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by Belinda Rathbone

Belinda_Rathbone Historical English
  • ISBN: 1593720254
  • Category: Biographies
  • Author: Belinda Rathbone
  • Subcategory: Historical
  • Other formats: doc azw lit mobi
  • Language: English
  • Publisher: Quantuck Lane; 1st Paperbound Ed edition (April 23, 2007)
  • Pages: 304 pages
  • FB2 size: 1560 kb
  • EPUB size: 1799 kb
  • Rating: 4.8
  • Votes: 361
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Rathbone's fine visual sense and understated style results in an appealing book for those who love historic houses and the human stories they contain.

The Guynd: A Scottish Journal Belinda Rathbone Quantuck Lane Press £1. 9, pp294 From . 9, pp294 From New York to a new life in the Highlands proves a tricky transition. There is a bit of a clue on the book jacket even before you start reading The Guynd, a gem of a memoir by a scholarly and sceptical New Yorker who, in what appears to be a rare moment of spontaneity, weds a misanthropic laird and decamps to the Highlands. I knew when I married the man that I married the mansion.

Rathbone nails down a little bit of the Scottish soul in all its stark splendor. This memoir offers an American woman's uniquely privileged view into the pastoral Scotland of today.

Alternating between enchantment and despair, Rathbone digs into family and local . The Guynd: A Scottish Journal.

Alternating between enchantment and despair, Rathbone digs into family and local history in an effort to understand her surroundings and free her husband from the grip of the past. Like a letter home from a strange land, this book offers a view of Scotland not found in the guide books. The tale of the journey through the wrought iron gates and up the long tree-lined drive into the living past is both wry and poignant, both oddball and deeply reflective of the ties that bind us. Отзывы - Написать отзыв.

A son and heir draws Belinda Rathbone into an intimate relationship with . I also learned a lot about Scottish society and how to pronounce quite a few words correctly.

A son and heir draws Belinda Rathbone into an intimate relationship with every tier of local society, while a visiting friend heightens the strain of the culture gap. Rathbone digs into family and local history in an effort to understand her surroundings and free her husband from the grip of the past. She was unsuccessful. The book shines most brightly when Rathbone describes the improvements she managed to make to the place despite her husband's fighting her every step of the way.

The Scottish Book (Polish: Księga Szkocka) was a thick notebook used by mathematicians of the Lwów School of Mathematics in Poland for jotting down problems meant to be solved. The notebook was named after the "Scottish Café" where it was kept. Originally, the mathematicians who gathered at the cafe would write down the problems and equations directly on the cafe's marble table tops, but these would be erased at the end of each day, and so the record of the preceding discussions would be lost

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Find nearly any book by Belinda Rathbone. An Intimate Gallery: Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz. ISBN 9780709049852 (978-0-7090-4985-2) Hardcover, Robert Hale Ltd, 1993.

IN 1990, Belinda Rathbone met John Ouchterlony, 26th laird of the Guynd, a large but decrepit country estate in Angus, north of Edinburgh. When Rathbone first arrived, the Guynd (it rhymes with "the wind") was hardly an attractive proposition.

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"Rathbone nails down a little bit of the Scottish soul in all its stark splendor."—New York Times Book ReviewThis memoir offers an American woman's uniquely privileged view into the pastoral Scotland of today. By turns funny, heartwarming, and occasionally sad, it is the author's account of her marriage to a Scottish landowner and of the years they spent together at "The Guynd," his large ancestral estate. We follow her steep learning curve in dealing with a grand and crumbling mansion still recovering from the effects of two World Wars, as well as an overgrown landscape, a derelict garden, troublesome tenants, local aristocracy, Scottish rituals, and a husband for whom change is anathema.A son and heir draws the author into an intimate relationship with every tier of the local society, while a visiting American friend heightens the strain of the ever-present culture gap. Alternating between enchantment and despair, Rathbone digs into family and local history in an effort to understand her surroundings and free her husband from the grip of the past.Like a letter home from a strange land, this book offers a view of Scotland not found in the guide books. The tale of the journey through the wrought iron gates and up the long tree-lined drive into the living past is both wry and poignant, both oddball and deeply reflective of the ties that bind us.
Reviews about The Guynd: A Scottish Journal (7):
Feri
"The Guynd" is a must-read for all fans of "Monarch of the Glen." Anyone interested in living in Scotland, the history of Scottish mansions, house restoration, landscaping, antiques, home furnishings, and re-furbishing a house and garden would enjoy the excellent descriptions provided in this charming story. The book is a lovely combination of every day life in modern Scotland and the challenges of maintaining a historic family home on current income levels. The tone is upbeat, and the reader is treated to gracious stories of the author's life and discoveries in Scotland. I'm ordering my third copy of this book to send to a friend who is also a great fan of "Monarch of the Glen." This book captures the time and place of that TV series perfectly.
Kefym
I carefully read reviews about this book before buying it, and decided to go ahead. Glad I did! I like reading books with lots of description about other ways of life and cultures, and this is the one if you're interested in Scotland!
Topmen
Charming book.
Rollers from Abdun
I couldn't put this charming book down. Having a near life-long desire to live in Scotland or Ireland (I know -- they're not the same!), I couldn't resist ordering this book. Ms. Rathbone is a fine writer and evokes her Scottish home in both its glory and its -- well, not tatters, but let's say less happy aspects. I still want to go to Scotland -- but she made me see things a little more realistically than I had before.

The book ends too abruptly -- tho' I respect the author's reasons for doing so. But it's still a "grrrand" book and I look forward to reading more by Belinda Rathbone.
Nikohn
It is where I grew up! She did a great Job.....but it actually was even more wonderful than she could ever write. SCOTLAND in real life was better!
Purestone
The Guynd was very entertaining. I learned a lot about Scottland that I didn't
know. In style, I would compare the writing to that of "Under the Tuscan Sun".
Loved knowing and "feeling" how cold those drafty old houses can be. And that one
solution is the "aga" stove in the kitchen where you can live in the cold weather. The picture that the author painted of the landscaped and forgotten grounds felt a
lot like taking an adventure in someone's unknown garden as a child. I would like
to read more by this author. She's very witty.
Bearus
The Guynd by Belinda Rathbone is a modern day memoir set in the Scottish countryside outside Arbroath. Rathbone, born American, meets and marries a member of the Scottish aristocracy and moves with him to his run-down ancestral home in the countryside. This book tells the story of her adjustment to Scottish country life, of her relationship to a man tied to his family home, and of her endeavors to build a life for her family in these circumstances.

It is great fun to open the pages of this book and begin to read the story of how Belinda met her future husband at a cousin’s wedding. Soon the pair are living together in Scotland and Belinda is exploring the many rooms of her husband’s ancestral house, the Guynd. Unfortunately, the house has fallen into disrepair over the years as the previous generation died and John (Belinda’s husband) finds it necessary to be living elsewhere. The couple decides to make this their permanent home and together begin renovations.

Restoring the Guynd is not going to be as easy as Belinda hoped. John becomes sidetracked over and over again by his obsession with saving things that should be thrown out, or saving money by doing without. Belinda finds herself freezing in the cold Scottish autumn because radiators are never turned on until a certain date in November no matter what. It is hard to come to a unified agreement on what the restorations should look like and how they should be accomplished.

Meanwhile Belinda works on getting to know the people living on their estate, the other landed families who live in the area, and the general Scottish way of living life. There are both delights and disappointments to be found as Belinda learns the way things are done in this part of the world. She also begins to understand the downside of having a large family home — the money required for upkeep, the problems with tenants, a garden that has been overgrown for decades.

Sadness creeps in as we realize that Belinda and John’s marriage has a shaky future and the life that Belinda is working so hard to build at the Guynd is not going to remain for the long haul. Her time there has been another chapter in the long history of this family home.

Rathbone’s memoir is unique in that it gives a modern day look at the realities of life for those living in large, ancestral homes. For those of us in love with shows like Downton Abbey and Monarch of the Glen this is an excellent way to experience vicariously this kind of life. The daily life of the average Scottish citizen would need to be found in a different memoir.

Travel Notes: This book is great reading if you plan to visit any country homes in Scotland or have an interest in Scottish life.
I came across this book by Walker Evans biographer Belinda Rathbone and it was synchronicity on several levels. First it got me excited about an upcoming trip to Scotland with my wife who is a Robert Burns descendant, that my wife does Walker Evans licencing for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and we own an historic house in the historic Hudson Valley. The author and her aristocratic husband go through the same things we go through restoring their historic Scottish homes and garden and their relationship with each other is as complex as ours. Because of this book I am in love with Scotland before even getting there. This book goes right up on our Guynd like library book shelf with Scott, Burns and Stevenson.

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