The Hot Month
Life in the West Highlands of Scotland is usually a genial, leisurely affair; but an unexpected spell of blazing sunshine can arouse forgotten energies and stir the old Adam in the quietest of folk.
Nat Boag, a successful painter, arrives in the hamlet of Ochie with his wife Mary and their teenage children in search of a relaxing holiday, and becomes the focus of a bizarre succession of mishaps, including The Night of the Big Crime, when dynamite and hysteria and free salmon break out everywhere.
The Hot Month summons up a gallery of characters, local and tourist, dazed with sunshine and seething with their pirate fantasies, from young love to middle-aged war. Ochie is an entirely fictitious village, but everyone who knows the West Highlands will recognise the unmistakable flavour of every village he has known on that fantastic coast.
With this delightfully light-hearted novel, the author of Dancing in the Streets and A Skinful of Scotch reinforces his reputation as the most perceptive and entertaining commentator on the Scottish scene.
Nat Boag, a successful painter, arrives in the hamlet of Ochie with his wife Mary and their teenage children in search of a relaxing holiday, and becomes the focus of a bizarre succession of mishaps, including The Night of the Big Crime, when dynamite and hysteria and free salmon break out everywhere.
The Hot Month summons up a gallery of characters, local and tourist, dazed with sunshine and seething with their pirate fantasies, from young love to middle-aged war. Ochie is an entirely fictitious village, but everyone who knows the West Highlands will recognise the unmistakable flavour of every village he has known on that fantastic coast.
With this delightfully light-hearted novel, the author of Dancing in the Streets and A Skinful of Scotch reinforces his reputation as the most perceptive and entertaining commentator on the Scottish scene.
Published:1967, London, Hutchinson1967 Boston, Houghton Mifflin1968 London, Arrow
Comments:
“A delectable comedy… this is one of the most amusing books in years.”Harry Moore The New York Times
“The Hot Month is combusted with laughter. Light reading but no lightweight at work here."Kirkus Reviews - Starred Review
“A rollicking frolic about a vacationing family”World Journal Tribune
“An energetic, lusty and funny novel”Chicago Tribune “Mr. Hanley sets a cracking pace from the start and never falters.”She Magazine
"I laughed longer, and more often, at this one book than at the whole series of Compton Mackenzie’s celebrated Highland comedies.”Alexander ScottThe Scots Independent
“An energetic, lusty and funny novel”Chicago Tribune “Mr. Hanley sets a cracking pace from the start and never falters.”She Magazine
"I laughed longer, and more often, at this one book than at the whole series of Compton Mackenzie’s celebrated Highland comedies.”Alexander ScottThe Scots Independent
From Jo:
We were fortunate enough to own a home in a village on the Cowal Peninsula of Argyll, and that wonderful village was the inspiration for The Hot Month. Many of the locals were listed in the acknowledgments, first names only, to keep the place a secret...
Copyright 2025 The Estate of Clifford Hanley