The Silent Weaver
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Review
'Wonderfully touching true story' --Mike Russell, Sunday Herald
'This is a story which will stay with me for a long time and Roger Hutchinson has done his subject proud' --Press & Journal
'Eloquent' --Scotsman
'Haunting' - Sunday Herald, 'This a wonderful addition to Hutchinson's growing list of excellent books --Shetland Times
'Roger Hutchinson expertly unfolds a unique insight into the world of this displaced young man... a fascinating and illuminating story' --West Highland Free Press
'This is a story which will stay with me for a long time and Roger Hutchinson has done his subject proud' --Press & Journal
'Eloquent' --Scotsman
'Haunting' - Sunday Herald, 'This a wonderful addition to Hutchinson's growing list of excellent books --Shetland Times
'Roger Hutchinson expertly unfolds a unique insight into the world of this displaced young man... a fascinating and illuminating story' --West Highland Free Press
Product Description
'Haunting' - Sunday Herald. In September 1939, groups of horsemen in battledress cantered down a broad, grassy plain on the western edge of Europe. The young men of the Western Isles were going to war again. They included a tall, shy 24-year-old called Angus MacPhee (1916-97). Angus returned from war alive but in chronic mental pain and was referred to the asylum in Inverness, where he spent the next 50 years of his life there. During his time at Craig Dunain Hospital, he retreated into his own silent world, and did not speak again until shortly before his death. But 'the quiet big man' as he was known spent his time creating a huge number of objects out of woven grass, sheep's wool and beach leaves - mostly clothes, caps and hats - which he then let decay or deliberately burned. Only when an art therapist discovered him and his miraculous creations were some of them preserved for posterity. And only then did Angus MacPhee come home to South Uist, where he died a year later. The Silent Weaver is a rich, moving and enthralling exploration of mental health, the creative process, human frailty and ancient traditions.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read a review of this book in the Glasgow Herald and was reminded of a person of whom I had heard when working in Inverness. An excellent read, with background information about life in Scotland in a less hectic age.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The Silent Weaver joins a growing list of excellent books by Roger Hutchinson that describe and explore different aspects of Hebridean life. Like Calum's Road, Father Allan, and A Waxing Moon, The Silent Weaver uses a singular subject to weave a complex but evocative picture that touches on - among other things - military history, Uist culture, medical practice, and the recent economic history of the Outer Islands. All this in telling the extraordinary story of Angus MacPhee, a crofter who went off to war in 1939, fell ill with a form of schizophrenia and was then sent to Craig Dunain Hospital outside Inverness. For the next 50 years MacPhee chose to remain almost totally silent, but went about weaving hundreds of garments from the grass and leaves he harvested from the hospital grounds. Only a few of these were rescued (by the art therapist Joyce Laing) but Hutchinson uses these basic facts to write a truly fascinating story and go on to place MacPhee's achievement both within his own Gaelic and Celtic culture, and within the world of 'Outsider Art', or 'Art Extraordinary' (to use Laing's terminology).
A wonderful read, full of insight and never once losing sight of MacPhee's achievement in recapturing and rediscovering his humanity against enormous odds. Thoroughly recommended.
A wonderful read, full of insight and never once losing sight of MacPhee's achievement in recapturing and rediscovering his humanity against enormous odds. Thoroughly recommended.
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I was really looking forwrd to reading this book as I had read a previous work on his life(Weaver of Grass). I was unable to put this book down once I started it. It gave wonderful insight not only into the man Angus McPhee but also into local living in the Isles and mental health in Scotland and how it had been treated then compared to how. Interesting on so many levels.
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