AustLit

Who Steals the Fire is a historical, fictional romance, which takes place in the period when Napoleon was waging war in Europe - a time when industrialization was demanding a greater supply of raw material for its woollen mills. Vast sheep runs were gradually replacing village farming in the Sutherland County in the north of Scotland. Robert and Alexander, the two sons of the laird of Dunbrace, a small hamlet on the Kildonan River in Sutherland County, vie for the favours of the beautiful Mardi Bannerman, the daughter of local villagers. By volunteering to join the Sutherland Fensible Regiment, which was recruiting men to fight Napoleon in Spain, they hoped to be rewarded on their return with a grant of land. However, in their absence, terror was to reign in the untended villages when the Countess of Sutherland organised clearances of the population in order to introduce wholesale sheep farming. [Source: The Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers' Centre Website]