The Jacobite Trilogy

I first read this trilogy as a young teenager caught up in the seeming romance of the Jacobite rebellions of 1715 and 1745 and as a proud, albeit idealistic, descendant of highland Camerons. I have read the trilogy twice since and while I am slightly less idealistic, I still enjoy this historically set fiction which involves many of the heroes of Clan Cameron (The Gentle Lochiel, and Dr Archie) as well as some wonderful fictional characters including the dashing Ewen Cameron. These novels were first published in the 1920s and this is evident in both language and style. Despite this, they are still worth reading today. Ms Broster created a world where much of the action is implied rather than explicitly described, and she does not linger overlong on the battles. The strength of the novels, for me, is in the impacts on the lives of those caught up in the rebellions. Viewed with the benefit of hindsight, the Battle of Culloden is an historical crossroad and in many ways it serves such a purpose in this novel. I'd recommend this trilogy (`The Flight of the Heron', `The Gleam in the North, and `The Dark Mile') to anyone interested in Jacobite fiction set in the 18th century Scotland. The romance of the highlands as depicted may largely be illusory but in fiction all things are possible. Jennifer Cameron-Smith

This is a really fantastic trilogy! It is somewhat difficult to get into the writing style at first though. It was writen quite awhile ago, so the punctuation is really awkward. I swear some of the sentences ran on for 2 pages with nothing but hyphens and oddly placed commas. PLUS, there are typos everywhere and I couldn't understand 100% of the scots (and even less of the gàidhlig and french... though I'm very glad she included all 3). After you get past this though and get into the flow of the books, they are great! They are fairly fast paced, and the plot and subplots all weave together wonderfully. "The Flight of the Heron" is about Ewen Cameron's (a Highland Jacobite) relationship with Keith Windham (a British soldier). This takes you through the battles (very quickly... this is a big reason I rated it 4 stars. The battles were just skimmed over and some left out entirely... by page 100 we were already through the battle of Culloden) and the immediate aftermath. "A Gleam in the North" is about Ewen's cousin Archibald Cameron (now one of the most wanted men in Scotland) trying to help get another rising going, and Ewen and his brother-in-law Hector Grant trying to help him. Plus there's the whole issue with the French gold and people betraying their own people. This one also gives you a good glimpse at how their lives changed after the '45. "The Dark Mile" is about another of Ewen's cousins, Ian Stewart, and his love for Olivia Campbell and the clan complications there (and the other reason I gave the trilogy 4 stars: I hated how this turned out). There's also a huge subplot here that spills over from "A Gleam in the North" about Finlay McPhair of Glenshian and... well... a huge conspiracy. Overall REALLY great books and I'm glad I didn't get discouraged by the difficult sentence structures and syntax!