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Lofty Issues
The question has to be was Alexander really a villain?It is worthy of note that Alexander Findlay, one of the few Scottish pipers to survive the horrors of the Great War, returned from the battlefields as an injured hero. After that ordeal, shouldn’t life have become kinder to him? Admittedly, straying from the straight and narrow was wrong, but his untimely death shortly afterwards in the centre of Glasgow seems so and his legacy? He may have been a hero, but his ill-gotten gains became a shameful family secret.Are the Findlays up for a challenge ‘from the grave’? Will there really be a worthwhile prize?The story involving six generations of the Findlay family gradually unfolds when Tom visits the loft “looking for the ‘jeely pan’...”
343 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 9, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 25, 2021
Lofty Issues is a family tale with touches of humour all set in Glasgow.
The story covers several generations of the Findlay family and spans roughly a hundred years through the family tree.
On a particularly hot Saturday, rather a surprise for Scotland, Tom Findlay has been summoned to her mother’s house to find a jam pan which is somewhere up in her loft. When he eventually finds the pan amongst years of hoarded and broken items, a family photograph album falls from it. Tom decides to take a closer look at the photos back at home; the photos become dislodged and when Tom and his wife Gillian and son David try to rearrange them, they discover odd words written on the backs of them.
It soon becomes obvious that this was Granny Meg’s family album, and she has used it to create a trail of signs for a family treasure hunt. So next Saturday, Tom, with the help of his son David, is back in the loft searching for further clues.
Chapters dot back and forth between the current generation of Findlays and those that went before them, as details about the family heirlooms and each family member is fleshed out.
The story is sprinkled with Scottish themes, including a set of bagpipes and ship building on the Clyde. These go well with the strong family bonds that the Findlay family have nurtured and handed down.
I enjoyed the treasure hunt as well as the historical elements. Mac Black’s wry humour shines through, but doesn’t overwhelm the writing. It’s a book filled with nostalgia for past times which would bring a smile to the face of most readers.
The story covers several generations of the Findlay family and spans roughly a hundred years through the family tree.
On a particularly hot Saturday, rather a surprise for Scotland, Tom Findlay has been summoned to her mother’s house to find a jam pan which is somewhere up in her loft. When he eventually finds the pan amongst years of hoarded and broken items, a family photograph album falls from it. Tom decides to take a closer look at the photos back at home; the photos become dislodged and when Tom and his wife Gillian and son David try to rearrange them, they discover odd words written on the backs of them.
It soon becomes obvious that this was Granny Meg’s family album, and she has used it to create a trail of signs for a family treasure hunt. So next Saturday, Tom, with the help of his son David, is back in the loft searching for further clues.
Chapters dot back and forth between the current generation of Findlays and those that went before them, as details about the family heirlooms and each family member is fleshed out.
The story is sprinkled with Scottish themes, including a set of bagpipes and ship building on the Clyde. These go well with the strong family bonds that the Findlay family have nurtured and handed down.
I enjoyed the treasure hunt as well as the historical elements. Mac Black’s wry humour shines through, but doesn’t overwhelm the writing. It’s a book filled with nostalgia for past times which would bring a smile to the face of most readers.
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September 29, 2021LOFTY ISSUES – A Scottish family saga.
Tom Findlay was forty-two and feeling his age. He thought it would be a simple task – to fetch a jelly pan from the loft. Of course it would be easy! It was for his mother’s jam making, but he’d forgotten that his parents had become hoarders. The chaos that was their loft meant it couldn’t possibly be a simple search, but it had to be done. Tom had little choice. He couldn’t fail – his mother didn’t allow that.
It was by accident, in that dark and overcrowded place, he discovered that his dear departed mischievous grandmother, had left behind a challenge for her offspring, a challenge that the family would soon become more and more engrossed in – a treasure hunt!
Along the way, as they try to solve her poetic puzzles, they begin to learn more about their predecessors, especially Alexander Findlay – a war hero. What that man did would dramatically affect their lives...
Tom Findlay was forty-two and feeling his age. He thought it would be a simple task – to fetch a jelly pan from the loft. Of course it would be easy! It was for his mother’s jam making, but he’d forgotten that his parents had become hoarders. The chaos that was their loft meant it couldn’t possibly be a simple search, but it had to be done. Tom had little choice. He couldn’t fail – his mother didn’t allow that.
It was by accident, in that dark and overcrowded place, he discovered that his dear departed mischievous grandmother, had left behind a challenge for her offspring, a challenge that the family would soon become more and more engrossed in – a treasure hunt!
Along the way, as they try to solve her poetic puzzles, they begin to learn more about their predecessors, especially Alexander Findlay – a war hero. What that man did would dramatically affect their lives...
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews