 First edition | |
| Author | Compton Mackenzie |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Farce |
| Publisher | Chatto and Windus |
Publication date | 1947 |
| OCLC | 56468167 |
| Preceded by | Keep the Home Guard Turning |
| Followed by | Rockets Galore |
Whisky Galore is a novel written by the Scottish author Compton Mackenzie. [1] It was published in 1947. [2] It was adapted for the cinema under the title Whisky Galore! . [3] The book has sold several million copies and has been reprinted several times. [4]
During the Second World War, the cargo vessel S.S. Cabinet Minister is wrecked off a remote fictional Scottish island group – Great Todday and Little Todday – with fifty thousand cases of whisky aboard. Owing to wartime rationing, the thirsty islanders had nearly run out of the "water of life" and see this as an unexpected godsend. They manage to salvage several hundred cases before the ship sinks. But it is not all clear sailing. They must thwart the efforts of the authorities to confiscate the liquor, particularly in the shape of misguided, pompous Home Guard Captain Paul Waggett. A cat-and-mouse battle of wits ensues.
Although the wreck and the escapades over the whisky are at the centre of the story, there is also a lot of background detail about life in the Outer Hebrides, including e.g. culture clashes between the Protestant island of Great Todday and the Roman Catholic island of Little Todday. (Mackenzie based the geography of these islands on Barra and Eriskay respectively, but in real life they are both Catholic islands). There are various sub-plots including those of two couples who are planning to get married.
Mackenzie's prose captures the various accents of the area and also includes much common Gaelic that was in use at the time. The book includes a glossary of both the meaning and approximate pronunciation of the language.
The story was based on a real-life incident that occurred in 1941 on the Hebridean island of Eriskay [5] when the SS Politician ran aground with a cargo including 28,000 cases of malt whisky as well as other trade goods headed for Jamaica and New Orleans. [6] Official files released by The National Archives show that it was also carrying a sum of cash. In all, there were nearly 290,000 ten-shilling notes, which would be worth the equivalent of several million pounds at today's prices. Not all of this was recovered from the wreck. [6] [2]
Mackenzie wrote the novel while resident on the Isle of Barra at his house just near Barra Airport. [7] The house, called Suidheachan, Gaelic for “sitting down place”, was built in 1935 is Category B listed. [8]
The novel followed a 1943 novel by Mackenzie entitled Keep the Home Guard Turning in the same setting.
Mackenzie was said to have based the negative elements of the character Captain Paul Waggett on Dr Bartlett, a personal acquaintance, as an act of personal revenge. [1]
The novel was first adapted in 1949 as Whisky Galore! , [3] a British comedy film produced by Ealing Studios, starring Basil Radford, Bruce Seton, Joan Greenwood and Gordon Jackson. It was the directorial debut of Alexander Mackendrick; the screenplay was by Compton Mackenzie, an adaptation of his novel, and Angus MacPhail.
A theatrical adaptation of the novel, licensed by the Society of Authors (the managers of Compton Mackenzie's literary estate) and written by Paul Godfrey, was first performed as a "bar show" at Perth Theatre in the late 1980s. This adaptation, delivered in the manner of a 1940s radio broadcast, has four BBC Radio Rep actors and a studio manager creating all the locations, characters and sound effects as they would have done in a live radio broadcast. This version was also produced by Mull Theatre in the late 1990s, early 2000s, and 2014, touring to theatres throughout Scotland.
A musical version of the novel, entitled Whisky Galore – A Musical!, was performed at the Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Scotland in 2009 and 2011. The book was adapted by Shona McKee McNeil and the music was composed by Ian Hammond Brown. A Gaelic language adaptation of the novel was adapted for the stage by Iain Finlay MacLeod, titled Uisge-Beatha Gu Leòr, for a 2015 co-production by A Play A Pie and A Pint at Òran Mór, Robhanis and the National Theatre of Scotland. [9]
The novel's title influenced the name of the first French discothèque, the Whisky à gogo, opened later in the same year of the book's publication in Juan-les-Pins by Paul Pacini, [10] which, in turn, was influential in the naming of West Hollywood's Whisky a Go Go in 1958.
Barra is an island in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, and the second southernmost inhabited island there, after the adjacent island of Vatersay to which it is connected by the Vatersay Causeway. The island is named after Saint Finbarr of Cork.
The River Exe in England rises at Exe Head, near the village of Simonsbath, on Exmoor in Somerset, 5.2 miles (8.4 km) from the Bristol Channel coast, but flows more or less directly due south, so that most of its length lies in Devon. It flows for 60 miles (96 km) and reaches the sea at a substantial ria, the Exe Estuary, on the south coast of Devon. Historically, its lowest bridging point was the Old Exe Bridge in Exeter, the largest settlement on the river, but there is now a viaduct for the M5 motorway about 2 miles (3.2 km) south of the city centre.
Eriskay, from the Old Norse for "Eric's Isle", is an island and community council area of the Outer Hebrides in northern Scotland with a population of 143, as of the 2011 census. It lies between South Uist and Barra and is connected to South Uist by a causeway which was opened in 2001. In the same year Ceann a' Ghàraidh in Eriskay became the ferry terminal for travelling between South Uist and Barra. The Caledonian MacBrayne vehicular ferry travels between Eriskay and Ardmore in Barra. The crossing takes around 40 minutes.
The history of the Scots language refers to how Anglic varieties spoken in parts of Scotland developed into modern Scots.
Sir Edward Montague Compton Mackenzie, was a Scottish writer of fiction, biography, histories and a memoir, as well as a cultural commentator, raconteur and lifelong Scottish nationalist. He was one of the co-founders in 1928 of the National Party of Scotland along with Hugh MacDiarmid, R. B. Cunninghame Graham and John MacCormick. He was knighted in 1952.
The Eriskay Pony is a breed of pony from Scotland. It is generally grey in colour, and has a dense, waterproof coat that protects it in harsh weather. The breed developed in ancient times in the Hebrides of Scotland, and a small population remained pure and protected from crossbreeding by the remoteness of the islands. It is used for light draught work, as a mount for children, in many equestrian disciplines, and for driving.
John Duncan Macrae was one of the leading Scottish actors of his generation. He worked mainly as a stage actor and also made five television appearances and seventeen films.
Castlebay is the main village and a community council area on the island of Barra in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. The village is located on the south coast of the island, and overlooks a bay in the Atlantic Ocean dominated by Kisimul Castle, as well as nearby islands such as Vatersay. Castlebay is also within the parish of Barra. The village is located on the A888, which serves as a circular road around Barra. In 1971, it had a population of 307.
Northbay is a township and community in the north of Barra in the Outer Hebrides, off the west coast of Scotland. Northbay is within the parish of Barra.
SS Politician was a cargo ship that ran aground off the coast of the Hebridean island of Eriskay in 1941. Her cargo included 22,000 cases of scotch whisky and £3 million worth of Jamaican banknotes. Much of the whisky was recovered by islanders from across the Hebrides, contrary to marine salvage laws. Because no duty had been paid on the whisky, members of HM Customs and Excise pursued and prosecuted those who had removed the cargo.
Whisky Galore! is a 1949 British comedy film produced by Ealing Studios, starring Basil Radford, Bruce Seton, Joan Greenwood and Gordon Jackson. It was the directorial debut of Alexander Mackendrick; the screenplay was by Compton Mackenzie, an adaptation of his 1947 novel Whisky Galore, and Angus MacPhail. The story—based on a true event, the running aground of the SS Politician—concerns a shipwreck off a fictional Scottish island, the inhabitants of which have run out of whisky because of wartime rationing. The islanders find out the ship is carrying 50,000 cases of whisky, some of which they salvage, against the opposition of the local Customs and Excise men.
Rockets Galore! is a 1957 British comedy film directed by Michael Relph and starring Jeannie Carson, Donald Sinden and Roland Culver. The sequel to Whisky Galore!, it was much less successful than its predecessor.
Dr John Lorne Campbell FRSE LLD OBE was a Scottish historian, farmer, environmentalist and folklorist, and recognized scholar of both Celtic studies and Scottish Gaelic literature.
Calvay is a currently uninhabited island situated in the Sound of Eriskay in the Outer Hebrides, at grid reference NF810126. It is one of ten islands in the Sound of Barra, a Site of Community Importance for conservation.
The Reverend Allan MacDonald was a Scottish Roman Catholic priest during the Victorian era. During the later phases of the Highland Clearances, Fr. MacDonald was also an activist for the reform of the absolute power granted to Anglo-Scottish landlords to both rackrent and evict their tenants en masse and at will under Scots property law. Furthermore, Father Allan MacDonald was a radically innovative poet with a permanent place in the literary canon of Scottish Gaelic literature and a nationally respected folklorist and collector from the oral tradition in the Scottish Highlands and Islands.
Events from the year 1941 in Scotland.
Whisky Galore! is a 2016 British film, a remake of the 1949 Ealing Comedy of the same name, itself based on the novel of the same name by Compton Mackenzie. It was directed by Gillies MacKinnon and stars Gregor Fisher, Eddie Izzard, Sean Biggerstaff and Naomi Battrick. The film premiered at the 2016 Edinburgh Film Festival. It went on general release in Scotland from 5 May 2017 and then in the rest of the UK, Ireland and the US from 19 May 2017. The principal film location was Portsoy, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
A rèiteach was a betrothal ceremony in the older Gaelic culture of the Scottish highlands. It is also attested in Gaelic-speaking Canada.
Rockets Galore is a 1957 comedy novel by the British writer Compton Mackenzie. It is the sequel to his 1947 novel Whisky Galore, and sees the inhabitants of a remote Scottish island resist a government plan to build a missile base on their home. The author refers to it, in a Author's Note, as a 'bitter farce', as opposed to a 'genial farce' that Whisky Galore was.
Keep the Home Guard Turning is a 1943 comedy novel by the British writer Compton Mackenzie. It portrays the activities of the Home Guard on a remote Scottish island during the Second World War. The characters and setting reappeared in the more famous sequel Whisky Galore in 1947.