When I think of David Balfour - the boy in the book - I think of a 16-year-old who’s lost his parents, his uncle has tried to kill him, he’s been kidnapped by pirates, there’s a been a gunfight, a shipwreck and now he’s trudging across this alien and unfriendly landscape.
‘Kidnapped’ really is a great read for anyone who’s making that journey from child to adult; that period of your life when you feel very isolated, that you’re on your own, nobody understands you, and you have to discover for yourself about other people, realising (often painfully) that the world is not black and white, that there are not straightforwardly good or bad people, but that there are shades of gray and that we align ourselves to friends who are sometimes noble, sometimes feeble, sometimes socially acceptable and sometimes lawless.
I am thinking about my friends and family a lot whilst I am walking across Mull. I am already wondering why I separated myself from them and chose to take on this crazy mission.
And now the weather is turning and the rain will soon be upon me. Things are definitely going to get harder along the trail. But they don’t necessarily need to be lonelier. Not if anyone out there chose to travel with me for a bit...
Tim,
Tilly and I will be up on Mull Friday night through to Sunday moving in. Reading K along with you. Maybe meet at fishnish or around Tob. Will you still be on the island?
Andrew C
Posted by: Andrew Chitty | 07/01/2009 at 11:25 AM
Hi Tim
My only memory of Mull is that I once went there to film the smallest slaughter house in Europe for a tv programme called Farming Outlook. It was a man and a shed. A bit grim. Perhaps you came across it?
Posted by: Trevor | 07/06/2009 at 05:33 PM
Is the abattoir on the road between Tobemorey & Fishnish? If so I think I caught a glimpse of it - a *very* basic place.
Still, lots of sheep to slaughter here. Strange that David doesn't seem to eat any lamb or mutton at all on his travels. Can that be right?
Posted by: kidmapper | 07/07/2009 at 09:02 AM