Inner Hebrides
The poet Sorley MacLean was born on Raasay, the setting for his best known poem, "Hallaig". George Orwell wrote much of the novel "1984" whilst living at Barnhill on Jura and J.M. Barrie wrote a screenplay for the 1924 film adaptation of "Peter Pan" whilst on Eilean Shona. Cressida Cowell, the author of "How to Train Your Dragon", spent childhood summers in the Inner Hebrides and has stated that they are "one of the most beautiful places on Earth" and "the kind of place where you expect to see dragons overhead".
Ron MacLean
MacLean was born in Zweibrücken, West Germany, at the Zweibrücken Air Base where his father was an officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force and was stationed at the nearby Metz-Frescaty Air Base in Metz, France. Ron MacLean Sr., born in Sydney, Nova Scotia, on May 4, 1922, married Lila MacDonald, from Iona, Nova Scotia, in July 1959. MacLean Sr. worked as a communications operator at Station Edmonton, while MacDonald was an airwoman/clerk stationed at RCAF Station Namao, just outside Edmonton. Fourteen months after MacLean's birth, the family moved back to Canada, initially settling in Chester, Nova Scotia. MacLean was four years old when his dad was stationed in Whitehorse, Yukon, with the Royal Canadian Air Force before relocating eventually in Red Deer, Alberta.