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".
George P. McLean
McLean was born in Simsbury, Connecticut, one of five children of Dudley B. McLean and Mary (Payne) McLean. His sister Sarah Pratt McLean Greene became a novelist. McLean attended the common schools in Simsbury. At the age of fifteen he entered Hartford High School, traveling to school each day on the train. He graduated in 1876. Upon graduation he took a job as a reporter for the Hartford Evening Post. Leaving the paper in 1879, he entered the Hartford law office of Henry C. Robinson and trained as a lawyer in that office. He remained there eight years, combining his apprenticeship with Robinson with a part-time job in financial management at Trinity College in Hartford. During this time he passed the law exam and was admitted to the bar.