Bella Bathurst

It is well-known that Robert Louis Stevenson wrote Treasure Island, Kidnapped and other children's classics. Few will know the details of his family background and yet in their own way a the "Lighthouse Stevensons" were also remarkable men. Against great odds these men designed and arranged for the building of the network of lighthouses around the dangerous and inhospitable Scottish coast. They were typical of the Victorian age-when no obstacle seemed too great to overcome, despite the limited technology available at the time. The book is full of interesting facts and anecdotes. For example, we are told about the "wreckers"-islanders who gained from shipwrecks and were opposed to the erecting of lighthouses. The characters are well drawn and the style of writing is very reader-friendly. It is a good read for both the general reader and for anyone with an interest the Victorian age, in heroic feats of engineering and/or in the writer, Robert Louis Stevenson.

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