GRAVITY OF FEATHERS: FAME FORTUNE/ STORY OF ST KILDA (PB)

It is widely believed that the St Kilda islanders’ failure to adapt brought about the demise of their community. Andrew Fleming challenges this view, showing how the islanders used their reputation as an uncorrupted society to embrace and exploit the tourist trade. Creating a prestigious tweed, and exporting the ancestors of today’s Hebridean sheep, the islanders gained access to consumer goods and learned how to play politics to their advantage. This book tells the absorbing and eventful story of St Kilda from earliest times, up to the 1930 evacuation and its aftermath.