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Illuminating the Past: Jim Miller - 23 June 2006

by Fiona-Jane Brown

On a misty night in June, we gathered at Scotland's Lighthouse Museum, situated near Kinnaird Head, Fraserburgh. Our guest was writer, journalist and oral historian, James Miller, author of the most excellent works of oral history such as Salt in the Blood, which profiled the Scottish fishing industry; The Dam Builders, which followed the construction of the first hydro-electric dams in the North West of Scotland, and many others.

I met Jim earlier in the afternoon as he had travelled down from Inverness where he now lives and I got to have a 'fine blether' with a writer I admire. We sat in the Lighthouse Museum's cafe looking out into the dark grey north sea as seagulls wheeled above some far fishing trawler as Jim told me that he would be the last person to call himself an oral historian, despite his extensive use of oral reminiscence in his books. He was born the son of a fisherman in Keiss, Caithness, and his maternal ancestors were crofters near Dunnett Head. In education, Jim found the sciences more interesting than English, and went on to qualify to degree level as a scientist, but as he told me, he couldn't find a job as one, so began scribbling in his spare time to make a little pocket money.

He is a poet, novelist - the first one, A Fine White Stoor, featuring a contemporary crofter, was published in 1992, and followed three years later by A Wild and Open Sea which focused on the Pentland Firth - and is also a popular columnist for his local paper The John O'Groat Journal, or 'The Groat' as he affectionately refers to it.

Jim says he is like everyone else, he thinks of things he wants to know about and then goes to find out! I told him that's exactly what an oral historian does! So, when the audience were all sitting in the bright exhibition room at the Lighthouse Museum, entertained by the manic squeals of seagulls on the roof and intrigued by the many lighthouse regulation signs on the walls, I introduced Jim's talk as a 'how' of oral history rather than a 'what'. He managed to do both!

He told us how he went about getting ideas, usually trying to persuade his publisher to go along with them, and the sources he went to. For Salt in the Blood there was a huge variety of written sources as well as folk reminiscence. The Dam Builders represented a challenge, because although no-one else had done anything on the topic when he came up with the idea, another writer began on the same subject soon after! Jim says that they only ended up sharing one interviewee, and produced two completely different works. Jim explained how he likes to build a very solid picture of the past by gaining written and oral sources that prove each other to illustrate his work. He's currently working on a project looking at Scottish medieval mercenaries, which of course, will involve much more written accounts and secondary sources, but even the modern-day 'Private Military Contractor's' exploits like those featured in Highway to Hell (John Geddes - 2006) may be of use to Jim's research.

The real delight of Jim's talk was when he recalled a few gems of reminiscence from his work; our chairman, David Atherton challenged him to explain one of the opening stories in The Dam Builders which involves a supernatural experience. Jim had interviewed a woman who lived near the proposed site of one of the dams and on her way to work at the local 'big house' had been nervous and turned back. She had told her husband she didn't want the workmen to see her because she could hear the noise of the dynamite blasting and rocks being broken. Her husband was shocked, he told her that was impossible because the men were not due to arrive for another two days! Jim told us there were a few instances of where the second sight of Highland folk detected the massive upheaval to come from the dam-works days or weeks beforehand.

These are the kind of stories which light up the dry facts, as Jim explained. He made it clear from his talk that anyone with a passion for history can go and find out more just by reading and asking those who remembered it. Oral history, for Jim Miller, truly is a democratic subject!

Jim Miller (centre) with Museum manager and AROHA crew

Exterior of Museum

back - Hugo, Jim, David C & David A
front - Martha, Fiona-Jane & Edith

Jim Miller (author) & Fiona-Jane Brown (AROHA webmaster)

Thanks to:

Jim Miller for coming down the road to see us and for such a fascinating talk!
The Scottish Lighthouse Museum for their hospitality and allowing us to use their building
David Atherton for taking the photos!
The Friends of the Museum for supporting us in such numbers