Douglas Stewart

all over the world, but definitely in working-class Scotland, have a tough time expressing all of their feelings or all of their thoughts.

And so these men are incredibly lonely, which is why the grandmother's a very necessary character, because she will say whatever's on her mind.

Yes.

Well, for me myself, I studied textiles.

I went to the Scottish College of Textiles, as Cal does in the book, and then actually to the Royal College of Art and found myself in New York almost by accident when I was offered a job there and thinking I was going for a few years and then have spent 26 years there.

But from New York, I have always loved Harris tweed weaving.

Harris tweed weaving is manufactured in the same method that it was centuries before.

It's one weaver, one loom.

The looms are all man-powered.

They're often situated behind the house of the crofter or the weaver.

And the cloth and everything about the cloth comes from the land.

So all the colors are inspired by nature around them.

The cloth is so beautiful.

It's so unique.

But, you know, as the world modernized through the Industrial Revolution and even textiles in general went to these big screaming factories and then the factories went to Italy and then to the Far East, Harris Tweed really held on.

And it's in place to give the weavers, the men and women, a way to make an income, but also to keep people on the land, you know, so that they didn't have to migrate to cities or go to places of industry.

And I think, you know, I think that's such a wonderful thing.

It's, you know, especially in today's world to still have something in Britain that is made by hand and that is so unique.

I couldn't help but be fascinated by it.

But also as a novelist, I think it's quite a lonely way to live, you know, to be one weaver, one loom in a shed behind your home in a place that already is quite quiet.