Helen Humphreys is a favourite author; her work never disappoints.
This unique novel is set in two different parts. The first concerns a writer very much like Humphreys, planning to write a biography of Megan Boyd, a famous Scottish fly-dresser. Boyd was renowned across the world (with a four-year wait list) for her artistry in creating exquisite salmon fishing flies - even supplying and befriending HRH Charles.
For sixty years, she worked alone in a shack behind her simple cottage overlooking the North Sea, outside the small Scottish village of Brora.
Without electricity or running water, she worked from sunup to sundown, her dog her only companion. Averse to harming animals, she never fished herself. "How do you become the best at something that you yourself have never tested?"
Megan seems an eccentric, intimately knowing the countryside, the rivers and the fish. Her lack of vanity in wearing only men's clothes with a short mannish haircut made her look an outsider, but one who was welcomed in her community. Megan Boyd had the honour of having a fly named after her, used in the dead summer when salmon are disinclined to bite.
Humphreys spends a hot summer outside, walking in nature with her own dog, and contemplating what an author should include or decline when illustrating a life. Who did she confide in? Did she have a lover? These are questions an author must fill in for the reader. The people who colour Megan's life, and the ones you have to let go.
The first exploratory part ends, and part two is Humphreys creation. The story of a strong, independent artist arises, and the reader sees how all the threads of imagination are woven by Humphreys to create a fully rounded character. I felt I knew Megan well, from what was considered then eliminated, as well as what was included in the final story.
Highly satisfying and well recommended.
My other reviews for Helen Humphreys:
Rabbit Foot Bill
2018 / Hardcover / 288 pages
Comments