Katie Morag is the title character of a series of children's picture books written and illustrated by Mairi Hedderwick. The gentle stories have been praised for their good humour, strong sense of place, and the feisty and independent (sometimes even "thrawn" [1] ) character of Katie herself. The books are set on the fictional Isle of Struay, off the west coast of Scotland. Katie Morag lives close to the jetty above the island's only shop, where her mother is the postmistress and her father runs the general store.
Much of the topography, and also characters and situations, are inspired by Arinagour on the Scottish island of Coll in the Inner Hebrides, the island where Mairi Hedderwick lived for a number of years, [2] [3] [4] [5] and where her daughter still runs a handmade pottery store. [6] In the books the small island community is connected to the mainland by a ferry which initially only comes once a week, on "Boat Day" (later three times a week, after the building of a new pier in the fifth book).
A key character in the books is Katie Morag's "Grannie Island", who lives further round the bay, and is generally found in her dungarees often driving or fixing her tractor, or surrounded by cats around her Rayburn stove, in contrast to Katie Morag's altogether more douce "Granma Mainland". Grannie Island was widely hailed, as for example "a positive image, a celebration of the strength of women, and a challenge to gender stereotyping" [7] – a happy accident, as Hedderwick had originally planned for the character to be male, until her North American publisher demurred; [8] but not inappropriate, as Hedderwick was as likely as not herself to be found behind the wheel of her old tractor at the time. [2] [9]
In England a short National Curriculum Key Stage 1 Geography unit for six- and seven-year-olds, called "An island home", has been linked to the series and in particular the book Katie Morag and the Two Grandmothers. [10] The book Katie Morag and the New Pier has also been used as a peg to discuss how communities can gain and lose from change. [11] The most recent book in the series, Katie Morag and the Dancing Class, was a nominee for the Kate Greenaway Medal in 2008, [12] which is awarded for an outstanding work of illustration in children's literature.
A number of books in the series have been translated into Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Japanese, and Scottish Gaelic. [13]
Various proposals were made for a television adaptation of the stories. The books were optioned in 1997 by the Scottish filmmaker Don Coutts. In 2002-3 proposals for an animated series, initially of 26 eleven-minute films, [14] were developed by him in association with Red Kite Animation in Edinburgh, [15] with a pilot script by Peter Hynes. Later, in 2005, Coutts was reported to be developing a live-action series to be filmed on the Isle of Lewis. [15] [16] It was reported that a pilot had been made, with ITV interested in taking a series of 26 episodes, and the animated series still under development for the international market. [17] Perhaps because of the shadow of the children's series Balamory , also set in a small Scottish west-coast island community, none of these proposals reached the screen. Speaking in 2010, Mairi Hedderwick said she would be quite happy if the character only remained in books – she had no interest in "pencil cases", and would only want to see her creation dramatised, if at all, as a real character not a cartoon; but it was in the hands of her publishers. [18]
In November 2012 it was announced that the BBC's CBeebies channel had commissioned a series of 26 14-minute live-action dramas, to be made by Coutts' Cromarty-based production company Move on Up. [19] [20] Casting for the series included a casting call in Stornoway in March 2013, [21] for filming on Lewis in May 2013, [22] some of which took place in the remote village of Tolsta Chaolais.
The TV adaptation began in the autumn of 2013, with the first two stories being broadcast on CBeebies on 3 November 2013. [23] [24] The series also has a Gaelic-language soundtrack recorded for BBC Alba. [25]
A stage adaption was created by Lisa Grindall for Mull Theatre in 2005, based on characters and setting from the books, with a new story and songs. After a successful tour of smaller venues in Argyll and the Highlands followed by a week at the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow in 2005, [26] [27] [28] [29] the production was revived as a Christmas show at the Byre Theatre in St Andrews in 2007, [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] and toured again in 2008. [35] [36] [37]
In the 1990s Mairi Hedderwick turned down a proposal from Argyll and Bute Local Enterprise Company to use the character to promote tourism in the area. [9] However, in 2007 she agreed to let NHS Highland adapt illustrations from three of the books into posters for that year's Breastfeeding Awareness Week, a health-promotion campaign to promote breastfeeding in the region, [38] [39] under the slogan "Breastfeeding... A Part of Family Life in Highland". Katie Morag's mum is occasionally depicted breastfeeding in several of the books, without any comment in the text. According to Hedderwick for her this merely reflects "the cosiness of the home and family, ... drawing her own experience of life with a growing family in a small island community". [40] Nevertheless, one American library felt compelled to apply marker pen to an illustration in one of the earlier books, in which one of Katie Morag's mother's breasts is completely exposed. [38]
A Katie Morag exhibition, featuring original prints and jacket covers, storyboards showing the development of a book, and character profiles created for the proposed animated series, was organised by the Scottish Book Trust at the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh in 2005, [15] and re-mounted at the An Lanntair community arts centre in Stornoway in September 2006. [41] Hedderwick regularly visits primary schools, leading storytelling sessions and explaining how her books are created, often accompanied by Katie Morag's teddy bear who travels with her in his own black bag. [2] [42] In 2009 she organised a special Katie Morag competition for schools, to raise money for the new community centre to be called An Cridhe ("The Heart") on Coll, which was won by Lowercroft Primary School in Bury. [43] [44]
Katie Morag was also featured in a half-hour television arts documentary made in 1993 for BBC Scotland's Ex-S strand, in which Hedderwick discussed the background to the stories and her plans for the character. [45]
The Isle of Lewis or simply Lewis is the northern part of Lewis and Harris, the largest island of the Western Isles or Outer Hebrides archipelago in Scotland. The two parts are frequently referred to as if they were separate islands. The total area of Lewis is 683 square miles (1,770 km2).
Coll is an island located west of the Isle of Mull in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. Coll is known for its sandy beaches, which rise to form large sand dunes, for its corncrakes, and for Breacachadh Castle. It is in the council area of Argyll and Bute.
Stornoway is the main town, and by far the largest, of the Outer Hebrides, and the capital of Lewis and Harris in Scotland.
Gregory Edward Hemphill is a Scottish comedian, actor, writer, and director. Born in Springburn, an inner–city district in Glasgow, Scotland, Hemphill moved to Montreal in Canada in the mid-1970s before returning to Scotland in 1988.
The Royal National Mòd is an Eisteddfod-inspired international Celtic festival focusing upon Scottish Gaelic literature, traditional music, and culture which is held annually in Scotland. It is the largest of several major Scottish Mòds and is often referred to simply as the Mòd.
Highland Airways was an airline based in Inverness, Scotland. It ceased trading on 24 March 2010 after failing to secure new investment. The airline operated passenger and freight charters as well as scheduled services from its main base at Inverness Airport. Other services included newspaper distribution to the northern and Western Isles and, until recently, charter services for corporate clients. Highland Airways was under talks for a buyout by Perth-based, Air Charter Scotland. Aircraft were also based at Cardiff Airport.
Daniel Crawford, also known as 'Konga Vantu', was a Scottish missionary of the Plymouth Brethren in central-southern Africa.
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Steven McNicoll is a Scottish actor, director, playwright and television presenter.
Barbara Rafferty, is a Scottish actress. She was credited as Barbara Ann Brown in her early acting career. She is known for her roles as Ella Cotter in the long-running BBC Two sitcom Rab C Nesbitt, then firstly as Shirley Henderson and then as Bernie O'Hara in BBC Scotland soap opera River City. She played Agnes Meldon in mystery series Hamish MacBeth and Grandma Mainland in the CBeebies comedy Katie Morag.
Mary Ann Kennedy, is a Scottish musician, singer, choral director, composer, radio and television presenter, and music producer.
Don Coutts is a Scottish filmmaker best known as the director of the 2003 feature film American Cousins and for bringing the world of Katie Morag to the screen. The successful translation of the characters from the books of Mairi Hedderwick has won nine awards - including a US Peabody, 3 BAFTAs, a Royal Television Society Scotland Children's Award, a Scottish BAFTA and a Kidscreen award.
Mairi Hedderwick is a Scottish illustrator and author, known for the Katie Morag series of children's picture books set on the Isle of Struay, a fictional counterpart of the inner Hebridean island of Coll where Hedderwick has lived at various times for much of her life.
Kevin MacNeil is a Scottish novelist, poet, screenwriter, lyricist and playwright. He was born and raised on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides.
The Impossible Song & Other Songs is the third solo album by folk musician and Idlewild vocalist Roddy Woomble, released on 21 March 2011 on Greenvoe Records.
Tolsta Chaolais is a village on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland. It consists of about forty houses, clustered around Loch a' Bhaile, about 1 mile from the A858 road between Callanish and Carloway. The name has a Norse element, Tolsta, combined with a Gaelic element, Caolas, and means "Farm by the Strait". Tolsta Chaolais is in the parish of Uig, and has a building as a place of worship for all denominations.
Events from the year 1934 in Scotland.
Katie Morag is the television adaptation of the series of books by Mairi Hedderwick. The programmes follow the adventures of Katie Morag whose life on the fictional Scottish island of Struay is full of stories of jealousy, bravery and rivalry and peopled by an annoying little brother, busy shopkeeper parents, a perfectly perfect best friend and a couple of grandmothers who between them know everything about everything. The series was produced by Move On Up with support from BBC Scotland and commissioned by the BBC's CBeebies and CBBC channels. It also airs on the BBC's Gaelic channel BBC Alba and BBC One Scotland. Don Coutts directed the series which Margaret Matheson produced and Lindy Cameron executive produced and edited. Katie Morag is also available on BBC iPlayer for over a year.
Mary MacPherson (née MacDonald), known as Màiri Mhòr nan Òran or simply Màiri Mhòr, was a Scottish Gaelic poet from the Isle of Skye, whose contribution to Scottish Gaelic literature is focused heavily upon the Highland Clearances and the Crofters War; the Highland Land League's campaigns of rent strikes and other forms of direct action. Although she could read her own work when it was written down, she could not write it down herself. She retained her songs and poems in her memory and eventually dictated them to others, who wrote them down for publication. She often referred to herself as Màiri Nighean Iain Bhàin, the name by which she would have been known in the Skye of her childhood.
Morag Henriksen describes herself as a Highlander born and bred. Growing up in Lochcarron, where her father was the headmaster of the local school, she developed a life long love of Gaidhlig culture, folk music, singing, story telling and poetry and this informed her later work as a writer.