Hebridean Solace

Mairi MacBride was born in Paisley on April 20th 1900 and died on February 20th 1980 at her home on the Isle of Mull, where she lived most of her life. From 1940 to 1960 she worked as a teacher of dress design at the Burslem School of Art in the Staffordshire Potteries, where she was held in great affection by her students. She was diagnosed with cancer on four separate occasions: the first time in 1950 and the last, twenty-five years later at the age of seventy-five.

Full of positivity and zest for life, Mairi was known to the younger members of her beloved family as 'Aunty Bunty'. This short book describes her experiences of working as a teacher, examiner and expert speaker in the field of Celtic art, as well as touching on some of her many and varied leisure interests.

When she decided to write down her story it had the working title My Quarter-Century Living with Cancer, before her great-niece Fiona suggested Hebridean Solace. Mairi was convinced that God spared her for so long because he had a purpose for her. After her final cancer, she concluded what that purpose was: 'to put down on paper my experiences of living with cancer that other sufferers might have the courage to face what has to be faced.'

Told simply and without elaboration or effect, Hebridean Solace is also a work of great beauty.