”The Quarry Wood”, although published well before ”Sunset Song”, inhabits a similar world; the progress of its heroine could almost be the alternative story of a Chris Guthrie who did go to university. Compassionate and humorous, the grace and style of Shepherd`s prose is heightened by a superb ear for the vigorous language of the north-east. ”The Weatherhouse”, Shepherd`s masterpiece, is an even more substantial achievement which belongs to the great line of Scottish fiction dealing with the complex interactions of small communities, and especially the community of women - a touching and hilarious network of mothers, daughters, spinsters and widows. It is also a striking meditation on the nature of truth, the power of human longing and the mystery of being. The third and final novel, ”A Pass in the Grampians”, describes Jenny Kilgour`s coming of age as she has to choose between the kindly harshness of her grandfather`s life on a remote hill farm, and the vulgar and glorious energy of Bella Cassie, a local girl who left the community to pursue success as a singer, and has now returned to scandalise them all. ”The Living Mountain” is a lyrical testament in praise of the Cairngorms.It is a work deeply rooted in Shepherd`s knowledge of the natural world, and a poetic and philosophical meditation on our longing for high and holy places. This is the first omnibus edition of Shepherd`s prose works - her sensitivity and powers of observation raise her work far above the status of regional literature and into the front rank of Scottish writing.