FIR FOR LUCK (CRANACHAN)

This exciting historical children’s novel is set against the backdrop of the Clearances and features a feisty girl called Janet. She’s only twelve, but she finds herself in quite a scary position – she is the only one standing between her village and the officer with the eviction writ. The story of Janet’s village, Ceannabeinne on the North coast of Sutherland, is based on events which really took place there and the title comes from a strange habit people had in those days – they sometimes wound a sprig of fir tree (quite rare in those parts) into their hearth chains as they thought it might bring them luck.