A Gatehouse author’s new book looks at the life of a young girl in the Highlands at the end of the 19th century.
Claire Pepper’s work “Mary Ann Mackenzie A Highland Schoolgirl, 1895” was published yesterday.
The story is told through the eyes of nine-year-old Mary Ann – a real girl from Scoraig, a remote crofting community in the north west Highlands of Scotland in 1895.
Her recollections offer a rare insight into the school day and home life and are combined with extensive research, photographs and extracts from the school log books, bringing rural childhood in the Highlands in the late nineteenth century, vividly to life.
Claire said: “I taught at Scoraig School in 2014-15 where some things had not changed since Mary Ann’s school days including the high schoolroom windows, open fire places and mice in the classroom.
“During my time at Scoraig School, I organised a Victorian school day but was dismayed to discover the children’s topic books sent by the local library service referred to English educational policies and practice and schools based in England.
“The only reference to Scotland was the odd sentence on corporal punishment, especially the use of the tawse.
“In February 2022, I conducted a national survey to try and determine if any books for young people on education during the nineteenth century in Scotland had been written. Twelve independent bookshops and five museums in Scotland replied to my enquiry, all stating that they were not aware of any such publication.
“One bookshop owner, Elizabeth Parsons from Gallovidia Books in Kirkcudbright, enthused: ‘Maybe there is a book to be written’, which inspired me to start this amazing writing journey.”
The book is written for confident primary and secondary readers but is also suitable for adults. It was checked for historical accuracy by Highland Folk Museum curator Liz English and James MacGregor, a relative of Mary Ann Mackenzie and author of “Scoraig A Peninsula and its People”.
It is Claire’s first book and the first in a new series called Scottish Children of the Past, which aims to explore the home life, school experience and employment of real children in Scotland during the nineteenth century.
“Mary Ann Mackenzie A Highland Schoolgirl, 1895” is available to buy at independent bookshops, museums and online through www.scottishchildrenofthepast.com.
It costs £15.99 with funding from The Strathmartine Trust and The Catherine Mackinnon Trust costing some of the publishing costs.
