This week has seen New York City go mad for plaid as the 22nd annual Tartan Week celebrates the famous Scottish textile.
And for historical biographer Flora Fraser, this year’s celebration is a timely reminder of her Scottish roots.
“I’m excited!” effuses Flora, 64, who grew up between London and Inverness-shire, and is the daughter of lauded historian Lady Antonia Fraser.
“From what I’ve learned, they dress up their dogs in tartan coats and have a competition for the best-dressed dog, which is wonderful!
“I don’t know if there’s a Clan Fraser representation but I’ll certainly be wearing Fraser tartan!”
Flora will be marching with the NYC Caledonian Club and Genera Society when Scotland’s national fabric floods the New York City streets today.
And her stateside visit will see her giving talks at various historic locations about her new book, Pretty Young Rebel.
The book tells the true story of her Jacobite-era namesake, Flora MacDonald, who famously helped Bonnie Prince Charlie escape after defeat at Culloden by disguising him as her Irish made on a boat to Skye.
Author’s namesake was Scottish heroine
“I was named after Flora MacDonald,” says the writer, who is also known for her biographies on George and Martha Washington, and Pauline Bonaparte.
“Pretty Young Rebel was a really personal book to write, which I hadn’t actually anticipated when I began it,” she reveals.
Growing in partly in Beauly, Flora explains, her namesake was a “local heroine”, with many Highland children named after her.
For Flora herself, the sense of kinship came as she was writing about the strength MacDonald took when she left her native Scotland for the United States following her legendary escape act with the Stuart prince.
“I think she took strength from her environment when she went out into the world, and into very dangerous territory in the revolutionary war,” muses Flora.
“And of course, you can say there’s a nostalgia or a longing for home in a great many of those who leave Scotland, but at the same time I think they carry the strength you acquire in the Highlands into their later life – both of character and physical strength, from walking up the hills.
“Flora MacDonald negotiated the dangers of civil war on both sides of the Atlantic. I could never be as audacious, courageous and as canny as she was, but I kind of recognise that feeling of confidence.”
Sly ancestors make for good stories
Writing the book also gave Flora plenty of opportunity to contemplate Bonnie Prince Charlie’s legacy; not just in Scottish diaspora, but in her very own household.
Memories of re-enacting Battle of Culloden with her five siblings and searching for Nessie in Loch Ness as a child come flooding back during our conversation.
And she reveals that her forbear Lord Lovat was the one who gave a palatial antique shooting lodge to the infamous Sobieski Stuarts, a pair of brothers who falsely claimed to be descended from Bonnie Prince Charlie himself.
The lodge was set on Eilean Aigas, an islet on the River Beauly near Inverness; and remarkably, it was here that Flora herself spent the Scottish seasons of her childhood.
“Lord Lovat gave the Sobieski Stuarts this wooded island to live on in Beauly, and they made this sort of palace,” she laughs incredulously.
“They dressed in magnificent Highland dress and instead of having normal doors into rooms, they had these great big palace doors. They even had a royal barge which they rode up to Eskadale, and there were thrones everywhere – they were carpenters you see.
“And so living in this house was quite amazing. It was a further reminder of the legacy of Bonnie Prince Charlie.
“Mind you,” she adds hastily, “we lived a totally normal life. We didn’t take a royal barge up to Eskdale to go to church, we took the car!”
Pretty Young Rebel by Flora Fraser, published by Bloomsbury, RRP £25, is available now from major retailers.
Conversation