If you keep your eyes and ears open in the Scottish countryside, even today, you can catch a glimpse of an ancient people, known in the 18th century Highlands as the luchd siubhail, literally, 'the travelling people'. Their ways of livelihood may have altered, but their tradition has preserved the precious customs of kinship and hospitality as well as the stories and songs that our schools, political system, social snobbery and the media have caused us almost to forget.
Sheila Douglas has enjoyed the friendship of a number of the travelling people for over forty years, including Willie MacPhee. He owned very little and never lived in a house, but he was rich in traditional culture, music, song and piping. All his life, Willie loved to ceilidh with his family and friends, and retained in his memory all the stories he had learned providing a link between the ancient history of his people and their situation in present-day Scotland. In Last of the Tinsmiths, Sheila Douglas has collected Willie’s songs and stories, along with recollections about him from friends and family. The result is an entertaining and powerful book, vital in preserving the ever-vanishing culture of the luchd siubhail.
Dr Sheila Douglas was born in Yorkshire but moved to Renfrew as a child. She studied English at Glasgow University, trained to be a teacher at Jordanhill College and completed her PhD at Stirling University. Her other books include Sing a Song of Scotland, The King o’ the Black Art and The Sang’s the Thing. She lives in Scone, Perthshire.
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