Clap Hands for the Singing Molecatcher

Roderick Grant; Illus. Robert Field

ISBN 10: 1912476681 / ISBN 13: 9781912476688

Published by Origin, 2019

About this Item

Roderick Grant's memoirs of his adventurous boyhood in Morayshire in the late 1940s and 1950s paint a vivid picture of life in a remote country community, from his first day at school, accompanied by his pet jackdaw, to skinny dipping with his first love; and he portrays local characters including his grandfather, known to all as The Red Terror, and top of the bill at local concerts, 'The Singing Molecatcher'.

Seller Inventory # 517977

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Clap Hands for the Singing Molecatcher
• Publisher: Origin
• Publication Date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1912476681
• ISBN 13: 9781912476688
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Clap Hands for the Singing Molecatcher is both hilarious and deeply moving in its splendid account of the writer’s childhood on a remote country estate in Morayshire in the 1940s and 1950s; a place where isolated hill farms, limitless moorland and the rock-strewn banks of wild, tumbling rivers became the backdrop for a variety of adventures and experiences. Laughter, tragedy and dramatic incident thread their way through the life of a growing boy and the lives of the people he observes.

Roderick Grant’s book is not merely one of nostalgic recall. It is a richly evocative memoir of a time and place when horses still drew ploughs and children walked seven miles or more each day to reach their school; and where shepherd and gamekeeper, farmer and labourer, forester, railway worker, teacher, laird and minister, and their families, were all part of a community, close-knit in its isolation from the changing post-war world.

About the Author

Roderick Grant was born in Forres, Morayshire, in 1941, where he attended the local academy. He has worked as a forestry worker, a journalist, a newspaper editor, a television presenter, a radio broadcaster, a bookshop manager and a postman. He has been published in both Britain and the USA.