<strong>A Darkening of the Heart</strong> is set in eighteenthcentury Scotland. It contraststhe harsh life in the countryside where social opportunities are few... » 

A Darkening of the Heart is set in eighteenthcentury Scotland. It contraststhe harsh life in the countryside where social opportunities are few and farbetween with life in the teeming streets of Edinburgh where on the surfacethe bawdy and the proper seem poles apart but in reality they seep into oneanother on all kinds of different levels. It is in this world of sometimes shamrespectability that brother and sister Alexander and Susanna try to advancetheir social standings. Alexander has qualified as a doctor but this is notenough for him he has ambitions to become a famous poet. Snobbish Susannaalso aims to climb the social ladder but as a woman her only hope of doing sois by finding herself a wealthy husband. Her drive for money and position leadsher to become caught up in some truly terrifying situations that end up warpingher character and her outlook on life. What makes this a cut above the usualhistorical romantic fiction is that one of the main characters is none otherthan Robert Burns. Margaret Thomson Davis has skilfully interwoven known eventsfrom the poets life into the fictional world inhabited by Alexander andSusanna to stunning and often moving effect. Burnss sexual magnetism and theease with which he got along with people from all sorts of backgrounds arenormally seen as positive attributes but here we see how they could lead toexploitation and cruel deception at the hands of those Burns believed to be hisfriends. In addition to the narrative Margaret Thomson Davis includes songspoems and letters by the bard and the seamless way these fit in with events inthe novel is evidence of a storyteller at her masterly best. «