Nova Scotia

Alistair MacLeod laid to rest near Dunvegan home

Alistair MacLeod will be laid to rest today in an area of Cape Breton that he introduced to the world in his writing.

No Great Mischief Author celebrated internationally

Alistair MacLeod built a world-wide reputation writing about Cape Breton. (CBC)

Alistair MacLeod will be laid to rest today in an area of Cape Breton that he introduced to the world in his writing.

A funeral service will be held at Saint Margaret of Scotland Roman Catholic Church, near his home in Dunvegan, for the author, who died last Sunday in Windsor, Ont.

He was 77.

Born in North Battleford, Sask., MacLeod moved with his family to Cape Breton Island when he was 10 and worked as a logger, a miner and a fisherman to make money for his education.

MacLeod was an acclaimed short story writer who won the prestigious International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for his only novel, No Great Mischief, in 2001.

His other published works include the 1976 short story collection The Lost Salt Gift of Blood as well as 1986's As Birds Bring Forth the Sun and Other Stories.

MacLeod lived in Windsor but spent his summers in Inverness County on Cape Breton Island, where he set many of his stories and where he wrote in a clifftop cabin looking west towards Prince Edward Island.

He is survived by his wife, Anita, as well as their six children and several grandchildren.