Although I've lived in Scotland for many years, I was born and brought up in the Isle of Man. I have a tremendous affection for the place I call home, despite my family's being Scottish and my having no Manx heritage as such.
Margaret Elphinstone is a Scot who has chosen to write about the Island, or more accurately, about Ellan Bride, a tiny fictitious island off the south west coast of the Calf of Man,
which is itself a very small island off the coast of Man. This 'Russian doll' effect has produced a wonderfully focused novel of considerable intensity and great skill.
Set in 1831, "Light" describes the impact on the island's only family of the coming of 'progress' in the form of the new breed of Stevenson-built lighthouse. With the arrival of surveyors on Ellan Bride, change becomes inevitable, but with it comes opportunity for this tiny closed community of exiles.
The sense of place in the book is acute, and the writing is distinguished by a clarity of tone and a measured pace. Margaret Elphinstone deals very subtly with the interplay of light and darkness throughout the story, and her research has clearly been meticulous, capturing a very Manx spirit and rooting the book in folklore and myth while handling many technical details with ease and drawing her characters with a sure hand.
If all the Isle of Man means to you is motorbikes and kippers, take a look at this book and I promise you you'll be enlightened.
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