The Flight of the Heron

Product Information

We all have a few books that form our patterns - our core literary vocabulary, if you like. This is one of mine. It's about two men on either side of a war (the Jacobite Rebellion) who over the course of merely five meetings form a friendship so intense that it throws the nominal romantic interest completely into the shade. Since it's impossible in the context of mid-20s sentimental romance for the relationship to progress any further, one dies in the other's arms, and the other wears his ring for the rest of his life.

Male friendship—here a growing friendship between men whose loyalties make them enemies—is another important theme, and also shared with other books by Broster. The attraction between Ewen and Keith can be read as homoerotic, the expression of this repressed desire being facilitated by the fantasy element in the plot—the prophecy foretelling their destined meetings through the agency of the heron. [4] Reception [ edit ] I first read this book as a teenager, more decades ago than I care to remember or admit to! At the time, I enjoyed it tremendously. Now, I find the style rather stilted and the characters slightly wooden. Despite this, I finished the book and will read the other two in the trilogy, though perhaps not immediately. The descriptions of the landscapes and the cold, incessant rain were excellent. Ewen finds him and attempts to take him prisoner. From Keith’s POV, Ewen is a magnificent specimen of young manhood, as the soldier could not help admitting. Also, Splendidly built as this young Highlander was….The title comes from the fact that a seer predicts that Cameron will meet Windham five times by water, each time signaled by the flight of a heron. If you cannot open a .mobi file on your mobile device, please use .epub with an appropriate eReader. Set in Scotland in the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion, this is the story of an unlikely friendship between Keith Windham, a career soldier in the British Army, and a young Highland chieftain who follows Bonnie Prince Charlie in his bid for the throne. Broster, D. K. (February 1929). Whitney, Eleanor (ed.). "Heroism in Lost Causes—The Work of D. K. Broster". The Horn Book Magazine. Boston, Massachusetts: Women’s Educational and Industrial Union . Retrieved 2 April 2023.

I really do find that relaxing; there is something exciting about dipping into a complete unknown. You might find a gem! Or something awesomely bad. Or just something really bizarre. a b c d Lorna Sage, The Cambridge Guide to Women's Writing in English Cambridge University Press, 1999 ISBN 0-521-66813-1, p. 94.

You may also be interested in...

The first book of historical fiction that I clearly remember reading was The Flight of the Heron by D.K. Broster. My father gave me a copy for my twelfth birthday. It was a book he had read years before and loved. And he re-read it once I had finished. Then Bonnie Prince Charlie arrives, and the war soon begins. Keith Windham, a lonely woobie English soldier whose father is dead, whose mother didn’t love him, and whose girlfriend cheated on him, gets caught in an ambush. His cowardly new recruits flee, and a heron startles his horse. He’s thrown, and gets a concussion and a sprained ankle. Period drama serial The Flight of the Heron was based on a 1925 novel by D.K. Broster, aka Dorothy Kathleen Broster. It’s setting was the Jacobite Rebellion of the 1740’s and the Battle of Culloden (the same real life time period as the first couple of seasons of Outlander). Ewen Cameron and Keith Windham are soldiers on opposing sides but eventually come to a respect for one another. However, one of the bloodiest battles fought on British soil is on the way and one that would tear apart the clan system in Scotland forever.

THE FLIGHT OF THE HERON ' BBC Home Service Basic, 17 April 1944 19:15 Radio Times archive. Retrieved 7 November 2014. His prophecy is fulfilled by Ewen Cameron (Ian McCulloch) and Captain Keith Windham (Jon Laurimore), who – although on opposing sides – come to know and respect one another.You're really going to let your foster-brother run off and get shot? Really? Because he killed Windham and you knew why he did largely do to a misunderstanding and you're still like I never forgive you? Your chokehold loyalty has very strange conditions. Ewen is sceptical, but the prophecy proves true when he meets Englishman Keith Windham - and a gripping tale of adventure, danger and true and lasting friendship is set into motion. Set during the 1745 Jacobite uprising under Bonnie Prince Charlie, The Flight of the Heron is the first of the Jacobite Trilogy.

Some of the accents however were written phonetically and were nearly impossible to read. In some cases I had no idea what was being said and just skimmed over it. Also I think it was a bad idea to present two major characters with "L" names that had such similar construction. I also think the ending was a little weak and while I appreciate the strange bond between the lead characters ...I enjoyed the writing itself as well and the characters' longing for various things and I feel like the highlands in particular were granted a kind of otherworldiness but in a good way.