Children of the Black House is a fascinating glimpse into life on the
Hebridean island of Lewis from the closing years of the nineteenth
century up to the 1950s. Calum Ferguson employs an unusual narrative
technique, drawing on his mother Mairead's reminiscences, and presenting
her experiences and conversation in the first person.
This is a fascinating account of a culture in transition; it records and
preserves for twenty-first-century readers traditions and ways of life
which have now gone for ever. Also this remarkable memoir is a treasury
of personal recollections, traditional tales, and songs. It is
illustrated throughout with photographs of Mairead, her family and
friends.