The Honey That Came From The Sea

The Honey that came from the Sea is a selection of short stories, drawn from collections of prose by the poet Sheena Blackhall. Best known for her Scots writing, in this instance her work in English is presented, with a smattering of Scots dialogue. The Jam Jar is based on personal experience. Aberdeen in the summer of 1964 was a city under siege, in the grip of a major typhoid epidemic. Blackhall was one of the 469 quarantined cases. The epidemic was studied in depth during Aberdeen University’s International Conference in 1999 into the role of science & medicine in shaping food policy.The Very Special Child draws on her time as an infertility patient of Professor Arnold Klopper, Professor of Reproductive Endocrinology at the University of Aberdeen, who retired in 1987. He was one of the foremost reproductive endocrinologists of his time, who specialised in the foetal placental unit, discovering much about the role of oestrogens in human pregnancy. No dog featured in the actual birth.Some of the tales have an educational setting. Blackhall began her teaching career in the suburb of Easterhouse in Glasgow, where teachers were so scarce that pupils often had ‘half-day’ classes, and one class could comprise over 40 pupils. Huge aggressive stray dogs from the housing scheme often roamed the playground, and poverty was endemic.The tales here deal with the mysteries of life, religion, ageing, birth and sex . There is humour here, mystery and intrigue, from Maharajahs to Shortbread, and always the often dark dynamics of human relationships.