The Mauricewood Devils

This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Buy on Amazon Buy on Waterstones.com
*This page contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app
Cancel
1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date 18 Feb 2016 | Archive Date 15 Mar 2016
General Fiction (Adult)

Description

The year is 1889. When a fire tears through the Mauricewood coal pit there is no escape. Of sixty-five men working, only two survive. Many of the bodies will not be recovered for months.

Martha and her sister have lived with their granny since their mother died, but she is not kind. The death of their father in the Disaster means an end to any chance of a better life. For Martha’s stepmother, Jess, the wait for a body to bury, and the struggle to deal with a loss that is both collective and private, is agonizing.

With many of the miners families left destitute, the women of Mauricewood undertake a campaign for compensation and justice against the criminally negligent pit owners.

Martha and Jess’s stories lie at the heart of this elegy to the closeknit communities of the pit villages in a gripping tribute to resilience and courage in the face of utter catastrophe, based on true events, original source material and Alexander’s own family history.

The year is 1889. When a fire tears through the Mauricewood coal pit there is no escape. Of sixty-five men working, only two survive. Many of the bodies will not be recovered for months.

Martha and...

Read More Read More

A Note From the Publisher

Dorothy Alexander lives and works in the Scottish Borders. A graduate of Glasgow Creative Writing programmes, she writes in Scots and English and is an enthusiastic practitioner of experimental techniques. Her found poetry has been exhibited as visual art and she frequently collaborates with other visual artists. The Mauricewood Devils is informed by a long term project based on oral narrative tradition. In 2002 she won the Macallan/Scotland on Sunday Short Story Competition.

Dorothy Alexander lives and works in the Scottish Borders. A graduate of Glasgow Creative Writing programmes, she writes in Scots and English and is an enthusiastic practitioner of experimental...

Read More Read More

Advance Praise

'A beautifully written book, affecting and eligiac, by a novelist who is also a poet. It is at once desperately sad and painful, uplifting and life-affirming. What saves the lives of the characters, as much as mere physical sustenance, is telling stories, both those they tell themselves consciously and those that visit them unbidden. And the book itself is a testament to the power of storytelling. It takes a long gone, largely forgotten historical event and brings it to life again.' Allison Miller, author of Demo

'The Mauricewood Devils is meticulously researched, creating a detailed picture of East Lothian life in the late 19th century... as bodies are brought to the surface we learn details of the men's personalities, their quirks and family life in a story that is as much a testament to human kindness as it is a powerful insight into the staggering devastation of so much loss. ****" The List

'A beautifully written book, affecting and eligiac, by a novelist who is also a poet. It is at once desperately sad and painful, uplifting and life-affirming. What saves the lives of the characters...

Read More Read More

Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781910449677
PRICE £8.99 (GBP)

Links

Additional Information

Average rating from 4 members

Readers who liked this book also liked: