Soil and Soul, by Alastair McIntosh

I picked this up over the summer at the Greenbelt festival, where Alastair McIntosh was speaking. I should have read it earlier really, as it’s book as deep and beautiful as the lochs described in its pages. A strange but compelling blend of politics and poetry, prophecy and protest.

McIntosh begins with a rich and detailed depiction of his childhood on the Isle of Lewis, with stories of hunting and fishing, local lairds and bards, Celtic legends and histories of both triumph and atrocity. Foremost among these are the clearances, which saw the Scottish highlands cleared of farmers and crofters and given over to a landowning nobility. Countless thousands moved to the cities or took passage to America, and hundreds of years later Scotland’s feudal system remained. 80% of the land was owned by just 900 families.

A second strand running through this opening section is the creeping force…