O Caledonia

WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION FROM MAGGIE O'FARRELL

Janet lies murdered beneath the castle stairs, oddly attired in her mother's black lace wedding dress, lamented only by her pet jackdaw...

In this, her first novel, Elspeth Barker evokes the unrelenting chill of Calvinism and the Scottish climate; it's a world of isolation and loneliness, where Barker's young protagonist turns to increasingly to literature, nature, and her risque Aunt Lila, who offer brief flashes of respite in an otherwise dank and foreboding life. People, birds and beasts move in a gleeful danse macabre through the lowering landscape in a tale that is as rich and atmospheric as it is witty and mordant. The family motto - Moriens sed Invictus (Dying but Unconquered) - is a fitting epitaph for wild, courageous Janet, and her determination to remain steadfastly herself even as events overtake her.

About the Author

Elspeth Barker is a novelist and journalist. She was born in 1940 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Her first husband was the poet George Barker by whom she had five children, including the novelist Raffaella Barker. Her novel O Caledonia won four awards and was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize. She has reviewed extensively and written features for the Independent on Sunday, Guardian, Sunday Times, Observer, LRB, TLS, Scotland on Sunday, Vogue and many more.

She edited the anthology Loss for Dent/Orion and has published short stories in numerous anthologies. She currently writes for The Literary Review.