Bella Bathurst is a freelance journalist whose portfolio includes work for the Observer, Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph, Independent on Sunday, Guardian, Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday. Her first book, The Lighthouse Stevensons: The Extraordinary Story of the Building of the Scottish Lighthouses by the Ancestors of Robert Louis Stevenson, was widely acclaimed. She published her first novel 'Special' was published in 2003.
'Deeply accomplished! this splendid book preserves the memory of great deeds performed in a heroic era' Frank McLynn, Sunday Times 'Bella Bathurst has built a lamp herself: it illuminates the work of a literary hero, a family business, a habit of mind and a Scottish period! from the summit of this first terrific book she looks to become one of the best biographers of her generation' Andrew O'Hagan, The Times 'An enthralling story, vivaciously recounted! These were epic and scarifying adventures, indicative of an age when the taming of nature was a philosophical given, its execution a religious passion' Alan Taylor, Observer 'This is a grand book doing for lighthouses what Dava Sobel's Longitude did for marine chronometers, and doing it, if comparisons are to be made, with considerably more panache' Nicholas Bagnall, Sunday Telegraph 'A fine and scrupulous book! Robert Louis Stevenson would have relished the tale' Ian Bell, Scotsman