My Heart's in the Lowlands: Ten Days in Bonny Scotland ~ by Liz Curtis Higgs, 2007, travel
This photo by the author is so clear you want to reach out and touch the stonework of Sweetheart Abbey in Scotland. Her writing is like that, too, so clear you would swear you have been to Scotland.
Instead of the highlands, Higgs takes the reader to the Scottish lowlands, her favorite part of that country. It's the setting for her historical fiction, which I have not read ... yet.
I tasted the delicious food of Scotland with Liz, stayed in quaint B&B's, rambled through ruined castles, and even shopped in Benny Gillies Bookshop. The people we met were lovely, very friendly. The only disappointment of the whole trip was when I realized, as we were ready to fly back to the States, that I was sitting in my chair at home, traveling only in this book, and did NOT have in hand that Dorothy Sayers book Liz bought for me. She said I should read it because the story was set in that very town where we got it. (Now, what WAS the name of that place?) Anyway, I didn't make it home with the book, obviously, since I never left home, and will have to borrow it from my library.
If you want to see the collection of photos "we" took on "our" trip, pour yourself a cup of Earl Grey tea and click on this link: http://www.lizcurtishiggs.com/lowlands_photos/lowlands%20photos1.htm. Rated 10/10, loved it!
4 comments:
Wow! Gorgeous. I really want to go there now.
I spent just a couple of days in Edinburgh in November of 2001 and absolutely loved it! Of course, the city was quiet because Americans were all cowering at home. That probably made the city 10 times nicer. I'd really love to see more of Scotland.
You went with Liz Curtis Higgs? She's a terrific writer.
Bookfool: You went with Liz Curtis Higgs? She's a terrific writer.
No, no, no, I've never been out of the United States. Read my review carefully: "Her writing is ... so clear you would swear you have been to Scotland. ... The only disappointment of the whole trip was when I realized, as *we* were ready to fly back to the States, that *I* was sitting in my chair at home and did NOT have in hand that Dorothy Sayers book Liz bought for me."
I don't have the book now because I NEVER had it, in actuality. She "gives" that book to every reader. She suggests that her (reader)-companion try the haggis. "No?" she says, knowing you aren't ready. So I "try" something else. I was "with" her as I read the book. She includes the reader in what she does and where she says we are going.
This book gets a 10/10 rating from me for its sheer imagination. Liz Curtis Higgs, who has never met me personally, nevertheless took me along on her trip to the lowlands. She "heard" me huffing and puffing from the exertion of walking up a steep part of a mountain, "told" me why this next place is such a good bread-and-breakfast with its view of the gardens from "our" room.
The photos "we" took are all by the author, but so real does she make this trip for the reader that you will swear you actually toured Scotland with her. Yes, Liz Curtis Higgs truly is, as you say, "a terrific writer"! And having her as my "traveling" companion is as much a part of my memory of Scotland as the scenery.
Maybe I was a lot clearer when I posted my review here:
http://bookaroundtheworld.blogspot.com/2007/08/scotland.html
Anyway, I still want to take that trip to Scotland.
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