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'Fascinating and intimate' account of Hebridean village wins Highland Book Prize with 'clear-eyed' author hailed for remarkable achievement


By Val Sweeney

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Prize winner Frank Rennie with his winning book.
Prize winner Frank Rennie with his winning book.

A "fascinating and intimate" account of one small Hebridean village’s relationship with the wider world has won the latest annual Highland Book Prize.

The Changing Outer Hebrides: Galson and the Meaning of Place by Frank Rennie won the title after wowing the judges.

The competition’s longest-standing judge, novelist and poet Kevin MacNeil said: "It is a book that shows us the life-enhancing joys of understanding – truly understanding – what a particular place is and means.

"Rennie’s clear-eyed, well-researched writing shows us that we are not only who we are but where we are.

"Scotland has traditionally been marginalised, overlooked and misunderstood; this book reverses those iniquities."

The book explores everything from the landscape’s three billion year bedrock to the near future, and closely interweaves it with the social history of the people – including the Iron Age, Clearances and contemporary community land ownership.

Frank Rennie is the professor of sustainable rural development at Lews Castle College of the University of the Highlands and Islands, where he works on human ecology, rural issues, and education.

He travels widely and has published more than 30 books in both Gaelic and English.

The winning book was announced during an online event hosted by Moniack Mhor Creative Writing Centre, in association with the Ullapool Book Festival.

As the winner of the 2020 Highland Book Prize, Frank Rennie will be awarded £1000 prize money and a week’s writing retreat at Moniack Mhor Creative Writing Centre.

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