Witch of the Glens by Sally Watson

There are some books that make me want to rub my hands in glee, and Witch of the Glens is one of them. What a charming book! I wish I’d discovered it when I was younger, I think I’d have adored it even more.

Quickly, the Plot:

Kelpie has no memory of how she came into the hands of wicked Old Mina and Bogle. She plots an escape from her harsh gypsy life when the house of Glenfern takes her in (out of pity). Now she’s just waiting to steal a few bags of gold, not caring in the least about the war sweeping through the Scottish Highlands. But Kelpie has the second sight, you know, the real second sight (not the fake one that Mina pretends to have) … and soon Kelpie begins to see the human world in a new light.

All the things I loved:

There are so many things about this book that I fell in love with. Let’s start with the writing. The writing is simple but it’s also designed to bring the visuals of Highlands to mind:

… sibilant grasses, white gloaming, braw spells by goblin lasses, gorse bushes, young stoats [in the loch], black shoulders of the mountains, thick bank of broom bracken and juniper, harebell blue [frocks], dirks, new-baked bannocks and venison pie, and days that couldn’t decide between winter and spring …

Sigh. The writing is just too lovely.

The focus of the book is not defense or historical accuracy, but there’s some dense politics in there too. This is 1644 in Inverness, Scotland, and we have historical figures bounding about. Like King Charles Stewart and his Royalists, James Graham of Montrose, the Campbell Clan, and so forth. I wasn’t familiar with this bit of history, and found it fascinating.

Kelpie herself is such a marvelous character. She has a strong case of the wanderlust and has long wandered restlessly, looking for a place to belong but unable to settle down. And her character arc is particularly moving. It’s very difficult to discard a childhood filled with suspicion, theft training, witchery and hatred — and yet Kelpie manages all that. For all her brashness, Kelpie has retained that proverbial heart of gold.

“Ye, a wolf cub: belligerent, cunning, snarling, biting, thieving, destructive—and yet innocent, as a wolf cub is innocent because it knows nothing else.”

There’s so much humor too, as Kelpie slowly adjusts to the Highlander society (humans other than Old Mina and Bogle!), and wins them all with her intrinsic honesty. In turn, she is all tangled-up over the red-haired Alex and bewitched by the little girl Mairi’s toothy love. Kelpie is such a lovable crook, I tell you.

“Och, what a beast he was, then, with the bony, freckled, jeering face of him, and the two jaunty tufts of red hair jutting up- ward just where horns ought to sprout!”

Rating:

10/10 (this is a biased rating). It’s adorable.

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Have you read Witch of the Glens? What are you waiting for? Read Witch of the Glens on Project Gutenberg.