Lightly Poached by Lillian Beckwith was published in 1973 and it’s the fifth book in the author’s Hebridean series. This series came about when Beckwith moved to Skye in the 1960s from the north of England – for the sake of her mental health and she started to write about her experiences in what was a very different society from what she had been used to.

The ‘poached’ of the title doesn’t refer to eggs, but to the poaching of salmon which was far more prolific than it is nowadays – probably because of all that poaching in the past, apparently even the local minister wasn’t averse to serving poached salmon!

But it’s not all about poaching, there are ceilidhs (a get together, possibly involving dancing if there’s space) which go on all night, not to be confused with a ‘strupach’ which is just a cup of tea with a scone or something similar, and a trip to the mainland to a ‘roup’ (an auction of household goods at a house clearance).

Things are very different nowadays on Skye, in fact I’m not sure how authentic these books are, Beckwith ended up leaving the island after the locals took umbrage at her portrayal of them, but they’re quite entertaining anyway.