Ardnish

Stationed in Gallipoli during WWI, a wounded Scottish soldier finds love as he longs for home in this novel of memory, romance and the horror of war. Gallipoli, 1916. A soldier in the British Army's Lovat Scouts, Young Donald Peter Gillies, lies in a hospital bed, blinded by the Turks. There by his side is Louise, a Queen Alexandra Corps nurse, Louise, who cares for him and listens to his stories of home. Donald paints a vivid picture of the western highlands coast, telling stories of how his family lived: bagpiping, sheep shearing, celidhs, illegal distilling, his mother saving the life of the people of St Kilda, the navvies building the west highland railway and the relationship between the lairds and the people. Louise in turn tells her own story of growing up in the Welsh valley: coal mining, a harsh and unforgiving upbringing. But when they suddenly find themselves cut off from the allied troops, they must make a daring escape through Turkey to Greece. The first novel in Angus MacDonald's acclaimed trilogy begins an epic tale spanning generation of war and of a single Scottish family.

When a Scottish soldier finds love in the midst of war, he will go to any length not to lose it in this WWII epic by the acclaimed author of Ardnish. Like his father before him, Donald Angus Gillies is leaving the small highland village of Ardnish to go to war against a distant enemy. Joining the British Army's Lavat Scouts, he is sent on a mission to the Alps, where he soon meets the beautiful Francoise, a French-Canadian agent of the Special Operations Executive. The pair immediately form a close bond, but when Francoise is captured, Donald Angus realizes how strong his feelings for her truly are. His desperate attempts to find her prove fruitless. But a posting to Canada leads to some remarkable news, not only about Francoise, but about his own family. Reunited once more, Donald Angus and Francoise plan to live together in his beloved Ardnish, but have one further mission to complete first – a mission more dangerous than anything they have ever faced before . . .