'The People Are Not There'

The People Are Not There by David Taylor examines the transformative events that shaped the destiny of Badenoch, a landscape today recognised for its empty glens and ruined settlements. The book delves into the impact of climate and market forces, hunger and relief measures, sheep farms and sporting estates, agricultural improvement, proprietorial greed, and the evolution of clanship. While this is an intensely localised study, the dramatic nature of change is explored against the broader context of events across the Highlands, as well as within the British state and its global empire.

Badenoch's journey transitions from the relative prosperity of the Napoleonic Wars into the dire post-war destitution that devastated the peasantry, tacksmen, and the Duke of Gordon alike. Estate reform and 'improvement' eventually introduced a measure of economic and social stability, but this was coupled with depopulation, as inhabitants were forced off the land to seek refuge in impoverished 'planned villages' or to leave their Gaelic homeland for life in the Lowlands. For some, emigration offered lucrative opportunities unimaginable at home.

Through extensive use of documentary evidence, much of it previously unseen, David Taylor paints an intimate portrait of the historically neglected region of Badenoch. This book provides a compelling new perspective on Highland history.

'A splendid account of the transformation of Badenoch in the first half of the 19th Century...paints an intimate portrait of the historically neglected region.' - Strathspey and Badenoch Herald