Strong Women of the 18th Century

Today Alison and I walked into Nairn centre to go to our second Book Festival event. It was Flora Fraser talking about her biography Pretty Young Rebel and Sean Lusk talking about his historical novel, A Woman of Opinion. Both books are about strong women in the 18th century; Flora McDonald who helped Bonnie Prince Charlie escape by boat from South Uist to Skye after the Battle of Culloden, and Mary Wortley Montague, a brilliant and eccentric upper class lady who wrote about her travels to Constantinople and introduced inoculation against smallpox to Britain. Both women had to contend with misogyny and used their considerable intelligence to make the most of their different situations in life. Flora Fraser and Sean Lidl were both good speakers and the hour of discussion flew past. Alison and I both enjoyed it very much.

Meanwhile Hugh and James had been using Hugh’s many ride-on agricultural machines, which he and Alison need for their large plot of land. He has a tractor, a digger, a quad bike and more. Needless to say James was absolutely thrilled to try these out and had a great time. We all met up in Nairn and had coffee and lovely scones in a new café called The Highland Weigh, before we bade our farewells and set off back to Ullapool to be reunited with the cats. The weather was sunny and the cats were delighted to spend the afternoon in the garden with us.