Nairn in the darkness and light

David Thomson

Published by Arena, softcover

David Thomson's earlier book Woodbrook, acknowledged as a masterpiece, was a classic blend of autobiography and 'spirit of place'. Here is a similar mixture of personal
experience and history, in which he recalls his boyhood in the small town of Nairn on the Moray Firth.

Set in the 1920s, this marvellously sensitive autobiography recreates the varied
community of Nairn, with its fishermen and townsfolk, its crofters and its prosperous upper middle classes. Nairn has witnessed many of the triumphs and tragedies of Scottish history, and these are recalled with intuitive understanding. But it is also the scene of David Thomson's formative years, when, playing rugger, he suffered an eye injury which nearly blinded him and shaped his whole future.