Corrag

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The book alternates between Corrag's narration of her story from childhood to the present and Charles' letters. Corrag explains her childhood in England, about her mother who was hung for witchcraft, her flight to Scotland where she came under the protection of the McDonald clan of Glencoe, and above all her joy in small things, her love of and deep compassion for people and animals, her knowledge of herb lore and above all her great understanding and embracing of life, after having had such a hard existence. Like Fletcher's previous heroines, Corrag is steeped in the landscapes that surround her and her observations are marked by the same lyricism as those of her predecessors. In Fletcher's version, Corrag has escaped persecution in Northumberland and reached Rannoch Moor on a stolen mare, finding a refuge in the hidden valley on Bidean nam Bian where the MacDonalds of Glencoe kept their stolen cattle. Both sections are equally powerful in the way they reveal the inner thoughts, values, and personal struggles of both Corrag and Charles.

In my English life, they took old truths - my snowy birth, how I liked marshy places - and pressed them into proper lies, like how they saw me lift up a shoulder and turn into a crow. It is easy to ignore it, for sometimes it says what we'd rather it did not - and it is so hard to risk the things we have. Corrag’s grey mare takes her north, and the bond she shares with the animal (and the many she meets thereafter) is deep and heartbreaking. If you are not left spell-bound by the end of this hauntingly gorgeous story, I'm not sure what will. A man of compassionate faith, Reverend Charles Leslie is initially repelled by Corrag and, as are the majority of persons, he instantly assumes she is guilty of all charges and worthy of her fate.

This historical novel combines the Jacobite uprisings of the 1690s with the terrible witch-hunts of Britain which were only repealed in 1735, the last three hundred years before that in which hundreds of thousands of woman were persecuted-for ridiculous things, for being independent,, eccentric, for knowing herb lore, for living alone. He speaks through this half-creature in a feminine way – and it is better for her that she is burnt, and soon.

It had the thick, earthy smell of plants at night, and water, and water sounds… A valley of such narrowness, and with such steep sides that it is like walking into a hand, half-closed… It was an open hand that I could lie inside, and it would keep me safe. I learned about the Massacre of Glencoe - on a frosty winter’s morning in 1692 King William III and his redcoats slaughtered men, women and children of the Scottish MacDonald Clan. Charles is hoping to gain evidence that will prove that King William was involved in the Murder/Massacre so that King James could be reinstated. S. history so am in no position to discuss the accuracy of Fletcher's "historical" fiction; it is a genre I don't tend to read.Within a period of a few days, the preacher's whole life's philosophy is turned upside down and he becomes a saint, a man who follows his heart and is able to do the right thing, regardless of his religious beliefs and the law of the land. Corrag also warned that if the narrows of Loch Leven were ever bridged, a flood would wipe out the entirety of Glencoe. I might even argue that his wife, Jane, becomes a major character because she clearly is a strong filter for his own thinking. Seeing true, natural beauty can lessen it, because sunsets and winter light can make you say inside you ‘I am not alone’ – you feel it, through such beauty.