Love and Music Will Endure (26 page)

I owe my first debt of gratitude to my grandparents, Seonaidh Bàn and Dolina MacRae, now deceased, who first awakened my love of Skye, but many other people have given me help along the way to producing this novel. Alyson Bailes, Rosemary Hagan and Jenny Manson read the first draft and made valuable suggestions that enabled me to chip away at its rough surface. I also made use of Hi-Arts, the excellent professional service for aspiring writers in the Highlands. The established writers Meg Bateman and Angus Nicolson were generous with their time and expertise.

On the research side the Archives staff in Portree were extremely helpful and well-informed as were the people in Portree and Inverness Libraries. I should like to give special thanks to Charles MacDonald who gave me free access to the papers of his great-grandfather, Lachlan MacDonald. Many people at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Oifis nan Fèisean and Lasair have enabled me to deepen my understanding of Gaelic language and culture. I owe thanks too to fellow members of The Skye Reading Room for their encouragement. Linda Henderson has been a shrewd and insightful editor, scraping away at the sediment and buffing up the final draft. My son Alan and his partner Laura have contributed much valued emotional and technical support. Finally, my long suffering husband Steve has been my computer expert, sniffer-out of inconsistencies, spell-checker and polisher of prose – all of this as well as enduring my grumpiness when things were not going well.