Alasdair Alpin MacGregor (March 20, 1899 – 1970) was a Scottish writer and photographer, known for a large number of travel books. He wrote also on

Scottish folklore Scottish folklore (Scottish Gaelic: ''Beul-aithris na h-Alba'') encompasses the folklore of the Scottish people from their earliest records until today. Folklorists, both academic and amateur, have published a variety of works focused specifically ...

, and was a published

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

Life

He was born at

Applecross Applecross ( gd, A' Chomraich) is a peninsula north-west of Kyle of Lochalsh in the council area of Highland, Scotland. The name Applecross is at least 1,300 years old and is ''not'' used locally to refer to the 19th century village (which ...

, Ross and Cromarty, on 20 March 1899, the son of Colonel John MacGregor M.D. of the

Indian Medical Service The Indian Medical Service (IMS) was a military medical service in British India, which also had some civilian functions. It served during the two World Wars, and remained in existence until the independence of India in 1947. Many of its officer ...

. He was educated at Tain Academy. MacGregor was brought up in Tain and Inverness, and educated there and in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

. His books were mainly about Scotland, and his romanticising style incurred the displeasure of

Compton Mackenzie Sir Edward Montague Compton Mackenzie, (17 January 1883 – 30 November 1972) 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 th ...

, who caricatured him in some of his novels (perhaps unjustly so as MacGregor was forced to be critically realistic about certain aspects of life on the west coast, in his book ''The Western Isles''). Judging by the title of the 1931 book ''A Last Voyage to St. Kilda. Being the Observations and Adventures of an Egotistic Private Secretary who was alleged to have been 'warned off' That Island by Admiralty Officials when attempting to emulate Robinson Crusoe at the Time of Its Evacuation'' there might have been something to caricature. In partial explanation, St Kilda was evacuated in 1930; at the time he was Private Secretary to the

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster The chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is a ministerial office in the Government of the United Kingdom. The position is the second highest ranking minister in the Cabinet Office, immediately after the Prime Minister, and senior to the Minist ...

. The same book was the subject of a legal case when MacGregor brought an injunction to prevent the distribution of ''

The Edge of the World ''The Edge of the World'' is a 1937 British film directed by Michael Powell, loosely based on the evacuation of the Scottish archipelago of St Kilda. It was Powell's first major project. The title is a reference to the expression '' ultima Th ...

'', a film by

Michael Powell Michael Latham Powell (30 September 1905 – 19 February 1990) was an English filmmaker, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger. Through their production company The Archers, they together wrote, produced and directed a seri ...

that he claimed was based on it. MacGregor lost the case. He lived in London for most of his adult life in Swan Court and Upper Cheyne Row, Chelsea. Along with T. Ratcliffe Barnett, an Edinburgh minister and author, MacGregor reflects a transitional period during the first half of the 20th century when the north of Scotland was still rural and mostly unaffected by modern society. MacGregor was also a campaigner against cruelty to animals, including

vivisection Vivisection () is surgery conducted for experimental purposes on a living organism, typically animals with a central nervous system, to view living internal structure. The word is, more broadly, used as a pejorative catch-all term for Animal testi ...

and hunting for sport. In the years before his death in 1970, he visited the United States often and was a mentor to a young

Marion Barry Marion Shepilov Barry (born Marion Barry Jr.; March 6, 1936 – November 23, 2014) was an American politician who served as the second and fourth mayor of the District of Columbia from 1979 to 1991 and 1995 to 1999. A Democrat, Barry had served ...

, who later became mayor of

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

His book about his childhood, ''The Goat Wife'', tells the evocative story of his hard working and resourceful Aunt Dorothy, who left a comfortable existence in

's Ann Street - reputed to be the most haunted street in Edinburgh - to begin life as a solo crofter in the

Easter Ross Easter Ross ( gd, Ros an Ear) is a loosely defined area in the east of Ross, Highland, Scotland. The name is used in the constituency name Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, which is the name of both a British House of Commons constitue ...

village of Ardgay (then known locally as "High Wind"). Spanning the period before the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

until the end of the Second, it captures the last remnants of the simplicity, privations and charm of Scottish rural community life. The "Victor" in the book is the poet

Frederick Victor Branford Frederick Victor Branford (1892–1941) was a British poet, known for verse of World War I and the years after. Biography Born Frederick Victor Rubens Branford Powell, the son of actors Mary Branford and Joynson Powell, he was given the sec ...

Publications

*Behold the Hebrides! (First published 1925, Revised Edition 1948) *''Over the Sea to Skye: Or, Ramblings in an Elfin Isle'' (1926) *'' A Last Voyage To St. Kilda'' (1931) *''Searching the Hebrides With a Camera'' (1933) * ''The Haunted Isles: Or, Life in the Hebrides'' (1933) * ''The Peat-Fire Flame: Folk-tales and Traditions of the Highlands and Islands'' (1937) * ''The Goat Wife: Portrait of a Village'' (1939) * ''Vanished Waters: Portrait of a Highland Childhood'' (1946) *''The Western Isles'' (1949) *''Skye and the Outer Hebrides'' (1953) * ''Auld Reekie: Portrait of a Lowland Boyhood'' (1955) *''The Ghost Book: Strange Hauntings in Britain'' (1955) * ''The Turbulent Years: A Portrait of Youth in Auld Reekie'' (1956) * ''Journeyman Taylor: The Education of a Scientist'' (1958, rewrite of the

Thomas Griffith Taylor Thomas Griffith "Grif" Taylor (1 December 1880 – 5 November 1963) was an English-born geographer, anthropologist and world explorer. He was a survivor of Captain Robert Scott's Terra Nova Expedition to Antarctica (1910–1913). Taylor was a se ...

autobiography) * ''Phantom Footsteps: A Second Ghost Book'' (1959) * ''Percyval Tudor-Hart: Portrait of an Artist'' (1961) * ''The Golden Lamp: Portrait of a Landlady'' (1964) * ''Land of the Mountain and the Flood'' (1965) * ''The Enchanted Isles'' (1967) * ''The Farthest Hebrides'' (1969)Marshall-Cornwell, James. (1970). ''The Farthest Hebrides''. ''

The Geographical Journal ''The Geographical Journal'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal of the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers). It publishes papers covering research on all aspects of geography. It also publishes shorter ...

'' 136: 111. * ''Islands by the Score'' (1971)

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macgregor, Alasdair Alpin 1899 births 1970 deaths Scottish folklorists Scottish memoirists Scottish travel writers Scottish photographers People from Ross and Cromarty 19th-century Scottish people 20th-century Scottish poets Scottish male poets 20th-century British male writers