The Tailor's Tale - Christine Middleton

After the failure of the 1745 rebellion 'Bonnie Prince Charlie', fleeing from the English military and with a price on his head, took refuge in the Hebridean islands, from where he was helped to safety by one of the island girls, Flora Macdonald. This is her story, a story of the times and ways of the islanders, whose lives were so dramatically invaded by the arrival of a young prince intent on raising armed rebellion in his bid to seize the throne of England. The tale is told from the point of view of people who are minor characters in the pages of history, if they feature there at all. The romantic theme, which involves a beggar girl clinging to a belief in her Pictish ancestry, is entirely imaginary, as is the narrator of this story, a character only vaguely hinted at in accounts of the time. The itinerant tailor is an outsider, a newsmonger, a sardonic observer of the great events, but with his own secret to keep.