The American-born folklorist and musician Margaret Fay Shaw’s passion for the Hebrides led her to the island of South Uist in 1929 and then to Canna in 1935 as the wife of the eminent folklorist John Lorne Campbell.

Her extraordinary work in documenting and preserving traditional Gaelic songs and customs remains a vital resource for understanding Hebridean music, and the Campbells’ house on Canna is a unique collection of priceless material celebrating the Hebridean world. This vast archive also includes Margaret's collection of still and film photography, which capture the essence of island life at a time when old traditions were vanishing.

The Cadence of a Song: The Life of Margaret Fay Shaw (Birlinn, 2025) by Fiona J. Mackenzie celebrates the legacy and life of a remarkable woman, who herself wrote with such wit and flair of her travels and adventures and which took her from turn of-the-century Pennsylvania to 1920s New York, Paris, Nova Scotia and the Hebrides, where she lived until her death in 2004.

This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.

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