**** (4 stars)
“Holds her audience entranced”
Janis Mackay is best known for her storytelling and her children’s books. I well remember a show at the Scottish Storytelling Centre a few Fringes ago, which she wove around the birth of a young seal in a cottage garden by the sea in the north of Scotland. Today Janis was at St Columba’s by the Castle to tell us about her first novel for adults – On a Northern Shore.
It all began with being offered a writer’s residency in Caithness, which was only for six months – but Janis ended up living there for five years [and a baby seal was born in her garden!]. During the residency she held workshops for all manner of local people – youth groups, groups of people with learning disabilities, lunch clubs – and also had time for her own writing. The landscape of Caithness is challenging, and very unlike the ‘idea of Scotland’ – mountains, trees, lochs and heather. It’s very flat, almost treeless, and very sparsely populated [the Clearances had a lot to do with that…]. Janis wrote many poems while in Caithness, and shared some with us.
This poem [included with her permission] describes it perfectly
Caithness
Is a white flag of sky
Surrendering
To wild nesting edges.
The sky is vast, arching over the lonely, mostly drab-coloured landscape. Silence is everywhere. The inhabitants are more closely attuned to the natural world than might be the case in urban environments, and much more aware of the incredibly thin nature of the veil separating the ‘real’, observable world from that of otherworldly magical and mythical beings.
Superstitions are a much more believable part of life here, and there is a rich heritage of myth and legend. It’s hardly surprising that there’s a prevalence of selkie stories in the far north of Scotland and particularly the islands of Orkney. The land and sea are at times almost indistinguishable, and for a being who can be both a seal and a woman once the sealskin is shed, slipping from one to the other is the easiest thing in the world.
Janis holds her audience entranced with her version of one of the many selkie stories that exist. A lonely fisherman out on the sea late at night is about to row for home when he hears a voice singing. It’s as if a fishhook has pierced his heart, drawing him towards the sound. He reaches an island where a number of young women are dancing and singing: when he stumbles over a pile of sealskins, he realises they are silkies. One by one they slip back into their skins and into the sea, but one can’t find her skin – the fisherman has hidden it. He asks her to marry him, saying he’ll give her skin back in seven years’ time: but when the seven years are up, and they have a son, Ruaridh, he refuses to disclose where he’s hidden it…
The romance and poetry of such stories, and the compelling power of the stark Caithness landscape inspired Janis to write the novel, which tells the story of a lonely and isolated fisherman, Rab, who doesn’t quite believe the rituals his now-dead father insisted they perform, but feels he must do them anyway. He’s down on the shoreline on Ne’ersday: is that a sealskin he trips over on the shore? Is there a body tumbling in the waves? Is he just suffering from a massive hangover?
On a Northern Shore is described as ‘a haunted love story steeped in Celtic folklore’ which I felt drawn to buy and look forward to reading once I’ve finished reviewing all these shows!
ScotlandsFest Ghosts of the North, St Columba’s by the Castle (Venue 367) for more information go to: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/scotlandsfest-ghosts-of-the-north-a-gothic-love-story
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