Despite health problems and a lack of formal education, her Polish-born husband Kazimir always encouraged her creativity, and after his death Rhona settled in Skye and began to make her living by writing and painting. Neither financial hardship nor blindness has hindered the flow of her imagination and her ability to evoke the people and landscapes of her island home.
The stories collected here, many of which have been previously recorded for broadcast on BBC Scottish Home Service radio, are ordered thematically. The collection begins with stories of childhood and ’the ever young’, progresses to tales of men and their boats, pipers and gamekeepers, and then to a group of stories about women and domesticity, culminating with the spiritual world of the cailleach and sacred seer. The text is enhanced by maps of the places where the stories are set, period photographs of Skye and also the author’s own evocative paintings.
Rhona Rauszer (nee Mackinnon) spent the summers of her childhood in Skye. She served in the WRNS throughout the war, and performed with ENSA in France and Germany. She became a professional actress and made numerous contributions to BBC Scottish Home Service radio from 1938 to 1968. In 1968 she moved permanently to Skye to concentrate on her writing and painting. Since being registered blind in 1986 Rhona has continued to record her stories, many of which have been broadcast on Scottish radio.
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