Bert Scorgie

Tigers Under the Turf: a Life Disrupted by the Horrors of World War Two: the Struggle to Survive and Lead a Normal Life. Bert Scorgie

In this fascinating autobiography the Scottish author shows how dogged hard work and true grit made him a survivor in a very challenging and sometimes harsh world. The saga covers a period of seventy years. First there were the pre-war years when the author and his crofting family were forced to move repeatedly in search of work; then came the hard times through the Second World War and surviving various health scares. Perhaps the most absorbingly interesting part of the book is the underground work that inspired the book's title-Tigers Under the Turf. It was traditional that men who work in dirty, dangerous jobs building underground tunnels in hydro-electric projects are often referred to as Tigers! The Tunnelers work in a terrible environment, so they were given the exotic nom-de-plume of Tunnel Tigers. However, exotic was definitely not the word to describe the type of work, which was dangerous, dirty, unhealthy, strength sapping-not a challenge for the faint hearted.