The Honey That Came From The Sea

By Sheena Blackhall
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Published: Jan. 29, 2012
Words: 90,267 (approximate)
Language: English
ISBN: 9781465801838

Short description

Here is a selection of short stories, drawn from collections of prose by the author. Best known for her Scots writing, here her work in English is presented, with a smattering of Scots dialogue. The tales deal with the mysteries of life, religion, ageing, birth and sex . There is humour, mystery and intrigue, from Maharajahs to Shortbread, and always the often dark dynamics of human relationships.

Extended description

The Honey that came from the Sea is a selection of short stories, drawn from collections of prose by the poet Sheena Blackhall. Best known for her Scots writing, in this instance her work in English is presented, with a smattering of Scots dialogue. The Jam Jar is based on personal experience. Aberdeen in the summer of 1964 was a city under siege, in the grip of a major typhoid epidemic. Blackhall was one of the 469 quarantined cases. The epidemic was studied in depth during Aberdeen University’s International Conference in 1999 into the role of science & medicine in shaping food policy.

The Very Special Child draws on her time as an infertility patient of Professor Arnold Klopper, Professor of Reproductive Endocrinology at the University of Aberdeen, who retired in 1987. He was one of the foremost reproductive endocrinologists of his time, who specialised in the foetal placental unit, discovering much about the role of oestrogens in human pregnancy. No dog featured in the actual.. (Read more) The Honey that came from the Sea is a selection of short stories, drawn from collections of prose by the poet Sheena Blackhall. Best known for her Scots writing, in this instance her work in English is presented, with a smattering of Scots dialogue. The Jam Jar is based on personal experience. Aberdeen in the summer of 1964 was a city under siege, in the grip of a major typhoid epidemic. Blackhall was one of the 469 quarantined cases. The epidemic was studied in depth during Aberdeen University’s International Conference in 1999 into the role of science & medicine in shaping food policy.

The Very Special Child draws on her time as an infertility patient of Professor Arnold Klopper, Professor of Reproductive Endocrinology at the University of Aberdeen, who retired in 1987. He was one of the foremost reproductive endocrinologists of his time, who specialised in the foetal placental unit, discovering much about the role of oestrogens in human pregnancy. No dog featured in the actual birth.

Some of the tales have an educational setting. Blackhall began her teaching career in the suburb of Easterhouse in Glasgow, where teachers were so scarce that pupils often had ‘half-day’ classes, and one class could comprise over 40 pupils. Huge aggressive stray dogs from the housing scheme often roamed the playground, and poverty was endemic.

The tales here deal with the mysteries of life, religion, ageing, birth and sex . There is humour here, mystery and intrigue, from Maharajahs to Shortbread, and always the often dark dynamics of human relationships.
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Tags

fiction, short stories, scotland, scottish fiction, scottish short stories, makar, aberdeen, scottish author

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Reviews

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Review by: Caroline Macafee on Feb. 19, 2012 : (no rating)
These short prose pieces are selected from previous publications, where they were often interspersed with the Scots poetry for which Sheena Blackhall is well known. Her English writing is equally lyrical and eloquent, and crackles with metaphorical connections. The stories are full of dry wit and observations of human nature, sometimes but not always the particular foibles of the Scottish character. Some pieces explore the different viewpoints of people involved with a tragic or morally challenging situation. Many are in the nature of sketches, capturing a significant moment in a life – a bittersweet epiphany, a poignant memory, a moment of insight that results in despair, the loss of the sense of self, even suicide. The pivotal experience is sometimes hallucinatory, like the talking ants with their honey in the story that gives the collection its title, but more often it is something apparently banal – a chance encounter with a stranger, an intrusion of nature into a domestic space, engagement with a symbolic object. We are invited to see the world with a poet’s heightened sensitivity, to perceive the everyday as extraordinary, every detail unique.
(review of free book)

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