The Key of the Chest (32 page)

THE KEY OF THE CHEST
for Peter and Ena

Neil Miller Gunn (1891–1973) was born in Dunbeath, Caithness, one of the nine children of ‘bookish' Isabella Miller, ambitious for her sons, and James Gunn, a fishing skipper of local renown. At thirteen, Neil was sent away to live with a married sister in Galloway. At fifteen, he went to London as a boy clerk in the Civil Service. In 1911, he began 26 years as an excise officer, many of them at whisky distilleries in the Highlands and Islands. When the Great War broke out, two of his brothers were killed and one died later of war-related injuries. Gunn was particularly close to his brother John, who was badly gassed, and in later years John's war experiences were incorporated into
Highland River
. In 1921, Gunn married Jessie Frew. Tragically, their only child was still-born.

Gunn's duties in Inverness (1923–1937) left ample time for writing and for activity as a leader in Scottish Nationalist politics. The first of his 21 novels,
The Grey Coast
, appeared in 1926. The fourth,
Morning Tide
(1930), was a Book Society choice in 1931. In 1937, the acclaim won by his seventh, the prize-winning
Highland River
, encouraged him to resign his excise post and write full-time.

Notable among his other novels are
The Green Isle of the Great Deep
(1944),
The Well at the World's End
(1951), Bloodhunt (1952), and four epic recreations of Highland history, with
Sun Circle
(1933) for ancient times,
Butcher's Broom
(1934) for the Clearances, the hugely successful
The Silver Darlings
(1941), and from modern times
The Drinking Well
(1946). Gunn also published short stories, essays and plays. His last book,
The Atom of Delight
(1956), is an autobiography which reflects his lifelong and Zen-like fascination with the elusive spirit of life, wisdom, and delight.

Gunn's wife died in 1963, and he lived alone in the Black Isle until his death in January, 1973. Since then, his standing as one of Scotland's great novelists has grown even more firmly established, and the Neil Gunn International Fellowship was founded in his honour.