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Bruach Blend cover art

Bruach Blend

By: Lillian Beckwith
Narrated by: Hannah Gordon
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Summary

What can take the fire out of a fever, the ache out of loving, and the meanness out of a miser? The answer according to Tearlaich is whisky - the ‘water of life’. And when he suggests to Lillian that the islanders should have their own blend - a ‘Bruach Blend’ - Lillian can see his logic. Add to this concoction of island life the regulars; Erchy, Hamish, and Morag, as well as Harry the hedgehog, pets, and pests - and cows in love - and you have a diverse and pleasurable glimpse of the way the islanders manage on the island of Bruach.

©1978 Lillian Beckwith (P)2010 AudioGO Ltd
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

What listeners say about Bruach Blend

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Definitely a laugh out loud book

I love these books and think the narration is wonderful. Beckwith's character portrayal is excellent and her descriptions are so evocative that I actually feel like I am there with her. The humour in this book is marvellous and I just wish there were more available on Audible as they really do brighten the day.

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4 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Nice gentle read

Lillian Beckwith's books are nice gentle stories of life at a slower pace. I have read all of them and looked forward to a pleasant listen. Hannah Gordon is a Scot, - despite her cultivated English accent - it is a pity she didn't learn how to pronounce Gaelic words before recording this.

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars

Just lovely

Funny, sweet stories read very well by Hannah Gordon.

I've listened to it several times and will some more.

I recommend this charming book.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Easy listening

This is an old favourite of my family and is a book that works well in audible form. Easy listening and a lovely tale.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

I'm sorry it had to end

An absolute pleasure. A lovely set of stories, beautifully read. I was sorry it had to end.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Brunch Blend

I love the expressive and easy style of Lillian Beckwith. Hannah Gordon read it beautifully.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Beautifully written, beautifully read

I read all of Lillian’s books as a child and have dipped back into them as an adult. They are so descriptive, of simpler yet very tough lives, the personalities of the crofters and the beauty of the scenery comes to life. I’d listen to more if possible.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Ask the "Bruachites"

- who were those in the vicinity of Beckwith's croft, whose ways and characters and apparent eccentricities were laughed at in the series of books written with lots of safe distance between them and her, If any of them remain alive, that is... Beckwith herself being long departed now.

Because she gave no word of using them in her books - to be written later when home again in her "Home Counties" or wherever it was she lived. They felt deeply betrayed by Beckwith, feeling themselves portrayed as a set of country cousins all divorced from anything "up to date" and having the "quaintest" habits.
Don't look for Bruach on the map, as there's no such place. I had a boss in the 1970s who was from Portree, on the Isle of Skye. and she said that Skye was where Beckwith stayed while info-gathering for her books. Never a word of such was ever said to explain her presence. So she was later seen as a viper in their bosom, having been given their friendship and their loyalty, both of which were, according to them, wilfully abused when her caricatures were easily ID'd to individuals in their community.
These books are of their time, which hardly is a great fit for these modern days, when openness is far more to the fore. Whether this whole situation was a deliberate one from the outset - or just one taken advantage of once its potential for comic writing was noticed is something Beckwith didn't reveal - as far as I know. Anyway it was apparently seen as a deeply sneaky business, and one not calculated to foster useful closing of any culture gap between them and mainlanders - or indeed with English people visiting later under the notion that they'd meet a community of funny simple souls with a lifestyle more in keeping with the back end of the 19th century than the mid-20th.
In reality, the hebridean crofters are a hard-working race apart, those few still leading this impoverished life in the early 21st century anyway. And they're anything but bumpkin-simple souls, as are no farmers these days, who must deal with changing tastes and in government support in produce everywhere. It's essentially a vanishing (or vanished in places) way of life that's very demanding of its adherents. And with mainland/lowland life daily depicted in TV, their children tend to want to leave for what's seen as offering more than living at subsistence level on a croft ever can. Only once gone do they - some of them anyway - see what they left behind on the croft, A few return, but most do not. Leaving the crofts eventually to be inhabited by others, with jobs "online" who can keep themselves well waged by seldom crossing the threshold.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Sunday listening!

Read well and thoroughly enjoyed
My first dip into audio books
Listened to this over three Sunday afternoons

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Happiness in a book

My late Mum and I used to read these books when I was young and I was so happy to find some titles on Audible. Read beautifully and enchanting as ever. Please can we have some more titles?

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