Description
Click here for a sample of the book’s content.This is the most comprehensive and wide-ranging account ever written of the Harris Tweed industry. It makes an important contribution to the social and economic history of the Islands and shows the struggle which the people of the Outer Hebrides had, to retain the commercial value of the name, ‘Harris Tweed’. Meticulously researched, intricate and changing circumstances in the history of the industry are made immensely readable. Bitter and divisive controversies are described with supporting evidence and analysis but leaving readers to draw their own conclusions.
Now updated to include the years between 1995 and 2023, the book will be of great interest locally, nationally, and internationally as Harris Tweed continues to assert its unique status as a globally iconic textile brand.
Janet Hunter (1937-2022) was born and brought up in Stornoway. After taking a degree at Aberdeen University, she taught briefly in Stornoway, and then moved with her husband to Aberdeen. When her three children fled the nest, she returned to the University of Aberdeen where she took an M.A. degree in Gaelic Studies. The subject of her M.Litt thesis was Local History Societies (Comainn Eachdraidh) in the Western Isles. She taught in the Department of Celtic in the University and retained a close connection with the islands throughout her life, returning with her husband at least twice a year to spend some weeks in Lewis and Harris.
Calum MacLeod is from Finsbay in the Isle of Harris, and now lives in Glasgow. He has a degree in Public Administration and a PhD in Public Policy Implementation. From 2008 to 2018 he was a Board Member of the Harris Tweed Authority. He is a freelance sustainable development consultant and regularly writes on land reform and community empowerment for publications including The West Highland Free Press and The Stornoway Gazette.
