Author Description

New edition, with many more pictures of MacBrayne's ferries. Christie colourfully evokes a Highland childhood and a way of life long gone. He recalls runaway trains, and culprits, like the Bear; rivers teeming with salmon; glens filled with sheep heading for the sale at Lairg; and, poignantly, the post Great War Spanish flu epidemic and the moving funeral for his young sister in Inverness. In detailing his career with MacBrayne's, man and boy, we meet the unforgettable characters who captained and crewed the West Highland's stormy life lines. None more colourful than Squeaky Robertson. In his war years, we go to France with the 51st Highland Division. Avoiding the capture of his comrades, Christie goes on to fight with the Commandos in North Africa, before serving at Alamein, and Monte Cassino. After the war and back with MacBrayne's, he finds a changed company but rises to Northern Area Manager via idyllic South Uist, Inverness and Fort William. In 1961, The MacBrayne's Man decides he has had enough of the post war company, and takes over the Sub-Post Office in Aviemore, then a sleepy former railway junction.