Synopsis
Born in mid-19th-century Edinburgh, Robert Louis Stevenson was a dedicated writer of remarkable versatility - novelist, essayist, travel-writer, poet, writer of ballads and fables, brilliant letter-writer and short-story writer of genius. Stevenson suffered from ill-health all his life and died at his Samoan home in the South Seas a century ago. Descended from a distinguished family of lighthouse engineers, he never wavered from his ardent resolution to become a writer, and his finest work was inspired by Scotland, especially the Highlands. He is famous not only for "Treasure Island", "Kidnapped" and "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde", but also as the author of "Thrawn Janet", set in his native Scotland, and many other stories of adventure, both macabre and humorous. This biography depicts the man and the intensely hard-working writer who latterly found inspiration in the South Seas, seen notably in "Beach of Falesa" and "The Ebb-tide", but who remained forever nostalgic for his beloved homeland, as revealed in his unfinished masterpiece, "Weir of Hermiston".
