This novel, first published in 1941, has never gone out of print and is one of the most successful novels of Neil Gunn, an acclaimed writer considered one of the leaders of the Scottish Renaissance of the 1920s-30s. This novel is set in the north of Scotland in the period of the herring (the ‘silver darlings’) fishing boom. Following the lives of herring fishermen and their families, Gunn paints very accurate, warm and compassionate portraits of his protagonists. Son of a fishing boat skipper, Neil Gunn drew inspiration from the community he was surrounded by in his childhood. This novel will transport you to a different setting and draw a compelling and broad picture of the life of remote fishing communities that depended on the sea for their survival.

The Silver Darlings is a tale of lives hard won from a cruel sea and crueller landlords. It tells of strong young men and stronger women whose loves, fears and sorrows are set deep in a landscape of raw beauty and bleak reward. The dawning of the Herring Fisheries brought with it the hope of escape from the brutality of the Highland Clearances, and Neil Gunn’s story paints a vivid picture of a community fighting against nature and history and refusing to be crushed.

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