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{{short description|1947 novel by Compton Mackenzie}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox book
| name = Whisky Galore
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| followed_by = [[Rockets Galore (novel)|Rockets Galore]]
}}
'''''Whisky Galore''''' is a [[novel]] written by the Scottish author [[Compton Mackenzie]].<ref name="Linklater">{{cite book |last=Linklater |first=Andro |date=1992 |title=Compton Mackenzie. A Life |publisher=Hogarth Press |page=261 |isbn=9780701209841}}</ref> It was published in 1947.<ref name="Scotsman2021">{{cite web |url=https://www.scotsman.com/heritage-and-retro/heritage/day-80-years-ago-ss-politician-sinks-unleashing-whisky-galore-3124322 |title=On this day 80 years ago: the SS Politician sinks unleashing 'Whisky Galore' |publisher=The Scotsman |access-date=21 December 2022 |archive-date=22 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221222001725/https://www.scotsman.com/heritage-and-retro/heritage/day-80-years-ago-ss-politician-sinks-unleashing-whisky-galore-3124322 |url-status=live }}</ref> It was adapted for the cinema under the title ''[[Whisky Galore! (1949 film)|Whisky Galore!]]''.<ref name="STV">{{cite web |url=https://news.stv.tv/highlands-islands/whisky-galore-scotch-salvaged-from-shipwreck-up-for-auction |title=Whisky Galore |date=7 July 2020 |publisher=STV News |access-date=21 December 2022 |archive-date=22 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221222002027/https://news.stv.tv/highlands-islands/whisky-galore-scotch-salvaged-from-shipwreck-up-for-auction |url-status=live }}</ref> The book has sold several million copies and has been reprinted several times.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hutchinson|first1=Roger|author-link=Roger Hutchinson (writer)|title=Polly: The True Story Behind Whisky Galore|date=2007|publisher=Mainstream Publishing|location=Edinburgh|page=149-150|isbn=978-1-8401-8071-8}}</ref>
It followed on from an earlier 1943 novel ''[[Keep the Home Guard Turning]]'' in the same setting,▼
==Plot summary==
During the [[Second World War]], the cargo vessel ''S.S. Cabinet Minister'' is wrecked off a remote fictional Scottish island group – Great Todday and Little Todday – with fifty thousand cases of [[whisky]] aboard.
Although the wreck and the escapades over the whisky are at the centre of the story, there is also a lot of background detail about life in the [[Outer Hebrides]], including e.g. culture clashes between the [[Protestant]] island of Great Todday and the [[Roman Catholic]] island of Little Todday. (Mackenzie based the geography of these islands on [[Barra]] and [[Eriskay]] respectively, but in real life they are both Catholic islands). There are various sub-plots including those of two couples who are planning to get married.
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==Origins of the story==
The story was based on a real-life incident that occurred in 1941 on the [[Hebrides|Hebridean]] island of [[Eriskay]]<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/heritage/historic-sites/ss_politician_whisky_galore_off_eriskay_1_465109|title=SS Politician: Whisky galore off Eriskay|date=14 February 2005|newspaper=The Scotsman}}</ref> when the [[SS Politician|SS ''Politician'']] ran aground with a cargo including 28,000 cases of malt whisky as well as other trade goods headed for Jamaica and New Orleans.<ref name="gastro">{{cite web |last1=Matthew |first1=Taub |title=For Sale: Shipwrecked Whisky That Spent Decades Underwater |url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/shipwreck-whisky |website=Gastro Obscura |publisher=Atlas Obscura |access-date=9 August 2020 |date=5 August 2020 |archive-date=7 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807191056/https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/shipwreck-whisky |url-status=live }}</ref> Official files released by The National Archives show that it was also carrying a sum of cash. In all, there were nearly 290,000 [[Bank of England note issues#10s.|ten-shilling notes]], which would be worth the equivalent of several million pounds at today's prices. Not all of this was recovered from the wreck.<ref name="gastro"/><ref name="Scotsman2021"/>
Mackenzie wrote the novel while resident on the Isle of [[Barra]] at his house just near [[Barra Airport]].<ref name="Herald">{{cite web|url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/business_hq/23179825.new-12m-distillery-island-links-whisky-galore/ |title=New £12m distillery for island with links to Whisky Galore |date=9 December 2022 |publisher=The Herald |access-date=21 December 2022}}</ref> The house, called Suidheachan, Gaelic for “sitting down place”, was built in 1935 is Category B listed.<ref name="Times">{{cite web |url=https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/retreat-where-whisky-galore-poured-forth-mgd3tfvql |title=Retreat where Whisky Galore poured forth |work=The Times |access-date=21 December 2022 |archive-date=22 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221222002213/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/retreat-where-whisky-galore-poured-forth-mgd3tfvql |url-status=live }}</ref>
▲
Mackenzie was said to have based the negative elements of the character Captain Paul Waggett on Dr Bartlett, a personal acquaintance, as an act of personal revenge.<ref name="Linklater"/>
==Adaptations==
=== Films ===
The novel was first adapted in 1949 as ''[[Whisky Galore! (1949 film)|Whisky Galore!]]'',<ref
[[Whisky Galore! (2016 film)|A remake]] of the 1949 film was released in 2016.<ref name="STV"/>
=== Stage ===
A theatrical adaptation of the novel, licensed by the Society of Authors (the managers of Compton Mackenzie's literary estate) and written by Paul Godfrey, was first performed as a "bar show" at Perth Theatre in the late 1980s. This adaptation, delivered in the manner of a 1940s radio broadcast, has four BBC Radio Rep actors and a studio manager creating all the locations, characters and sound effects as they would have done in a live radio broadcast. This version was also produced by [[Mull Theatre]] in the late 1990s, early 2000s, and 2014, touring to theatres throughout Scotland.▼
Another adaptation of the novel was staged by the [[Brunton Theatre|Brunton Theatre Company]], [[Musselburgh]], under the direction of Charles Nowosielski, in October 1989.<ref>[http://archive.list.co.uk.s3-website.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/the-list/1989-10-13/51/index.html review of ''Whisky Galore'' by Philip Parr], ''The List'', Issue 106, 13 - 26 October 1989, p. 49</ref>
▲''[[Whisky Galore! (1949 film)|Whisky Galore!]]'' is a 1949 British [[comedy film]] produced by [[Ealing Studios]], starring [[Basil Radford]], [[Bruce Seton]], [[Joan Greenwood]] and [[Gordon Jackson (actor)|Gordon Jackson]]. It was the directorial debut of [[Alexander Mackendrick]]; the screenplay was by Compton Mackenzie, an adaptation of his novel, and [[Angus MacPhail]].
A musical version of the novel, entitled ''Whisky Galore
==Cultural references==
▲A theatrical adaptation of the novel, licensed by the Society of Authors (the managers of Compton Mackenzie's literary estate) and written by Paul Godfrey, was first performed as a "bar show" at Perth Theatre in the late 1980s. This adaptation, delivered in the manner of a 1940s radio broadcast, has four BBC Radio Rep actors and a studio manager creating all the locations, characters and sound effects as they would have done in a live radio broadcast. This version was also produced by Mull Theatre in the late 1990s, early 2000s, and 2014, touring to theatres throughout Scotland.
The novel's title influenced the name of the first French discothèque, the Whisky à gogo, opened in [[Juan-les-Pins]] in 1947 by Paul Pacini after the book was published,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Postlethwaite |first1=Justin |title=The history and uses of the fun French phrase 'à gogo' |url=https://www.connexionfrance.com/article/Mag/Language/The-history-and-uses-of-the-fun-French-phrase-a-gogo |website=The Connexion |date=17 March 2022 |access-date=21 December 2022 |archive-date=21 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221221104916/https://www.connexionfrance.com/article/Mag/Language/The-history-and-uses-of-the-fun-French-phrase-a-gogo |url-status=live }}</ref> and which, in turn, was influential in the naming of West Hollywood's [[Whisky a Go Go]] in 1958.
▲A musical version of the novel, entitled 'Whisky Galore - a musical!', was performed at the Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Scotland in 2009 and 2011. The book was adapted by Shona McKee McNeil and the music was composed by Ian Hammond Brown. A [[Gaelic language]] adaption of the novel was adapted for the stage by Iain Finlay MacLeod for a [[National Theatre of Scotland]], Robhanis and A Play, A Pie and A Pint at Òran Mór co-production titled ''Uisge-Beatha Gu Leòr'' in 2015.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/2015/uisge-beatha-gu-leorwhisky-galore/ |title=Uisge-Beatha Gu Leor/Whisky Galore |last1=Dibdin |first1=Tom |date=15 April 2015 |website=the Stage |access-date=30 October 2015 }}</ref>
==References==
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[[Category:Scottish comedy]]
[[Category:Chatto & Windus books]]
[[Category:
[[Category:1947 in Scotland]]
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