The Winter Sea (2008) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

Characters edit see section history

• Carolyn McClelland, aka Carrie: Set in modern portion of the story. 31-year-old author of four bestselling novels and godmother to her agent's infant son, Jack Ramsey. Carolyn is writing a new novel about Nathanial Hooke but is experiencing difficulty making his character come to life. So she decides to rent a home in Cruden Bay after visiting Slains Castle (the Earl of Erroll's castle which Hooke visited on a few occassions) after a brush with serendipity takes her there on a side trip on the way to her godson's (baby Jack Ramsey) christening.
• Jane Ramsay: Catherine McClelland's publishing agent and friend. Carrie is godmother to her baby Jack. Like a bloodhound on Carrie's romantic path to discover who her love interest is.
• Alan Ramsay: Jane's husband - Occupation: helicopter pilot
• Jimmy Keith: Carolyn's landlord--she rents a cottage from him at Cruden Bay to be near Slains and the sea. Speaks Doric. Widow. Father to Stuart and Graham Keith.
• Stuart Keith, aka Stuie: Graham's charming and likable brother. Meets Carolyn on the plane trip from France to Scotland. Works with computers and does well judging by his choice of expensive clothing and vehicles. Harbors romantic feelings for Carolyn. Carrie quickly sums him up as having a girl in every port.
• Graham Keith: Lecturer of history at the university in Aberdeen. Jimmy Keith's son and Stuart's brother. Carrie first sees him near Slains Castle with Angus. Finds him compelling and attractive. Patient and devoted to his father. Eyes the color of a winter sea. Carrie models her hero's looks on Graham's.
• Dr. Douglas Weir: Retired medical doctor and local historian who assists Carolyn with her research. Carrie takes her concerns about her memory to him for his medical opinion.
• Elsie Weir: Dr. Weir's wife. Hates Defoe with a passion.
• Sophia Paterson McClelland: Set in novel that Carrie is writing. Carrie's heroine, and ancestor, who lives at Slains Castle with her aunt during the time preceding the 1708 return of King James to Scotland.
• Nathaniel Hooke: An Irishman at St. Germain, born in 1664 and the perfect hero for Carolyn's new novel. Hooke abandoned his Protestant faith for the Catholic Church and fought for James when he came to the throne. Hooke was captured as a spy and held prisoner in the Tower of London, eventually fleeing with James to France in exile.
• Anne Drummond Hay, Countess of Erroll: Kin to Sophia Paterson's uncle, John Drummond. A women of power and property who offered Sophia a home at Slains after the death of her uncle. Jacobite. Lively, clever, savvy, and loyal widow. Gracious to everyone, including servants.
• Lt. Col. John Moray: Jacobite soldier. Savvy and naturally reserved. Arrives at Slains with Captain Hooke.
• James Douglas Graham, 4th Duke of Hamilton: Practically led the Parliament in Edinburgh and long considered one of Scotland's fiercest patriots. Reportedly sympathetic to the exiled Stewart king in France. Married to an English wife and held lands in Lancashire.
• Carrie: Set in modern portion of the story. 31-year-old author of four bestselling novels and godmother to her agent's infant son, Jack Ramsey. Carolyn is writing a new novel about Nathanial Hooke but is experiencing difficulty making his character come to life. So she decides to rent a home in Cruden Bay after visiting Slains Castle (the Earl of Erroll's castle which Hooke visited on a few occassions) after a brush with serendipity takes her there on a side trip on the way to her godson's (baby Jack Ramsey) christening.
• Captain Thomas Gordon: Captain of the Royal William and commodore to the Scots navy frigates on the eastern coast. Jacobite. Countess of Erroll considers him an old and valued friend. He is about 40 years old. Has feelings for Sophia.
• Charles Hay, 13th Earl of Erroll: Son of the Countess of Erroll and Lord High Constable of Scotland. Jacobite. Never married. Visits Slains from time to time.
• Colonel Patrick Graeme: Uncle to John Moray. Resembles his nephew. Teaches Sophia to play chess.
• Captain Ogilvie: Friend of Patrick Graeme. Visits Slains. Graeme trusts him implicitly because of his suffering for King James' father and his loss of lands and money.
• Kirsty: Maid for the Countess of Erroll. Becomes closest friend of Sophia. Attracted to Rory, the groom.
• Rory: Groom at Slains Castle. Would-be adventurer. Keeps his thoughts to himself. In love with Kirsty.
• Mrs Grant: Cook at Slains.
• Billy Wick: Gardener at Slains for the Countess of Erroll. Makes Sophia and Kirsty uncomfortable.
• Sister to Kirsty: She is not named in the novel. She has a passel of kids. Kirsty and Sophia visit her.
• Earl Marischall: Countess of Erroll's nephew. His home is at Dunottar, to which the Countess and the Earl of Erroll go occasionally. Jacobite.
• Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm: Sophia stays briefly with the Malcolms about the time of the 1708 arrival of James in Scotland.
• Lord Griffin: Englishman, favorite of Queen Anne, who secretly supports the Jacobites.
• Mrs Kerr: Sophia lives with the Kerrs for a short time at Kirkcudbright.
• James and Mary Paterson: Sophia's parents who died trying to found a colony near Panama called Darien. The idea was that they could raise the fortunes of Scotland by increasing trade across the isthmus. The plan was a failure.
• King James VIII of Scotland, King James III of England: Lives in exile in St. Germain, France, through most of the novel be attempting to regain his throne in 1708. Half sister of Queen Anne.
• Anna Mary Paterson: There are three Annas in the story. Sister of Sophia, who was abused by Sophia's uncle and died. Also, Moray's sister who died. Also, Sophia's daughter.
• William of Orange, husband of Queen Mary: Mary inherits the throne after the death of Elizabeth I and marries, William of Orange, a Dutch Protestant. Parliament votes him king to rule beside Mary, which will protect her reign since she is a woman and England has suffered much from religious wars and persecutions since the Reformation. Her sister Anne rules after her.
• Mary, Queen of Scots: Mentioned only briefly in novel.
• Stewart dynasty: Central to the plot of the novel is the treatment of the Stewarts, Catholics, in the lineage of the English throne. During much of the novel, King James Stewart of Scotland, tries to lay claim to the English throne although he had been smuggled to safety as an infant in France by his mother.
• Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat: Jacobite Highlander, loyal to himself first and ambitious for himself. Notably cruel. A land grabber.
• Daniel Defoe: Author of the novel Robinson Crusoe. Mentioned as a spy against King James.
• Ross McClelland: Carrie's uncle. Carrie's uncle and dad are into genealogy. He lives at Kirkcudbright.
• Angus: Graham's spaniel.
• Hugo: Mastiff at Slains.
• Tom: Add a description of this character.
• Mr Boswell: Samuel Johnson's biographer
• Hugh Maclellan
• Samuel Johnson: Literary genius
• Mr Kerr: recognised Sophia
• James the VIII: king who was trying to restore his crown
• Bonnie Prince Charlie: English king
• Duke of Marlborough: British soldier
• David John McClelland: Carrie's ancestor
• Mrs Robinson
• Robert Harley
• John Drummond
• Mr Hall
• Robert Bruce: Scottish hero
• Arthur
• Mrs Malcolm
• Mrs Milton
• Earl of Marischal
• Mr Perkins
• Dad: Carrie's father
• Duke of Athol
• Tammie
• Jack Ramsay: Jane's son
• Duke of Berwick
• Monsieur de Ligondez
• King Louis XIV
• quine: Doric name for "girl"
• Bram Stoker: Writer of Dracula
• Graham Greene: modern British author
• ye Simon Fraser: man who was thought to be a traitor
• Mr Malcolm

Quotes edit see section history

• “Come home! The year has left you old; / Leave those grey stones; wrap close this shawl / Around you for the night is cold; / Come home! He will not hear you call; / No sign awaits you here but the beat / Of tides upon the strand, / The crag's gaunt shadow with gull's feet / Imprinted on the sand, / And spars and sea-weed strewn / Under a pale moon. / Come home! He will not hear you call; / Only the night winds answer as they fall / Along the shore, / And evermore / Only the seashells / On the grey stones singing, / And the foam-bells / Of the North Sea ringing.”

  Opening to the book, Poem by E. J. Pratt, "On the Shore"

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• ‘Where’e’er I go, my Soul shall stay with thee: ’Tis but my Shadow that I take away;’

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• ‘Men who watch, and say but little, very often are much wiser than the men they serve.’

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• ‘Hope,’ he told her, ‘rarely enters into it. ’Tis action moves the world. If ye mind nothing else I’ve taught ye of the game of chess, mind that: ye cannot leave your men to stand unmoving on the board and hope to win. A soldier must first step upon the battlefield if he does mean to cross it.’

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• The IGI, or International Genealogical Index, was one of the most useful tools for family history searchers.

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• William Henley’s bravely ringing lines: I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.

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• ‘there is no sight so melancholy as the winter sea, for it does tell us we are truly at the ending of the year, and all its days are passed, its days of joy and sorrow that will never come again.’

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• there were roads in life one started down by choice, that led to ends quite different from what might have been if one had chanced to take another turning.

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• ‘A man, when he has fallen on hard times, should seek his friends,’ he said. ‘Not sell them to his enemies.’

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• It suggests that the entire past-life phenomenon, where people are “regressed” under hypnosis and recall what they believe are former lives in other bodies, may in fact be nothing more than their remembering the lives of their own ancestors.’

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• right—the fields might fall to fallow and the birds might stop their song awhile; the growing things might die and lie in silence under snow, while through it all the cold sea wore its face of storms and death and sunken hopes…and yet unseen beneath the waves a warmer current ran that, in its time, would bring the spring.

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Aberdeen, Scotland: Home of Graham Keith. He lectures at university there and has his house there.
• Cruden Bay: Carrie rents her cottage there. Scene of many ships coming and going to Slains Castle.
• Slains Castle: Home of the Countess of Erroll, Jacobite widow. Many Jacobites visit to confer with her. Sits on cliff inside Cruden Bay. Carrie is drawn to its ruin when she veers off the main road to visit her agent. She feels she knows the castle, what it used to look like, where the rooms would have been.
• Perterhead
• Scotland: Most of the novel takes place here with a brief mention of Carrie staying in France and King James' exile in St. Germain.
• France: Carrie begins her book in France, intending it to be about Captain Hooke. King James of Scotland was exiled to France as an infant and longed to return to his throne in England and Scotland.
• Edinburgh: Is mentioned infrequently. Lord Hamilton lives there. Carries flies there from France. There is some mention of spies in Edinburgh.
• Kirkcudbright: Carrie knows that her ancestor Sophia was born there, and that she left for Ireland from there.
• England: There is mention of England in the story as related to William and Mary, and to Queen Anne. The story is not set there.
• Saint-germain: The French home of the exiled James. Moray and others visit there to plot James' return and to report that Jacobite plans to him and to convey his plans back to Scotland.
• London: The story does not really take place in London. Lord Griffin mentions it as his home.
• Darien: Planned colony of Scots near the isthmus of Panama. A failure.
• Ireland: Home of the McClellands from whom Carrie and her father are descended. Sophia leaves for Ireland at the end of the story.
• Flanders: Scene of a battle in which many Scots are wounded and killed.
• Leith: The Scottish naval ships sail there on occasion.
• Salisbury
• Dunkirk
• Paris: Carrie lives there at the beginning of the novel and intends to write her novel there initially.
• Main Street: in Cruden Bay.
• North Sea
• Malplaquet: Scene of horrific battle.
• Versailles: King Louis XIV's palace, mentioned only in connection with Louis as a supporter of James.

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• Aga: British trademark: a type of heavy heat-retaining stove or range used for cooking and heating.
• dovecote: a shelter with nest holes for domesticated pigeons
• dram: a small drink of whiskey or other spirits
• ken: recognize; identify
• quickening: archaic (of a woman) reach a stage in pregnancy when movements of the fetus can be felt.
• bothy: a small hut or cottage
• fishing-smack: chiefly Brit. a single-masted sailboat used for fishing or coastal commerce ora fishing boat, often one equipped with a well for keeping the caught fish alive
• mercat "the old stone mercat cross": Perhaps relating to Mercator, Gerardus?(1512–94), Flemish geographer and cartographer, a resident in Germany from 1552; Latinized name of Gerhard Kremer. He invented the system of map projection that is named after him.
• hod: a builder's V-shaped open trough on a pole, used for carrying bricks and other building materials.• a coal scuttle

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Susanna Kearsley (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Awards (2010: Best Historical Fiction, Winner)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PR9199.3.K4112 W56 2010
• Dewey: 813.54

Notes for Parents edit see section history

There is nothing in the book that a high schooler could not read. Sex is hinted at but not explicitly described, as in "and then it was not a time for words."

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary

More Books Like This edit see section history

Books Cited by This Book edit see section history