Book excerpt: Like all the Hebrides, North Uist has a fascinating history and a landscape scattered with historic sites, from Neolithic burial chambers, Iron Age forts and medieval churches to battle-sites and townships forged in the days of kelp trade and deserted during the subsequent traumas of clearance and emigration. In this informative book, Bill Lawson writes about the island and its people, drawing on recorded history and also the rich tradition of story and song in which the informal history of the people was passed down. He also incorporates many personal reminiscences of his travels through the island.