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'Rip-roaring adventure' set after the Battle Of Culloden takes a slightly different journey to publication for Inverness writer


By Margaret Chrystall

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Inverness-based writer Barbara Henderson is delighted to see her latest book for children The Reluctant Rebel featured at Culloden Battlefield – it’s the story of two youngsters caught up in the post-battle flight of Bonnie Prince Charlie across the Highlands.

The Reluctant Rebel - BArbara Henderson's latest book for late primary age youngsters.
The Reluctant Rebel - BArbara Henderson's latest book for late primary age youngsters.

For a long time it’s a subject Barbara has wanted to write about for older primary children.

“For the best part of the last two decades we have had visitors coming to visit us in Inverness and the first place we drag them to is Culloden Battlefield – it’s such an atmospheric place and because I was born abroad and therefore this history isn’t my history, it’s all fresh.

“So I come at it cold and was just intrigued by the history of it. Then, once I started reading a bit more about it, there was a book called The Flight of Bonnie Prince Charlie and I thought ‘Goodness! That’s where the story is!’

“I am much more interested in that, this deadly game of hide and seek, than I would be in the military account of the battle, so that was part of it.

“I think as a teacher as well that I was really acutely aware that there wasn’t a Jacobite book for that later primary school age group.

“A lot of primary schools teach Jacobite history and there was a book called The Dangerous Lives of the Jacobites for younger readers that was illustrated, with history – and a little bit of a fiction story through it.

“But there wasn’t an adventure story for upper primary. And I thought ‘I want to be the one who writes that’. So when I came across that book The Flight of Bonnie Prince Charlie, I thought that wasn’t something that was so frequently taught – the aftermath.

“I just wanted to fill that gap, so I wrote the book.”

Barbara usually has at least one book project she is working on. But The Reluctant Rebel hung around with her for a while.

Barbara Henderson wearing a white cockade and a tartan cloak - which the writer spotted in a a charity shop and works for the upcoming book events for The Reluctant Rebel!
Barbara Henderson wearing a white cockade and a tartan cloak - which the writer spotted in a a charity shop and works for the upcoming book events for The Reluctant Rebel!

The writer explained: “You will find with a lot of writers that a lot of the work they do is not taken on by publishers straight away. This was one of the ones that fell through the cracks!

“I spent a year researching and writing it and then it took a couple more years to find a taker.”

The Reluctant Rebel is published by Luath Press based in Edinburgh, the publisher that put out Barbara’s book Scottish By Inclination, a departure from her fleet of books for children with island-based Cranachan.

Barbara said: “Now I am working with two publishers, and I have a new book coming out next February with Cranachan, my main publishers. I feel lucky to have that on the go and two teams in my corner, if you like!”

It is Cranachan that first asked Barbara something she now always asks herself as she starts a new book.

“They said ‘What’s the dream?’ I said ‘Edinburgh Book Festival!’ and last year I appeared there as an author!

But now I always ask myself that questions with a new book – what’s the dream?”

The Reluctant Rebel: A Jacobite Adventure (Luath Press, £7.99). More on Barbara and her work: barbarahenderson.co.uk


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