


Spring of 1798: Young Rory MacHugh leaves his Blackfoot World for an Ancient World. There determination, versatility, and several unique friends enable him to survive many new lives -- a British sailor, an Egyptian Mameluke, a convict, a Secret Agent, a French Grenadier, a Highland soldier, and a forbidden lover in an Egyptian court. But the most devastating is his first encounter with the man destined plunge the world into war and to become Rory’s own personal demon, the young General Napoleon Bonaparte
It is 1810, shortly after the British victory over the French invaders of Portugal. During the winter lull, MacHugh is sent to London to track down a beautiful French spy. Things do not work out as planned and he ends up kidnapped and imprisoned in France. He soon encounters, among others, the notorious Joseph Fouché (head of Napoleon’s Secret Police), the future King George IV, and the Duke of Wellington. MacHugh even finds himself embroiled in American plans to invade Canada.
My final public performance as a piper was with BLACKTHORN, in 2013. Here we are playing a set of three of my compositions, “The Way Things Might Have Been”, “Flaming Bonnets”, and “The Portuguese Ceilildh”. I spent some of the happiest days of my life playing with this group of fine musicians and friends. Here you can hear me playing both the Great Highland Bagpipe and the Scottish Small Pipes (sometimes both at once -- a modern technical miracle).