Shortlisted for the James Tait Black Prize.

The first biography of one of the twentieth century's foremost champions of Hebridean culture. 

The American-born folklorist and musician Margaret Fay Shaw's passion for the Hebrides led her to the island of South Uist in 1929 and then to Canna in 1935 as the wife of the eminent folklorist John Lorne Campbell.

Her extraordinary work in documenting and preserving traditional Gaelic songs and customs remains a vital resource for understanding Hebridean music, and the Campbells' house on Canna is a unique collection of priceless material celebrating the Hebridean world. This vast archive also includes Margarets collection of still and film photography, which capture the essence of island life at a time when old traditions were vanishing.

This book celebrates the legacy and life of a remarkable woman, who herself wrote with such wit and flair of her travels and adventures and which took her from turn of-the-century Pennsylvania to 1920s New York, Paris, Nova Scotia and the Hebrides, where she lived until her death in 2004.

Fiona J. Mackenzie has been named as one of The List's Hot 100 Arts and Culture Contributors in Scotland for 2025.



Gaelic singer Fiona J. MacKenzie has worked in the fields of Gaelic Arts and Culture for thirty years. She was previously Canna House Archivist, National Theatre of Scotland Gaelic Artist in Residence and Highland Council Gaelic Song Fellow.  She has won several prestigious awards including the prestigious BBC Traditional Music Personality of the Year Award (2004), the An Comunn Gaidhealach Mod Gold Medal (2005), the 'Premier Ostano Prize' for Indigenous Music Composition (2023)  and has  been nominated as Gaelic Singer of the  Year four times. In 2025 she was named as one of The List's Hot 100 Arts and Culture Contributors in Scotland.



'Margaret Fay Shaw's fascinating story unfolds in this addictive and entrancing book that draws on her notebooks, letters, and diaries. Fabulous!'



'No one is better placed to detail and evaluate her life and legacy than Gaelic signer and scholar Fiona J Mackenzie... who does this admirably in this doorstopper of a biography that is as good as it is long'



'What sets this biography apart is its sense of listening. The music leads, the photographs speak and the island communities become the centre of the story. Shaw emerges not as a collector but as a custodian who understood the responsibility of holding other people's history'



'The biographer, herself a noted musician with Gaelic fluency, brings knowledge and expertise to our understanding of Shaw's life commitment, work and legacy...  A very engaging read whether or not you've come across Margaret Fay Shaw before'



'Traces the life of the American folklorist, whose recordings and writings helped preserve Gaelic culture in the Hebrides'



'This delightful biography, packed with anecdotes and reminiscences and written by someone who was a friend as well as a fellow researcher, is a fitting tribute to a remarkable lady who did much to preserve Gaelic songs and stories that might otherwise have been lost'