The Men of the Moss-Hags: Being a History of Adventure Taken from the Papers of William Gordon of Earlstoun in Galloway

The Covenanter period in Scotland was a time of brutal religious persecution, and this novel captures that world through the eyes of a boy who watches his childhood innocence collide with the violent realities of his father's faith. William Gordon grows up on the Galloway hills, playing games with his cousin Maisie May that echo the dangers of the world around them. Their innocent play mimics the grim tactics of hunted men hiding in the moss-hags, the marshy hidden places where Covenanters fled from soldiers. When William's father rides off to secret meetings, the shadow of persecution falls across their family. Crockett writes with the particular ache of looking back at a world that no longer exists, capturing both the beauty of the landscape and the brutality of an era when a man's beliefs could cost him his life. This is historical fiction with the intimacy of memoir, told by someone who was there.