Loch Down Abbey: Downton Abbey meets locked-room mystery in this playful, humorous novel set in 1930s Scotland

Product Information

Gotham Awards: 'Anatomy Of A Fall' An Early Double Winner; 'Four Daughters' Best Doc - Updating Live Why must he always try to do things? He isn’t good at doing things. Doing Things is what servants are for.” Those seeking humour with their historical fiction ought to read this. It is well worth it, utterly absorbing. Love the details which elevate a good read to a great one. The book was only published in April, but it's already being developed into a TV series by Gigi Pritzker and Madison Wells Media. “We have thought about how to capture what has happened to us all in the last year and Beth has found a way through wit and empathy,” Pritzker said. “It was immediately evident that this incredibly witty book should be turned into a fun and entertaining television series that audiences will love. Beth is such an impressive writer, and person, and we are confident her book will capture a loyal and devoted fanbase. We cannot wait to read the sequel.”

Many thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for giving me the chance to read Loch Down Abbey by Beth Cowan-Erskine in exchange for an honest review. The chapters were also insanely long too, which I didn’t mind but shorter ones would have helped break it up a little. It was quite confusing at first with all the different characters and trying to get to grips with who was who. I also found I wasn’t truly invested in the story and it didn’t hook me as I thought it would. I kept on reading as once I was a certain way in, I wanted to know whodunnit and how it was going to end. It was funny reading how the family, used to the finer things in life, had to learn to adjust to a reduced staff, but the book as a whole just didn’t interest me that much.

When she hit, the first thing they did was send down a diver to clear the bar. To make sure folk didn’t hurt themselves more than anything, diving down for stuff,” Donniel Kennedy told John Donald MacLean in 1998. In her later years, the gathered a reputation as accident-prone, after grounding in Mallaig harbour in 1965, then colliding with Mallaig pier the following year, and grounding on a reef at Kyle the next day. In 1971 she hit the island of Longay, off Broadford, and her passengers had to be rescued by a passing launch.

She is a bad ship – a rogue,” said one crewman to The Scottish Daily Express in 1973: “She sits too high in the water and this makes her prone to windage.” Another crewman said: “The ship is narrow and wallows a lot. She is not good in a tight corner.” Then came the fifth, and final, mishap. MV Loch Seaforth and MV Loch Arkaig at Kyle of Lochalsh in 1971.

Featured Reviews

I parallelismi con la serie tv a cui strizza l’occhio sono molteplici e durante la lettura viene naturale fare degli accostamenti tra le due opere.

Cleverly plotted, peopled with a cast of unforgettable characters and written with an uproarious mix of Anglo-American humor, this very funny and unputdownable novel is a sure winner from start to finish! To be enjoyed without moderation. On May 11 the giant floating crane Magnus III (chartered from Risdon Beasley of Southampton) arrived and lifted Loch Seaforth, moving her to the beach. She was patched and refloated, then left in tow for Troon where she was scrapped by the West of Scotland Shipbreaking Co. So ended the career of one of the best ships of the Stornoway service.” The Seaforth raised by crane. Photograph: the late Angus MacLean. But what would have narked me most of all if I were Scottish was that my country was here busted down to an away venue for a proxy war between the US and the Soviet Union. Which of these two polities was responsible for manufacturing the worst car known to humankind, Clarkson asked. Oh, obviously the Soviets, you reply. Have you ever tried to put a Lada through hairpin? Of course you haven’t, because the Queen Mary has a tighter turning circle. As if that’s not enough, they’ll be modifying their muscle cars and taking them to the Outer Hebrides for one of the show’s toughest challenges yet! They’ll have to see whether a homemade floating bridge will be capable of supporting the weight of their massive cars on a perilous drive across the Hebridean sea to their final destination! The Grand Tour Presents: Lochdown trailer

Those reports match up with further comments made by May earlier this year: “In the short term, we might have to reduce our travel ambitions, and we’ll have a better chance of [filming]. The Grand Tour may become a little more domestic. But it will still be us three which is the important thing. And cars." She should have been put around the side of the pier, but there was a MacBrayne’s chief of operations, and he thought there was no problem, and he over-ruled the skipper, which strictly speaking he couldn’t do, and said she must go on the front of the pier, and of course that was us cut off,” Donniel Kennedy recalled to John Donald MacLean in 1998.

Se cercate un albero genealogico da stampare per facilitare la lettura lo potete trovare qui (Ilibrididede.it)! An eye witness at Scarinish said today: ‘She went over very slowly on her port side, her superstructure smashing against the pier. I don’t know how much damage has been done to the ship but it looks pretty bad.'” The series will be produced by Pritzker, Rachel Shane and Amanda Morgan Palmer for Madison Wells along with Samantha Sprecher ( The Comedians), who is producing through her new company 3 Foot Toss. The salvage operation was praised by Colonel Thomas: ‘The men have done an absolutely fantastic job. They moved the boat in 48 hours flat. We cannot stress how grateful we are to them.’I thank Hodder and Stoughton for a copy of Loch Down Abbey. It is described like Down Abbey, with humour and a disease that his harming the Scottish town. So, because of that I was interested to read it. The characters were quite 2-dimensional as well, although I think the servants were the most interesting, and I quite enjoyed the relations between the family and servants, highlighting the invisibility of 'the help' in these situations, contrast with the power they actually have and the skill set they must possess to do their jobs. However, I found the writing a bit juvenile, and the ending a bit disappointing and anti-climactic given the good buildup. I also guessed at a few of the plotlines, at a point of the book where I suspect the author was setting up the stories, not intending to have them revealed to the reader just yet.