Gracie the Lighthouse Cat

Using as a backdrop the story of Grace Darling’s rescue of nine people from the Longstone Lighthouse rocks, Ruth Brown tells an imagined story of her own, that of Gracie the lighthouse cat and how she loses and rescues her kitten from the raging storm. Ruth Brown loves to paint cats and is very good at doing so. In this Victorian period piece, she captures the contentment, curiosity, concern, terror and courage of the felines as well as wordlessly recounting the real wreck and rescue of the sinking ship’s passengers in paintings which are at once closely observed and darkly dramatic.