Acknowledgements

My special thanks to Floss’s relatives Duncan and Iona MacNeill, James and Mary Dewar and Robert Agnew, for their generous help with family memories, papers, letters and photographs; Liz Ashworth for invaluable contacts and unfailing enthusiasm; Howie Firth for his special knowledge of Orcadians past and present; Morag MacInnes for professional advice on Floss’s literary legacy; Evelyn Eunson of the Holm farming community for being my helpful, and hospitable, guide to the area and the McNeill family sites; Gordon Baxter for generously sharing his memories of her and allowing access to the Baxter Archive in Fochabers; Jean Butchart for access to rare Scottish cookbooks; Iseabail MacLeod, former Director of the Scottish National Dictionary Association, for her advice and detective work on the meaning of obscure words; and to Tom Johnstone for his expert editing skills.