The Scottish Gaelic name for Oban translates to "the little bay," which is attributed to the bay in Oban that resembles a horseshoe. The town is known as the "seafood capital of Scotland," and it became an important base for the Battle of the Atlantic in WWII, and it became a landing point for the first Tranatlantic Telephone Cable during the Cold War. This provided a hotline between the president of the United States and the present of the USSR, during that time. This town is where Mr. Donaldson's sister Isobel lives in Livesey's The Flight of Gemma Hardy. Mr.

While it is easy to see the connection that birds bring to The Flight of Gemma Hardy in regards to Jane Eyre, the bird that is first mentioned by Gemma could be a hint to her Icelandic heritage. "I stepped over to the bookcase and pulled down one of my favourite books: Birds of the World. Each page showed a bird in its natural habitat—a puffin with its fat, gaudy beak, peering out of a burrow, a lyre-bird spreading its tail beneath a huge leafy tree—accompanied by a description." Puffins are specifically located in northern oceans.

In the summer of 1816, George Byron (or Lord Byron) rented the Villa Diodati near Lake Geneva in Switzerland. Mary Shelley (Mary Godwin at the time) and Percy Bysshe Shelley also travelled to Geneva at the time. Shortly after both groups arrived, they met each other for the first time. Thanks to a summer full of poor weather, the three spent a lot of time together in Villa Diodati. With a particularly bad storm keeping them inside for a number of days, the group found themselves looking for things to discuss.

River Teviot (p. 118)

River Teviot is a tributary of the River Tweed in southern Scotland. The river, rich in trout, flows northeast past Hawick to join the Tweed at Kelso. The surrounding river basin consists of steep rounded hills and is used primarily for sheep grazing. (brittanica.com)