Music in the dark - Sally Magnusson

'A wonderful and moving story, beautifully told . . . an episode of history brought vividly to life' Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasure

Jamesina Ross is long finished with men. But one night a stranger seeking lodgings knocks on the door of her tenement flat. He doesn't recognise her, but she remembers him at once. Not that she plans to mention it. She has no intention of trusting anyone enough to let herself be vulnerable again

A lifetime ago Jamesina Ross was bent on becoming a writer. She had a facility with words. She made up songs about the Highland glen where she lived and the kin who had worked that land for generations. When her community was threatened with eviction, she gave voice to that too. The women stood together, defiant and determined, but Jamesina's music was no match for one of the most brutal confrontations of the Highland Clearances

Jamesina has borne the disfigurements of that day ever since, on her face and inside her head. It marked the end of a life of