A Fire in Their Hearts
A Fire in Their Hearts
… a story of love, sacrifice and a desire for freedom that tears Scotland apart.
It’s 1662 and childhood sweethearts Violet and Samuel are caught up in the increasingly violent conflict between Scottish people and the monarch over who is head of the Church of Scotland. Ever tougher laws and punishments against ‘Covenanters’ result in civil war and, eventually, the disastrous Battle of Bothwell Bridge in 1679. Captured by Royalist soldiers the couple are held for months in appalling conditions in Edinburgh’s Greyfriars Kirkyard before being banished abroad. When the Crown of London sinks off Orkney many Covenanters are killed. Violet and Samuel are separated. Recaptured and transported, Violet arrives in Barbados disguised as a man and destined to work on a sugar cane plantation owned by the sadistic William Drummond.
How A Fire in Their Hearts came about …
‘Many times Catherine and I walked in Deerness, Orkney, and passed the impressive memorial to around 200 people who perished on 10th December 1679 when the Crown of London sank nearby. These were Covenanters who had been banished from Scotland and were being sent to work on plantations abroad. Who ‘Covenanters’ were remained a mystery to me for several years until one day I started reading their story.
‘What an extraordinary, and largely unknown, story it is. I was immediately hooked by the drama, bravery and significance of what ordinary Scottish people achieved fighting for religious freedom. So much of what happened during those decades of conflict in the 17th century resonates with what is happening around the world today, as well as helping to shape modern Scotland as we know it.’
A Fire in Their Hearts will be published on 28th August, 2025, by Black & White Publishing and will be available in hardback (£16.99) – ISBN: 978-1785307744 – from any high street bookshop, while the hardback, ebook and audio can be ordered from Amazon – Click here.
