‘Letters from Skye’ a sweet treat

The book: Letters from Skye by Jessica Brockmole

Published: 2014

Genre: Romance/historical fiction

The bake: Espresso caramel millionaire shortbread

What’s the story?

The story starts in 1912 when Elspeth Dunn, a poet living on the Isle of Skye, receives her first fan mail from a man named David (Davey) Graham from Illinois in the USA. They start a correspondence in which unexpected love starts to blossom in spite of distance and time. Elspeth is married but says that David must not call her Mrs. Dunn. As a joke, he starts calling her ‘Sue’, and this name sticks and it is how he writes to her in all his following letters. The start of the First World War in 1914 throws a spanner in the works. But, they continue to write to each other, even when David volunteers as an ambulance driver on the Western Front.

Woven through this story of Elspeth and David, is another storyline taking place in 1940. Margaret, Elspeth’s daughter, has discovered that her mother’s past is riddled with tantalizing secrets. When Elspeth disappears one day after a bomb hits her Edinburgh home and disturbs a hidden cache of letters, Margaret knows she has to uncover her mother’s past in order to find her again. In the end, the two storylines start to merge. The suspense that has been built up all through the novel comes to a very satisfying conclusion.

Why read it?

The whole novel is told in the form of letters written by the characters to each other. This is really a fun and different way of telling a story. I have such respect for an author who gets it right. It must be so difficult to keep all the threads of the story untangled and to say what you need to say in letter form. This book reminded me of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer. This is another book written in letter form and one which I thoroughly enjoyed.

I bought this book while on holiday in Plettenberg Bay in the Southern Cape. I’d raced through all the books I’d brought along. Luckily there’s a lovely village bookshop on Main Street, and Letters from Skye caught my eye! It was the perfect holiday read. The letter format makes it easy to read, I think I finished it in two days. I love novels set in either of the World Wars and, bonus, this book is set in both! It is a beautiful, well-told story of how the written word, whether in the form of poems or letters, can bring people together and create connections across time and distance.

Pair it with: Espresso caramel millionaire shortbread

To be part of a love story like the one described in Letters from Skye, would be to feel richer than a millionaire… This book is sweetly romantic and deserves to be paired with an equally sweet treat. Skye is of course part of Scotland, so I had to do something with shortbread (yes, I do have a thing for shortbread!). Other things I have a ‘thing’ for, are the three C’s: coffee, caramel, and chocolate! So, there was basically only one thing I could make: millionaire shortbread with espresso caramel and a milk chocolate topping. This treat is the perfect balance between sweet, bitter, and creamy. I can think of nothing better to do this afternoon than curling up before a fire with a cup of coffee and a few squares of yumminess and re-reading Letters from Skye.

This recipe is from the amazing book Chocolate by Katelyn Williams. This book is chockful of recipes celebrating dark, milk, and white chocolate. Gorgeous food photography and Katelyn’s easy-to-follow recipes make this one of my favorite books to reach for when looking for a decadent dessert. I adapted Katelyn’s method for making caramel to the way I always do it, and it worked perfectly.