May 2007 Heritage Feature: Hugh Miller Bio - Review

Martin Gostwick is a freelance journalist by profession and is the author of two books, The Legend of Hugh Miller, an introductory biography and A Noble Smuggler and Other Stories, an illustrated edition of Miller's early journalism. Martin was awarded Highland Journalist of the Year 2000 for features and articles on a broad range of issues published in the regional media. He has kindly reviewed the newly published HUGH MILLER - stonemason, geologist, writer by Michael A Taylor for the site.

At last, we have the first full-length, authoritative biography of Hugh Miller to be published for over 130 years, and in it the man has been rescued from the dubious speculations which have cast shadows over his name in the recent past.
Dr Taylor, principal curator of vertebrate palaeontology in National Museums Scotland, presents the real Hugh Miller as he understood himself and was known to his contemporaries.

From his and others' exhaustive researches, Dr Taylor can find no evidence to support the various sensational interpretations of his character which have featured in some melodramatic productions and even critical studies.

Instead of a riven personality, confused and mythologising about his identity, Miller re-emerges in his true colours as the self-taught geologist, a poet of science, a front-rank journalist, who well knew his place as "one of the living forces of Scotland."

Best of all, Miller is allowed to speak for himself through substantial excerpts from his most accessible writings, presenting the "intermeshing streams of (his) work, family life, religion, and science."

This is definitely not hagiography, however. Dr Taylor is objective, equally candid about his subject's rough edges, scientific mistakes, and scathing criticisms, as he is generous to Miller the man and his multiple talents.

A foreword by great great grand-daughter Marian McKenzie Johnston establishes wife Lydia's contribution to the story, while Dr Taylor adds a judicious assessment of the notorious Williamson Memoir. An informative and amusing foreword by local historian David Alston traces Miller's impact on Cromarty at the time and since.

The book, at a mere 176 pages, packed with detail and illustrations, is a marvel of compression, and a very easy read for a work of the highest academic standards.

Martin Gostwick