Upstairs in the Tent
Headline Review 2000
Hardback, paperback and ebook
‘Kate in her house. A whitewashed stone building with a view of the sea, on the west coast of the Highlands….’ Kate is the mother of Mhairi, who has, alarmingly, married without telling her, and returned home pregnant by a departed lover. After baby Patrick’s birth, Mhairi does a terrible thing – but surprising rescue comes in the shape of a homeless young man on the run. Offering a wry contemporary perspective on Highland life, this is a warm, forgiving novel about people’s need to find their home in the world.
‘Her writing has a lovely spirit to it; an appealing mixture of the spiky and the warm.’
– Michel Faber
‘A real page turner, witty and touching and true. I read it with delight.’
– Andrew Greig
‘A story told with warmth and confidence, which avoids sentimentality.’
– Glasgow Herald
‘Rogerson has an ability to inhabit all her characters convincingly. She sketches them with just the right amount of detail, chooses just the right aspects to emphasize.’
– Scotland on Sunday
‘A tale that shines with the warmth and surprise of a weepy penned by Maeve Bincy with added vignettes a la Crichton Smith.’
– The Scotsman
‘Rogerson is a fine observer of human quirks, revealing a generous understanding of what it means to be an individual.’
– Sunday Herald