O Caledonia cover art

O Caledonia

The beloved classic, for fans of I CAPTURE THE CASTLE and Shirley Jackson, with an introduction by Maggie O’Farrell

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O Caledonia

By: Elspeth Barker, Maggie O'Farrell - introduction
Narrated by: Eilidh Beaton
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About this listen

 'I once decided to become friends with someone on the sole basis that she named O Caledonia as her favourite book'
Maggie O'Farrell

'A sparky, funny work of genius and one of the best least-known novels of the 20th Century'
Ali Smith

'Funny, surprising, exquisitely written and brilliant on the smelly, absurd, harsh business of growing up'
David Nicholls

'A wonderful oddity - brief, vivid, eccentric, written with ferocious zest and black humour'
Penelope Lively

At the bottom of a great stone staircase, dressed in her mother's black lace evening dress, twisted in murderous death, lies Janet. So end the sixteen years of Janet's short life.

A life spent in a draughty Scottish castle, where roses will not grow, and a jackdaw decides to live in the doll's house.

A life peopled by prettier, smoother-haired siblings, a Nanny with a face like the North Sea and the peculiar, whisky-swigging Cousin Lila.

A life where Janet is perpetually misunderstood - and must turn from people, to animals, to books, to her own wild and wonderful imagination.

A W&N Essential with an introduction by Maggie O'Farrell Fantasy Horror Fiction Scary Paranormal

Critic reviews

A sparky, funny work of genius about class, romanticism, social tradition and literary tradition, and one of the best least-known novels of the 20th century
A surreal, hilarious and dark story of a troubled adolescence deep in the wilds of Scotland
Elspeth Barker's is a wholly original literary voice. O CALEDONIA, first published 20 years ago, reads as freshly now as then. Steeped in classical allusions, rich in Scottish - and natural - history, fantastical in its highly wrought characters, this coming-of-age-novella is as passionately intense as it is wittily acerbic... Propelled by the sheer force of words, the horrors and humours plunge on, observed by an eye both youthful and perspicacious... The reader feels unalloyed joy, and occasional winces, on every page
This is an extraordinary novel: original, beautiful yet tough (Barker loves jaggy, spiky words such as "monkey puzzle", "azaleas", "horizon", anything with a "z" in it), with a sympathetic outsider of a heroine whose tragic fate is depicted on the very first page, puncturing any kind of narrative tension but capturing our attention nevertheless. Few see colour in a grey Scottish day the way Barker does, when a dying winter sun "sheds an unearthly glory; shafting drifts of crimson, green and blue, alive with whirling atoms of dust ..." And yet this darkly magical tale has been forgotten, displaced in the pantheon of great Scottish writing by other, supposedly tougher, work... Barker's love of the classics, her focus on mothers and daughters, and her remarkable evocation of landscape, should mark her out as one of Scotland's principal writers, but fashion and the politics of literary movements have skimmed over her.
An absolute sumptuous treat of a book (Elizabeth Macneal)
O Caledonia is a Gothic coming-of-age story, the Brontes and Poe via Dodie Smith and Edward Gorey. Funny, surprising, exquisitely written -and brilliant on the smelly, absurd, harsh business of growing-up. (David Nicholls)
O Caledonia is an absolute freak show of brilliance; dark and hilarious and dreadful in the best way imaginable. I wish I'd written it. (Louisa Young)
All stars
Most relevant
I found the voice very annoying - it made an interesting story unlistenable.
A real shame as I had saved it for a long journey.

Annoying narrator

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Darkly humourous and heart wrenching at the same time. This coming-of-age story of Janet will be my absolute favourite hereon. Barker's words are like the many shades of colours, painting bright and vivid, melancholic and sorrowful pictures with dark, bleak and dangerous strokes.
I have so loved Janet, more precisely, the way she viewed the world. I could clearly see my own adolescence in her. The narration heightened everything for me and I just could not put the book down.

A Must Listen

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Wonderfully eccentric family, living in a castle in Scotland’s E. coast highlands with a motley collection of others. This book is beautifully and originally written in a very colourful style. Very descriptive of the difficulties of growing up if you are unconventional .

Extremely funny

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This is a beautifully written book whose observation of growing up in the highlands in the 40's is funny, compassionate and touching. but more than that the narration is superlative.

Outstanding!

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This is a novel like no other; a listening and reading experience like no other. Never, have I listened with such cautious anticipation and sometimes foreboding. I even paused between chapters. Never have I gasped at the creative flow of incidents, characters and descriptions. There is so much in this short novel, it is hard to avoid the sense of genius at work. It is easy to see why this is so well regarded a novel: the idea is so original, the character-drawing so precise, the descriptions so wonderfully painted, the main character so unique. There is outright laughter as well as terrors in this novel which is so well handled you pause in amazement many, many times. No one with a human heart can resist taking Janet, the main character. Starting the novel with its outcome is a stroke of genius and listeners and readers if like me will move through this novel hoping the outcome will be different to that foretold. I have found myself reflecting on the story and the author's telling of it more than most any novel I have experienced. The audio-book performer is skilled, superbly able in her voice characterisations; so much so that it sometimes sounds like there is a cast of readers. Eilidh Beaton is an audio-book performer that I will look out for in the future. The Introduction to the novel by Maggie O'Farrell is an excellent introduction and preparation for the novel itself. All prospective listeners will find this novel one that they will want to discuss immediately with others.

Janet, Oh, Janet - Like No Other

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