I'm not particularly interested in Scottish history, but for some reason the Jacobite rising in 1745 has always really captured my interest. So I was excited to read Pretty Young Rebel, a biography of Flora MacDonald, who helped Charles Stuart escape from Scotland after his unsuccessful invasion.

This is undoubtedly a well-researched and informative biography, covering both the popular facts – the escape – and things I had no idea about, like how Flora tried to relocate to North Carolina but ended up being embroiled in the American Revolution. It's an interesting story, but something about the author's writing style made me unable to focus on this as much as I would have liked. It's hard enough keeping track of clan names at the best of times – a lot of Macs – but loads of information is thrown at the reader in the first few chapters, and unless you're extremely familiar with the Hebrides and Skye and these historical people (I'm not), then I think this could be quite confusing. (I found it that way anyway.) I also think a steadier and gentler description of Highland life in the mid-18th century really wouldn't have gone amiss; I felt like I was missing some key information to understand the different social dynamics. Anyway, the section on Flora's most famous escapade was the best bit, both in terms of my interest and the level of detail, and tbh I always like learning about different periods of history so I am glad I read this, even if it didn't quite live up to my expectations.

A very interesting read. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book.