A Torry Quine
By Beatrice Hale | Posted: Friday Aug 15, 2025
Author Beatrice Hale reflects on the genesis of her series of historical novels for children.
When I retired I had two thoughts in my mind: gardening, and family history. What a good time to work on my reminiscences. Good for me, good for the family, especially with grandchildren arriving. They will all know their heritage, understand past influences, learn more not just about their parents in younger days but grandparents, great-grandparents, rest of family and how they lived.
So I started delving, and that's interesting in itself, apart from its personal connections. You find yourself remembering events, people, remembering places, fun times - wow! Queen Elizabeth's coronation! Waving to Winston Churchill when he visited Aberdeen. And other less fun times. Shipping problems, men overboard. Job losses.
I grew up in Torry, a fishing area in Aberdeen with a long history. A fascinating place with interesting people, I loved Torry, its stories, its focus on boats, building them for different types of fishing, such as trawlers netting the catch, but deep-sea line fishing for different fish. There's a picture of my grandfather, Skipper Tom Watson, a deep-sea fisherman, in the modern Fish Market. He is holding up a halibut he caught, so large that he's almost obscured by it.
I'd always been great mates with my grandfather, never forgetting that when my ball bounced into the River Dee, he whipped off his shoes and socks and waded in to rescue it.
So his exploits were where I started my reminiscences. And these became a story for children about Skipper Tom and his crew fishing in distant waters, but as they were fishing, they were also getting messages from the American Flying Family. Radio messages? New stuff then.
The Flying Family consisted of father, mother and two little girls. The parents were keen pioneers and wanted to include their children in their dream trip of flying round the world, in their new Sikorsky plane. But in the Greenland area, a bird flew into the engines, and the plane had to land -fast - to avoid crashing.
Luckily everyone survived. Radio messages were sent out asking for help. And Skipper Tom and his crew were nearest the crash site. They carefully navigated a passage through Iceberg Alley, and succeeded in rescuing the survivors off the icy shores. As one of the daughters said to me much later, 'If it hadn't a bin for your grandpa, honey, we woulda died.'
I made a story from this, keen to showcase the courage of the fishermen, their skills in navigating through Iceberg Alley, as well as the vision of the Flying Family themselves. So Ice Escape came into being.
Another ancestor whom I discovered while looking into my grandfather's family, Harry Watson was press-ganged into Nelson's navy. And his wife, Mary went too. She became a nurse on the boat. Though the original voyage was to Copenhagen, I transferred the story to Trafalgar. Called The Resolute Heart the story also introduces Ewen Cameron as a spy, aware of French sympathisers on board the boat. With Harry and Mary's help he captured the traitors. And of course Cameron is a hero - a great clan, the Camerons!
I self-published these books, and to my surprise and delight Nick Mills from the Kellas Cat Press in Aberdeen, saw them and asked if I would consider republishing with them. adding the description of myself as A Torry Quine, with more reminiscences to come, as Nick suggested.
So I continued - my favourite Torry Saint, St Fittick, a 7th century priest, and the patron saint of gardeners, was shipwrecked off the coast of Aberdeen. He decided to remain there, and set up a settlement, with a church. This story of Fittick, Fisher of Men followed The Resolute Heart. To my delight, my cousin Sheila who is a terrific artist - and working hard in her own retirement - has done the cover for this one.
And following Fittick, I collected a number of short reminiscence stories.
Great fun to do, sometimes wistful, sometimes sad, but always interesting.
Reminiscence time: May Bruce poked the eyes out of my doll! Aileen's father didn't come home from the war. Granda Watson banged on the ceiling to warn the tenants in the flat above to cool it, quieten down. Aunty G wanted to keep her hair the way her fiancé, killed in the war, had liked it. Nurses thought differently, and they cut it. She died miserably.
And other memories!
But there's more than reminiscences! Nick took a fancy to Ewen Cameron and I have just completed another Cameron story, The Black Thistle where Cameron continues his spying activities, in Paris this time. After The Black Thistle comes The Sign, another Cameron story - third in the series - where Cameron becomes embroiled with kidnappers of children. And both these Cameron stories involve a woman, Madame Souris or Lady Mouse, who has her own intriguing story, running a servants' registry in Paris, using Scottish children to help and to pass on information to her. Her story continues alongside that of Cameron. And what will be the outcome? Don't know yet!
(books available from Amazon- costs for paperbacks US dollars, and don't forget extra delivery charges
Ice Escape $10.79
The Resolute Heart $11.69
Fittick, Fisher of Men $10.79
Fittick's Farewell, $9.99).
Go for memories - for yourself, for family and for friends, to remember the good times and the not-good times!
Beatrice Hale,
Beatrice has made her home in Dunedin for many years, where she enjoys its friendships, natural beauty, and rich history. She is grateful to live in such a lively and inspiring city.