Covenanter tales continue Author delighted second instalment of series to be published
A Lanarkshire grandmother is to have the second instalment in her series of novels about Covenanting times published next month.
Retired lecturer Ethyl Smith’s Dark Times again focuses on the exploits of Lanarkshire farmer John Steel.
It follows Changed Times which was published earlier this year.
The 75-year-old started writing the saga about five years ago and describes the story as one of “being on the losing side of a power struggle, but against all the odds refusing to give up resistance”.
In Dark Times she takes up the tale of John Steel when he is on the run after taking part in the Battle of Bothwell Brig.
Steel farmed at Logan Waterhead near Lesmahagow.
He died in 1709 and is buried under a plain stone in the village’s Old Parish Churchyard.
During the 1679 battle he knocked the Royalist Earl of Airlie, who had been leading a mounted brigade, off his horse.
Ethyl explained: “Airlie sought revenge, but never managed to catch John.
“His family, however,were thrown out of their farm and forced to live rough on moorland – one of his children was born on the moor and survived. These happenings are true and recorded.
“For instance, Steel’s Cross at the head of Lanark Brae is named after him. He had a particularly close escape here.
“He was attacked by a group of men after the reward of 1000 merks for him dead or alive.
“He was so badly beaten they thought they had killed him and left the body where it was, go to the town garrison for a handcart.
“That day was freezing cold, cold enough for river Clyde to have frozen over.
“The cold revived John enough to crawl over to the edge of the steep bank, slide down and then across the frozen river.
“He hid in a group of whin bushes until night when he managed to climb onto an old pony in the field and escape. This is recorded as fact.”
As part of research for the book, Ethyl has visited Airds Moss in Ayrshire where a skirmish took place in 1680 in which a number of Covenanters were killed, as well as Logan Waterhead Farm and Skellyhill Farm, also in Lesmahagow, where John’s cousin David Steel was captured and shot in front of his wife and infant daughter in December 1686 aged 33.
He is also buried Lesmahagow kirkyard.
Ethyl said: “I have met many people who’ve not only answered my questions but gave me invaluable support and showed interest in the project.
“I have also had continuing support from the Scottish Covenanting Memorial Association of which I am a member.”
Ethyl, who lives in Auchenheath with husband Robert said: “I am currently writing chapter seven of book four which should take me to the 1689 Battle of Killiecrankie.
“It was originally intended to be a trilogy, but my publisher felt the story would suffer from being compressed into three books.
“There are usually about 16 chapters in each book. I’m hoping to finish it by the end of this year. Maybe.”
A graduate of Glasgow School of Art, Ethyl has also written a number of short stories and was a finalist in the short story category of the 2015 Wigtown Book Festival with Alice and the White Dragon.
Dark Times will be published next Thursday (September 7) by Thunderpoint Press priced £9.99. in
I have met many people who have answered my questions