The Spuddy

Lillian Beckwith (25 April 1916 – 3 January 2004), real name Lillian Comber, was an English writer best known for her series of semi-autobiographical books set on the Inner Hebrides. Born Lilian Lloyd in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, she married Edward Comber in 1937, and in 1942 she moved with him to Elgol, Isle of Skye, under doctor's orders for a rest. Moving to the nearby and smaller Isle of Soay, she eventually bought and ran her own croft. Her life on the island provided the basis for seven books published between 1959 and 1978, although allegedly, some of her neighbours later felt that the somewhat comical characters on Beckwith's fictional island of Bruach were too close to real persons, causing Beckwith to become something of a persona non grata in her former home. She moved to the Isle of Man in 1962 and died on 3 January 2004 aged 87.