‘The Flight of the Heron’ re-visited by Clare Hawkins

As a goody-goody fourteen-year-old, in the mid 1960s, I never complained about the compulsory ‘home readers’ chosen by our English teacher, Miss Howieson. These novels were supposed to extend our experience of literature, beyond her longitudinal and exhaustive approaches to the classroom study of ‘The Ancient Mariner’ and ‘Hamlet’. Though not universally popular in our class, Miss Howieson’s ‘home reader’ choices ignited in me a love of historical fiction. 

           One of the most memorable novels was D.K. Broster’s ‘The Flight of the Heron’, a tale set in the time of the ill-fated Jacobite rebellion against the Hanoverian British monarchy of George 11. The story centres on the relationship between a young highland chieftain, Ewen Cameron, and an English redcoat officer Keith Windham. An old highland ‘seer’ predicts five meetings of the two and, as they both become embroiled in the conflict on opposite sides, each encounter produces stronger bonds of mutual respect and regard. 

            My re-reading of the novel, after nearly 60 years, has surprised me in several ways. I knew nothing about the writer, D.K. Broster, beyond the fact that she was a woman. I hadn’t realised at the time, that she had been a student at St Hilda’s College in Oxford (although then women could not be awarded degrees), that she had no Scottish connections and that the book was first published in 1925. The style is of its period, complex and descriptive in parts, sometimes over-written, with some cringe-making dialogue (Ewen Cameron’s conversations with his fiancée Alison) and some references which would be simply laughable to a modern readership. The frequent use of Gaelic and the representation of lowland Scots dialect are also characteristic of 19^th century writers. 

            A 21^st century treatment of the story and the themes would be very different. The relationship between Ewen and Keith reveals a sensitivity and near eroticism, elements which would likely be more fully explored by a modern writer. Also, unlike many historical war novels published today, there are no direct accounts of the violent battles between the two sides, in spite of the fact that the brutality of the Duke of Cumberland’s troops against the highland survivors of the deciding battle of Culloden is well documented. Nowadays this novel might not fit neatly into a clear genre ‘slot’, with its basis of thorough and scholarly research, complex characterisation, detailed evocation of place, along with a strong romantic/sentimental element. Partly for this reason, and also because I recalled just a little of my teenage self, falling in love first with Ewen and then with Keith, I thoroughly enjoyed re-visiting it.