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Thursday 2 August 2007

Tall Tales from an Island


Tall Tales from an Island. eter Macnab was reared on Mull, as was his father, and hs grandfather before him, He heard many of these tales as a lad, and others he has listened to in later years. Although collected on Mull, these tales could have come from any one of the Hebridean islands. They are timeless and universal, and they are the tales still told round the fireside when the visitors have all gone home.
There are humorous tales, grim tales, witty tales, tales of witchcraft, tales of love, tales of heroism, tales of treachery, historical tales and tales of yesteryear. There are unforgettable characters like Do’l Gorm, and philosophical roadman, and Calum nan Croig, the Gaelic storyteller whose highly developed art of convincing exaggeration mesmerised his listeners. There is a headless horseman, and a whole coven of witches. Heroes, fools, lairds, herdsmen, lovers and liars, dead men and live cats all have a place n this entrancing collection. A superb collection indeed, told by a master storyteller with all the rhythms remembered from the firesides of his childhood. A popular lecturer, broadcaster and writer, Peter Macnab is the author of a number of books and articles about Mull, the island he knows so intimately and loves so much. As he himself puts it in his introduction to this book: ‘I am of the unswerving opinion that nowhere else in the world will you find a better way of life, nor a finer people with whom to share it.’

Some of these tales are discreetly transmitted in the words of real or composite village personalities, others are from the Gaelic, most of them probably genuine, having lost nothing but gained a lot during their passage down the generations from one oral raconteur to the next. Tall Tales from an Island.

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