The little town of Stromness in the Orkney Islands is tucked between the hill and the harbour. In the 1930s and 40s its cobbled street and narrow lanes were busy places and Kathleen Leith thought it was the perfect time and place to have grown up. Her stories of the colourful characters she remembered and the things she got up to paint a picture of a different time, when children could safely sledge on the street, fall in the harbour and play tricks on adults.
As a harbour town, Stromness has always looked outwards so it is appropriate that the stories have been written down by Kathleen’s daughter Patricia and illustrated by her New York friend Jeanne Bouza Rose who now lives in Stromness. The white-line woodcut prints or blocks which illustrate the stories were created using a technique that originated in another harbour town, Provincetown, Massachusetts.