The Prisoner of St Kilda

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About the Book: 

One shotgun wedding. Two Kings. Thirteen years incarcerated. You may be sure I have much more to tell. Lady Grange, letter from St Kilda, 1738.

Married to a Scottish law lord, Lady Grange threatened to expose her husband's secret connections to the Jacobites in an attempt to force him to leave his London mistress. But the stakes were higher than she could ever have imagined. Her husband's poweful co-conspirators exacted a ruthless revenge. She was forcibly removed from her Edinburgh lodgings and carried off to the Western Isles, doomed to thirteen bitter years of captivity. Death was her only release.

Who kidnapped Lady Grange? How could this prominent member of Edinburgh society simply vanish? Why did no one try to find her until nine years after her abduction?

Based on contemporary documents and Lady Grange's own letters, The Prisoner of St Kilda looks beyond the legends to tell for the first time the true story of an extraordinary woman.

The true story of this lady is as frightfully romantic as if it had been the fiction of a gloomy fancy. - James Boswell, 1785

Reviews: 

... a tale of such scandal and drama that it reads almost like a work of fiction. CATHERINE SALMOND, Edinburgh Evening News

... this fascinating account of one of the most beguiling characters in Scotland's history... Despite the unhappy ending, it's a stunning story and Margaret Macaulay has done it full justice. TREVOR ROYLE, The Herald

Yet there's another story of human hardship in [St Kilda]'s history that's been much less analysed - not one of evacuation but of abduction. Not of escape, but of exile. A story of political intrigue, betrayal and personal tragedy. SUNDAY POST

About the Author:

MARGARET MACAULAY was born in Campbeltown, Argyll, and educated at Campbeltown Grammar School. She graduated from Glasgow University with an MA Hons in History, going on to work as a reporter on The Herald, and later as a freelance journalist, teacher and bookseller. Margaret has always been interested in individual women in Scottish history, especially those who have been maligned or forgotten.

When her daughter went to St Kilda some ten years ago on an archaeological dig, she was drawn to find out more about Lady Grange, and became hooked.