Following Gemma and Sinclair's outing to The Brough of Birsay, Gemma is left confused and hurt at Sinclair's swift disappearance. While waiting for him to return, she rediscovers a history book on Skara Brae where she learns of the Ring of Brodgar — a stone circle associated with wishing and curative restoration — and bikes the 11 miles to make a wish of her own (Livesey 231). Though only a short passage in Livesey's work, the history, and particularly the geographical implications, of the Ring of Brodgar can be attributed to the forewarning Cecil gives Gemma at Claypoole that has carried through the remainder of the story.

            The Ring of Brodgar is located in Stenness on a ness that separates the Harray and Stenness lochs. It is one of several stone henges found in the...

Scotland is a main setting within The Flight of Gemma Hardy. While there are mentions of other European countries like Iceland, Frace, and London – at this point in the novel, Scotland is of larger importance. It is mentioned in almost every chapter whether looking back on a memory or making the world come to life. In the beginning, Gemma is influenced by her uncle who has (at this...

In Margot Livesey’s The Flight of Gemma Hardy, an adaptation of Jane Eyre, Livesey makes careful decisions about what to keep and change from Charlotte Bronte’s original text. Among these decisions, one of the most notable is changing the novel's setting to Scotland in the 1950s and having Gemma’s birthplace be in Iceland, instead of Bronte’s original setting of Northern England in the early 1800s’. While this might seem like a drastic change, having Gemma’s birthplace in Iceland gives Livesey the ability to retain some of the themes present in Jane Eyre, such as isolation,...