Some of John Lorne Campbell's best research and work was in his essays and shorter pieces. This is a collection of this material. The pieces are chosen not simply to reflect the range and diversity on which John Lorne's scholarship was brought to bear but also, through a number of occasional pieces, his observations on the people and the Hebrides of his day. The collection gives a picture of the man and his interests and a series of insights into figures as disparate as Compton Mackenzie and Father Allan Macdonald of Eriskay.