The Guynd: a Scottish Journal by Belinda Rathbone

Do you dream of restoring a crumbling villa in Tuscany, a farmhouse in France, or a stately home in Great Britain? After Peter Mayle’s best-selling books on his life in Provence, many people had that dream, and some actually went out and lived it. Belinda Rathbone stumbled into her new life as the mistress of 400 acre estate in Scotland, complete with a decrepit Georgian mansion when she married John, Laird of Guynd. The house is in need of rescue, as is John. He is overwhelmed by the weight of hundreds of years of family history, and years of family stuff that has accumulated and no one dares discard. Belinda battles her husband’s compulsive need to save dusty piles of old curtains, pieces of linoleum, and shabby, stained clothes. ‘If the Scots are frugal then there is none more frugal than John. It’s not so much that he is averse to buying things, but that he will never throw anything away. “Trash,” “rubbish,” and “garbage” are simply not words in his vocabulary, except when he accused me of “creating trash”.’ You will feel as though you are witnessing the house come alive through Belinda’s efforts as she scrubs, repaints, redecorates, and renovates the Guynd. There are plenty of local characters to add flavor to her story, particularly among their troublesome tenants. This Scottish journal becomes the story of a marriage, as well as the story of a house. ““I knew when I married the man that I married the mansion.” My only complaint is that the book ends abruptly; I still want to know, “what happens next?”