#Booklaunch – LADY’S ROCK by Sue Lawrence @SueHLawrence @SarabandBooks @agentjenny @BlackwellEdin #historicalfiction #islay #scottishfiction #voicetothevoiceless #newrelease

Lady’s Rock by Sue Lawrence

On the evening of the 26th of March, I attended the book launch for Lady’s Rock by Sue Lawrence at Blackwells in Edinburgh, Scotland. Chaired by the effervescent Jenny Brown, the champion of authors. I love attending Sue’s book launches, particularly as you always come away having learned something new and feeling uplifted.

It is truly fascinating that Ms Lawrence gives a voice to the strong women in her books. Those who struggled to be heard in the time they lived. I imagine these women, perplexed and at the end of their rope, looking out of castle windows or across rough seas on Islay, praying and hoping to be heard. For a miracle to occur and to break the monotony of their horrific and painful situations. It is therefore utterly brilliant that centuries later Ms Lawrence answered the ghost of their whispered prayers and she gives them the time and place to be brought back to the living day and heard loud and proudly. It just makes me roar with pride inside, I love it.

With Lady’s Rock, we are off to the Isle of Mull in the 1500s as Catherine Campbell is betrothed to Lachlan Maclean. You can understand the shock to Catherine’s system as she has to learn to be a wife all the while struggling to get to grips with a new and shocking environment. It was fascinating to learn about the Fostering that was done back then. Where you sent your child off for seven years to another clan, along with a bunch of cattle. You then got them back with the same amount of cattle plus half of any born. Blows my mind how distressing it would have been for the mums. There were no epidurals in those days and pregnancy couldn’t have been an easy time and then just to hand the babbie over. It would cause such mental distress not to mention heartache.

Here is a reading by Sue Lawrence from Catherine’s point of view:

I highly recommend pre-ordering Lady’s Rock today and leaving a review on the available platforms. As Sue said at the end of the event, you may not like Catherine or her choices but you will most definitely be rooting for her in some capacity.

I can’t wait to read the book and hear Catherine’s story.