The Guynd: Love & Other Repairs in Rural Scotland

This memoir offers an American woman's view into pastoral Scotland. By turns funny, touching, heartwarming, it is the author's account of her marriage to a Scottish landowner and of the years they spent together at his large ancestral estate, "The Guynd" (rhymes with "wind"). We follow her steep learning curve in dealing with a grand and crumbling mansion still recovering from the effects of two World Wars, as well as an overgrown landscape, a derelict garden, troublesome tenants, local aristocracy, Scottish rituals, and a husband for whom change is anathema. A son and heir draws the author into an intimate relationship with every tier of the local society, while a visiting American friend heightens the strain of the ever-present culture gap. Alternating between enchantment and despair, Rathbone digs into family and local history in an effort to understand her surroundings and free her husband from the grip of the past.