The Atholl Expedition is Alex Roddie’s follow up to his well
received ‘The Only Genuine Jones’ although a short novella-Crowley’s Revenge-
preceded this latest work.
This was something of a rare excursion for me in the field of mountain based literature in
that I don’t tend to read that much fiction these days. Certainly not works set
in the first part of the 19th century. However, I was aware that
Alex is someone who had immersed himself in the culture and social history of
the period, and furthermore, as the
original ‘Glencoe Mountaineer’, he had a deep passion and appreciation of all aspects of Scottish mountaineering. The
signs and feedback were overwhelmingly positive, so with great expectations I
sallied forth into the Cairngorms with Alex as my guide.
The Atholl Expedition is essentially centred around the
passions which drive men to undertake challenges and adventures which are
physically and emotionally charged with risk and an uncertain outcome. The book is concentrated around two
contrasting variations of that theme. The first, to stalk and kill the great stag, ‘Damh-mor’. A living Monarch of the Glen; a creature of
flesh and myth pursued by the Prince Consort Albert and his
retinue. A quest that will take them far beyond the confines of the Atholl
estate, and into the vastness of the wild Cairngorm mountain range where
winter storms, hunger and physical exhaustion await. The second
quest sees Professor Forbes- a real life Victorian glacierologist- gambling his
fragile health on the discovery of a mysterious lost glacier which had somehow
remained undetected in a remote corrie high up amongst the endless folds and
depressions within the vast Cairngorm range.
With remarkable prescience, just
as the book was being released, the news pages in the UK were detailing
scientific reports that glaciers may have existed in the Cairngorms up untilthe 18th century. I’m sure the author couldn’t have wished for a
more serendipitous turn of events to compliment the novel’s launch!
Without detailing every twist and turn of the tale, suffice
it to say that the author has done his homework
surrounding his characters’ lives and the world they inhabit.
Bringing to life the appalling
inequalities within the Scottish social system at the time. A period where the
Highland clearances still cast a long shadow and landowners like the vile Duke
of Atholl still had the power of life and death over his minions. Casting
entire families into the dark maw of poverty, forced emigration and starvation
on a whim of displeasure or profit driven estate management. To this end, Alex
has created the McAdie’s. The elder, Alec McAdie being a forester and stalker
who is charged by the Duke with delivering ‘Dahm-mor’ to the Prince at all
costs; young Duncan, the ambitious son who sees his future far from the feudal
estate,and Gail McAdie; the quiet
but indestructible mother who holds the family together.
I was impressed with imaginative way the author brought
together quite a sizable cast list which also included a treacherous German ‘Jaeger’,
a maverick student and a respected academic, and worked each character into the
story in a way that each became an indispensable and coherent part of the
greater work. Often a book carrying a lot of characters can become a confusing puzzle as the reader keeps reappraising just
who is who? The descriptive passages as each party make their way through the
mountains in the teeth of a storm, are, as you would expect from someone with
Alex’s mountaineering pedigree, always vividly drawn and with the power to
engage the senses.
Altogether, a compelling and imaginative work. The Atholl Expedition is the first book in the ‘Alpine Dawn’
series of novels promised by the author and is available as a paperback or
digital download from Amazon.
JA
