot of them were unpleasant, inconsistent or barely more than caricatures. i would have loved to hear more about the ones that were not, like paradise, nell and louie morgan, rather than have lindsay walk through her third pathetic fallacy of the day or garry change his mind more than he shaves (why did Shepherd insist on his being unshaven and ugly so much?? he's nicknamed the gargoyle in the character list, and i'm not even sure he's called that twice in the book). i was actually about to finish this book on what i saw as a high note, a closer last look into the mind of nell falconer, one of the most interesting characters whose point of view is explored. and then it fell short of making a point and the last page was, as many passages were, completely unintelligible. i could not tell you what was meant in the last page of the book if my life depended on it. i could not even tell you how many characters are there, because even that is not made clear.
and i wish this were a case of me being very little literate, and diving into my first book that isn't YA where everything is spelled out for you, but no. i've read dostoyevsky and been more certain of the plot than i was reading this. at the end of the day, Nan Shepherd fell short of developing enough fleshed-out, interesting characters to populate a whole novel. i might read her non-fiction, since both her style and descriptions of nature are incredibly pleasant, but i don't think i will be reading any more of her novels.
garry, who's on sick leave because he almost died and went insane in the trenches of ww1: girl-
anyway, i don't even really know if i liked this book, so we'll do the good and not-so-good.
the good: the writing is really good! Nan Shepherd is talented. the descriptions of nature are really pleasant, the use and degree of use of patois is a very convenient indicator of hierarchy in a small society, for both writer and reader, and it's used very intelligently here. the characters are consistent within themselves. the plot isn't very important since this is more of a slice of life/character study, but it's well-woven. some characters were really interesting, and i particularly liked how their perceived morality and immorality was explored - especially nell, louie morgan and bawbie.
now, for the not-so-good: before you even start the novel, there's two issues. i have the canongate edition, and the prologue is bad. i've never had a book where i read the foreword and then started the book and was more confused. i myself took a while to finish the novel, but the foreword felt as though its author had read the book a couple years before and written it from memory. it's vague, and i never recommend to skip forewords, even when they have spoilers and especially for classics and older books, but yeah, don't read it, it's not changing anything. then we have the character list. terrible. 0/10. tons of characters are missing, including some that share first names with others on the list, and a lot of nicknames are omitted too. irrelevant information though? oh you bet it's in there. 90% of the information i would have needed isn't there, and 90% of the information that is is useless and irrelevant. a lot of characters are introduced in quick succession, and i kept having to go back to the list, only for it to be useless. my last point - and biggest issue with the novel - is that, for a character study, the characters sure aren't good. and i don't mean they're bad people or badly written. they're well-written, and i could not care less about the moral compass of a character when I'm judging the writing of a book. they just... kinda suck. they fall flat, and strange.
there are a Lot of examples of that. Lindsay, who kind of is the/a main character, is a whiny, stupid brat. she's daft, and uninteresting, and incapable of forming a thought for herself. sure, she's only 19, but it doesn't make her any more compelling, and it doesn't excuse her complete and total lack of evolution throughout the book. she's a pale caricature of what a middle-age man might believe teenagers are like. Garry has his moments, but he's just insufferable half of the time. Johathan, who's supposed to be some sort of creator of rumors and mockery and sayings, is just a buffoon, and i couldn't understand what he was saying or what he was mocking half of the time, which certainly didn't make him less annoying.
i think the worst part of it is how Everyone behaves around the Louie Morgan thing. basically, louie is delusional, self-important and addicted to being the center of attention - the problem is that she lacks any qualities that would make this happen organically. so she uses the fact that a man who used to live in the village just died of illness - soon after his mother passed - to start lying about their having been engaged for attention. when she realises her story is flimsy, she steals an heirloom ring from the grieving father/husband. garry, who was friends with the deceased, immediately calls bull, and is outraged that the whole village just... bought it. surely this is going to be a compelling plot and commentary on small societies? nah. when he tries to call her out on it, lindsay says he can't do that because that'd be... questioning a woman's character? that was one of the stupidest moments of the book, for sure. women are treated as a dozen different kind of creatures throughout the book, none quite as human or fleshed-out as the men, and it's grating at best. anyway the whole village loses their mind at the idea of a woman lying or stealing, and act like it's the end of the world, when none of them even remotely liked louie before, and only started pitying her because they just bought her lie. they all act like them finding her out and telling the truth is a bigger crime than... disrespecting a dead man's memory for your own personal gain and stealing valuables from his family? what even.
i might sound harsh, but a lot of them were unpleasant, inconsistent or barely more than caricatures. i would have loved to hear more about the ones that were not, like paradise, nell and louie morgan, rather than have lindsay walk through her third pathetic fallacy of the day or garry change his mind more than he shaves (why did Shepherd insist on his being unshaven and ugly so much?? he's nicknamed the gargoyle in the character list, and i'm not even sure he's called that twice in the book). i was actually about to finish this book on what i saw as a high note, a closer last look into the mind of nell falconer, one of the most interesting characters whose point of view is explored. and then it fell short of making a point and the last page was, as many passages were, completely unintelligible. i could not tell you what was meant in the last page of the book if my life depended on it. i could not even tell you how many characters are there, because even that is not made clear.
and i wish this were a case of me being very little literate, and diving into my first book that isn't YA where everything is spelled out for you, but no. i've read dostoyevsky and been more certain of the plot than i was reading this. at the end of the day, Nan Shepherd fell short of developing enough fleshed-out, interesting characters to populate a whole novel. i might read her non-fiction, since both her style and descriptions of nature are incredibly pleasant, but i don't think i will be reading any more of her novels.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 30, 2020
I was lucky enough to find this in my local library after hearing Robert Macfarlane talk about Nan Shepherd.
It did take me while to get used to the language, even though some of it reminded me of my lowland Scot grandmother. However, by the end of the book I felt myself to be fluent (ish).
It's a small story of a small town, but it has a big import. A house, full of women, in a small town near the end of the first world war. Sisters with their petty squabbles and long-held frustrations, a mother who sings her opinions in apparently 'stite' songs, a young cousin sent to avoid an 'unsuitable' lover, the said lover, and a young woman who is possibly clutching at straws.
In amongst it there's philosophy, hope and disappointment, scandal and sorrow.
It makes for a moving and memorable read.
It did take me while to get used to the language, even though some of it reminded me of my lowland Scot grandmother. However, by the end of the book I felt myself to be fluent (ish).
It's a small story of a small town, but it has a big import. A house, full of women, in a small town near the end of the first world war. Sisters with their petty squabbles and long-held frustrations, a mother who sings her opinions in apparently 'stite' songs, a young cousin sent to avoid an 'unsuitable' lover, the said lover, and a young woman who is possibly clutching at straws.
In amongst it there's philosophy, hope and disappointment, scandal and sorrow.
It makes for a moving and memorable read.
March 24, 2021
Here because of Robert Macfarlane and I am ever so grateful. Nan Shepherd’s novel “The Weatherhouse” is a postwar portrait of a rural, secluded community in Scotland. Much of the novel focuses on the women who inhabit “The Weatherhouse” and the inter-generational workings that unfold. Shepherd raises some interesting moral quandaries which trip up the cast of characters and illustrate a case study of how rumors and deceit, and the revealing of such, play out in an insular community. My favorite parts were Shepherd’s exposition of the characters’ experiences in nature—only fitting, as she is best known for her nature writing (this was my first Shepherd read, so I can’t fully account for how it compares to her better-known works; those are next on my list). Amy Liptrot’s introduction and assessment is wonderful and I’m glad I spent a few minutes rereading it upon finishing the novel.
October 21, 2023
I gave up on the book after a few chapters but then returned to it and am very glad I did. I gave up due to the extensive family history that was confusing in the set up but this is a great story. Nan Shepherd at one point describes Garry Forbes as being keen to return to the front. Given his harrowing experience of the trenches this is somewhat unlikely but says something about growing up in a time where this was once expected, even as the scale of the horrors becomes clear. Nan knows this well. What happens to Garry and the subsequent shell shock is described in detail, both emotional and gruesome. But as the book continues there is delight, Garry returning to find his aunt dancing is lovely, the community is capable of forgiveness and understanding in a way that modern audiences might not expect.
January 26, 2026
splendid
the writing is so lyrical, funny at times, insightful and so on
though it is a short book it let’s you take your time with it, you get to know the characters, their inner workings and their little town. They evolve over the course of the book and I loved seeing how everyone was entangled and what came of it
all those people saying it is hard to read baffle me, the Scots is only in the dialogue and if you read it aloud you can make out most of it
and it is written… by a scottish writer… it’s set in scotland…
do not be scared by it!
it’s a wonderful read, a great character study, and has beautiful landscape descriptions
also! grannies! being main characters! having lifes and character and ambitions and revelations and new beginnings and regrets and delusions and mean streaks through singing!
the writing is so lyrical, funny at times, insightful and so on
though it is a short book it let’s you take your time with it, you get to know the characters, their inner workings and their little town. They evolve over the course of the book and I loved seeing how everyone was entangled and what came of it
all those people saying it is hard to read baffle me, the Scots is only in the dialogue and if you read it aloud you can make out most of it
and it is written… by a scottish writer… it’s set in scotland…
do not be scared by it!
it’s a wonderful read, a great character study, and has beautiful landscape descriptions
also! grannies! being main characters! having lifes and character and ambitions and revelations and new beginnings and regrets and delusions and mean streaks through singing!
March 27, 2024
Quite honestly, I probably would rate higher if I took better time to read it, but I read it incredibly rushed in between doing other work. Either way, it was an interesting way to view women during the war. It focuses on how women were able to run a small village in the absence of men and create a better place because of it. Of course, a man returns and there's plenty of gossip and misunderstandings throughout, but it's really the relationship with nature that's interesting. Aspects that aren't inherently feminine yet feel that way are put on display alongside the characters and is a nice story to follow. Seeing women as the focal and positive driving point of a story is nice, especially in the time and place the story is set.
April 7, 2018
At first the dialect was difficult for me, but as I read on I began to be able to follow it and to enjoy its rhythms and trenchant expressions. The main plot of the novel concerns a girl lying about her engagement to a dead soldier and stealing his mother's ring to support her pretence. This seems at first a trivial story in comparison to the events of the first world war going on in the background. However the small events and interactions of the community are explored to show the difficulties of truth, compassion and understanding, connection with the real world that exist for people in microcosm and macrocosm.It is very much a book of its time.
September 13, 2022
So, I’ve read some of Irvine Welsh; I’ve read all of Alan Warner. I’ve seen “Gregory’s Girl”, and “Local Hero” is one of my all time favorite films. I must, however, confess that the Scots of this earlier generation laid me a temporary stymie. It took a couple efforts to crest the first forty or so pages, but on the third attempt I managed to push through, and was richly rewarded in reading this account of family and community dynamics amongst the residents of a remote town and village in the Grampians, and their quotidian struggles and triumphs in trying to do right by themselves and their neighbors.
July 3, 2017
This book is definitely of its time, with a rather old-fashioned moral dilemma at its heart, and some odd and quirky characters to boot. It is well-written, but the passages relating to some of the characters' relationships to the natural world truly sing. Reading this book has inspired me to go on to read Nan Shepherd's nature writing which, if the aforementioned passages are anything to go by, should be outstanding.
February 10, 2018
Although short, I found this a very difficult book to read. The Scots dialect was in places impenetrable. The glossary at the back didn't include very much. The story of a Scottish community during the First World War was interesting - the emphasis on the women and how society was modernising. The descriptions of landscape were amazing. Nonetheless, it was not a novel I will recommend to others.
May 22, 2017
This was one of those books where I enjoyed it while reading, but never felt compelled to pick up. I let it lie for long periods, and I'm not sure it suffered for it. But the prose was wonderful and I did really enjoy the characters, which helped when the plot wandered between arcs seemingly at random.
August 23, 2021
I found this slow to read, lots of Doric that despite living in Aberdeenshire for years I struggled with. Gradually the story unwound and I had to find out what happens to all the characters. Typical of Nan Shepherd’s writing there are some beautiful descriptive passages about the countryside, flora and fauna.
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