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The Lost Lights of St Kilda
When Fred Lawson takes a summer job on St Kilda in 1927, little does he realise that he has joined the last community to ever live on that desolate, isolated island. Only three years later, St Kilda will be evacuated, the islanders near-dead from starvation. But for Fred, that summer is the bedrock of his whole life...
Chrissie Gillies is just nineteen when the researchers come to St Kilda. Hired as their cook, she can't believe they would ever notice her, sophisticated and educated as they are. But she soon develops a cautious friendship with Fred, a friendship that cannot be allowed to develop into anything more...
Years later, to help deal with his hellish existence in a German prisoner of war camp, Fred tells the tale of the island and the woman he loved, but left behind. And Fred starts to wonder, where is Chrissie now? And does she ever think of him too?
Chrissie Gillies is just nineteen when the researchers come to St Kilda. Hired as their cook, she can't believe they would ever notice her, sophisticated and educated as they are. But she soon develops a cautious friendship with Fred, a friendship that cannot be allowed to develop into anything more...
Years later, to help deal with his hellish existence in a German prisoner of war camp, Fred tells the tale of the island and the woman he loved, but left behind. And Fred starts to wonder, where is Chrissie now? And does she ever think of him too?
308 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 5, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 396 reviews
February 12, 2020
If I find a more beautifully written novel than ‘The Lost Lights of St Kilda’ this year, then I’ll be a very lucky lady!
It’s 1927, and Cambridge university student Fred and his friend Archie arrive on St Kilda. Both are there to study, with Fred researching underlying rock formations in order to complete his finals. St Kilda, is a small island out in the Atlantic, a hundred miles from the mainland, and the most remote place in the British Isles, but far from finding the isolation too much, Fred loves it’s wild and windswept beauty, and the thought of having to leave at the end of the summer makes him feel really sad. However, there’s an even more pressing reason why he doesn’t want to leave, he’s fallen in love with 19 year old islander Chrissie Gillies. Both Fred and Archie will have reason to remember Chrissie in the years that follow, but for very different reasons.
The storyline follows Chrissie, Fred, and Archie throughout the intervening years, right through the Second World War, where Fred is serving with the Cameron Highlanders. His numerous escapes from captivity are told without fanfare, but the hazardous journey he makes through occupied France and over the mountains into Spain, hoping to make it back to Blighty, make for a tense, and at times, heart stopping addition to the narrative.
Though Fred hasn’t seen or heard from Chrissie for many years, its the images of her and the idyllic times they shared, that keep him going through his captivity and the brutality he suffered at the hands of the Nazis. Archie too, thinks often of Chrissie, as he carries secrets yet to be revealed, that prove ever more burdensome as the years roll by.
Now, far away from her beloved St Kilda, Chrissie thinks longingly of Fred, but neither knows where the other is. Will Fred survive the war? Will Chrissie ever get to say the things she should have said all those years ago?
Wow! The descriptions of St Kilda are nothing short of stunning, but the wild and natural beauty belies the fact that this was a community that was dying, and by 1930 after many years of struggle, and deprivation, Chrissie and the remaining islanders were evacuated. (Though the characters are fictional, this was a real historical event and is well documented). The intimate and exquisitely written detail of the evacuation is hard to read, and left me with a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes.
This is a stunning novel - the characters are wonderful, the storyline mesmerising, and be assured, if you choose to read ‘The Lost Lights of St Kilda’, you’re in for a very special read! I won’t forget this one in a hurry.
* Thank you to Netgalley and Atlantic Books (Corvus) for my ARC, for which I have given an honest unbiased review in exchange *
It’s 1927, and Cambridge university student Fred and his friend Archie arrive on St Kilda. Both are there to study, with Fred researching underlying rock formations in order to complete his finals. St Kilda, is a small island out in the Atlantic, a hundred miles from the mainland, and the most remote place in the British Isles, but far from finding the isolation too much, Fred loves it’s wild and windswept beauty, and the thought of having to leave at the end of the summer makes him feel really sad. However, there’s an even more pressing reason why he doesn’t want to leave, he’s fallen in love with 19 year old islander Chrissie Gillies. Both Fred and Archie will have reason to remember Chrissie in the years that follow, but for very different reasons.
The storyline follows Chrissie, Fred, and Archie throughout the intervening years, right through the Second World War, where Fred is serving with the Cameron Highlanders. His numerous escapes from captivity are told without fanfare, but the hazardous journey he makes through occupied France and over the mountains into Spain, hoping to make it back to Blighty, make for a tense, and at times, heart stopping addition to the narrative.
Though Fred hasn’t seen or heard from Chrissie for many years, its the images of her and the idyllic times they shared, that keep him going through his captivity and the brutality he suffered at the hands of the Nazis. Archie too, thinks often of Chrissie, as he carries secrets yet to be revealed, that prove ever more burdensome as the years roll by.
Now, far away from her beloved St Kilda, Chrissie thinks longingly of Fred, but neither knows where the other is. Will Fred survive the war? Will Chrissie ever get to say the things she should have said all those years ago?
Wow! The descriptions of St Kilda are nothing short of stunning, but the wild and natural beauty belies the fact that this was a community that was dying, and by 1930 after many years of struggle, and deprivation, Chrissie and the remaining islanders were evacuated. (Though the characters are fictional, this was a real historical event and is well documented). The intimate and exquisitely written detail of the evacuation is hard to read, and left me with a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes.
This is a stunning novel - the characters are wonderful, the storyline mesmerising, and be assured, if you choose to read ‘The Lost Lights of St Kilda’, you’re in for a very special read! I won’t forget this one in a hurry.
* Thank you to Netgalley and Atlantic Books (Corvus) for my ARC, for which I have given an honest unbiased review in exchange *
January 6, 2022
4.5⭐
Wonderfully written, The Lost Lights of St Kilda is an emotional historical fiction set on St Kilda. I was first struck by the beautiful cover then curious where St Kilda is, I didn't even know it's a real place- the Scottish Isles. After I read a brief history online, I knew I have to read this novel.
Be prepared to fall in love with these characters. The story is told in multiple timelines, mostly in the 1920s and 1940s, and through the voices of Fred, a Cambridge student who spent the summer on St Kilda studying rock formation, Chrissie an islander, and Rachel Anne.
I love the narrators' performance. Listening was tricky at first and I was a bit confused. After a while, the story starts to make sense and it's engrossing and rich with details that I found hard to put down.
Don't miss this fascinating story that blends romance, war, friendship, and the island's real history in one. The evacuation of St Kilda hit me the hardest. It's horrific, yet it's beautifully told. It doesn't make sense...!
Thank you Dreamscape Media and Netgalley for my audio ARC.
The audio is available on January 13, 2022
The book is out.
Wonderfully written, The Lost Lights of St Kilda is an emotional historical fiction set on St Kilda. I was first struck by the beautiful cover then curious where St Kilda is, I didn't even know it's a real place- the Scottish Isles. After I read a brief history online, I knew I have to read this novel.
Be prepared to fall in love with these characters. The story is told in multiple timelines, mostly in the 1920s and 1940s, and through the voices of Fred, a Cambridge student who spent the summer on St Kilda studying rock formation, Chrissie an islander, and Rachel Anne.
I love the narrators' performance. Listening was tricky at first and I was a bit confused. After a while, the story starts to make sense and it's engrossing and rich with details that I found hard to put down.
Don't miss this fascinating story that blends romance, war, friendship, and the island's real history in one. The evacuation of St Kilda hit me the hardest. It's horrific, yet it's beautifully told. It doesn't make sense...!
Thank you Dreamscape Media and Netgalley for my audio ARC.
The audio is available on January 13, 2022
The book is out.
July 14, 2020
An absolutely stunning novel that plays out on St Kilda, the tiny North Atlantic archipelago that contains the westernmost islands of the Scottish Outer Hebrides, and which - for more than 2000 years - was home to a small population of hunter-gatherers who knew very little of the mainland and international politics. Gifford's tale follows the St Kilda community in the three years before it was finally evacuated in 1930, and its depictions of the islands and the people it supported, as well as the sweeping love story that lies at its heart, will live long in the memory.
A truly wonderful piece of historical fiction, perfect for fans of 'The Light Between Oceans' and 'Burial Rites'.
A truly wonderful piece of historical fiction, perfect for fans of 'The Light Between Oceans' and 'Burial Rites'.
April 11, 2020
4.5 stars
I loved the history of St. Kilda. The culture and the way the people lived there was wonderfully described and reminded me of the Blasket Islands. I also thought the escape route across the Pyrenees very well described. I thought the love story a bit middle-of-the-road with all the misunderstandings and not talking, but I can see how it is needed to make the book complete.
I loved the history of St. Kilda. The culture and the way the people lived there was wonderfully described and reminded me of the Blasket Islands. I also thought the escape route across the Pyrenees very well described. I thought the love story a bit middle-of-the-road with all the misunderstandings and not talking, but I can see how it is needed to make the book complete.
January 4, 2022
The Lost Lights Of St Kilda is a dual timeline novel of lost love and quite beauty. The locations are 1940’s France and 1927 St Kilda, a grouping of islands off the west coast of Scotland.
The female protagonist is Chrissie Gillies a young woman born and raised on St. Kilda. Life there is slow and filled with love but the harsh weather and conditions on the island make living there very difficult. Chrissie wishes to never leave.
Fred Lawson is a young man who spends the summer of 1927 on St Kida’s to complete his geology thesis for Cambridge University. Both figure prominently in the 1927 St.Kilda timeline as they meet, and no spoiler here, fall in love. The 1940’s time line centers mainly on Fred. He is a soldier caught by the Germans at the battle for St. Valery where many Scotsmen were killed or captured, as the army retreated. It is his attempt to escape the Germans, flee France and remember his lost love of St Kilda that comprises his 1940’s story. Chrissie in the1940’s is living in Scotland with her teenage daughter. At her daughter Rachel Anne’s insistence she begins too recall life on St Kildas and eventually her lost love.Fred.
This novel is very well written. St Kilda is a small cluster of volcanic islands that are heavily windswept and desolate. Through Ms. Gifford’s lyrical prose I was able to envision the stark, natural, and unspoiled beauty of st. Kilda’s so well that looking at pictures online I found that my visions were accurate. That takes talent on the part of an author! She also demonstrates her talents as she describes the people of St. Kildas. They are a hardy group of strong people who take joy in the simple things and love their island fiercely. Ms. Gifford shows us their quiet courage and dignity. They become another character in the novel. We as readers care about them. We worry about their future as it becomes clear that their numbers are dwindling and there may be too few of them to survive winter.
I loved that the characters become real people. We learn not just their descriptions and actions, but their beliefs, hopes and dreams. We learn the motivations behind their actions. They are allowed to change, grow and mature as the story unfolds. That this is such a rarity in fiction is a shame since it added a very satisfying dimension to the story.
This is an emotional read. Through the authors prose we not only see the calm beauty of first love but also the horror of war. It is this juxtaposition of the two that forms the core of the novel. It is Fred’s frantic attempt at fleeing from France that set’s the pace and tension that leads to the stories climax. Will Fred escape France? Will he and Chrissie ever see each other again? These are questions that you’ll have to read the book to answer!
4 stars! Highly recommended for fans of historical fiction and romance.
I received an ARC of this book from the publisher, Dreamscape Media and NetGalley. This fact in no way influenced my review.
The female protagonist is Chrissie Gillies a young woman born and raised on St. Kilda. Life there is slow and filled with love but the harsh weather and conditions on the island make living there very difficult. Chrissie wishes to never leave.
Fred Lawson is a young man who spends the summer of 1927 on St Kida’s to complete his geology thesis for Cambridge University. Both figure prominently in the 1927 St.Kilda timeline as they meet, and no spoiler here, fall in love. The 1940’s time line centers mainly on Fred. He is a soldier caught by the Germans at the battle for St. Valery where many Scotsmen were killed or captured, as the army retreated. It is his attempt to escape the Germans, flee France and remember his lost love of St Kilda that comprises his 1940’s story. Chrissie in the1940’s is living in Scotland with her teenage daughter. At her daughter Rachel Anne’s insistence she begins too recall life on St Kildas and eventually her lost love.Fred.
This novel is very well written. St Kilda is a small cluster of volcanic islands that are heavily windswept and desolate. Through Ms. Gifford’s lyrical prose I was able to envision the stark, natural, and unspoiled beauty of st. Kilda’s so well that looking at pictures online I found that my visions were accurate. That takes talent on the part of an author! She also demonstrates her talents as she describes the people of St. Kildas. They are a hardy group of strong people who take joy in the simple things and love their island fiercely. Ms. Gifford shows us their quiet courage and dignity. They become another character in the novel. We as readers care about them. We worry about their future as it becomes clear that their numbers are dwindling and there may be too few of them to survive winter.
I loved that the characters become real people. We learn not just their descriptions and actions, but their beliefs, hopes and dreams. We learn the motivations behind their actions. They are allowed to change, grow and mature as the story unfolds. That this is such a rarity in fiction is a shame since it added a very satisfying dimension to the story.
This is an emotional read. Through the authors prose we not only see the calm beauty of first love but also the horror of war. It is this juxtaposition of the two that forms the core of the novel. It is Fred’s frantic attempt at fleeing from France that set’s the pace and tension that leads to the stories climax. Will Fred escape France? Will he and Chrissie ever see each other again? These are questions that you’ll have to read the book to answer!
4 stars! Highly recommended for fans of historical fiction and romance.
I received an ARC of this book from the publisher, Dreamscape Media and NetGalley. This fact in no way influenced my review.
July 2, 2023
I was totally immersed in the painful struggle and hardship of life on the beautiful, but brutal, islands of St Kilda. The author gave a real sense of how precarious life was for the isolated islanders who were barely clinging to survival on an island where time had stood still. Sadly this was the heartbreaking death of that remote community.
February 24, 2020
I loved this book, the descriptions of the small island of St Kilda and the way the people who lived on this island was wonderful. I could almost smell the grass, feel the wind and here the sheep it was so vivid in my mind. This was a dual time line which jumped from 1922 or earlier and onto 1940 and onwards. It wasn’t at all confusing and I was carried along with this story from beginning to end.
I felt sad when I finished it and I feel that this fantastic book will stay with me for a long time. My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.
I felt sad when I finished it and I feel that this fantastic book will stay with me for a long time. My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.
October 31, 2025
At 7 years old, my Mum stood on Oban pier with my grandfather watching the last of the St Kildans disembarking, a sight that moved her and a memory that never left her. I was immediately drawn into this story of the island’s last inhabitants. The conditions and their lifestyle have been very well researched by the author and her writing brings the landscape vividly to life. The parallel story is of a captured Scottish airman in France, his escape and perilous journey back home. It is at heart a love story but not just between two people, it’s also about the St Kildans love for their home.
I really enjoyed this book and learned a great deal from it. Unfortunately I can’t give it more than 4 stars for several reasons, not least poor editing that gives us skewars for skuas, had surely came and I’d never been able to understood! An Uist man just made me laugh as no one would say that! We hear about cruachan lamps burning in the cottages but there is no such thing. The iron lamps that burned fish, seal or, on St Kilda, fulmar oil are crusie or cruisie lamps. There are Gaelic words used incorrectly or anglicised and only one character has a Gaelic name on an island where everyone spoke Gaelic.
I know this might all seem pedantic but I can’t help but be sidetracked by such things and they do, despite my best efforts, spoil the experience of reading a book for me. That is why I’m giving it 4 stars but it could so easily have been 5 as I thoroughly enjoyed it otherwise.
I really enjoyed this book and learned a great deal from it. Unfortunately I can’t give it more than 4 stars for several reasons, not least poor editing that gives us skewars for skuas, had surely came and I’d never been able to understood! An Uist man just made me laugh as no one would say that! We hear about cruachan lamps burning in the cottages but there is no such thing. The iron lamps that burned fish, seal or, on St Kilda, fulmar oil are crusie or cruisie lamps. There are Gaelic words used incorrectly or anglicised and only one character has a Gaelic name on an island where everyone spoke Gaelic.
I know this might all seem pedantic but I can’t help but be sidetracked by such things and they do, despite my best efforts, spoil the experience of reading a book for me. That is why I’m giving it 4 stars but it could so easily have been 5 as I thoroughly enjoyed it otherwise.
January 28, 2020
The sad haunting tale of the inhabitants of St Kilda before they were evacuated from the island.
This is also the story of a young couple Fred and Chrissie who met on the island and fell in love but were unable to stay together.
Years later when Fred is a prisoner of the Germans during the Second World War, his memories of St Kilda and Chrissie give him something to hold on to.
An atmospheric story that gives lovely descriptions of the island.
Thank you to NetGalley and Atlantic Books for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.
This is also the story of a young couple Fred and Chrissie who met on the island and fell in love but were unable to stay together.
Years later when Fred is a prisoner of the Germans during the Second World War, his memories of St Kilda and Chrissie give him something to hold on to.
An atmospheric story that gives lovely descriptions of the island.
Thank you to NetGalley and Atlantic Books for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.
March 5, 2020
I absolutely loved Elisabeth Gifford’s last book The Good Doctor of Warsaw, so I approached her latest novel with eager anticipation; I was not disappointed. The Lost Lights of St Kilda is undoubtedly the best book I’ve read so far this year.
I confess I’d always thought St Kilda was an island but, as I learned from the book (and from the maps that form the gorgeous endpapers), it is in fact a group of islands. Hirta is the main island and the only one inhabited in 1927, when part of the book is set. However, to avoid confusion I’m going to refer to it, like the blurb does, as St Kilda.
I loved the descriptions of St Kilda and the details of the islanders’ life – “a daily struggle against nature”. (I wasn’t so sure about the island cuisine – ‘boiled oats with a salted puffin for flavour’ anyone?) I vaguely knew about the evacuation of the islanders but nothing of their history before that or the hardship of life there battling illness, cut off from the outside world for weeks at a time by storms, and living a hand to mouth existence from farming and the hunting of seabirds involving perilous climbs along cliff ledges. The sense of isolation is overwhelming. “Imagine a hill farm of some four square miles dropped in the middle of an Atlantic swell that even the sturdiest boats would think twice to sail and you have the situation of St Kilda.”
Moving between different timelines and points of view, each strand of the story – Chrissie’s life on St Kilda and Fred’s wartime experiences – would be enthralling enough in their own right. Woven together by the skilful hands of the author (much like a bolt of St Kildan tweed) they are simply wonderful.
Storytelling is a major element of the book, reflecting the oral tradition of passing down tales and legends from generation to generation; tales that are linked to the landscape, the sea and the weather. Chrissie gradually recounts her own story of growing up on St Kilda and her childhood friendship with laird’s son, Archie. Although used to being an object of fascination for summer visitors to the island, the St Kildans cannot know the chain of events that will be set in train by the return to the island of Archie and his friend, Fred, years later.
Fred develops an interest in recording the islanders’ stories and, through his study of geology, in telling the story of the island, created as it was by a volcanic eruption. As time goes by, that’s not Fred’s only interest. “All the heart and the beauty and the magic of that place distilled into the girl that was Chrissie.” Memories of his time on the island, and of Chrissie, will come to be a beacon of light in times of darkness and danger, giving him the courage and energy to battle on.
The Lost Lights of St Kilda is wonderfully romantic without being sentimental and a beautifully crafted depiction of a (now lost) community and way of life. It’s a story of love, betrayal, endurance and faith. “For what is faith but the sure hope of things that will come but are not yet seen.” I loved it and I’m sure all fans of historical fiction will too.
I confess I’d always thought St Kilda was an island but, as I learned from the book (and from the maps that form the gorgeous endpapers), it is in fact a group of islands. Hirta is the main island and the only one inhabited in 1927, when part of the book is set. However, to avoid confusion I’m going to refer to it, like the blurb does, as St Kilda.
I loved the descriptions of St Kilda and the details of the islanders’ life – “a daily struggle against nature”. (I wasn’t so sure about the island cuisine – ‘boiled oats with a salted puffin for flavour’ anyone?) I vaguely knew about the evacuation of the islanders but nothing of their history before that or the hardship of life there battling illness, cut off from the outside world for weeks at a time by storms, and living a hand to mouth existence from farming and the hunting of seabirds involving perilous climbs along cliff ledges. The sense of isolation is overwhelming. “Imagine a hill farm of some four square miles dropped in the middle of an Atlantic swell that even the sturdiest boats would think twice to sail and you have the situation of St Kilda.”
Moving between different timelines and points of view, each strand of the story – Chrissie’s life on St Kilda and Fred’s wartime experiences – would be enthralling enough in their own right. Woven together by the skilful hands of the author (much like a bolt of St Kildan tweed) they are simply wonderful.
Storytelling is a major element of the book, reflecting the oral tradition of passing down tales and legends from generation to generation; tales that are linked to the landscape, the sea and the weather. Chrissie gradually recounts her own story of growing up on St Kilda and her childhood friendship with laird’s son, Archie. Although used to being an object of fascination for summer visitors to the island, the St Kildans cannot know the chain of events that will be set in train by the return to the island of Archie and his friend, Fred, years later.
Fred develops an interest in recording the islanders’ stories and, through his study of geology, in telling the story of the island, created as it was by a volcanic eruption. As time goes by, that’s not Fred’s only interest. “All the heart and the beauty and the magic of that place distilled into the girl that was Chrissie.” Memories of his time on the island, and of Chrissie, will come to be a beacon of light in times of darkness and danger, giving him the courage and energy to battle on.
The Lost Lights of St Kilda is wonderfully romantic without being sentimental and a beautifully crafted depiction of a (now lost) community and way of life. It’s a story of love, betrayal, endurance and faith. “For what is faith but the sure hope of things that will come but are not yet seen.” I loved it and I’m sure all fans of historical fiction will too.
January 22, 2022
I had no idea where we were headed, no idea what lay before us. All I knew was I was ready to travel the length and breadth of France if the world would give me one more chance to spend one more hour with you – to say I’m sorry.
In 1927, Cambridge student Fred ends up on the remote Scottish island of St Kilda to study the local rock formations and falls in love with Chrissie, a local woman. Thirteen years later, he is stranded in war-torn France and wondering how that summer romance long ago went so wrong…
I picked up this book because I was rather tired of the glut of World War Two narratives, generally about members of the French Resistance, and this promised something different. And indeed it delivered – most of the story is set on St Kilda, a remote Scottish island of which I had never heard before, but felt quite acquainted with by the time the book ended. The writing is lyrical and brought St Kilda with all its lush sea-swept beauty to vivid life. The parts which incorporate the history of the island were fascinating and really cemented how attached Chrissie was to her home. This made the ensuing evacuation quite emotional.
However, the plot felt somewhat thin. This is the story of how Fred and Chrissie fell in love, and what tore them apart, but we don’t see much of them falling in love and what tears them apart feels almost silly, unfortunately. I was also ambivalent on the character of Archie – I wish we got a better understanding of him, for while his actions are what drive the plot, his decisions seemingly come out of nowhere.
My copy of this book was an audiobook, narrated by Fiona McNeill, Geoffrey Newland, and Diane Brooks, who respectively voice Chrissie, Fred, and Rachel Anne, Chrissie’s daughter. The narration was done in Scottish accents, which for a hapless American like me took a little time to get used to! I thought the narration was well-done, though, and the narrators’ musical voices helped set the stage.
Overall, an interesting and emotional read for those interested in more obscure British historical settings.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.
In 1927, Cambridge student Fred ends up on the remote Scottish island of St Kilda to study the local rock formations and falls in love with Chrissie, a local woman. Thirteen years later, he is stranded in war-torn France and wondering how that summer romance long ago went so wrong…
I picked up this book because I was rather tired of the glut of World War Two narratives, generally about members of the French Resistance, and this promised something different. And indeed it delivered – most of the story is set on St Kilda, a remote Scottish island of which I had never heard before, but felt quite acquainted with by the time the book ended. The writing is lyrical and brought St Kilda with all its lush sea-swept beauty to vivid life. The parts which incorporate the history of the island were fascinating and really cemented how attached Chrissie was to her home. This made the ensuing evacuation quite emotional.
However, the plot felt somewhat thin. This is the story of how Fred and Chrissie fell in love, and what tore them apart, but we don’t see much of them falling in love and what tears them apart feels almost silly, unfortunately. I was also ambivalent on the character of Archie – I wish we got a better understanding of him, for while his actions are what drive the plot, his decisions seemingly come out of nowhere.
My copy of this book was an audiobook, narrated by Fiona McNeill, Geoffrey Newland, and Diane Brooks, who respectively voice Chrissie, Fred, and Rachel Anne, Chrissie’s daughter. The narration was done in Scottish accents, which for a hapless American like me took a little time to get used to! I thought the narration was well-done, though, and the narrators’ musical voices helped set the stage.
Overall, an interesting and emotional read for those interested in more obscure British historical settings.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.
November 2, 2019
The first thing that grabs you about this novel is the powerful, astonishingly vivid sense of place. I’ve never been to St Kilda but I know the Outer Hebrides well enough to feel the utter accuracy with which Elisabeth Gifford has captured the islands: the terrifying force of the wind that knocks the breath out of you; the rawness of the cold and the grandeur of the ocean. She creates gorgeous word pictures that will stay with you for a long time – especially of those vertiginous cliffs where a young girl spends a terrifying night perched on a ledge.
By 1927, the St Kildans' struggle to exist in such a harsh landscape is becoming increasingly tough, as their young people leave for the mainland. Boats can’t get into the harbor during winter storms so they are isolated for long dark months until the return of the bird population signals the arrival of spring. How much longer can they survive?
This is a love letter to St Kilda, and it's also a love story about Fred, who in the 1940 timeline has been captured behind German lines, and Chrissie, an island woman he met during a visit to St Kilda in 1927. Fred’s attempts to escape from German-occupied Europe are knuckle-chewing but he is sustained by visions of the honest, clever, straightforward girl he wishes he had gone back for. But did she prefer the landowner’s good-looking, entitled, and feckless son Archie?
The Lost Lights of St Kilda is one of the best novels I’ve read in a long while, a real jewel. To my shame, I had never read anything by Elisabeth Gifford before, but I was absorbed in this so quickly and so completely that I’m ordering her entire backlist.
Many thanks to Corvus for the ARC.
By 1927, the St Kildans' struggle to exist in such a harsh landscape is becoming increasingly tough, as their young people leave for the mainland. Boats can’t get into the harbor during winter storms so they are isolated for long dark months until the return of the bird population signals the arrival of spring. How much longer can they survive?
This is a love letter to St Kilda, and it's also a love story about Fred, who in the 1940 timeline has been captured behind German lines, and Chrissie, an island woman he met during a visit to St Kilda in 1927. Fred’s attempts to escape from German-occupied Europe are knuckle-chewing but he is sustained by visions of the honest, clever, straightforward girl he wishes he had gone back for. But did she prefer the landowner’s good-looking, entitled, and feckless son Archie?
The Lost Lights of St Kilda is one of the best novels I’ve read in a long while, a real jewel. To my shame, I had never read anything by Elisabeth Gifford before, but I was absorbed in this so quickly and so completely that I’m ordering her entire backlist.
Many thanks to Corvus for the ARC.
February 24, 2020
A wonderful, wonderful book and I wish I had the words to do justice to it's review.
I was hooked from the first page and kept enthralled all the way through. The descriptive writing, which I love, was beautiful. I could see St Kilda in all it's glory and it's harshness. Life was tough on the island and we do get to see that clearly but also the love the people had for their home.
There are two main timelines to the story, 1927 and 1940. Most of the book takes place in the 1927 timeline and this is fine. We get all the backstory which is interspersed with the 1940 one and then onward towards the end.
Hankies out when the people leave the island for the last time. Heart breaking stuff!
I loved the ending. There is romance in the book but it's not soppy or over the top in any way. It just 'is' and is all the better for it.
The book just flows along and you're rooting for the people the whole time.
I can't recommend this book highly enough. It's a story that will stay with me for some time.
I was hooked from the first page and kept enthralled all the way through. The descriptive writing, which I love, was beautiful. I could see St Kilda in all it's glory and it's harshness. Life was tough on the island and we do get to see that clearly but also the love the people had for their home.
There are two main timelines to the story, 1927 and 1940. Most of the book takes place in the 1927 timeline and this is fine. We get all the backstory which is interspersed with the 1940 one and then onward towards the end.
Hankies out when the people leave the island for the last time. Heart breaking stuff!
I loved the ending. There is romance in the book but it's not soppy or over the top in any way. It just 'is' and is all the better for it.
The book just flows along and you're rooting for the people the whole time.
I can't recommend this book highly enough. It's a story that will stay with me for some time.
March 3, 2020
The sad thing about this book is that I could see what the author was trying to achieve but it just didn't engage me. Initially I thought I was going to really enjoy the novel as we hear from three disparate characters:
Chrissie - One of the last occupants of the remote island of St. Kilda. Relocated to the Scottish mainland after a disastrous and isolated winter.
Fred - Spent one summer on St. Kilda a couple of years before the relocation and is now imprisoned by the Germans after the surrender at St Valery.
Rachel Anne - Chrissie's daughter who remembers little of her brief time on St. Kilda and is desperate to learn more.
The timeframe moves between the 1940's and the 1920's with the odd dip back in to Chrissie's childhood. At first this works well and hearing from the three viewpoints is interesting as the Historical research has clearly been done. You get the sense of the remoteness of St. Kilda and the strategies that it's community have developed to survive. You understand how Fred's experiences after St. Kilda mirror that and how it is being paralleled as he escapes from the prison and strives to return to England. You see how Chrissie still feels that isolation whilst living on the Mainland and how her daughter is struggling to make sense of her place in the world with no knowledge of her background.
The problem is it never develops past this. Everything you really need to know about the book is covered in the first 30 pages and then it just became a slog to get to the end, and this isn't a long novel. It just felt like it was. Rachel Anne more or less disappears and the story concentrates on flipping between Fred's experiences as he tries to escape using the underground developed by the French Resistance and Chrissie's life on St. Kilda, mainly centring around the time Fred was there.
To be honest I felt like I was being beaten repeatedly about the head with how tough things were just to survive on St. Kilda. How remote it was. How much they relied on passing ships for the basic necessities. What I never really felt was any connection with the characters, they seemed to merely be there as a foil for the setting and that made for the worst of all things, a boring read. Yes, there is a lot of action and tension around Fred's escape attempts but it is diluted so much that I found myself losing interest. A real missed opportunity as there are some interesting themes to be explored here but without living and breathing characters it was never going to work and the characters just didn't work for me.
THIS IS AN HONEST AND UNBIASED REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED VIA READERS FIRST.
Chrissie - One of the last occupants of the remote island of St. Kilda. Relocated to the Scottish mainland after a disastrous and isolated winter.
Fred - Spent one summer on St. Kilda a couple of years before the relocation and is now imprisoned by the Germans after the surrender at St Valery.
Rachel Anne - Chrissie's daughter who remembers little of her brief time on St. Kilda and is desperate to learn more.
The timeframe moves between the 1940's and the 1920's with the odd dip back in to Chrissie's childhood. At first this works well and hearing from the three viewpoints is interesting as the Historical research has clearly been done. You get the sense of the remoteness of St. Kilda and the strategies that it's community have developed to survive. You understand how Fred's experiences after St. Kilda mirror that and how it is being paralleled as he escapes from the prison and strives to return to England. You see how Chrissie still feels that isolation whilst living on the Mainland and how her daughter is struggling to make sense of her place in the world with no knowledge of her background.
The problem is it never develops past this. Everything you really need to know about the book is covered in the first 30 pages and then it just became a slog to get to the end, and this isn't a long novel. It just felt like it was. Rachel Anne more or less disappears and the story concentrates on flipping between Fred's experiences as he tries to escape using the underground developed by the French Resistance and Chrissie's life on St. Kilda, mainly centring around the time Fred was there.
To be honest I felt like I was being beaten repeatedly about the head with how tough things were just to survive on St. Kilda. How remote it was. How much they relied on passing ships for the basic necessities. What I never really felt was any connection with the characters, they seemed to merely be there as a foil for the setting and that made for the worst of all things, a boring read. Yes, there is a lot of action and tension around Fred's escape attempts but it is diluted so much that I found myself losing interest. A real missed opportunity as there are some interesting themes to be explored here but without living and breathing characters it was never going to work and the characters just didn't work for me.
THIS IS AN HONEST AND UNBIASED REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED VIA READERS FIRST.
March 9, 2020
"So it is, we fall in love with the impossible, break our hearts pining for a dream."
A beautifully written story of love and heartbreak set on the remote islands of St. Kilda, Elisabeth Gifford sweeps you away with her lyrical writing and captivating tale in The Lights of St. Kilda.
I spent a glorious weekend reading this exquisite novel and I have zero regrets! I was captivated from start to finish.
The book alternates between 1927 and 1940 and follows the lives of Chrissie, who lives on the island of Hirta, which is the main island in the chain, and of Fred, a student who visited the island to do a geological survey for a project for Cambridge.
In the 1940 timeline, Chrissie recounts her life on the island to her daughter Rachel while Fred talks about his experience there to pass the time while he was a prisoner in a German prison camp. Chrissie now lives on the mainland and listens to the radio every day, desperate for news of Fred. Thoughts of Chrissie are the only thing keeping Fred going as he escapes from his captors and fights his way home. Will he ever see her again?
"It was your face that had stayed with me as we fought in France. It was you who'd sustained me when we were hungry and without sleep for nights as we fought the retreating action back towards the Normandy coast."
I loved, loved, love this book and cannot wait to pick up more from Elisabeth Gifford! Highly recommended.
A beautifully written story of love and heartbreak set on the remote islands of St. Kilda, Elisabeth Gifford sweeps you away with her lyrical writing and captivating tale in The Lights of St. Kilda.
I spent a glorious weekend reading this exquisite novel and I have zero regrets! I was captivated from start to finish.
The book alternates between 1927 and 1940 and follows the lives of Chrissie, who lives on the island of Hirta, which is the main island in the chain, and of Fred, a student who visited the island to do a geological survey for a project for Cambridge.
In the 1940 timeline, Chrissie recounts her life on the island to her daughter Rachel while Fred talks about his experience there to pass the time while he was a prisoner in a German prison camp. Chrissie now lives on the mainland and listens to the radio every day, desperate for news of Fred. Thoughts of Chrissie are the only thing keeping Fred going as he escapes from his captors and fights his way home. Will he ever see her again?
"It was your face that had stayed with me as we fought in France. It was you who'd sustained me when we were hungry and without sleep for nights as we fought the retreating action back towards the Normandy coast."
I loved, loved, love this book and cannot wait to pick up more from Elisabeth Gifford! Highly recommended.
March 22, 2022
I was excited to listen to this audio as I love war stories and this one sounded fascinating. I found the plot quite slow though. It was difficult to stay engaged in spots where the story seemed to focus more heavily on building the love story. The audio version also wasn't as gripping as I'd hoped.
There was a lot of interesting history. Much of it new for me as I'd never heard of St. Kilda before. I also enjoyed the storyline about the soldiers.
I think if there had been more focus on the war and history and less on the romance it would've been superb.
I received an advanced audio copy in exchange for an honest review.
There was a lot of interesting history. Much of it new for me as I'd never heard of St. Kilda before. I also enjoyed the storyline about the soldiers.
I think if there had been more focus on the war and history and less on the romance it would've been superb.
I received an advanced audio copy in exchange for an honest review.
May 6, 2020
*https://mrsbbookreviews.wordpress.com
3.5 stars
The Lost Lights of St Kilda is a literary tribute to island life, the war, survival, bravery, hope, endurance and faith. Incorporating two timelines, this new novel from a passionate historical fiction storyteller relays a tale of two lovers, despair, hope and longing.
Navigating the years 1927 and 1940 respectively, The Lost Lights of St Kilda encompasses two very rich historical stories. We first meet Fred, a man who joins the close knit community of St Kilda via a summer posting. In a short time frame, Fred falls in love with a local beauty. When St Kilda has to be evacuated, the island community reaches breaking point and the residents must contend with a threat to their existence. St Kilda has clearly left its mark on Fred, in more ways than one and he cannot put this place to the back of his mind. Travelling forward to the year 1940, we meet Fred again as he fights to survive the war. Fred finds himself in a prisoner of war camp and his spirits have taken a severe beating due to the conditions of the camp. But the only thing that drives Fred’s determination to live is his treasured memories of St Kilda. Fred’s reflections on his time on the island and his memories of his lost island love implore him to overcome his experiences in the camp. When Fred breaks free in a bold escape from the camp, he sets off on a life changing and unforgettable journey back into the arms of his love. Can Fred makes his way back to the shining lights of St Kilda?
The Lost Lights of St Kilda is the fourth novel by British author Elisabeth Gifford. I am familiar with this author’s writing after reading her previous release, The Good Doctor of Warsaw. I loved this book. I approached The Lost Lights of St Kilda with gusto, based on my previous experience of this author’s work.
Firstly, I must say I loved the setting depicted in The Lost Lights of St Kilda. A stunning two page spread map of the area of St Kilda adorns the opening pages of this book. It was a great way to set the scene and situate the reader within this very interesting locale. St Kilda represents a group of islands off Scotland, that I was previously unaware of until I read this book. There were many beautifully realised descriptions of this treacherous, but stunning location. It is teaming with wildlife and a sweeping backdrop. Gifford does a very good job of placing her reader directly in the setting. I felt the wind in my air, I smelt the salt from the sea and I absorbed the island based setting. Equally well realised were the references to village life, the customs, rituals and expectations of living in this place. My heart really took a dip when the island residents were faced with incredible hardship and evacuation. Gifford portrays this aspect well.
Gifford crosses two time periods, travelling from 1927 to 1940, with great attention to detail and authenticity. A glance over the acknowledgements section at the close of the book reiterated this fact for me. Gifford is a dedicated historical storyteller and it shows through this novel. The Lost Lights of St Kilda is supported by plenty of research, understanding and passion.
Equally well realised are the characters. Fred is a strong lead protagonist. I admired his overall outlook in life. I yearned for Fred’s survival and wished that he could be reunited with his love. In Chrissie, Fred’s romantic interest, we see a woman with power, endurance and a toiling spirit. These characters will be sure to earn a place in your mind before the close of the book. Their respective pathways and the fight for survival to find love again will be sure to appeal to any reader’s heart.
I did find The Lost Lights of St Kilda a very slow burn style novel. I had to keep pulling myself back and slowing down my pace while reading this book. The Lost Lights of St Kilda is a novel that really demands the reader drink in every word, sentence, paragraph and chapter. It really didn’t ramp up until very late in the piece and by then, I was rather detached from the book. Unfortunately, I think this is a case of my current distracted reading style getting in the way of a perfectly good book.
The Lost Lights of St Kilda is a story of belonging, desire, friendship, love and resilience. Historical fiction readers should look out for this one.
*Thanks extended to Allen & Unwin for providing a free copy of this book for review purposes.
3.5 stars
The Lost Lights of St Kilda is a literary tribute to island life, the war, survival, bravery, hope, endurance and faith. Incorporating two timelines, this new novel from a passionate historical fiction storyteller relays a tale of two lovers, despair, hope and longing.
Navigating the years 1927 and 1940 respectively, The Lost Lights of St Kilda encompasses two very rich historical stories. We first meet Fred, a man who joins the close knit community of St Kilda via a summer posting. In a short time frame, Fred falls in love with a local beauty. When St Kilda has to be evacuated, the island community reaches breaking point and the residents must contend with a threat to their existence. St Kilda has clearly left its mark on Fred, in more ways than one and he cannot put this place to the back of his mind. Travelling forward to the year 1940, we meet Fred again as he fights to survive the war. Fred finds himself in a prisoner of war camp and his spirits have taken a severe beating due to the conditions of the camp. But the only thing that drives Fred’s determination to live is his treasured memories of St Kilda. Fred’s reflections on his time on the island and his memories of his lost island love implore him to overcome his experiences in the camp. When Fred breaks free in a bold escape from the camp, he sets off on a life changing and unforgettable journey back into the arms of his love. Can Fred makes his way back to the shining lights of St Kilda?
The Lost Lights of St Kilda is the fourth novel by British author Elisabeth Gifford. I am familiar with this author’s writing after reading her previous release, The Good Doctor of Warsaw. I loved this book. I approached The Lost Lights of St Kilda with gusto, based on my previous experience of this author’s work.
Firstly, I must say I loved the setting depicted in The Lost Lights of St Kilda. A stunning two page spread map of the area of St Kilda adorns the opening pages of this book. It was a great way to set the scene and situate the reader within this very interesting locale. St Kilda represents a group of islands off Scotland, that I was previously unaware of until I read this book. There were many beautifully realised descriptions of this treacherous, but stunning location. It is teaming with wildlife and a sweeping backdrop. Gifford does a very good job of placing her reader directly in the setting. I felt the wind in my air, I smelt the salt from the sea and I absorbed the island based setting. Equally well realised were the references to village life, the customs, rituals and expectations of living in this place. My heart really took a dip when the island residents were faced with incredible hardship and evacuation. Gifford portrays this aspect well.
Gifford crosses two time periods, travelling from 1927 to 1940, with great attention to detail and authenticity. A glance over the acknowledgements section at the close of the book reiterated this fact for me. Gifford is a dedicated historical storyteller and it shows through this novel. The Lost Lights of St Kilda is supported by plenty of research, understanding and passion.
Equally well realised are the characters. Fred is a strong lead protagonist. I admired his overall outlook in life. I yearned for Fred’s survival and wished that he could be reunited with his love. In Chrissie, Fred’s romantic interest, we see a woman with power, endurance and a toiling spirit. These characters will be sure to earn a place in your mind before the close of the book. Their respective pathways and the fight for survival to find love again will be sure to appeal to any reader’s heart.
I did find The Lost Lights of St Kilda a very slow burn style novel. I had to keep pulling myself back and slowing down my pace while reading this book. The Lost Lights of St Kilda is a novel that really demands the reader drink in every word, sentence, paragraph and chapter. It really didn’t ramp up until very late in the piece and by then, I was rather detached from the book. Unfortunately, I think this is a case of my current distracted reading style getting in the way of a perfectly good book.
The Lost Lights of St Kilda is a story of belonging, desire, friendship, love and resilience. Historical fiction readers should look out for this one.
*Thanks extended to Allen & Unwin for providing a free copy of this book for review purposes.
November 19, 2019
In 1927 two young undergraduates from Cambridge spend the summer working on St Kilda, one is Fred Lawson and the other is his friend, and the laird’s son, Archie Macleod. During his time there Fred falls in love not only with the island, but with Chrissie, a young islander. Little does Fred know that only three years later this wild, isolated and beautiful island would need to be evacuated because, following yet another harsh winter when supply boats were unable to reach the island, all the islanders would be close to death from starvation. Although a misunderstanding meant that he lost contact with Chrissie after that summer, he never forgot either her or the summer he spent on the island and in 1940, when he is a prisoner of war behind enemy lines in France, his memories of that time, and of the woman he had loved and lost, become ever more vivid. Following a daring escape he faces a dangerous journey across occupied territory to reach a neutral country and freedom. The one thought which sustains him throughout all the hardships he faces is that he must find his way back to Chrissie, to find out if, after all these years apart, there is any possibility of a future together.
With the timeline switching between 1910-1930 on St Kilda, 1930-1940 on Morvern Peninsular on the west coast of Scotland, and 1940 in occupied France, and the narrative switching between the voices of Chrissie, her daughter Rachel Anne, and Fred, this is a compelling and beautifully written novel. The gradually unfolding love story which underpins Chrissie and Fred’s relationship feels both convincing and very poignant, but it is matched by a parallel love story, the one symbolising how the islanders felt about St Kilda and for a way of life which was so precious to them. In many ways this felt like paean not just to a wildly beautiful place, but also to the loss of a unique community.
The constantly changing timelines never felt confusing, instead they were used in an assured way to effectively weave the different strands of the story together, gradually adding depth to the developing storyline. I felt drawn into the unique way of life of the islanders of this remote community, with all the pride they took in the skills they had developed to endure the privations and challenges they faced, and with the powerful sense of community which had evolved in order to ensure mutual support. The landscapes of the islands and of war-torn France, were each very vividly and convincingly described. However, for me it was the author’s evocative descriptions of the savage beauty and wildness of the storm-battered islands, the powerful ocean, the pounding waves against the steep sea cliffs and the vast colonies of noisy sea-birds nesting on them which felt the more powerful, making me feel that I was experiencing something of that wild beauty for myself.
Before I read this story I had always thought that St Kilda was the name of the inhabited island but, as I discovered, that’s the collective name for this archipelago and the name of the main island is Hirta. Although I was aware of the fact that the island had been evacuated in 1930, one of the things I enjoyed most about this story was how much I learnt about what led up to that momentous event, putting it into an historical and social context. I hadn’t realised how significant a part WWI had played in the gradual decline of the island’s population when, not only had the young men gone off to war but, with the archipelago being the most westerly islands of the UK, they had a vitally important military significance. As a result, the Royal Navy established a manned signal station on Hirta in the early years of the war and with this came not only more regular and reliable contact with the outside world for the islanders, but also more reliable access to essential supplies and the gradual establishment of a money-based economy. This slightly easier way of life during the war-time period probably undermined self-reliance to some degree, something compounded by the fact that many young men didn’t return to the island after the war; some had been killed but for those who did survive, returning to a life of hardship held little appeal. This growing realisation that they didn’t have to put up with living such a precarious existence then led to a steady exodus of young people from the island, with the population falling from seventy-three in 1920 to just thirty-six when, following successive crop failures and a particularly harsh winter, in August 1930 everyone on the island agreed to be evacuated to Morvern.
The author’s gradual revelations of the events which led up to this momentous event very effectively captured the islanders’ sense of despair about the loss of their unique way of life, which however unsustainable it had by then become, had nurtured them for generations and was all they knew. She also demonstrated how tourism, whilst providing a source of income for the islanders – from the sale of their homemade tweed and birds’ eggs – also did much to undermine their self-confidence, as the visitors, seeing their simple, unsophisticated way of life and the identical nature of their dress, portraying them as objects of derision and curiosity, almost as though they were exotic exhibits rather than fellow human beings. As a result of all these insights, she enabled me to empathise with the profound sadness of their loss, as well as their fears and anxieties about what the future held for them.
Days after finishing this deeply moving story, written with such a simple yet lyrical prose, I still feel haunted by it and cannot imagine anyone being able to read it without being similarly affected. This is the first of Elisabeth Gifford’s books I’ve read but with writing of this quality, and her ability to create such unforgettable characters, I now want to read some of her earlier novels.
With thanks to LibraryThing and NB for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
With the timeline switching between 1910-1930 on St Kilda, 1930-1940 on Morvern Peninsular on the west coast of Scotland, and 1940 in occupied France, and the narrative switching between the voices of Chrissie, her daughter Rachel Anne, and Fred, this is a compelling and beautifully written novel. The gradually unfolding love story which underpins Chrissie and Fred’s relationship feels both convincing and very poignant, but it is matched by a parallel love story, the one symbolising how the islanders felt about St Kilda and for a way of life which was so precious to them. In many ways this felt like paean not just to a wildly beautiful place, but also to the loss of a unique community.
The constantly changing timelines never felt confusing, instead they were used in an assured way to effectively weave the different strands of the story together, gradually adding depth to the developing storyline. I felt drawn into the unique way of life of the islanders of this remote community, with all the pride they took in the skills they had developed to endure the privations and challenges they faced, and with the powerful sense of community which had evolved in order to ensure mutual support. The landscapes of the islands and of war-torn France, were each very vividly and convincingly described. However, for me it was the author’s evocative descriptions of the savage beauty and wildness of the storm-battered islands, the powerful ocean, the pounding waves against the steep sea cliffs and the vast colonies of noisy sea-birds nesting on them which felt the more powerful, making me feel that I was experiencing something of that wild beauty for myself.
Before I read this story I had always thought that St Kilda was the name of the inhabited island but, as I discovered, that’s the collective name for this archipelago and the name of the main island is Hirta. Although I was aware of the fact that the island had been evacuated in 1930, one of the things I enjoyed most about this story was how much I learnt about what led up to that momentous event, putting it into an historical and social context. I hadn’t realised how significant a part WWI had played in the gradual decline of the island’s population when, not only had the young men gone off to war but, with the archipelago being the most westerly islands of the UK, they had a vitally important military significance. As a result, the Royal Navy established a manned signal station on Hirta in the early years of the war and with this came not only more regular and reliable contact with the outside world for the islanders, but also more reliable access to essential supplies and the gradual establishment of a money-based economy. This slightly easier way of life during the war-time period probably undermined self-reliance to some degree, something compounded by the fact that many young men didn’t return to the island after the war; some had been killed but for those who did survive, returning to a life of hardship held little appeal. This growing realisation that they didn’t have to put up with living such a precarious existence then led to a steady exodus of young people from the island, with the population falling from seventy-three in 1920 to just thirty-six when, following successive crop failures and a particularly harsh winter, in August 1930 everyone on the island agreed to be evacuated to Morvern.
The author’s gradual revelations of the events which led up to this momentous event very effectively captured the islanders’ sense of despair about the loss of their unique way of life, which however unsustainable it had by then become, had nurtured them for generations and was all they knew. She also demonstrated how tourism, whilst providing a source of income for the islanders – from the sale of their homemade tweed and birds’ eggs – also did much to undermine their self-confidence, as the visitors, seeing their simple, unsophisticated way of life and the identical nature of their dress, portraying them as objects of derision and curiosity, almost as though they were exotic exhibits rather than fellow human beings. As a result of all these insights, she enabled me to empathise with the profound sadness of their loss, as well as their fears and anxieties about what the future held for them.
Days after finishing this deeply moving story, written with such a simple yet lyrical prose, I still feel haunted by it and cannot imagine anyone being able to read it without being similarly affected. This is the first of Elisabeth Gifford’s books I’ve read but with writing of this quality, and her ability to create such unforgettable characters, I now want to read some of her earlier novels.
With thanks to LibraryThing and NB for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
August 16, 2022
St. Kilda, a World Heritage Site, lies 40 miles (64 KM) northwest of North Uist in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. It is actually an archipelago, and is home to a huge bird colony including the largest Atlantic Puffin colony in the UK. The inhabited island was evacuated in 1930 by the British government when it became unfeasible for people to continue living there. St. Kilda had been inhabited for 4,000 years. The last residents were tenants of a Highland laird who rarely if ever visited but collected rents.
I read this book because I have long been fascinated by the islands' history. I was supposed to visit this summer but the trip was cancelled. It is possible to travel there (£220 in 2022) on a day trip. The abandoned village remains a tourist site, and there is a museum. The inhabitants spoke Gaelic, raised sheep (the Soay is a rare breed that is being revived), selling fleeces, and knitted items. They grew potatoes but the soil was poor, and depended on money from tourism and what they could sell as well as supplies brought by ship. Winter was a lean and lonely time as ships often didn't arrive when scheduled. People barely survived.
I don't read a lot of historical fiction because I prefer books that are more history than fiction in this category. But though it has a love story at its center, this is a novel that does justice to the culture and context of the characters. The author created two characters, Chrissie, a young woman on the island, and Fred, an outsider. They fall in love. It's 1927 and Fred is there only for the summer. He's a student at Cambridge. Fred returns to the mainland, but because of misunderstandings, and lies told by one character, they don't stay in contact. Then the islands are evacuated a few years later. Fred doesn't forget Chrissie though.
The story moves between time periods effectively. Integrated into the novel are details of life on St. Kilda including religion, values, their language, and survival. The novel included these seamlessly. I learned how both World Wars impacted Scottish soldiers, especially Highlanders who lost their lives in great numbers. One of my favorite episodes involved two Gaelic-speaking soldiers making their way through Spain to attempt to get to safety. They are in the northern Basque-speaking area being hidden by a local family. When the woman of the house hears them speaking Gaelic, she recognizes that like her, they speak a minority (and oppressed) language. This spurs her to do more to see them to safety. As a linguist, and lover of minority languages (I studied Irish for more than 5 years), I found this scene very possible. I have witnessed similar bonds between minority language speakers even when they speak different languages.
While it is a "romance", the novel does not let that aspect of the story dominate. The story is skillfully rolled out. I appreciated the sense of authenticity of the details as the writer not only tells a love story, but, more importantly, creates a nuanced portrait of a culture and the death of a way of life.
I read this book because I have long been fascinated by the islands' history. I was supposed to visit this summer but the trip was cancelled. It is possible to travel there (£220 in 2022) on a day trip. The abandoned village remains a tourist site, and there is a museum. The inhabitants spoke Gaelic, raised sheep (the Soay is a rare breed that is being revived), selling fleeces, and knitted items. They grew potatoes but the soil was poor, and depended on money from tourism and what they could sell as well as supplies brought by ship. Winter was a lean and lonely time as ships often didn't arrive when scheduled. People barely survived.
I don't read a lot of historical fiction because I prefer books that are more history than fiction in this category. But though it has a love story at its center, this is a novel that does justice to the culture and context of the characters. The author created two characters, Chrissie, a young woman on the island, and Fred, an outsider. They fall in love. It's 1927 and Fred is there only for the summer. He's a student at Cambridge. Fred returns to the mainland, but because of misunderstandings, and lies told by one character, they don't stay in contact. Then the islands are evacuated a few years later. Fred doesn't forget Chrissie though.
The story moves between time periods effectively. Integrated into the novel are details of life on St. Kilda including religion, values, their language, and survival. The novel included these seamlessly. I learned how both World Wars impacted Scottish soldiers, especially Highlanders who lost their lives in great numbers. One of my favorite episodes involved two Gaelic-speaking soldiers making their way through Spain to attempt to get to safety. They are in the northern Basque-speaking area being hidden by a local family. When the woman of the house hears them speaking Gaelic, she recognizes that like her, they speak a minority (and oppressed) language. This spurs her to do more to see them to safety. As a linguist, and lover of minority languages (I studied Irish for more than 5 years), I found this scene very possible. I have witnessed similar bonds between minority language speakers even when they speak different languages.
While it is a "romance", the novel does not let that aspect of the story dominate. The story is skillfully rolled out. I appreciated the sense of authenticity of the details as the writer not only tells a love story, but, more importantly, creates a nuanced portrait of a culture and the death of a way of life.
December 26, 2020
Fred goes to St Kilda to work on a university assignment just years before the archipelago’s final residents are forced to leave. There he meets Chrissie, a hard-working St Kildan he grows to love deeply. Their encounter is brief, and no promises made.
Almost 15 years later, during WWII, Fred gets caught and imprisoned in Tournai, Belgium. His thoughts – and his heart – take him on a journey back to his stay and his lasting love for Chrissie.
Does Chrissie love him too and will the lights of St Kilda shine bright enough to guide him home to her and whatever life she may have made for herself?
This story masterfully entwines thorough research and lyrical passages about love, friendship, and what keeping one’s word may mean.
This made for a moving and educational read that will stay with me for a while. I hope to discover more of Elisabeth Gifford’s work.
Almost 15 years later, during WWII, Fred gets caught and imprisoned in Tournai, Belgium. His thoughts – and his heart – take him on a journey back to his stay and his lasting love for Chrissie.
Does Chrissie love him too and will the lights of St Kilda shine bright enough to guide him home to her and whatever life she may have made for herself?
This story masterfully entwines thorough research and lyrical passages about love, friendship, and what keeping one’s word may mean.
This made for a moving and educational read that will stay with me for a while. I hope to discover more of Elisabeth Gifford’s work.
September 29, 2020
This is beautifully written, predominantly a fictional love story but so crammed with historical fact that it definitely deserves 5 stars for that alone. I have a fascination with the history of St Kilda and this book told me so much I didn't know and captured the way of life so wonderfully. I was in tears when I read about their final few moments before evacuating the island, so moved by the families leaving a bible in each cottage open at Exodus. A fabulous book!
March 12, 2020
I have been a fan of Elisabeth Gifford's writing for many years and have reviewed all three of her previous novels here on Random Things. I had very high expectations for The Lost Lights of St Kilda, based on her previous work, and I have not been disappointed.
Once again, this wonderfully talented author has transported me to places that I'd never imagined before. I had no idea about St Kilda; a remote group of islands off the Scottish coastline, but I now feel as though I've visited, and have met the inhabitants, and felt their sorrow and loss, and been part of their lives.
Told over two main time scales, this is the story of Fred, a university student who went to St Kildas to work, and study rock formations during the summer of 1927. He was accompanied by fellow student, and friend Archie.
The story is also told during 1940 when Fred is in a prisoner-of-war camp, captured behind the lines in France, and planning his escape.
As Fred contemplates his future, his thoughts drift to the past, and to that summer on St Kildas. It was there that he fell in love with local girl Chrissie, that that relationship has left a very deep impact on Fred, and also on Archie.
St Kilda is no longer inhabited, and the author relates the story of how the islanders had to move away, for fear that they would starve, quite beautifully. The emotion evoked when reading of people who have to leave the only home they knew is heart felt. Chrissie now lives on the mainland, and whilst she and Fred have not been in touch for many years, she too is reflecting back to that summer relationship. Her young daughter Rachel Anne has many questions about the father she has never known and Chrissie has no choice but to look back on her memories.
This is a rich and evocative story, written with such skill and compassion. The author's research shines through on each page and her characters are beautifully imagined.
St Kilda itself becomes a vivid and central character in its own right, and the sense of place is magnificently created. This is story telling at the highest level; gripping and completely and utterly immersive.
Absolutely compelling and a privilege to read. Recommended highly by me.
Once again, this wonderfully talented author has transported me to places that I'd never imagined before. I had no idea about St Kilda; a remote group of islands off the Scottish coastline, but I now feel as though I've visited, and have met the inhabitants, and felt their sorrow and loss, and been part of their lives.
Told over two main time scales, this is the story of Fred, a university student who went to St Kildas to work, and study rock formations during the summer of 1927. He was accompanied by fellow student, and friend Archie.
The story is also told during 1940 when Fred is in a prisoner-of-war camp, captured behind the lines in France, and planning his escape.
As Fred contemplates his future, his thoughts drift to the past, and to that summer on St Kildas. It was there that he fell in love with local girl Chrissie, that that relationship has left a very deep impact on Fred, and also on Archie.
St Kilda is no longer inhabited, and the author relates the story of how the islanders had to move away, for fear that they would starve, quite beautifully. The emotion evoked when reading of people who have to leave the only home they knew is heart felt. Chrissie now lives on the mainland, and whilst she and Fred have not been in touch for many years, she too is reflecting back to that summer relationship. Her young daughter Rachel Anne has many questions about the father she has never known and Chrissie has no choice but to look back on her memories.
This is a rich and evocative story, written with such skill and compassion. The author's research shines through on each page and her characters are beautifully imagined.
St Kilda itself becomes a vivid and central character in its own right, and the sense of place is magnificently created. This is story telling at the highest level; gripping and completely and utterly immersive.
Absolutely compelling and a privilege to read. Recommended highly by me.
June 1, 2023
Tremendous world-building - this beautiful island, and a time and way of life forever lost, are entirely brought to life.
Unfortunately the love story is weak (he falls in love because she’s different, she falls in love because he has), the conflict that parts them is entirely avoidable by simply knocking on the door and having a conversation, and the villain gets to melodramatically redeem himself at the end by (literally) taking a bullet for our hero.
Unfortunately the love story is weak (he falls in love because she’s different, she falls in love because he has), the conflict that parts them is entirely avoidable by simply knocking on the door and having a conversation, and the villain gets to melodramatically redeem himself at the end by (literally) taking a bullet for our hero.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 15, 2020
Visit the locations in the novel The Lost Lights of St Kilda
A story to transport you to the Outer Hebrides
Oh to be transported to the Outer Hebrides, and the outer, outer Hebrides at that! This is a novel about the very, very small island and community of St Kilda. A remote, isolated and very unique island stuck in time and forgotten by it too. From the start there is a sense that this island is so cut off, even those who live there, forget there is a boat to the mainland at times. Weather of course, permitting.
The island really is the star of the show. You really get to know and feel it with its harsh winters and cold air, but its that sense of impending doom and the claustrophobia which increases as the novel goes along, which should really worry you.
The island is pretty much what you read about in the book in that the story and history is accurate. The author writes in her note at the end of the research and planning that went into this novel and it shows. A fascinating period of Scottish history which is easy to understand in novel form. This is a history of the people of St Kilda and the people are who you get to know close up.
Chrissie was a great character as we learn much about the island and life there from her. How the island and the mainland have formed and shaped her life. The other character I liked was Fred whose story with Archie who he met one summer is another focal point of the whole novel. He sees the island and the war through very different eyes and the two stories merge well to form a colouful and fascinating picture.
January 4, 2022
This was a fascinating story and I loved how it was told. To think that for many, many years people could live on this breathtaking island with all of its restrictions and beauty.
Parts of this were heartbreaking, but beautifully written. It made me take pause at my busy life and left me wanting for a simpler life.
I chose to listen to this book on audio and the narrators were excellent. I highly recommend listening to it.
Thanks Dreamscape Media via NetGalley.
Parts of this were heartbreaking, but beautifully written. It made me take pause at my busy life and left me wanting for a simpler life.
I chose to listen to this book on audio and the narrators were excellent. I highly recommend listening to it.
Thanks Dreamscape Media via NetGalley.
January 23, 2020
A gorgeous sweeping love story set on a remote Scottish island.
I knew I would enjoy reading this novel because who doesn’t love a good historical romance?!
But what really grabbed me was the relationship between Chrissie and her beloved island of St Kilda. The remote Scottish island felt like it’s own character. The descriptions of the wild winters and the isolation which eventually doomed the inhabitants of the island in the 1920s was utterly gripping.
This novel covers a truly fascinating period of Scottish history, beautifully written and well researched by the author.
Highly recommended!
(Many thanks to Corvus for the ARC)
I knew I would enjoy reading this novel because who doesn’t love a good historical romance?!
But what really grabbed me was the relationship between Chrissie and her beloved island of St Kilda. The remote Scottish island felt like it’s own character. The descriptions of the wild winters and the isolation which eventually doomed the inhabitants of the island in the 1920s was utterly gripping.
This novel covers a truly fascinating period of Scottish history, beautifully written and well researched by the author.
Highly recommended!
(Many thanks to Corvus for the ARC)
August 9, 2022
Very evocative of how harsh the last few years of people living on St Kilda was, but a bit slow.
May 17, 2020
The Lost Lights of St Kilda is historical fiction set mainly in two time periods, 1927 and the 1940s, following the story of Chrissy, a native of the island and Fred and Archie, visiting students from Cambridge University. At first I wasn’t really involved in the plot which is basically a romance, the story of a love triangle complete with all the misunderstandings and anguish that involved. I found it rather predictable, But the highlights of the book for me are the descriptions of St Kilda, its history, the importance to the islanders of the bird life, and their isolation and the poverty they endured. The account of the island’s evacuation is particularly moving.
After a slow start, the book picks up pace and I became more involved in the story. It’s a book of two halves really – the story of the last years of life on St Kilda and a war story. It’s very well researched and Elisabeth Gifford explains in her acknowledgements that the characters are loosely based on the people who lived on St Kilda whilst remaining fictional, although some of the characters featuring in the chapters about Fred’s wartime experience are based on real people. She lists the books she used for her research – books about the island, about Atlantic seabirds and journals and biographies of soldiers who were captured during the Second World War and their escapes, all of which brought her novel to life for me.
My thanks to the publishers for my review copy via NetGalley.
After a slow start, the book picks up pace and I became more involved in the story. It’s a book of two halves really – the story of the last years of life on St Kilda and a war story. It’s very well researched and Elisabeth Gifford explains in her acknowledgements that the characters are loosely based on the people who lived on St Kilda whilst remaining fictional, although some of the characters featuring in the chapters about Fred’s wartime experience are based on real people. She lists the books she used for her research – books about the island, about Atlantic seabirds and journals and biographies of soldiers who were captured during the Second World War and their escapes, all of which brought her novel to life for me.
My thanks to the publishers for my review copy via NetGalley.
September 25, 2020
This was a novel that I considered to be a love story to the Highlands. It really captured the heart, the community, the togetherness of St. Kilda so beautifully and and with an engaging tone. The writing that was used to describe the environment and the scenery was just so lyrical and atmospheric that I felt that I was actually there. Although fictional, I discover so much this little island that I barely knew anything about. The love and hope between Fred and Chrissie was also amazing to read about. After all that waiting and time spent apart, they're love for each other carried them through the trials and struggles that were thrown at them each way. This was perfect escapism literature that gave me time to breath and experience another world and time that I knew nothing about.
December 23, 2021
Just gorgeous writing, such an innovation of the last community to live in the isolated island of St. Kilda in the Outer Hebrides in the late 1920s and the remembrance of his days there by a WW2 Scottish soldier in 1940 who is now running for his life from the Germans. And a love he had there, lost by misunderstanding, and then moved from the island to someplace the soldier can't know. Between the lost lovers is the character of Archie, born to the nobility, such a mixture of careless harm, sweetness, outright evil and the utmost heroism. What a marvelously drawn character! I adored this book! Marked to read again for certain. LOVED it!!
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