Fàilte Bertrice Small

homecomingscotland2009.com

Please join me in welcoming Romance Icon Bertrice Small!  When I first "discovered" romance in the Netherlands, I devoured the small selected at the base library.  I asked the book store manager if she could recommend (and order) some romances for me.   To this day I remember exactly what she said, "Read Skye O'Malley by Bertrice Small.  It is the one book that set the standard for all others to follow."

I met Bertrice and George Small at the SOS Military Mixer during the RT Booklovers' Convention in Pittsburgh/2008.   You can imagine how excited I was to meet her.  But Bertrice quickly put me at ease as if we had been friends for years.  Indeed, she is a friend, mentor, and inspiration to many romance writers.

Kim:  What is your favorite castle?

Bertrice:  Hermitage.

Kim:  The Hermitage is listed as one of the Historic Scotland properties:

For most of its 400-year existence, Hermitage Castle was the key to controlling the Scottish Middle March. In The Steel Bonnets, George Macdonald Fraser’s fascinating book on the Border reivers, the author describes Hermitage as ‘the guardhouse of the bloodiest valley in Britain’. Contemporaries called it ‘the strength of Liddesdale’ and as such it was fought over time and again. Even the building of the castle in the 13th century brought Scotland and England to the brink of war.

Despite its long history of bloodshed, Hermitage Castle also hosted a romantic, if somewhat scandalous, tryst. In October 1566, the 4th Earl of Bothwell, secret lover of Mary Queen of Scots, was badly injured in a skirmish with reivers. On hearing the news, Mary decided to visit him in his sick-bed, and rode out from Jedburgh, a 25-mile (40 km) ride across difficult terrain. Their tryst, on 16 October, lasted two hours.



visitdunkeld.com

Kim:  Favorite clan? 

Bertrice:  My own, the Leslies and the Gordons

Clan Leslie

Clan Gordon





Kim:  Favorite tartan?

Bertrice:  Gordon

serendipity-inspirations.co.uk



The Highlanders 4th Battalion
tour-scotland-photographs.blogspot.com

Kim:  What is your favorite saying?

Bertrice:  Fictional: "Ye dinna want to look down from heaven and see another lad ploughing wi yer mare."

Real: The Robert Burns Grace:

Some hae meat but canna eat
Some would eat but want it
But we hae meat, and we can eat
And sae(so) the Lord be thank-it.

Robert Burns

Kim:  Which authors inspired your interested you in Scotland? 

Bertrice:  Ivy Bolton, the children's author of the 1940s and 1950s got me interested in Scotland. My favorite of all her books was Luck of Scotland. She became an Anglican nun and was one of my teachers at St. Mary's. She was quite elderly then but still writing and publishing.

For grown-ups it was Jan Westcott who wrote books like The Border Lord and The Hepburn among others. She wasn't very historically accurate, but she wrote a terrific story.

 

Wow - look at those covers!  Tapadh leat (thank you) Bertrice for joining us during St. Andrew's Week! I am giving away one Hawaiian trivet each day. The trivet has a design from a Hawaiian Quilt - unique as each clan's tartan.

To enter the giveaway,

1. Leave a comment about Bertrice, Robert Burns, and classic romances.

2. Make sure I know how to contact you - send your email to sos.america@yahoo.com.

3. This giveaway is only open to US and Canadian residents. But if you live in Scotland, I will send you a special Hawaiian treat!

Mar sin leat (good bye),

Kim in Hawaii



To learn more about this legendary author, check out:

- Bertrice's website.

- Bertrice's interview with Avon Romance, Avon Romance

- Bertrice's article about the original Avon ladies.

Geroge Small
Mr. Romance 1945