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A Hebridean Omnibus: The Hills is Lonely, The Sea for Breakfast, The Loud Halo
Hebridean Omnibus
608 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1969
2 people are currently reading
60 people want to read
About the author
Lillian Beckwith
47 books73 followersLilian Comber wrote fiction and non-fiction for both adults and children under the pseudonym Lillian Beckwith. She is best known for her series of comic novels based on her time living on a croft in the Scottish Hebrides.
Beckwith was born in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, in 1916, where her father ran a grocery shop. The shop provided the background for her memoir About My Father's Business, a child’s eye view of a 1920s family. She moved to the Isle of Skye with her husband in 1942, and began writing fiction after moving to the Isle of Man with her family twenty years later. She also completed a cookery book, Secrets from a Crofter’s Kitchen (Arrow, 1976).
Since her death, Beckwith’s novel A Shine of Rainbows has been made into a film starring Aidan Quinn and Connie Nielsen, which in 2009 won ‘Best Feature’ awards at the Heartland and Chicago Children’s Film Festivals.
Beckwith was born in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, in 1916, where her father ran a grocery shop. The shop provided the background for her memoir About My Father's Business, a child’s eye view of a 1920s family. She moved to the Isle of Skye with her husband in 1942, and began writing fiction after moving to the Isle of Man with her family twenty years later. She also completed a cookery book, Secrets from a Crofter’s Kitchen (Arrow, 1976).
Since her death, Beckwith’s novel A Shine of Rainbows has been made into a film starring Aidan Quinn and Connie Nielsen, which in 2009 won ‘Best Feature’ awards at the Heartland and Chicago Children’s Film Festivals.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 3, 2016
Lillian Beckwith (whose real name was Lillian Comber) is the author of several humorous, semi-autobiographical novels based on her experiences living in the fictional Bruach--actually the village of Elgol on the island of Skye. This omnibus contains the first three novels. (There were four subsequent ones.)
Beckwith receives orders from her doctor to go for a rest-cure, that is, to live somewhere where the air is invigorating and life is healthy. She is all ready to settle on a farm in Kent when she receives an eccentrically worded letter from a Bruachite inviting her to come and board with her. She is so taken with the letter that she decides to turn down the Kentish offers and accept this one.
She almost regrets her decision when she has to cross to the island over a turbulent sea and arrive at a rustic little house at night during a storm. She soon settles in and though the furnishings are not glamorous, the food is hearty and her landlady, an elderly but spry widow named Morag, is kindly, hospitable and companionable.
We are gradually introduced to the inhabitants of Bruach most of whom are likeable, eccentric, and hard-working. The women always have time to have a "strupak" (usually tea and generous refreshments). And the men always enjoy their liquor when they get half a chance.
The weather is sometimes balmy, but often harsh. Nature, though forbidding, offers moments of startling tranquility and beauty which Beckwith describes in often lyrical prose.
The novel is full of humorous reflections on the the Gaelic character of the islanders. People are inquisitive but at the same time mistrustful of strangers. They can be kind and yet very critical of the shortcomings of their neighbours. They are often strictly religious, yet they indulge their weaknesses in epic ways. They want money, nice clothes and modern luxuries, yet they are reluctant to give up a very simple and rural existence. They hold the English in a sort of admiration, yet they have trouble communicating with folk from the mainland who "have not the Gaelic." This is not only a language barrier, but also a matter of culture.
These novels are meant to be humorous and heartwarming--and for the most part they are. "Miss Peckwitt" (as she is called by the islanders) gradually becomes acculturated enough to be scornful of those who refuse to make any effort to understand the community's mindset. And the Bruachites seem to take her to their hearts as well.
However, she does paint them in all their comic ridiculousness. To give her her due, she also makes fun of herself and her initial lack of comprehension of Bruachite ways, but the reader often senses the strain of the culture gap on both sides. In real life, the accuracy of the satire hit the natives of Elgol a little too close to home so that Lillian Comber eventually wore out her welcome. I think that is rather sad, but it does show what a delicate business it is to live among people from a different culture. You don't have to accept all their foibles blindly, but patience, understanding, generosity and humility are required.
Beckwith receives orders from her doctor to go for a rest-cure, that is, to live somewhere where the air is invigorating and life is healthy. She is all ready to settle on a farm in Kent when she receives an eccentrically worded letter from a Bruachite inviting her to come and board with her. She is so taken with the letter that she decides to turn down the Kentish offers and accept this one.
She almost regrets her decision when she has to cross to the island over a turbulent sea and arrive at a rustic little house at night during a storm. She soon settles in and though the furnishings are not glamorous, the food is hearty and her landlady, an elderly but spry widow named Morag, is kindly, hospitable and companionable.
We are gradually introduced to the inhabitants of Bruach most of whom are likeable, eccentric, and hard-working. The women always have time to have a "strupak" (usually tea and generous refreshments). And the men always enjoy their liquor when they get half a chance.
The weather is sometimes balmy, but often harsh. Nature, though forbidding, offers moments of startling tranquility and beauty which Beckwith describes in often lyrical prose.
The novel is full of humorous reflections on the the Gaelic character of the islanders. People are inquisitive but at the same time mistrustful of strangers. They can be kind and yet very critical of the shortcomings of their neighbours. They are often strictly religious, yet they indulge their weaknesses in epic ways. They want money, nice clothes and modern luxuries, yet they are reluctant to give up a very simple and rural existence. They hold the English in a sort of admiration, yet they have trouble communicating with folk from the mainland who "have not the Gaelic." This is not only a language barrier, but also a matter of culture.
These novels are meant to be humorous and heartwarming--and for the most part they are. "Miss Peckwitt" (as she is called by the islanders) gradually becomes acculturated enough to be scornful of those who refuse to make any effort to understand the community's mindset. And the Bruachites seem to take her to their hearts as well.
However, she does paint them in all their comic ridiculousness. To give her her due, she also makes fun of herself and her initial lack of comprehension of Bruachite ways, but the reader often senses the strain of the culture gap on both sides. In real life, the accuracy of the satire hit the natives of Elgol a little too close to home so that Lillian Comber eventually wore out her welcome. I think that is rather sad, but it does show what a delicate business it is to live among people from a different culture. You don't have to accept all their foibles blindly, but patience, understanding, generosity and humility are required.
January 26, 2020
Very much in the spirit of "My Family and Other Animals" or "It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet" - the humorous misadventures of a middle aged Englishwoman in a foreign habitat, in this case a Hebridean island where she initially intended to take a 'rest cure' and ended up living among the villagers and attempting to work a croft of her own.
There are a few self-consciously 'literary' paragraphs where the author attempts to describe the impression made on her by the landscape, but in general it's a vivid and entertaining account of what must have been the dying days of the old crofting life - my family took holidays in the Hebrides in the 1960s, and I gather it was much like this. She is quite open about the hardships of trudging across a moor in a gale (there would be no point putting bells on the cows as you would be quite unable to hear them!) and the meagre and delayed nature of the harvest, which they struggle to complete by November, but she also manages to show what she loves about the life and the people, despite the sometimes yawning gaps of communication between herself and the rest of the community.
Reading all three books at one go was a little too much, I found; I might have appreciated them more as light reading in separate doses!
There are a few self-consciously 'literary' paragraphs where the author attempts to describe the impression made on her by the landscape, but in general it's a vivid and entertaining account of what must have been the dying days of the old crofting life - my family took holidays in the Hebrides in the 1960s, and I gather it was much like this. She is quite open about the hardships of trudging across a moor in a gale (there would be no point putting bells on the cows as you would be quite unable to hear them!) and the meagre and delayed nature of the harvest, which they struggle to complete by November, but she also manages to show what she loves about the life and the people, despite the sometimes yawning gaps of communication between herself and the rest of the community.
Reading all three books at one go was a little too much, I found; I might have appreciated them more as light reading in separate doses!
November 18, 2025
Three volumes in this omnibus of life on an Hebridean island in the 50s, before running water, inside loos and electricity; when much was produced at home. Based on the author’s few years living on one island as an English outsider. To enter this world means to read the racist and judgemental views which can be a little hard to take. While the covers has a quite saying the book is hilarious, that may be when jokes made by looking down from English superiority was funny. Needless to say, I didn’t laugh but I did find much interesting.
February 3, 2018
Funny, happy, a joy to read! A lightly fictionalised memoir of the author's life on a Hebridean island. Though I'm not sure I'd have cared to live like that myself, it was a pleasure to share Lillian's life from the first page to the last, and I've recommended it to all of my friends!
August 27, 2021
There is an exposure of a suitable retreat on the Hebridean island of Bruach, whose inhabitants, routines, and rituals are as eccentric and entertaining as any reader could wish.
January 27, 2015
A fun, light, fiction read based on real-life experience. An unmemorable, albeit delightful way to pass the time. The warm humour charms; though it only takes a brief search on the Web to revel that many islanders did not appreciate the caricatures Beckwith (real name: Comber) drew of them.
However I can see why Mrs Beckwith’s writing sold so well. Like Gavin Maxwell’s (very considerably better) “Ring of Bright Water”, Beckwith’s island community books sit firmly in the escapist genre.
However I can see why Mrs Beckwith’s writing sold so well. Like Gavin Maxwell’s (very considerably better) “Ring of Bright Water”, Beckwith’s island community books sit firmly in the escapist genre.
October 25, 2015
I'm not sure how many times I have read this book but I still enjoy it! About the life she leads on a Hebridian island. The characters are wonderful , full of life and so interesting. There are many comical parts in this, the first of a series, so funny that I still laugh at each and every one of them.
August 27, 2012
I love this book which contains several delightful short stories of life in the Hebrides, where the author Lillian Beckwith moved to from England in 1942. Purchasing this book in Scotland many years ago...it precipitated my desire to visit the Hebrides, which desire came to fruition last May.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews