Highland annals

By Olive Tilford Dargan

An inherited farm in the Unaka Mountains becomes a meeting place between ownership and tenancy, practical necessity and inherited custom. Across eight linked narrative sketches, Miss Dolly's management of the land draws her into the lives of the rural highlanders around her, revealing how work, status and mutual dependence shape a close-knit mountain community. Ordinary responsibilities carry the stories forward, while each encounter opens another view of life governed by the seasons and the demands of the land. Granpap Merlin, an elderly tenant farmer, stands out for his practical knowledge, old-world wisdom and intimate understanding of trees. His presence brings the experience of the tenant community into conversation with Miss Dolly's position as landowner, without reducing either perspective to a simple contrast. From tending animals to gathering wild strawberries, daily labour becomes the ground on which differences of class and experience are observed, alongside family ties, hardship and the customs that bind neighbours together. Lyrical observation and conversational storytelling give these rural mountain stories their distinctive texture. Vivid natural imagery is matched by close attention to highland speech, while the linked form allows characters, customs and surroundings to gather resonance from one sketch to the next. As historical fiction rooted in tenant farming and dependence on nature, the collection preserves the rhythms of a community through its work, language and changing seasons. This book was out of print for decades and is now republished by Alpha Editions. It has been restored for today's and future generations. This edition is not just a reprint - it's a collector's item and a cultural treasure.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9377781833
• ISBN13: 9789377781835
• Release Date: December 2026
• Publisher: Alpha Edition
• Length: 140 Pages
• Weight: 0.43 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"