Mairi Hedderwick (born 2 May 1939) is a Scottish illustrator and author, known for the '' Katie Morag'' series of children's

picture books A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The ima ...

set on the Isle of Struay, a fictional counterpart of the

inner Hebridean The Inner Hebrides ( ; ) is an archipelago off the west coast of mainland Scotland, to the south east of the Outer Hebrides. Together these two island chains form the Hebrides, which experience a mild oceanic climate. The Inner Hebrides compri ...

island of

Coll Coll (; )Mac an Tàilleir (2003) p. 31 is an island located west of the Isle of Mull and northeast of Tiree in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. Coll is known for its sandy beaches, which rise to form large sand dunes, for its corncrakes, and fo ...

where Hedderwick has lived at various times for much of her life. She has also written several books of

travel writing The genre of travel literature or travelogue encompasses outdoor literature, guide books, nature writing, and travel memoirs. History Early examples of travel literature include the '' Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'' (generally considered a ...

for adults, and is the illustrator of a range of Hebridean stationery.

Life

Mairi Crawford Lindsay was born in

Gourock Gourock ( ; ) is a town in the Inverclyde council areas of Scotland, council area and formerly a burgh of the County of Renfrew in the west of Scotland. It was a resort town, seaside resort on the East shore of the upper Firth of Clyde. Its ma ...

on 2 May 1939,Hedderwick, Mairi 1939–
''

Contemporary Authors ''Contemporary Authors'' is a reference work that has been published by Gale since 1962. The work provides short biographies and bibliographies of contemporary and near-contemporary writers and is a major source of information on over 116,000 liv ...

'',

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, January 2004; via highbeam.com the daughter of Douglas Lindsay, an architect who died suddenly when she was thirteen,Kenny Farquharson
Katie goes home
''

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

Ecosse'' section, 2 October 2005 and Margaret Crawford; she is the granddaughter of the Scottish missionary Dan Crawford. She was educated at Gourock primary school and then at the independent St Columba's School for Girls in nearby

Kilmacolm Kilmacolm () is a village and Civil parishes in Scotland, civil parish in the Inverclyde council area, and the Counties of Scotland, historic county of Renfrewshire (historic), Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. It lies on th ...

, but describes her childhood in the strict Christian household as "serious, very lonely", always feeling out of place. Instead she longed for the kind of carefree existence she would later depict in the Katie Morag stories, and used to wish herself "over the hills and far away" beyond the

Cowal Cowal () is a rugged peninsula in Argyll and Bute, on the west coast of Scotland. It is connected to the mainland to the north, and is bounded by Loch Fyne to the west, by Loch Long and the Firth of Clyde to the east, and by the Kyles of Bute ...

hills that she could see behind

Kirn Kirn () is a town in the Bad Kreuznach (district), Bad Kreuznach Districts of Germany, district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the seat of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' Kirner Land. Kirn is a Central place theory, middle centre serving an area ...

and

Dunoon Dunoon (; ) is the main town on the Cowal peninsula in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It is located on the western shore of the upper Firth of Clyde, to the south of the Holy Loch and to the north of Innellan. As well as forming part of the cou ...

on the far side of the

Firth of Clyde The Firth of Clyde, is the estuary of the River Clyde, on the west coast of Scotland. The Firth has some of the deepest coastal waters of the British Isles. The Firth is sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean by the Kintyre, Kintyre Peninsula. The ...

Farm at Crossapol - geograph-716226-by-sparkione

In 1957, she went to

Edinburgh College of Art Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) is one of eleven schools in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Tracing its history back to 1760, it provides higher education in art and design, architecture, histor ...

, studying

mural painting A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...

and

ceramics A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porce ...

, where she noticed an advertisement for a mother's help on the island of Coll. She went to the island for the first time that year, and then came back every summer of her student vacations. After graduating she married Ronnie Hedderwick on 24 June 1962, and worked for two years as a travelling art teacher in Mid Argyll, qualifying at

Jordanhill College of Education Jordanhill College of Education was a higher education college in Jordanhill, Glasgow, Scotland. It opened as a teacher training college in 1921. The college merged with the University of Strathclyde in 1993, becoming its Faculty of Educati ...

. The couple then spent eighteen months working respectively as a dairymaid and a cattleman on a large farm estate at

Applecross Applecross ( , 'The Sanctuary', historically anglicized as 'Combrich') is a peninsula in Wester Ross, in the Scottish Highlands. It is bounded by Loch Kishorn to the south, Loch Torridon to the north, and Glen Shieldaig to the east. On its wes ...

Wester Ross Wester Ross () is an area of the Northwest Highlands of Scotland in the council area of Highland. The area is loosely defined, and has never been used as a formal administrative region in its own right, but is generally regarded as lying to th ...

; but in 1965, three months after the birth of her first child, Mark Hedderwick, Pat Gerber
Back to an island of bitter-sweet memories
'' The Herald'', 16 May 1991 they moved to Coll, where they bought Crossapol, an isolated 19th-century farmhouse at the southern end of the island, with a big Rayburn stove and oil and gas lamps and a well, but neither electricity nor running water nor permanent road access, three miles from the next nearest house, at the end of a mile and a half of white sand beach., ''Scots Heritage'' magazine, 24 July 2008 There the couple lived for ten years, raising their two children. The couple had planned to make a living tending lobster pots and keeping a few sheep and cattle, but Hedderwick began using her artistic skills to supplement the family income, teaching in the local school, selling pictures to tourists, and in 1969 starting a printing business called the Malin Workshop producing postcards and calendars with drawings of wildlife and maps of the islands,Vicky Allan
Interview: Katie Morag: the red-haired girl who became a 'monster'
''

Sunday Herald The ''Sunday Herald'' was a Scottish Sunday newspaper, published between 7 February 1999 and 2 September 2018. Originally a broadsheet, it was published in compact format from 20 November 2005. The paper was known for having combined a centre- ...

'', 7 May 2006 initially all hand-printed without electricity.Grace W. Ruth
"Mairi Hedderwick"
in Anita Silvey (ed.), ''Children's books and their creators'', p. 301. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1995. .Lorn Macintyre
Island-hopping artist
'' The Herald'', 24 June 1989 A visitor she met on the beach one day turned out to be an editor at

Macmillan Books Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd in the United Kingdom and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC in the United States) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be on ...

; showing off the nearby house full of her watercolours, she was soon signed up as a contract illustrator for the company, winning an in-house contest to illustrate a version by

Rumer Godden Margaret Rumer Godden (10 December 1907 – 8 November 1998) was a British author of more than 60 fiction and non-fiction books. Nine of her works have been made into films, most notably ''Black Narcissus (novel), Black Narcissus'' in 194 ...

of ''The Old Woman who lived in a Vinegar Bottle'' (1972), and then three children's books featuring Janet Reachfar by the established Scottish author

Jane Duncan Jane Duncan (10 March 1910 – 20 October 1976) was the pseudonym of Scottish author Elizabeth Jane Cameron, best known for her ''My Friends'' series of semi-autobiographical novels. She also wrote four novels under the name of her principal he ...

.Anne Johnstone
That's what Katie Morag does next
'' The Herald'', 3 July 1993

, ''Brave Janet Reachfar'', aka ''Herself and Janet Reachfar'' (Macmillan, 1975 / Birlinn, 2002); ''Janet Reachfar and the Kelpie'' (Macmillan, 1976 / Birlinn, 2002); ''Janet Reachfar and the Chickabird'' (Macmillan, 1978 / Birlinn, 2002) With no secondary schools on the island, the family left Coll in 1973 and moved to Fort William on the mainland to remain all together. After Jane Duncan died in 1976, Hedderwick was encouraged by her editor to take the plunge and write and illustrate her own stories. However it was not until 1984, three publishers later, that the first of Hedderwick's Katie Morag stories, ''Katie Morag Delivers the Mail'', finally appeared in print inspired by her time on Coll. The book was well received, and three more Katie Morag picturebooks rapidly followed in the next three years. Hedderwick's marriage came to an end in the mid-1980s, and with her children now educated, she gave up a part-time job with the

Highlands and Islands Development Board Highland is a broad term for areas of higher elevation, such as a mountain range or mountainous plateau. Highland, Highlands, or The Highlands, may also refer to: Places Africa * Highlands, Johannesburg, South Africa * Highlands, Harare, Zimbab ...

advising community co-operatives and in 1990 moved back to Coll, first letting and then fully buying back the house at Crossapol, where she found her children's childhood pictures still on the walls. In her next Katie Morag book, ''Katie Morag and the New Pier'' (1993), she addressed the issue of an island that was changing fast from the remote isolated place she had known in the 1960s. Another four Katie Morag books followed, but increasingly Hedderwick began to find herself becoming a not-entirely-willing tourist attraction on Coll in her own right, and after almost ten years she felt it was time to move on. Five years in the

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by West Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian, and East Lothian to the north, the North Sea to the east, Dumfries and Galloway to the south-west, South Lanarkshire to the we ...

followed, succeeded by several years restoring a pair of cottages near

Jemimaville Jemimaville is a small village in the Highland region of Scotland. It sits on the northern coast of the Black Isle, overlooking the Cromarty Firth. The village is west of Cromarty and south of Invergordon on the opposite shore of the firth. It ...

on the

Black Isle The Black Isle (, ) is a peninsula within Ross and Cromarty, in the Scottish Highlands. It includes the towns of Cromarty and Fortrose, and the villages of Culbokie, Resolis, Jemimaville, Rosemarkie, Avoch, Munlochy, Tore, and North Kesso ...

looking over the

Cromarty Firth The Cromarty Firth (; ; literally "kyles

traits Trait may refer to: * Phenotypic trait in biology, which involve genes and characteristics of organisms * Genotypic trait, sometimes but not always presenting as a phenotypic trait * Personality, traits that predict an individual's behavior. ** ...

of Cromarty") is an arm of the Moray Firth in Scotland. Geography The entrance to the Cromarty Firth is guarded by two precipitous headlands; the one on the north high and the one on the ...

; but neither felt quite right, so in 2005 she decided to return again to Coll, where she had a new house built close to her daughter and grandchildren. As of 2013 Hedderwick is living on the mainland again, in Inverness-shire; she says she could have seen herself being a farmer's wife and "interior designer of houses in wild places", had she not been a writer.

Works

As well as the Katie Morag series for which she is best known, which now runs to fourteen books and various omnibus collections, other books that Mairi Hedderwick has written and illustrated include: * ''Peedie Peebles Summer or Winter Book'' (Bodley Head, 1989), for younger children, featuring a boisterous toddler, set on

Orkney Orkney (), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The plural name the Orkneys is also sometimes used, but locals now consider it outdated. Part of the Northern Isles along with Shetland, ...

* ''Peedie Peebles Colour Book'' (Bodley Head, 1994); paperback as ''Oh No, Peedie Peebles...!'' (Red Fox, 1997) * ''Dreamy Robbie!'' (1993), ''Robbie's First Day at School'' (1993), ''Robbie's Trousers'' (1993), ''Robbie and Grandpa'' (1994), ''Robbie's Birthday'' (1994; all Oliver & Boyd), short 8 page self-read paperbacks for the "Reading 2000 Storytime" primary years reading programme * ''The Tale of Carpenter MacPheigh'' (Blackie, 1994), part of Blackie's Folk Tales of the World series * ''A Walk with Grannie'' (Hodder, 2003) * ''The Utterly Otterlys'' (Hodder, 2006), about a family of

otter Otters are carnivorous mammals in the subfamily Lutrinae. The 13 extant otter species are all semiaquatic, aquatic, or marine. Lutrinae is a branch of the Mustelidae family, which includes weasels, badgers, mink, and wolverines, among ...

s on a search for a new home For other authors, in addition to the Rumer Godden book and the three Janet Reachfar books by Jane Duncan in the 1970s already mentioned, Hedderwick in the 1980s contributed illustrations for a number of non-fiction books published by independent Aberdeenshire-based Northern Books; for a number of children's books in

Gaelic Gaelic (pronounced for Irish Gaelic and for Scots Gaelic) is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". It may refer to: Languages * Gaelic languages or Goidelic languages, a linguistic group that is one of the two branches of the Insul ...

published by Lisa Storey's Leabhraichean Beaga press in Inverness; and for four children's books by Moira Miller: ''Hamish and the Wee Witch'' (Methuen, 1986), ''Hamish and the Fairy Gifts'' (Methuen, 1988), ''Meet Maggie O'Muddle'' (Methuen, 1989), and ''A Kist O' Whistles: Scottish Folk Tales'' (André Deutsch, 1990). In the 1990s she illustrated Christopher Rush's ''Venus Peter Saves the Whale'' (Canongate, 1992), a reworking of the story from his acclaimed 1985 novel ''A Twelvemonth and a Day'' and the 1989 film ''

Venus Peter ''Venus Peter'' is a 1989 Scottish film directed by Ian Sellar and produced by Christopher Young for Young films. The film is an adaptation of the novel ''A Twelvemonth and a Day'' by Christopher Rush. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard ...

''. The book won the

Friends of the Earth Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) is an international network of grassroots environmental organizations in 73 countries. About half of the member groups call themselves "Friends of the Earth" in their own languages; the others use other ...

1993 Earthworm Award for the book published that year that would most help children to enjoy and care for the Earth. Other books she has illustrated include Joan Lingard's ''Hands Off Our School!'' (Hamish Hamilton, 1992), a novel about the students of a small rural one-teacher primary school trying to save it from closure; and Tom Pow's ''Calum's Big Day'' (Iynx Publishing, 2000), a knockabout exploration of Scottish identity for five-year-olds.

Travel writing and stationery

In addition to her work for children, Mairi Hedderwick has produced several volumes of travel writing, accompanied by drawings and watercolour sketches, reflecting in often quite personal terms her feelings and experiences on four long Scottish journeys: * ''An Eye on the Hebrides: An illustrated journey'' (Canongate 1989 / Birlinn 2009), a six-month-long odyssey through the

Hebrides The Hebrides ( ; , ; ) are the largest archipelago in the United Kingdom, off the west coast of the Scotland, Scottish mainland. The islands fall into two main groups, based on their proximity to the mainland: the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Ou ...

, visiting forty different islands from Arran to

Lewis Lewis may refer to: Names * Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname Music * Lewis (musician), Canadian singer * " Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohe ...

. * ''Highland Journey: A sketching tour of Scotland'' (Canongate 1992 / Birlinn 2009), in which she retraces a sketching tour made by the obscure Victorian artist John Thomas Reid, comparing her experiences. * ''Sea Change: The Summer Voyage from East to West Scotland of the Anassa'' (Canongate 1999 / Birlinn 2009), a six-week voyage down the

Caledonian Canal The Caledonian Canal connects the Scottish east coast at Inverness with the west coast at Corpach near Fort William in Scotland. The canal was constructed in the early nineteenth century by Scottish engineer Thomas Telford. Route The can ...

and out to sea, undertaken to mark her leave-taking of Coll at the end of the 1990s. * ''Shetland Rambles: A sketching tour'' (Birlinn 2011), retracing Victorian artist John Thomas Reid's sketching tour in and around

Shetland Shetland (until 1975 spelled Zetland), also called the Shetland Islands, is an archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands, and Norway, marking the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the ...

. * ''The Last Laird of Coll'' (Birlinn 2011), recollections of life on Coll and Kenneth Stewart, principal landowner on the island from 1942 until 1991.Susan Mansfield
Interview: Mairi Hedderwick, writer and illustrator
''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until ...

'', 28 November 2011 Since 2005, the Scottish publisher

Birlinn The birlinn () or West Highland galley was a wooden vessel propelled by sail and oar, used extensively in the Hebrides and West Highlands of Scotland from the Middle Ages on. Variants of the name in English and Scots language, Lowland Scots inc ...

have published a steadily growing series of hardback stationery illustrated by Hedderwick. As of 2011 the range includes address books, birthday books, calendars and a number of different annual diaries, each featuring a multitude of different sketches by Hedderwick of the Highlands and the Hebrides.

Recognition

Hedderwick was awarded an

honorary degree An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...

from

Stirling University The University of Stirling (abbreviated as Stir or Shruiglea, in post-nominals; ) is a public university in Stirling, Scotland, founded by a royal charter in 1967. It is located in the Central Belt of Scotland, built within the walled Airthr ...

in 2003, in recognition of "her outstanding contribution to writing and illustration in Scotland, especially for children".Mairi Hedderwick
,

Scottish Book Trust Scottish Book Trust is a national charity based in Edinburgh, Scotland promoting literature, reading and writing in Scotland. Scottish Book Trust works with and for a range of audiences, including babies and parents (through the Bookbug programm ...

She regularly visits primary schools and local book festivals, 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. In 1999, on the other side of the fence as she put it, she organised the children's author events for the first

Wigtown Book Festival The Wigtown Book Festival is a ten-day literary festival held each autumn in Wigtown, Dumfries and Galloway, south-west Scotland. The festival was first held in 1999 and has grown to be the second biggest book festival in Scotland. 2024 Festival ...

.Mairi Hedderwick, Book festival is not child's play - Diary, ''

'', ''Ecosse'' section page 5, 3 October 1999. Accessed via NewsBank.
Gillian Bowditch, Bringing a town to book, ''Sunday Times'', ''Ecosse'' section page 4, 18 July 1999. Accessed via NewsBank.

References

External links

Mairi Hedderwick page at Random House

Mairi Hedderwick page at Birlinn

Interview
''60 North'' (www.shetland.org), May 2012; pp. 12–14
BBC radio interview
for ''

Desert Island Discs ''Desert Island Discs'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942. Each week a guest, called a " castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight audio recordin ...

'' with Mairi Hedderwick, 2 March 2014 {{DEFAULTSORT:Hedderwick, Mairi 1939 births People educated at St Columba's School, Kilmacolm Scottish children's writers Scottish illustrators People from Gourock People from Coll Alumni of the Edinburgh College of Art Living people Scottish women artists Scottish women writers