Donald S Murray
Writer and poet Donald S Murray is an Honorary Fellow of the Association for Scottish Literature who has won the Society of Authors’ Paul Torday Memorial Prize (2012, for As the Women Lay Dreaming,) and the Callum Macdonald Memorial Award (2021), among many awards for his historical fiction, creative non-fiction and poems. His critically acclaimed books bring to life the culture and nature of the Scottish islands, and he appears regularly on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio Scotland and as a live performer.
The Loch of the Bees
BUYING OPTIONS
Buy The Loch of the Bees
From the author of the prizewinning As the Women Lay Dreaming comes an evocative and deeply original novel that reimagines the lives of Hebrideans across the centuries, sweeping from the eighth century to the present day.
Interlinked stories unfold across generations, layered like blankets of peat, where fragments of earlier lives lie preserved and later resurface: a sword hidden by a Viking raider; a rosary left behind in a place of sanctuary by a troubled priest.
Past struggles, betrayals, loves and losses reverberate in the lives of modern islanders, woven and distilled by the legacies of the Clearances and devastating wars. Again and again, men and women return to the beehive-shaped stone shelter on a tiny island at the edge of the Loch of the Bees — a place of refuge, memory and renewal.
Here, the land keeps its secrets, and time curves back on itself, as the living find connection with those who came before.
Prizes and awards
Paul Torday Memorial Award 2020: Winner
The Herald Scottish Culture Awards, Outstanding Literature Award: Shortlisted
Authors’ Club Best First Novel: Shortlist
HWA Debut Crown: Longlist
Highland Book Prize: Longlist
Walter Scott Prize: Commendation
