North Ayrshire author Peter McNab's final book is released

Peter Angus McNab, who died in 2002 at the age of 98, spent many years in the North Ayrshire village, where he served as a county councillor, a district councillor, and a special commissioner.

He was also a past captain, long-term committee member and honorary member of West Kilbride Golf Club and an elder of the local church since 1941.

But his origins lay not in North Ayrshire but on the island of Mull, which became the focus of most of his writing. And his final book, looking at how the Highland clearances affected Mull, has just been published.

Peter Angus McNab (Image: Contributed) The manuscript was discovered by his son Peter and it has now been released by Edinburgh publishers Birlinn.

Peter revealed: "Mull and the Clearances was completed just before he died in 2002 a month short of his 99th birthday.

"I only found the script last year among other family records and approached Hugh Andrew, managing director of Birlinn, who recognised it as a valuable fragment of Scottish social history. The book was published last month."

Peter, who now lives in The Cotswolds, said: "Our family lived in West Kilbride since the 1930s, the family home being in Summerlea Road, Seamill.

"Although a banker by profession, father’s first love was writing and he was was one of Scotland’s oldest active writers and authors.

"He was also probably the last person in Scotland to be brought up in a Poorhouse (The Mull Combination Poorhouse) where his father was Governor.

"He was brought up there from around 1905, his father having retired back to Mull from a senior position in the Hong Kong police."

The book cover (Image: Contributed) As a small boy, Peter senior was profoundly influenced by the harrowing stories of those inmates who represented the few remaining survivors of the Mull Clearances and the evictions.

His son said: "Hearing the harrowing stories of some of the last victims of the Mull Clearances as a boy inspired father’s interest in social work for the rest of his life.

"In his writings, lectures and broadcasting for over 70 years he became probably the most authoritative source of information on the social history and folklore of the island.

"He is the author of the standard work on Mull and Iona and various other books. He was also known worldwide through his many years of various contributions to the Scots Magazine and to other national and international publications."

The new book, which has a forward by Sally Magnusson, is now available from Birlinn here.