Paperback: Hellfire and Herring: A childhood remembered, By Christopher Rush
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The little Scottish fishing village of St Monans once boasted fishermen who could "smell a shoal of herring in the breeze as accurately as a gannet" and a hellfire preacher who thundered from his pulpit like a "dog-collared Viking". The undertaker, also the boat-builder, was a man with a good line in black humour who generously sized up bodies at a glance: "Nobody went cramped into eternity in a James Miller coffin... the ships were tight but the boxes were comfortable." With characters such as these surrounding him, local boy Christopher Rush spent his adolescence experimenting with poetry and sex amid the leafy woods of Fife.
Hellfire and herring: as Rush recreates the 1940s and 50s world of his childhood, you can almost smell them on the page. This is a beautifully written memoir. There are many unforgettable anecdotes, but the writing is so poetic, so full of spirit, that these memories don't feel like things of the past. Rush makes it seem as if they're on the verge of happening once again.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments