The ’Keeper wi the Lauch by Ronald Mackay

11/8/2020

My gratitude goes out to Ronald Mackay for his tremendous support in this year's (and last year's) Authors Showcase. This is his fifth contribution and I know that he has another one lined up for September.

Ronald's stories are always so well written and his latest is no exception. It is entitled The ’Keeper wi the Lauch (That’s in his native Scots. In English it is: The Gamekeeper with the Laugh). I am sure you will love this truly inspirational story - you can read it by clicking here.

Ronald Mackay was brought up in Coupar Angus, Scotland, in the Valley of Strathmore just south of the Grampian Mountains. Although his family moved to Dundee in the mid ’40s, he has always nurtured a love for the Angus glens, their grouse moors, and the deer forests of the Cairngorms. He worked many jobs in that harsh and striking region on Highland estates and on sheep and arable farms. He helped excavate the great turbine hall deep inside Ben Cruachan known today as the Hollow Mountain. Ronald grew up with the Angus dialect and, despite having lived most of his life overseas, maintains strong emotion ties to the couthie Lallans language, the kenspekle folks and the unforgiving land from which a hardy breed has sought to wrest a living from time immemorial and has sent its native sons and daughters all over the world.

Ronald Mackay at Elmhirst's Resort,
Rice Lake, Ontario,
August 2020

Viviana and Ronald, Rice Lake, August 7 2020

11 Comments

Ronald Mackay

11/8/2020 03:31:13 pm

Thanks to you Fred (Robert Fear) for making the contributions to Authors Showcase so simple and straightforward. Best wishes!

bill Somerville

11/8/2020 04:51:09 pm

outstanding, another great and well written yarn.

Ronald Mackay

12/8/2020 12:43:14 pm

So pleased that you read and enjoyed it, Bill. I had to Anglicise the Scots to make it easily intelligible. Sorry about that! Best wishes, Ron

Palmer Acheson

12/8/2020 04:27:12 am

A most enjoyable story: the callow youth with little experience of the world, least of all the brutal communist-ruled world of the USSR and its satellites; and the veteran, happy in his chosen life and the men he worked for.

Ronald Mackay

12/8/2020 12:47:05 pm

You are absolutely right, Palmer. Professor Hobsbawm write a literate but utterly distred and biased account of British history using a simplistic Marxist conceptual framework. He remained a member of the British Communist Party until it could no longer attract enough members to exist. He served the University very badly and his intellectual legacy is not one to be proud of.

Jim Power

13/8/2020 03:45:46 pm

You've done it again Ron!!! Another wonderful story, expertly told. Do men like Willie still exist I wonder, to impart their knowledge and wisdom to those who will listen? I certainly hope so. Look forward to your next story Ron. Take care.

Ronald Mackay

14/8/2020 10:29:18 am

Fortunately, there are still 'keepers like Willie, Jim, but they're harder to find than they used to be. There are still lots of older people with lessons to teach us if we take the time and patience to listen. Thanks for your kind words, Ron

Euan Lindsay-Smith

14/8/2020 05:50:44 am

Another fascinating story, Ronald, showing very clearly where your admiration lies and does not lie. Great to see the experienced "ordinary" man showing his superiority over the academically conceited poseur greatly self-satisfied with his theoretical and untried concepts.

Ronald Mackay

14/8/2020 10:31:49 am

Thank you, Euan. You're right, I tend to write about people I admire or incidents in which people act in an admirable way. Many gamekeepers ended up in special units during the war due to their stalking skills and marksmanship. Willie was certainly one of those.

Nila Mendoza

15/8/2020 03:11:34 pm

Country traditions and opposing political predications between communism and capitalism; two enemy philosophical strands with loyal followers on both sides have been described in this unique and well-written text. Only the reader, who has lived both sides of the same coin, will be able to understand what it means to be immersed in any of the philosophical currents with its pros and cons, since both political systems have caused and will continue to cause much damage to humanity. As long as there is no balance between the two philosophies, entire people will be destroyed in the name of the powerful executors on both sides.

The narrated story is vivid by the passion imprinted in every word. I highlight the appropriate use of language, the exquisite way of handling descriptions as a literary resource and, above all, the reflection that underlies this story.
Congratulations, Mackay. Another writing to remove the hat!
A big hug.
Nila Mendoza.

Ronald Mackay

15/8/2020 05:18:31 pm

Thank you for your faithful reading and for your thoughtful understanding of this story, Nila. You are right, the extremes on both sides are extremely dangerous. This is a story from the year that Kim Philby fled to Moscow.In 2003 Professor Hobsbawm received a prize for "for his brilliant analysis of the troubled history of 20th century Europe and for his ability to combine in-depth historical research with great literary talent.". His brilliance, I think is more literary than sound politics or objective history.

The ’Keeper wi the Lauch by Ronald Mackay

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