MacLellans reminiscences were first recorded in Gaelic in the early 1960s, and later transcribed and translated by John Lorne Campbell into this outstanding English language autobiography. Written in an unusual yet captivating prose style, this is a life story in the oral tradition.

Born in 1869 into a poverty-stricken crofting community on South Uist, Angus MacLellan spent his childhood and youth with his family before travelling to the island to find work first in the militia and then on the farms of the mainland. His travels came to an end when he returned to assist, and eventually to succeed his parents on their croft on South Uist in 1900.