Overview

An exciting new edition of Bella Bathurst’s epic story of Robert Louis Stevenson’s ancestors and the building of the Scottish coastal lighthouses against impossible odds. ‘Whenever I smell salt water, I know that I am not far from one of the works of my ancestors,’ wrote Robert Louis Stevenson in 1880. ‘When the lights come out at sundown along the shores of Scotland, I am proud to think they burn more brightly for the genius of my father!’ Robert Louis Stevenson was the most famous of the Stevensons, but not by any means the most productive. The Lighthouse Stevensons, all four generations of them, built every lighthouse round Scotland, were responsible for a slew of inventions in both construction and optics, and achieved feats of engineering in conditions that would be forbidding even today. The same driven energy which Robert Louis Stevenson put into writing, his ancestors put into lighting the darkness of the seas. The Lighthouse Stevensons is a story of high endeavour, beautifully told; indeed, this is one of the most celebrated works of historical biography in recent memory.

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9780007204434

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Reviews

'Deeply accomplished! this splendid book preserves the memory of great deeds performed in a heroic era' Frank McLynn, Sunday Times 'Bella Bathurst has built a lamp herself: it illuminates the work of a literary hero, a family business, a habit of mind and a Scottish period! from the summit of this first terrific book she looks to become one of the best biographers of her generation' Andrew O'Hagan, The Times 'An enthralling story, vivaciously recounted! These were epic and scarifying adventures, indicative of an age when the taming of nature was a philosophical given, its execution a religious passion' Alan Taylor, Observer 'This is a grand book doing for lighthouses what Dava Sobel's Longitude did for marine chronometers, and doing it, if comparisons are to be made, with considerably more panache' Nicholas Bagnall, Sunday Telegraph 'A fine and scrupulous book! Robert Louis Stevenson would have relished the tale' Ian Bell, Scotsman

'Deeply accomplished! this splendid book preserves the memory of great deeds performed in a heroic era' Frank McLynn, Sunday Times 'Bella Bathurst has built a lamp herself: it illuminates the work of a literary hero, a family business, a habit of mind and a Scottish period! from the summit of this first terrific book she looks to become one of the best biographers of her generation' Andrew O'Hagan, The Times 'An enthralling story, vivaciously recounted! These were epic and scarifying adventures, indicative of an age when the taming of nature was a philosophical given, its execution a religious passion' Alan Taylor, Observer 'This is a grand book doing for lighthouses what Dava Sobel's Longitude did for marine chronometers, and doing it, if comparisons are to be made, with considerably more panache' Nicholas Bagnall, Sunday Telegraph 'A fine and scrupulous book! Robert Louis Stevenson would have relished the tale' Ian Bell, Scotsman

Author Information

Bella Bathurst was born in 1969. Her first book, The Lighthouse Stevensons, was a national bestseller, won a Somerset Maugham prize and was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. Her first novel, Special, was published in 2002 and was longlisted for the Orange Prize. Her second work of non-fiction, The Wreckers, was published in 2004. She lives in Scotland and London.

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