 | On The Crofter's Trail | | David Craig | In the Clearances of the 19th century, crofts – once the mainstay of Highland life in Scotland – were swept away as the land was put over to sheep grazing. Many of the people of the Highlands and islands of Scotland were forced from their homes by landowners in the Clearances. Some fled to Nova Scotia and beyond. David Craig sets out to discover how many of their stories survive in the memories of their descendants. He travels through 21 islands in Scotland and Canada, many thousands of miles of moor and glen, and presents the words of men and women of both countries as they recount the suffering of their forbears.
| | Pages: 384 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Scottish Place-Names | | David Dorward | David Dorward’s book on Scottish place-names is a fascinating volume that offers insight and intrigue into the myriad of wonderful place-names found across Scotland. Much more than simply a dictionary of place-names, Dorward makes the subject accessible to the general reader, with explanations of hundreds of names that are clear and concise, and often witty.With many parts of names tracing their roots back to their Celtic, Gaelic or Old English origins, it presents an opportunity for readers to unravel for themselves the meanings of hundreds of local area and landscape names - leading them into fascinating by - ways that anyone who looks up one name will be irresistibly led to explore more deeply.
| | Pages: 336 | | Price: $24.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Whose Turn For The Stairs? | | Robert Douglas | | Glasgow 1949: 18 Dalbeattie Street, Maryhill, is a typical tenement close. The residents of the twelve flats, with one exception, are a tight-knit community. Watching over everyone is the matriarch - Granny Thompson. Their world is not perfect: there is poverty, bigotry, heartbreak and lies. But there is a great strength of spirit aided and abetted by the residents' tears of laughter. This is the story of Glasgow in the 40's and 50's. | | Pages: 407 | | Price: $24.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Our Glasgow Memories Of Life In Disappearing Britain | | Piers Dudgeon | | This oral history of Glasgow spans most of the last century - a time of economic downturn and eventual renewal, in which the many communities making up the city experienced upheavals that tore some apart and brought others closer together. It tells of the beating heart of no mean city in the words of the people who made it what it is. Piers Dudgeon has listened to dozens of people who remember the city as it was, and who have lived through its many changes. They talk of childhood and education, of work and entertainment, of family, community values, health, politics, religion and music. Their stories will make you laugh and cry. It is people's own memories that make history real and this engrossing book captures them vividly. | | Pages: 376 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Scottish Battles | | John Sadler | Scottish history has been shaped and defined by a series of great battles. John Sadler gives the first full military history of Scotland for many years. From Mons Graupius to Culloden, he shows how terrain and politics shaped the campaigns and decisive engagements we still remember today. Each chapter also features sections on the development of warfare – its tactics, equipment and styles of fighting.
| | Pages: 256 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Ah Couldnae Believe Ma Ears! | | Allan Morrison | | 'She always had high hopes for him. Did he manage to graduate after his resits?' 'Him?! He's thick. Would be as useless as a lifeguard in a carwash.' This is a classic collection of the best humour that Scotland has to offer - off-the-cuff and straight from the street. Packed full of wit and verbal gags, you won't even believe most of them. Bestselling author Allan Morrison has spent months surreptitiously eavesdropping and collating over 500 of the best one-liners to produce this incredible collection | | Pages: 182 | | Price: $19.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Black Watch | | John Parker | | The Black Watch is one of the finest fighting forces in the world and has been engaged in virtually every worldwide conflict for the last three centuries. Named after the dark tartan of the soldiers' kilts, its unique formation - raised from loyal Scottish clans in the wake of the 1715 Jacobite rebellion - make it the oldest Highland regiment. As part of the British army, their first battle abroad was in Flanders in 1745 but the regiment soon moved to North America to fight the French, and then shared the capture of Montreal, the Windward Islands and Martinique. The American War of Independence saw the regiment once again in America, fighting horrific battles and eventually storming Fort Washington in 1776. Since then the regiment has held its own from Egypt to the Napoleonic Wars, from the Crimea to the Indian mutiny, from both World Wars to Iraq. The Black Watch is the UK's most decorated regiment, combining the proud history and tradition of an organisation that has been soldiering for over 250 years. | | Pages: 470 | | Price: $24.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | There Was A Soldier | | Angus Konstam | | For hundreds of years, the Scottish soldier has been recording his experiences. From the War of the Spanish Succession until the deployment of regiments in Iraq, Scottish soldiers have written home with tales of their exploits, or had details of their experiences published in newspapers, regimental histories and books. The result is a wealth of primary information, telling the story of the Scottish soldiers who fought in Europe, America, Africa, India and the Far East. Included in the collection are letters, lyrics of songs and poems composed by the soldiers themselves, highland anecdotes, extracts from official reports, and even typescripts of interviews. This is the gritty, real-life story of the Scottish soldier, told in his own words. | | Pages: 343 | | Price: $24.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Faded Map: The Lost Kingdoms of Scotland | | Alistair Moffat | Modern communications have driven motorways and pylons through the countryside, dwarfed us with TV and telephone masts and drastically altered the way in which we move around, see and understand Scotland. Recent politics and logistics have established borders and jurisdictions which now seem permanent and impervious. The Faded Map looks beyond these to remember a land that was once quiet and green. It brings to vivid life the half-forgotten kings and kingdoms of two thousand years ago, of the time of the Romans, the Dark Ages and into the early medieval period * Please note Stock due late September 2010.
| | Pages: 352 | | Price: $39.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Iron Road: The Railway in Scotland | | P.J.G. Ransom | Iron Road is a comprehensive and authoritative history of the Scottish railways told in a single volume. A pleasure for any railway enthusiast, this book also reaches out to new audiences, exploring technical details as well as social and cultural aspects of the industry, drawing together a vast amount of carefully researched material into a single accessible work. *Stock due late September 2010.
| | Pages: 336 | | Price: $59.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Taxi!: Never a Dull Day. A Cabbie Remembers | | Douglas J. Findlay | Douglas Findlay takes a trip down memory lane in this hilarious memoir of his time as a cabbie in post-war Edinburgh. Never one to turn down a fare, he encountered an extraordinary range of colourful characters and ended up in the most bizarre situations. Meet Charlie the Gangster, Pedro the Pirate, Jo-Jo, Mr Goldbaum and his Housewives’ Friend, the gin-slinging Lavender Ladies, as well as Dorah Noyce, Edinburgh’s infamous madam, and a representative of the Scottish Republican Army who did all his reconnaissance from the back seat of a black cab. Throw in assorted quack doctors, sailors, murderers and other desperadoes and the result is a Runyonesque romp through the demi-monde that lurks beneath Edinburgh’s genteel façade.
| | Pages: 224 | | Price: $24.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Songs of Gaelic Scotland | | Anne Lorne Gillies | The Hebrides and Gaelic Highlands are one of the world’s great treasure-houses of song. In this new anthology, world-renowned singer Anne Lorne Gillies has gathered together 175 of her favourite Gaelic songs. As well as a general introduction to the Gaelic musical and poetic tradition, she includes notes on the background of each song plus full references to other sources, notes on the technical aspects of the music, and a full discography.
| | Pages: 592 | | Price: $59.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Blood on the Wave: Scotland's Sea Battles | | John Sadler | In Blood on the Wave, John Sadler embarks on a pilgrimage around Scotland’s rugged and stunning coastline, to explore the fascinating history that has occurred in its waters. Beautifully illustrated throughout with photographs and line drawings, the narrative also describes developments in ship building technique and design, developments in naval gunnery with a look at coastal defences.
| | Pages: 384 | | Price: $59.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Wallace Book | | Edward J. Cowan | For 700 years William Wallace has been revered as the consummate, incomparable Scottish hero. The man of humble origin came to the fore in his country’s hour of need, defending his homeland against the tyranny of Edward I of England. Through his personality, ingenuity and ability, he initiated a resistance movement which ultimately secured the nation’s freedom and independence. Yet Wallace was reviled, opposed and eventually betrayed by the nobility in his own day to re-surface in the epic poetry of the fifteenth century as a champion and liberator. Eventually his legend overtook the historical reality, a process which has continued for centuries as manifested in modern media and film.
| | Pages: 272 | | Price: $49.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Driftwood and Tangle | | Margaret Leigh | A moving and poignant memoir of life in the north-west of Scotland just after the outbreak of the Second World War. Margaret Leigh recounts the years she spent in Wester Ross, Moidart, Coigeach and Barra as a crofter, an activity which enabled her to experience the land in all its moods and capture the essence of this remote and beautiful part of Scotland in finely crafted prose.
| | Pages: 224 | | Price: $27.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Tracing Your Scottish Ancestors: The Official Guide 5th Edition | | National Archives Of Scotland | | This is a new edition of the bestselling guide to this increasingly popular pursuit. Scotland has the best-maintained records and facilities of any country in the world for undertaking family research, and now that the National Archives of Scotland are available online they can be consulted by anyone from whatever country. Tracing Your Scottish Ancestors is the National Archives' official guide and is written in an accessible style from the unique perspective of a custodian of the records. It details all the latest internet developments, including a chapter on family history on the web. It also points to more traditional resources, explaining step by step how to research records of births, marriages and wills. | | Pages: 242 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Lords of the Isles | | Raymond Campbell Paterson | Tracing its origins back to the great Somerled, Raymond Campbell Paterson charts the steady ascent of Clan Donald to the zenith of its power in the fifteenth century, when the Lords of the Isles controlled much of the Hebrides, as well as extensive parts of the mainland, including the vast earldom of Ross. So powerful had the clan become that it was even able to challenge the authority of the Scottish Crown at the Battles of Harlaw and Inverlochy and plan to partition Scotland with Edward IV of England.
| | Pages: 245 | | Price: $24.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Highland Bagpipe and Its Music | | Roderick D. Cannon | This is a new edition of Cannon’s classic work, of Scotland’s most famous instrument. Trace the the history and music of the pipes from early times to present; including Ceol Mor and Coel Beog, Piobaireached, competion and dance music and more.The eminently readable text will be of interest not only to pipers but to all those music lovers world wide who are intrigued to know more about the character and extraordinary history of the legendary pipes.
| | Pages: 205 | | Price: $34.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Lost Edinburgh | | Hamish Coghill | Edinburgh attracted some of the world’s greatest architects to design and build and shape a unique city. But over the centuries many of those fine buildings have gone. The buildings which stood in the way of what was deemed progress are the heritage of Lost Edinburgh. Hamish Coghill sets out to trace many of the lost buildings and find out why they were doomed. Lavishly illustrated, Lost Edinburgh is a fascinating insight into an ever-changing cityscape.
| | Pages: 260 | | Price: $34.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Hidden Glasgow | | Carol Foreman | From the golden merchant ship on top of the Merchant’s House, through the abandoned Britannia Panopticon Music Hall in Argyle Street, from the schoolroom in the attic of Trades House to the Lock Hospital for ’dangerous women’, Carol Foreman takes us through the Glasgow we walk through every day and makes us see it with a different eye. From the top of the Tolbooth steeple to the many tunnels and preserved buildings under the ground, she reveals the essence of a great city in all its dimensions and brings to life a Glasgow both hidden and forgotten.
| | Pages: 168 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Stone of Destiny | | Ian Hamilton | Now a major Hollywood film starring Robert Carlyle and Billy Boyd. Ian Robertson Hamilton was an unknown law student at Glasgow University until Christmas Eve 1950. On that night, assisted by Alan Stewart, Gavin Vernon and Kay Matheson, he took the Stone of Destiny from beneath the Coronation Chair in Westminster Abbey and in doing so became a Scottish national hero. In England, however, the act had the opposite effect and a manhunt for the ‘vulgar vandals’ was started to satisfy the outrage of the English establishment and bring them to justice. In this book,Hamilton has set down the chain of events which led to his decision to go to London, remove the Stone and a minute-by-minute account of the act and the aftermath.
| | Pages: 224 | | Price: $24.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Scottish Golf Guide | | David Hamilton | Scotland gave golf to the world. With more golf courses per head than any other country, it is still a golfer’s paradise. They range from remote honesty box clubs to superb Open Championship courses and the busy clubs of the towns. Scotland’s strength is the vast range of enjoyable and historic courses throughout the land which welcome visitors, be they players of professional standard or recreational golfers who play only for the love of the game. This vastly popular guide covers the history of Scottish golf, its best courses, and gives helpful information and advice about all aspects of play in the home of golf. Foreward by Sir Sean Connery.
| | Pages: 224 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Crimespotting | | Various | | All the short stories are brand new, specially commissioned for Crimespotting. The authors were asked for a story which features a crime and is set in Edinburgh. The results range from hard-boiled police procedural to historical whodunit and from the wildly comic to the spookily supernatural. Writers include:Irvine Welsh, Margaret Atwood, Ian Rankin , Alexander McCall Smith, ' et al. | | Pages: 223 | | Price: $19.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Warriors of the Word | | Michael Newton | | Words have always held great power in the Gaelic traditions of the Scottish Highlands: bardic poems bought immortality for their subjects; satires threatened to ruin reputations and cause physical injury; clan sagas recounted family origins and struggles for power; incantations invoked blessings and curses.This book offers a broad overview of Scottish Highland culture and history, bringing together rare and previously untranslated primary texts from scattered and obscure sources. Poetry, songs, tales, and proverbs, supplemented by the accounts of insiders and travelers, illuminate traditional ways of life, exploring such topics as folklore, music, dance, literature, social organization, supernatural beliefs, human ecology, ethnic identity, and the role of language. This range of materials allows Scottish Gaeldom to be described on its own terms and to demonstrate its vitality and wealth of renewable cultural resources. This is an essential compendium all enthusiasts of Scottish culture. | | Pages: 448 | | Price: $62.00 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The People's Army: The Home Guard in Scotland 1940-1944 | | Brian D. Osborne | Based on contemporary archive materials and personal accounts, looking at the human story of the Home Guard in Scotland and the impact that this remarkable organisation had on society and on those that became involved with it. The Home Guard, and its forerunner the Local Defence Volunteers, was genuinely a ‘people’s army’ with its own ethos, character and political influence. At its peak nearly 2 million men were enrolled, trained and served without pay in their own time and, usually, after a full day’s work at the civilian occupation. The Home Guard played a vital part in the defence of the country from 1940-1944, but despite its significance the story of the Home Guard in Scotland has never before been fully told.
| | Pages: 224 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Tales and Tradition of the Lews | | Donald MacDonald | After his retirement from a career in medicine, Donald Macdonald turned his acute and wide-ranging mind to the study of the history and traditions of his native Lewis. Despite suffering from severe osteoarthritis, he was extremely active in the social and cultural life of the island, and contributed numerous articles to the Stornoway Gazette. However, much of his collection of tales, legends and history remained in private circulation until after his death in 1961, when his wife Emily arranged for the publication of this volume. To read through or simply to dip into this collection is a fascinating experience for anyone who loves Scotland and her islands.
| | Pages: 273 | | Price: $24.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | An Accidental Tragedy: The Life of Mary, Queen of Scots | | Roderick Graham | Based on contemporary documents and histories, Graham paints a unique picture of Mary that sees her neither as a Catholic martyr, nor as a husband-murdering adulteress, but as a young girl adrift in the dangerous seas of sixteenth century politics. Mary Stuart had none of the ruthlessness of her contemporary sisters, and the female empowerment of Catherine de Medici, Diane de Poitiers or Elizabeth Tudor passed her by. In an age of intellectually brilliant and powerful women, Mary relied on her beauty and charm in place of reason and determination. Passively and gracefully, she allowed events to overtake her as accidents and when she did attempt to control her future she unwittingly set in train the events that would lead her to the executioner’s block.
| | Pages: 480 | | Price: $32.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Soap Man: Lewis, Harris and Lord Leverhulme | | Roger Hutchinson | In 1918, as the First World War was drawing to a close, the eminent liberal industrial Lord Leverhulme bought – lock, stock and barrel – the Hebridean island of Lewis. His intention was to revolutionise the lives and environments of its 30,000 people, and those of neighbouring Harris, which he shortly added to his estate. For the next five years a state of conflict reigned in the Hebrides. Island seamen and servicemen returned from the war to discover a new landlord whose declared aim was to uproot their identity as independent crofter/fishermen and turn them into tenured wage-owners. They fought back, and this is the story of that fight.
| | Pages: 256 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Flawed Genius: Scottish Football's Self Destructive Mavericks | | Stephen McGowan | As Rangers manager Walter Smith once put it, Scottish football supporters have always liked their footballing superstars to come complete with very human flaws. But what is it that makes the seriously flawed footballer so intriguing? From Hugh Gallacher, the Wembley Wizard who died of shame, to George Best, Hibernian’s ageing lothario, to the Three Amigos – Celtic’s trio of wayward overseas mercenaries – the great entertainers have always come with baggage. Never before have the individual stories of these mavericks of Scottish football’s past been collated and told in one place.
| | Pages: 256 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Beatles in Scotland | | Ken McNab | The Fab Four: George, John Paul and Ringo, a quartet of working-class kids whose magical songs and revolutionary influence still inspires four decades on. This book follows The Beatles as rough and ready unknowns on their first tour of Scotland in 1960 and again, in 1964, as allconquering heroes. He also discovers that the momentous decision to break up the band was made in Scotland. The personal association to Scotland is highlighted too with details on the McCartneys’ lives in Mull of Kintyre and Lennon’s childhood holidays in Durness. With these new and previously unheard stories, The Beatles in Scotland will appeal to any Beatles fan. It’s a fantastic celebration and a uniquely Scottish magical mystery tour.
| | Pages: 328 | | Price: $59.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Briggers: The Story of the Men who Built the Forth Bridge | | Elspeth Wills | The Forth Bridge has long been recognised as one of the finest examples of Victorian engineering on the planet and has achieved an iconic status as one of the great feats of western civilisation since its official opening in 1890. In this groundbreaking new work, Elspeth Wills gives a voice to the forgotten heroes who helped to make the ambition of the Bridge a reality.
| | Pages: 144 | | Price: $49.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Great Balls of Fire: A Year of Scottish Festivals | | Gary Sutherland | Old habits die hard in Scotland. During the calendar year, in all corners of the country from Shetland to the Borders, communities are getting up to all sorts of capers in the name of tradition. You’ll happen across the strangest activities if you search hard enough. There’s far more to Scotland than Burns’ Night. Gary Sutherland’s brave year of living ceremoniously results in this custom-made guide to Scotland. An hilarious and insightful journey around Scotland’s most bizarre and fantastic festivals that should not be missed.
| | Pages: 224 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Tales and Travels of a School Inspector | | John Wilson | John Wilson was an Inspector of Schools during the latter half of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth. His career in education spanned fifty years, during which time he inspected many schools in the Highlands and Islands, including Jura, Islay, Orkney, Argyll, Heisker and Iona. First published in 1928, the personal account of his experiences is both compassionate and humorous, providing a valuable insight into the social and educational conditions in the Gaelic Highlands and Islands following the 1872 Education Act.
| | Pages: 220 | | Price: $22.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Clap Hands for the Singing Molecatcher: Scenes from a Scottish Childhood | | Roderick Grant | A splendid account of the writer’s childhood on a remote country estate in Morayshire in the 1940s and 1950s; a place where isolated hill farms, limitless moorland and the rock-strewn banks of wild, tumbling rivers became the backdrop for a variety of adventures and experiences. Laughter, tragedy and dramatic incident thread their way through the life of a growing boy and the lives of the people he observes.
| | Pages: 168 | | Price: $24.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Gaelic Dictionary: Gaelic-English, English-Gaelic | | Malcolm MacLennan | | The most practical of dictionaries--Gaelic to English and English to Gaelic--in a single volume. Includes detailed coverage of etymology and pronunciation and makes a unique contribution to Gaelic culture. | | Pages: 613 | | Price: $48.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Tartan Airforce: Scotland and a Century of Military Aviation 1907-2007 | | Deborah Lake | | Britain's first flying machine was trailed in Perthshire in 1907 and ever since - whether at war or in peacetime - Scotland has been in the frontline of British military aviation. In Tartan Air Force , Deborah Lake investigates Scotland's contribution to military flying over the last hundred years. With a wealth of previously unpublished or little-known accounts from air and ground crew, fliers and non-fliers, this is a comprehensive and entertaining tribute which emphasises the human aspect of Scotland's part in the history. From the Second World War, when many famous missions, including those against the great German battleship Tirpitz, were undertaken from Scottish airfields, to the importance of its RAF air bases and radar stations in asserting the Soviet threat during the Cold War and beyond, Scotland has played its part in protecting the skies. | | Pages: 272 | | Price: $30.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Truth Tells Twice: The Life of a Buchan Farm | | Charlie Allan | This is an affectionate and humorous look at the life of the small North-East farmer through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It is full of folk wisdom and anecdotes from the people who made that farming community the prosperous thing it became from Nature’s rather meagre bounty.
| | Pages: 240 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | A Natural History of St. Kilda | | David Hamilton | | In 1697 Martin Martin, a Gaelic-speaking scholar from Skye, travelled to St Kilda to study the island’s flora and fauna and to learn about the now extinct great auk. Much of the information that he gathered during this expedition was relayed to him by the islanders. Naturalists from Martin down to Robert Atkinson in 1938, not only witnessed the people’s way of life but also the wildlife around them, both priceless assets that have recently won for St Kilda dual World Heritage Site status. | | Pages: 320 | | Price: $59.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Farmer's Boy | | John R. Allan , Douglas Percy Bliss | John R. Allan was brought up on a farm in Aberdeenshire at the beginning of the century. Through his child’s eye we are allowed a view of the little world called Dungair, with its extended family of colourful characters – among them the Old Man, Uncle Sandy, Captain Blades and Cuddy Manson. We are given a vivid, yet unsentimental account of the boy’s explorations of his surroundings, his early schooldays, his first visit to the town and his awareness of the outbreak of the Great War. New material continues John Allan’s life story.
| | Pages: 224 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Accies: The Cradle of Scottish Rugby | | David Barnes | | The Edinburgh Academical Football Club is the oldest rugby club in Britain and the second oldest in the world. From its earliest days the club and its members have played a central role in most of the key developments in the game of rugby football. This book describes the history of Edinburgh Accies | | Pages: 240 | | Price: $75.00 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Harris: In History and Legend | | Bill Lawson | Occupying the southernmost part of the largest of the Western Isles, Harris boasts some of the most ruggedly beautiful and unspoilt landscape in Scotland. It is also extremely rich in archaeological remains, from the Neolithic Clach MhicLeoid (MacLeod’s Stone) on the wild headland of Aird Nisabost, to the exquisite sixteenth-century St Clement’s Church at Rodel. This book introduces the reader to the events that have shaped the island’s history and also dips into the local legends, traditions and tales.
| | Pages: 240 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Just Daft: Chris Murray - Comic Genius | | Robbie Grigor , Annabelle Meredith | Just Daft is the story of one of Scotland’s greatest comedians, from his birth in Greenock in 1919, charting his rise through his amateur beginnings in the 1930s, all the way to his 1956 performance in the Royal Variety Show at the London Palladium and his appearances in films such as Casino Royale (1967), Gregory’s Girl (1980) and You’ll Never Walk Alone (1984).
| | Pages: | | Price: $59.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Guga Hunters | | Donald Murray | Every year, ten men from Ness, at the northern tip of the Isle of Lewis, sail north-west for some forty miles to a remote rock called Sulasgeir. Their mission is to catch and harvest the guga; the almost fully grown gannet chicks nesting on the two hundred foot high cliffs that circle the tiny island, which is barely half a mile long. After spending a fortnight in the arduous conditions that often prevail there, they return home with around two thousand of the birds, pickled and salted and ready for the tables of Nessmen and women both at home and abroad.
| | Pages: | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Long Horizon | | Iain R. Thomson | Much more than simply the chronicle of a life spent farming in the Scottish Highlands, The Long Horizon is also a wonderful collection of stories, both factual and fictional, which reflect the changes that have revolutionised Highland life and dramatically affected the natural environment over the centuries. Throughout the book shines the writer’s deep love of the countryside and a respect for the generations before him who have carved their living from the harsh environment of the Highlands.
| | Pages: 254 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Being a Scot | | Sean Connery | | 'My first big break came when I was five years old. It's taken me more than seventy years to realise that. You see, at five I first learnt to read. It's that simple and it's that profound. I left school at thirteen. I didn't have a formal education... It has been a long return journey from my two-room Fountainbridge home in the smoky industrial end of Edinburgh opposite the McCowans' toffee factory. There was no bathroom with a communal toilet outside. For years we had only gas lighting. Sometimes the light in the shared stairway would be out after some desperado had broken the mantle to bubble gas through milk for kicks.' Although he is an indubitably international superstar, Sir Sean Connery still knows the city of Edinburgh practically street by street from delivering the morning milk as a schoolboy. His round included Fettes College, where Ian Fleming had sent his fictional James Bond after he was expelled from Eton. Being A Scot is a vivid and highly personal portrait of Scotland. Connery offers a correction to misconceptions that many believe are part of the historical record whilst revealing as never before his own vibrant personal history. | | Pages: 312 | | Price: $44.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Caledonication A History Of Scotland, With Jokes | | John K. V. Eunson | So, you thought you knew everything you needed to about Scotland and its chequered history? Well, think again. Did you know that tobacco made up half of Scotland's exports in the eighteenth century? Did you know that JM Barrie created the name 'Wendy' for his play Peter Pan in 1904, meaning that there are no Wendys over the age of 104...? Did you know that The Beatles played at Dingwall Town Hall in 1963? See?
John KV Eunson leads us through the history of the Scots in this accurate but none-too-heavy look at the great country. On a journey of almost breakneck speed full of chuckles, we still have enough time to stop and smell the heather, taste the fudge and feel the ghosties.
| | Pages: 320 | | Price: $22.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Journey to the Edge of the World | | Billy Connolly | In the summer of 2008 Billy Connolly sets sail on a ten-week journey from ocean to ocean: from the Atlantic to the Pacific, by way of the North West Passage - a fabled route deep within the Arctic Circle that has thwarted explorers and fortune-hunters for centuries. For other adventurers, the North West Passage has been an alluring but impossible journey, a trial of unparalleled physical and mental strength, a haunting and fascinating wilderness. Now the Arctic is melting at a rate of 36,000 square miles a year and the journey is finally possible. For the first time, if you're quick, you can sail freely, if precariously, from Newfoundland right round to Vancouver. By plane, rail, road and boat, along coastlines and across sweeping landscapes that represent the final Northern frontier of the inhabited world for both man and beast, Billy's adventure will embrace a memorable mix of bizarre encounters, Hemingway-esque characters, incredible wildlife, forgotten languages, big game hunting and all night carousing under the midnight sun. And he's taking us with him
| | Pages: | | Price: $49.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Tartan Pimpernel | | Donald Caskie | This is the remarkable story of Donald Caskie, minister of the Scots Kirk in Paris at the time of the German invasion of France in 1940. Although he had several opportunities to flee, Caskie stayed behind to help establish a network of safe houses and escape routes for Allied soldiers and airmen trapped in occupied territory. Despite the constant threat of capture and execution, Caskie showed enormous resourcefulness and courage as he aided thousands of servicemen to freedom.
| | Pages: 288 | | Price: $24.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Edinburgh Companion to the Gaelic Language | | Michelle Macleod/Moray Watson | Bringing together a range of perspectives on the Gaelic language, this book covers the history of the language, its development in Scotland and Canada, its spelling, syntax and morphology, its modern vocabulary, and the study of its dialects. It also addresses sociolinguistic issues such as identity, perception, language planning and the appearance of the language in literature. Each chapter is written by an expert on their topic. The book has been written accessibly with a non-specialist audience in mind. It will have a particular value for those requiring introductions to aspects of the Gaelic language. It will also be of great interest to those who are embarking on research on Gaelic for the first time.
| | Pages: 320 | | Price: $59.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | William Wallace | | Andrew Fisher | Despite Wallace’s almost mythical status – boosted in no small part by the film Braveheart – present-day perceptions of him are not always based on the objective analysis of the historical facts. In this revised and expanded biography, Andrew Fisher investigates all the aspects of Wallace’s life and character, treating him as a man of his time. The result is a more authentic picture of the greatest of Scotland’s heroes than has been previously available.
| | Pages: 305 | | Price: $24.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Island Going | | Robert Atkinson | In 1935, Robert Atkinson and John Ainslie set out on an ornithological search for the rare Leach’s Fork-tailed Petrel. The search took them from to many of the remote islands off the North West coast of Scotland, to an almost inaccessible North Rona and beyond. Robert Atkinson’s account of his twelve year adventure provides a detailed and emotive description of the wildlife and landscape of the Hebridean outlanders. He records the primitive lifestyles of the islanders, their living conditions, traditions and histories. His writing has inspired many of the later accounts of Hebridean travel.
| | Pages: 358 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Hired Lad | | Ian Campbell Thompson | Ian Campbell Thomson relives his time as a young farmworker on a Stirlingshire farm after the Second World War. It is a touching coming-of-age tale: we see the author make new friends and romances while finding his own way in a changing world. He describes the passing of age-old country ways, as technology begins to replace traditional farming methods. The book is dedicated to Donald and Blossom, the magnificent pair of Clydesdale horses with which he ploughed, until the sad day when they were replaced by a smart Fordson tractor.
| | Pages: 166 | | Price: $27.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Companion to Scottish History | | George R. Hewitt | This is a fully updated, revised and extended edition of an authoritative and comprehensive survey of Scottish history from the tenth century to the present day. As well as fully referenced entries and suggestions for further reading, there are also key articles on major themes and issues. An easy-to-use reference work that will also satisfy the browser, this is the perfect source for anyone wishing to understand and explore Scottish history.
| | Pages: 383 | | Price: $30.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Glasgow by the Way but | | John Cairney | Actor and author John Cairney takes you on a tour of
his Glasgow, introducing the people and places that
have shaped it. This book is full of the humour and
tension that characterises Scotland's second city, and
includes reflections on subjects as diverse as football,
religion, shipbuilding and the distinctive Glaswegian
dialect. Whether a native or a newcomer, everyone will
find a part of their own Glasgow reflected in Cairney's
honest evocation of his home city.
New paper back version.
| | Pages: 200 | | Price: $27.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Scots in Australia | | Malcolm Prentis | Scots have been ‘invisible’ ethnics but happen to be Australia’s third largest immigrant group. The Scots in Australia is a long overdue and comprehensive history of Scottish immigrants – including convicts and free settlers – and their descendants in Australia from 1788 to the present. Combining anecdote, biography and straightforward history, author Malcolm Prentis reevaluates commonly held assumptions and myths from both ends of the migration process. Malcolm Prentis shows that the Scots have had an influence in Australia disproportionate to their numbers. The Scots in Australia powerfully demonstrates the countless ways in which the Scots and their descendants have shaped and been shaped by Australia.
| | Pages: 352 | | Price: $39.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Reivers: The Story of the Border Reivers | | Alistair Moffat | Only one period in history is immediately, indelibly and uniquely linked to the whole area of the Scottish and English Border country, and that is the time of the Reivers. Whenever anyone mentions ‘Reiver’, no-one hesitates to add ‘Border’. It is an inextricable association, and rightly so. Nowhere else in Britain in the modern era, or indeed in Europe, did civil order break down over such a wide area, or for such a long time. This book tells the remarkable story of the Reivers and how they made the Borders.
| | Pages: 272 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Country Life in Scotland: Our Rural Past | | Alexander Fenton | Country Life in Scotland is the updated version of Scottish Country Life – the classic account of rural life in Scotland – by Professor Alexander Fenton provides a vivid picture of the way in which the countryside has changed over the past 300 years and the people who changed with it; their ways of working, their tools and equipment, their homes and way of life, and their food. It is a treasurehouse of factual material on rural life as it was lived in the Lowlands and in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland in the past.
| | Pages: 200 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Scottish Gaelic in Twelve Weeks | | Roibeard O Maolalaigh , Iain MacAonghuis | This book has been written both as a self-tuition course for beginners and also for use within the classroom. You may want to learn Gaelic because of a general interest in Celtic or Scottish history and culture, or because it was the everyday language of your ancestors. Each lesson in the book contains some essential points of grammar explained and illustrated, exercises, a list of new vocabulary, and an item of conversation.
| | Pages: 240 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Strathalder: A Highland Estate | | Roderick Grant | A passionate evocation of a vanishing way of life in the Scottish Highlands, Strathalder, when first published in hardcover, achieved critical acclaim both in Britain and the USA. Based on hundreds of interviews with gardeners, gamekeepers, maids, governesses, lairds, chauffeurs, cooks and housekeepers, it is a portrait of the Scottish country estate in its heyday in the 1920s and as it is today.
| | Pages: 158 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Fringe of Gold: The Fife Anthology | | Tom Hubbard (ed.), Duncan Glen (ed.), | This is the first ever anthology of writing about Fife, a part of Scotland with an immensely rich tradition of history and literature. It gathers together all of the great characters of Scottish history who have acted out their dramas within the famous Kingdom of Fife. All walks of life are represented here—the whalers of Kirkcaldy and the miners of Lindsay Colliery; ambulance men and Hammermen; witches and magicians; golfers and distillers.
| | Pages: 208 | | Price: $39.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Tales from an Island: The Christina Hall Omnibus | | Christina Hall | In Tales from an Island Christina Hall writes with sharp observation about her childhood on the Hebridean island of South Uist in the 1940s and 50s. Beginning with her earliest memories, the book recounts her life up to the end of secondary school and is set in Uist, Benbecula, Barra and Fort William. Twice around the Bay follows Christina Hall’s story during her time at teacher training college in Glasgow and her return to the Hebrides, where she became the primary school teacher at South Glendale on her native island of South Uist. It is a story full of vibrancy, life and colourful Hebridean characters which recaptures with crystal clarity the joys and hardships of island life in the late 1950s and 1960s.
| | Pages: 364 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | MacLean's Whiskypedia | | Charles MacLean | Individual distilleries give their whiskies unique characteristics. These characteristics do not arise magically (as was once thought), nor are they the result of terroir or region (as is still thought, by some). They have their roots in the craft and custom of the distillery and of the district in which it is located, but the key influences upon flavour are the distilling equipment itself, how it is operated and how the spirit is matured. For the first time, MacLean’s Whiskypedia explores the flavour and character of every malt whisky distilled in Scotland with reference how it is made.
| | Pages: 240 | | Price: $39.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | On the Milk | | Willie Robertson | | Coming of age story from Dundee in the 1960's. As a 14-year-old bursting with energy & life, Willie lied about his age to get a job on the milk truck. Well, maturity was called for. Delivering milk may not be everyone's idea of a glamorous start to your working life but it came to represent far more than Willie & his best friend Gordon could possibly imagine. Alll the camaraderie, harshness, optimism and innocence of their journey into manhood captured on the back of a five-ton truck. | | Pages: 310 | | Price: $44.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Taste Ye Back Great Scots And The Food That Made Them | | Sue Lawrence | Sue Lawrence has interviewed 70 prominent Scots and unlocked their beloved memories of food and what it was like for them growing up. She talks to diverse public figures such as Ewan McGregor, Gordon Brown and Andy Murray about their families, their home and their relationship with food.
With recipes including, Gordon Ramsay's Porridge, Kirsty Young's Lentil and Ham Hock Soup, Lorraine Kelly's Scallops with Black Pudding and Buster Peas, Andy Murray's Shepherd's Pie, Ewan McGregor's Bread and Butter Pudding and Alexander McCall Smith's Buttieries, you'll want to rush straight back into the kitchen and cook it how Mum used to make it. Nigella Lawson calls it "a wonderful collection of childhood memories in food." | | Pages: 224 | | Price: $64.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Declaration of Arbroath: For Freedom Alone | | Edward J. Cowan | | The Declaration of Arbroath is one of the most remarkable documents to have been produced anywhere in medieval Europe. This informative and accessable book is a full length study to examine the origins of the declaration, while tracing its role as a legendary icon in Scotland and exploring its impact upon America. | | Pages: 180 | | Price: $24.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Lewis in History and Legend: The West Coast | | Bill Lawson | Throughout the centuries the people of Lewis have taken their living from the land and the surrounding seas, and these elements, together with the climate of the island, have determined their history far more than the vicissitudes of its ownership. Bill Lawson excels in charting the history of the people themselves, weaving his way through the centuries with stories drawn from documented sources, oral tradition, Gaelic song, and from his own experiences of many years travelling around the island.
| | Pages: 224 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The New History of Orkney | | William P.L. Thompson | | For much of its history, Orkney existed as one of Europe’s sub-nations, with its own language, culture and institutions. The prehistoric inhabitants produced monuments which are unmatched anywhere in Europe, and the medieval period saw the magnificent earldom that expressed itself through the Orkneyinga Saga and the building of St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall. More recent times have seen the use of Orkney as a strategic stronghold during two world wars, and the far-reaching impact of oil and gas exploitation in the North Sea. It is an enthralling story, masterfully summarised and retold, and of interest to readers far beyond the rocky shores of Orkney itself. | | Pages: 544 | | Price: $45.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Folk Tales of Scotland: The Well at World's End and Other Stories | | Norah/William Montgomerie | The classic folk tales of Scotland were passed down from storyteller to storyteller, and from the first sentence they were designed to hold the attention of the listener or reader as though a spell had been cast over them, transporting them to a magical realm where mermaids and men, selkies and sailors, ogres and princesses mingle and are miraculously transformed. The Montgomeries, distinguished folklorists, gathered traditional stories from all parts of Scotland. Their collection, first published in 1956, became a classic of the storytelling tradition, with the stories retold in a simple, dramatic style, appealing to adult and child alike. Now republished in a handsome gift edition and illustrated with Norah Montgomerie’s own original drawings, it is a book to be treasured for years as the key to an enchanted, timeless world.
| | Pages: 272 | | Price: $39.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | McLevy: The Edinburgh Detective | | James McLevy | Edinburgh has provided the backdrop to stories of detection for almost a century and a half. In the 1860s, a few years before Conan Doyle began his medical studies at Edinburgh University, there appeared a hugely popular series of books with titles including Curiosities of Crime in Edinburgh, The Sliding Scale of Life and The Disclosures of a Detective. They were all the work of one James McLevy, an Edinburgh policeman. Now largely forgotten, McLevy was one of the first exponents of the crime genre and a likely influence on the creator of Sherlock Holmes.
| | Pages: 208 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Back O' the Hill: Highland Yesterdays | | John G. Gibson | This book is a blend of memories of a boyhood spent, just after the war, at Craigag, the earl of Morton’s Victorian shooting lodge near Glenfinnan, and a study of the history of that small once-Gaelic place. It is written from the point of view of some scholarship, and from the point of view of someone whose historical and ethnographic research work has been done mostly from Judique in Cape Breton.
| | Pages: 288 | | Price: $45.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | A Croft in the Hills | | Katharine Stewart | A real classic among Highland books, A Croft in the Hills captures, in simple, moving descriptions, what it was really like trying to make a living out of a hill croft fifty years ago. A couple and their young daughter, fresh from city life, immerse themselves in the practicalities of looking after sheep, cattle and hens, mending fences, baking bread and surviving the worst that Scottish winters can throw at them.
| | Pages: 192 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Everyday Gaelic | | Morag MacNeil | Everyday Gaelic has been compiled by an author with many years’ experience in teaching the language to adults and children. In addition to basic words and phrases, it also includes more complex and idiomatic material, all arranged thematically and covering topics such as meeting and greeting, travelling, the weather and eating and drinking. There are also clearly explained sections on grammar and imitated pronunciation for all Gaelic words and phrases. The result is an accessible and useful book which will be of benefit to all levels and ages of Gaelic learners.
Available as stand alone book for $24.95 or with language leaner CD included for $40.00. | | Pages: 138 | | Price: $24.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Scottish Graveyard Miscellany: The Folk Art of Scotland's Graves | | Hamish M. Brown | Hamish Brown explores in words and extraordinary pictures the folk art of Scottish graveyards from the eighteenth century to the present day. Each old kirkyard is a riotous celebration of folk art. The graves are a collection of pages in stone taken from the history of Scottish everyday life. Scotland’s kirkyards are not gloomy places to be shunned, but places to find vivid stories from the lives of people, without distinction of class or creed.
| | Pages: 160 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Wild Land: A Photographic Journey Through the Cairngorms | | Peter Cairns | The diverse habitats in the Cairngorms are home to an unrivalled variety of wildlife, including the Golden Eagle, Osprey, Pine Marten, Red Deer, Red Fox and Mountain Hare. Wildlife and landscape photographers Peter Cairns and Mark Hamblin have captured the spirit of this special part of the world in a series of evocative images. Although led by stunning wildlife scenes and images of forest, mountain and moorland, this book not only describes the history and management of each species, but also takes a look back at the animals of Scotland’s past and glances into the future of Scottish wildlife.
| | Pages: 144 | | Price: $49.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Doh Ray Me When Ah Wis Wee: Scots Children's Songs and Rhymes | | Ewan McVicar | Doh Ray Me, the first comprehensive account of Scots children’s lyric lore, investigates what has been lost and what has replaced it, looking at the arcane riches of the past as well as the absurd glories of today. There are over 800 Scots lyrics taken from publications and unpublished collections from the 1820s to 2006.
| | Pages: 224 | | Price: $45.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Islay: The Land of the Lordship | | David Caldwell | This hard back book covers the history of Islay up to the present day with a particular focus on the people of the island. Islay was originally part of Dal Riata, the early kingdom of the Scots, but was then colonised by Scandinavian settlers in the middle of the ninth century. It also looks at the lesser folk, especially during the time of the Campbell lairds, from the early 17th century onwards.
| | Pages: 320 | | Price: $89.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | West Highland Tales | | Fitzroy Maclean | | Fitzroy Maclean himself assumes the role of storyteller in this book, with a personal collection of favourite tales from his native land. Ranging from the thousand-year-old tale of ‘Deirdre of the Sorrows’ to tales of brave warriors, treacherous love, and the mischievous or chilling influences of ghosts and spirits, this is an entertaining and evocative collection. | | Pages: 192 | | Price: $23.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Rosslyn | | Andrew Sinclair | | Rosslyn Chapel near Edinburgh have long exerted a powerful magnetism and mystery for people all over the world. This enthralling new book follows the story of Rosslyn over two and a half millenia, exploring the many myths and misinterpretations that have grown up around this extraordinary place offering astonishing insights that change the very history of Scotland. | | Pages: 214 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | To War with the Black Watch | | Gian Gaspare Napolitano | First published in an Italian-language anti-fascist newspaper in Switerland in 1944, this remarkable book tells the story of Lieutenant Pinto, appointed Italian liaison officer to the Scottish Black Watch. Based on the author's own experiences as a Black Watch liaison officer, "To War with the Black Watch" is a sharp, witty and moving insight into Scots-Italian relations in the latter part of the Second World War.
| | Pages: 183 | | Price: $24.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Flying Scotsman: The Graeme Obree Story | | Graeme Obree | This is the amazing story of the cyclist who took on the world and rewrote the record books, a story that has made into a major feature film. On the way to breaking the World hour record, Graeme Obree created major controversy in the professional cycling world over his unique riding style and his pioneering construction techniques. He famously had to use washing machine parts to complete the building of his ‘Old Faithful’ machine.
| | Pages: | | Price: $24.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Edinburgh Literary Companion | | Andrew Lownie | Few cities can boast such a distinguished literary history as Edinburgh. This anthology traces the city's history and charts its literary past and present - a fascinating portrait of a vibrant capital as seen by writers through the centuries.
| | Pages: 184 | | Price: $24.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Gaelic is Fun-tastic | | Colm O Baoill | | This is the perfect way fo rthe beginner to revise and build on basic knowledge of Scottish Gaelic by means of conversation, cartoons and role play. Fun and interesting way to learn the fundamentals of this facinating language. | | Pages: 119 | | Price: $15.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Secret Scroll | | Andrew Sinclair | The Secret Scroll is the story of how a little known
manuscript in a Masonic Lodge in Kirkwall has become
one of the most important historical documents of the
Middle Ages. Although references to this famous order
of military knights rarely appears in standard histories
of the time, a great deal of information about them can
be gleaned from other, more esoteric sources, such as
sculpture and architecture. All of these threads come
together in one extraordinary scroll still in Kirkwall
which reveals in full the secrets of the Knights Templar.
| | Pages: 276 | | Price: $24.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Story of the Sword & Grail | | Andrew Sinclair | Sinclair searches for the understanding of the discovery
of America, but also of the origins of the Freemasons
and their role in world history. Based on stunning new
archaeological evidence, this book details the part
played by the Order of the Knights of the Templar. The
tomb of their St Clair Grand Master, with the Grail
carved on his stone, lies in Rosslyn, the core chapel of
the Masonic movement.
| | Pages: 280 | | Price: $24.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Scottish Forenames | | Donald Whyte |
One of the world's leading authorities on genealogy. Donald Whyte traces the changes in naming patterns over the years, documenting the effects of the Norman Conquest, the Reformation and Royal births on the popularity of forenames in modern times.
| | Pages: 216 | | Price: $19.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Jam and Jeopardy | | Doris Davidson | 89-year-old Scottish spinster, Janet Stouter, takes
pleasure in raking up scandal, old and new, about her
neighbours. She also relishes refusing her two nephews
the money they seek to bolster their businesses. When
a retired glass worker gives her some arsenic to kill the
rats in her garden, she hatches a plan to test them. She
does, however, make sure that her life will be in no
danger. Unfortunately, the old lady spreads word of
her newly acquired poison around the village, thus
laying the seeds of murderous intent in several people.
This is a Scottish whodunnit in the classic style of
Agatha Chrisite.
| | Pages: 280 | | Price: $21.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Robert Bruce: Our Most Valiant Prince, King and Lord | | Colm McNamee | Commemorating the 700th anniversary of the enthronement of Robert I of Scotland, this book is intended as an everyman’s guide to Scotland’s famous hero king. The life of Bruce is one of the greatest comeback stories in history. Heir and magnate, shrewd politician, briefly ‘king of summer’ and then a desperate fugitive who nevertheless returned from exile to recover the kingdom he claimed, Bruce became a gifted military leader and a wise statesman, a leader with vision and energy.
| | Pages: 304 | | Price: $24.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Scots Who Made America | | Richard Wilson | An accessible and intriguing guide to Scottish innovators
who have given their energy and inspiration to improving
the fields of engineering, publishing, politics, literature,
business and medicine in the United States, from the
alleged Scots discovery of America by Scots Nobleman
Henry St Clair in the 14th century, to others, like Sean
Connery, J.M Barrie and Robert Burns, but just as
potent influence on the States, as Wilson illustrates.
| | Pages: 208 | | Price: $24.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Swinging Sporran: A lighthearted Guide to the basic steps of Scottish reels and country dances | | Roddy Martine , Andrew Campbell | Song and dance are at the very centre of any nation’s culture and are said to represent the innermost character of a people. The whirling, dashing and spinning of the classic Scottish reels are no exception. Here, Roddy Martine and Andrew Campell provide a lighthearted guide to the basic steps of Scottish reels and country dances, all broken down into bullet points and illustrated with easy-to-follow diagrams.
| | Pages: 144 | | Price: $18.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Espresso Tales | | Alexander McCall Smith | In Espresso Tales, Alexander McCall Smith returns
home to Edinburgh and the glorious cast of his own
tales of the city, the residents of 44 Scotland Street,
with a new set of challenges for each one of them.
Espresso Tales features further escapades from the
fringes of the New Town. This novel is the second of
a trilogy and gives Scotland Street aficionados a chance
to catch up with the occupants of what must surely be
Edinburgh’s most well-known literary address, and to
meet more of the inhabitants of this unique corner of
the city.
| | Pages: 320 | | Price: $34.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Discover Your Scottish Ancestry | | This is the perfect guide to tracing your Scottish
ancestors. Combining the traditional methods of
researching family history with new methods offered
by information technology and the internet, this book
is an essential resource for those wanting to assemble
their Scottish family tree!
| | Pages: 208 | | Price: $24.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Those Other Times | | Bess Ross | Those Other Times is a powerful and perceptive novel
telling the story of an incomer married into a close-knit
fishing community in northern Scotland. Struggling to
cope with poverty, Cis also has to cope with her complex
relationship with Marjie, her bright and sensitive
daughter. Strongly autobiographical, the story is told
with the warmth and understanding so characteristic of
the author.
| | Pages: 256 | | Price: $22.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Dear Green Place | | Archie Hind | The Dear Green Place is an autobiographical novel
about a working class writer. And the 'dear green place'
is the city of Glasgow in which the writer finds so much
beauty. It is this sensitivity which sets him apart from
his fellows. Working as a clerk, he writes in the evenings
and sometimes at night. The portrayal of both Glasgow
and Matt, the hero, has led to the novel becoming one
of the seminal works of fiction on Glasgow.
| | Pages: 248 | | Price: $22.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Lord of the Isles | | Raymond Campbell Paterson | The story of Clan Donald is one of the most epic in
Scottish history, and their rise in the aftermath of the
reign of Somerled is as extraordinary as their spectacular
fall from grace. All that is left today of the great sea
kingdom of the west is a remnant of land in Sleat and
septs of a once great clan which still remember their
past glory. From early medieval times to the '45 Clan
Donald lay at the heart of Scotland. This is its first
accessible modern history.
| | Pages: 245 | | Price: $35.00 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Sunset Song | | Lewis Grassic Gibbon | Faced with a choice between her harsh farming life and
the seductive but distant world of books and learning,
Chris Guthrie eventually decides to remain in her
Scottish rural community, bound by her intense love
of the land.Scottish rural life is brilliantly
shown. However, the intervention of the First World
War leaves her choice in tatters. Voted best Scottish
book of all time.
| | Pages: 263 | | Price: $16.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | One City | | Alexander McCall Smith, Ian Rankin, JK Rowling, Irvine Welsh | These best selling authors have joined forces for the
first time to write three interlinking stories. Edinburgh
is the inspriration for this imaginative short story
collection from some of Scotland's finest contemporary
writers.The fact that the writers have such radically
different takes on Edinburgh life – a social mix that
ranges from Welsh’s Leith junkies to McCall Smith’s
New Town haute bourgeoisie – makes for an intriguing
read.
| | Pages: 112 | | Price: $15.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Love Over Scotland | | Alexander McCall Smith | Love Over Scotland is the third in this series and
revolves around the many colourful characters that
come and go at No. 44 Scotland Street. McCall Smith
handles the characters with his customary charm and
deftness: the stalwart Tory chartered surveyor, the
pushy mother and, most importantly in this novel, the
Italian-speaking prodigy, Bertie. This is vintage McCall
Smith – clever, witty and entertaining.
| | Pages: 368 | | Price: $24.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | A Scots Quair | | Lewis Grassic Gibbon | One of the all-time greats of Scottish literature, truly
revolutionary, A Scots Quair is a trilogy of novels:
Sunset Song (1932), Cloud Howe (1933) and Grey
Granite (1934). At each book’s core is the heroine Chris
Guthrie, as she grows from a child into adulthood
through the Great War to the development of
communism in the 1920s. Grassic Gibbon’s writing is
unique and riveting, blending Scots and English in an
accessible style, and eloquent in its humanity and
celebration of nature.
| | Pages: 784 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Drinking Well | | Neil Gunn | Iain Cattanach loves to play the fiddle and wander the
hills tending his father’s sheep. However, his selfsacrificing
mother has other plans for him. A position
in an Edinburgh legal firm is secured for Iain and he
is forced to leave the countryside he loves. The city is
alluring and sophisticated but, ultimately, events force
him to return to Torglas and to face up to his family
and long-time companion, Mary Cameron. Beautiful
characterisation and evocative description of early 20th Century Edinburgh.
| | Pages: | | Price: $21.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Butcher's Broom | | Neil Gunn | An epic recreation of the Highland Clearances of the
nineteenth century, when great changes swept through
the country and its people. Tapping into the essence of
Gaelic experience, Butcher’s Broom is the story of a
community threatened with eviction, in order to make
way for sheep. The sense of Gaelic community and
tradition is captured, while the novel's characters
exemplify what is most vital and lasting in mankind.
| | Pages: 383 | | Price: $21.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | 44 Scotland Street | | Alexander McCall Smith | First published in 110 episodes in The Scotsman
newspaper, 44 Scotland Street is the first of this trilogy
and revolves around the comings and goings at No. 44
Scotland Street, a fictitious building in a real street in
the author's home city of Edinburgh.
In McCall Smith’s hands such characters retain charm
and novelty, simultaneously arousing both mirth and
empathy. 44 Scotland Street is vintage McCall Smith,
tackling issues of trust and honesty, snobbery and
hypocrisy, love and loss, but all with great lightness of
touch. Clever, elegant and funny, this is a novel that
provides huge entertainment but which is underpinned
by the moral dilemmas of everyday life and the
characters’ struggles to resolve them.
| | Pages: 325 | | Price: $24.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Bonnie Prince Charlie And All That | | Allan Burnett | Join the dashing Prince on a dangerous mission to win
back his three kingdoms from the horrible Hanoverians.
Scramble ashore in the Scottish Highlands and find out
how Charlie uses his funny wig and fancy French accent
to convince the warlike clans to follow him. Find out
where things start going wrong – and decide what to
do if you were Charlie. Learn how dressing up like a
girl helps the Prince avoid being turned into sausages
by Butcher Cumberland. Smell the crackling gunpowder
as Charlie and his clans charge into a showdown with
their foes at the battle of Culloden – and after the guns
fall silent.
| | Pages: 128 | | Price: $10.00 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Essential Scots Dictionary | | This book is designed to encourage the use of Scots in
language.It is also a useful compact reference book for
anyone seeking information on Scots. This two-way
dictionary provides: modern Scots, with some literary
words likely to be met in stories or poems, grammar
notes and verb lists , spelling guidance, help with
pronunciation, a brief history of the Scots language.
| | Pages: 370 | | Price: $24.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | On the Trail of the Holy Grail | | Stuart McHardy | Scholars have long known that the Grail is essentially
legendary, a mystic symbol forever sought by those
seeking Enlightenment, a quest in which the search is
as important as the result. Drawing on decades of
research in his native Scotland, in a major new
contribution to the Grail legend, McHardy traces the
origin of the idea of fertility and regeneration back
beyond the time of the Celtic warrior tribes of Britain
to a truly ancient, physical source. How can we break
the coded history embedded in the Scottish landscape.
| | Pages: 139 | | Price: $24.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Lost Glasgow | | Carol Foreman | In this informative book, Carol Foreman traces
Glasgow's history primarily through buildings which
have been demolished, but which played a central part
in the city's story at one time or another. Beginning
with the medieval age, she discusses key buildings
through to the end of the Victorian Age, providing a
fascinating picture of how the city evolved, and how
major events throughout the centuries affected its trade,
people and environment.
| | Pages: 210 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Mary, Queen of Scots and All That | | Allan Burnett | Is a real-life adventure packed with historical facts
about Scotland’s headless heroine. Follow hot-blooded
Mary’s lifelong rivalry with her frosty cousin, Queen
Elizabeth I of England – and discover why the Queen
of Scots gets her head chopped off. Meet Mary’s horrible
husbands and understand what makes her marry
them.Uncover the secret plots that earn the Queen of
Scots a deadly date with her cousin’s executioner –
and decide for yourself whether Mary is guilty or
innocent.
| | Pages: 128 | | Price: $10.00 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Pipers | | William Donaldson | This guide to the players and music of the highland
bagpipe uses historical sources to explore the rich
heritage of piping with a wide range of interviews and
anecdotes-a lively introductory guide to what pipers
do and why.
| | Pages: 163 | | Price: $35.00 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Hunt for Rob Roy-The Man and the Myths | | David Stevenson | This is the first life of Rob to written by an experienced
historian, based on a full range of sources. The staunch
Jacobite is revealed as a man who supplied intelligence
to the government against them. The supposed warrior
leader never fought in a battle, the reputed great duellist
avoided violence whenever possible and is only known
to have fought one duel – which he lost.
| | Pages: 339 | | Price: $24.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Robert the Bruce and All That | | Allan Burnett | Gallop alongside King Robert the Bruce as he takes
up the quest to free the Scots from terrifying King
Edward and his bumbling son, Edward II. Voyage with
Bruce to the mysterious islands of the west, and read
about the secret plan to win over his kingdom. Discover
what happened to Bruce’s queen and sisters when they
were seized by the enemy. Hear skulls crack as Bruce
sends Edward II homeward to think again at the Battle
of Bannockburn. Follow Bruce’s amazing life after
death as his heart is taken into battle in Spain – and
find out how it was safely returned home.
| | Pages: 128 | | Price: $10.00 Plus postage | | | |
|  | A Strange and Wild Place | | Sandra Macpherson | At the age of twenty-two the author cut short her nursing
career in Edinburgh to marry, the charismatic Euan
Macpherson, her psychology tutor and twenty years
her senior. Not long after, Euan inherited the family
estate of Glentruim in Badenoch and Sandra Macpherson
found herself the lady of a large and dilapidated manor.
The Highland world, both natural and supernatural, is
vividly evoked as Sandra recounts her efforts to combine
a respect for tradition with the necessity to find ways
to make the estate pay in the modern world,
| | Pages: 224 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Well of the Heads Tales of the Scottish Clans | | Stuart MacHardy | In the Highlands of Scotland till modern times lived
a Scottish Clan system which was built round the ties
of blood and continued to exist alongside the modern
rapidly industrialising society of eighteenth century
Britain. The clans were united by claims of common
descent from a distant ancestor. The tales collected
here illustrate the drama and the dynamism of a society
that lived close to nature, had little material wealth, a
stong story and song tradition,bravery,loyalty and the
eeriness of the magic and the supernatural.
| | Pages: 222 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | William Wallace And All That. | | Join Sir William Wallace on his fearsome quest to free
the Scots from villainous King Edward and his evil
empire. Growl with anger as you find out what nasty
things Edward’s vile henchmen did to Wallace’s
girlfriend and best pal. Get splattered with blood and
gore as Wallace makes haggis of his enemies. Gasp
with terror as you learn about the giant ‘hedgehogs’
that helped Wallace win battles. Groan with agony as
you feel what it’s like to be hanged, drawn and quartered.
Discover how Wallace’s grisly death made his legend
grow.
| | Pages: 128 | | Price: $10.00 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Complete Patter | | Michael Munro | Michael Munro has won the eternal gratitude of
Glaswegians for his efforts in popularising their city's
dialect, universally known as 'the patter'. Do you have
a baldy clue as to who the Bears and Junglies are? After
all, you don't want to be a stank dodger. Confused?
You need this book. It is the most extensive collection
of this rich and expressive language ever made. Often
hilarious, sometimes coarse (but never dull), the patter
is the key to understanding Glasgow and its inhabitants.
| | Pages: 200 | | Price: $22.00 Plus postage | | | |
|  | MacRory's Breeks and Other Highland Humour | | David Ross | This is a compendium of the wit and wisdom of the
Highlander through the ages - the first ever - ranging
through traditional sayings and proverbs to modern
tales and poems. From the days of Columba to the
twenty-first century, much may have changed in the
Highlands, but humour remains a constant thread.
| | Pages: 110 | | Price: $17.00 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Flodden | | Peter Reese | Flodden is one of Scotland’s most ignominious military
defeats. James IV lost his life and took with him the
flower of the Scottish nobility and as many as 10,000
Scottish soldiers. It was nothing less than a catastrophe.
Peter Reese offers a detailed reassessment of Flodden
and considers the major part the battle played in the
road to the unification of Scotland and England.
| | Pages: 208 | | Price: $30.00 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Islay and Jura | | | Two of he most striking of the Scottish islands, characterised by colourful, rugged landscapes, secluded glens and great vistas across shimmering water. George Robertson's photographs capture the natural beauty of Islay and Jura in all their moods.
| | Pages: | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Book of St Andrews | | Robert Crawford | The Book of St Andrews juxtaposes poems, stories and memoirs with scant regard to chronological order, but in the confidence that each contribution, lively in its own right, may also enhance the others. The anthology, like the town, contains golfers, kids from the caravan site, students and professors, born Fifers and visitors from near and far parts of the planet.
| | Pages: 240 | | Price: $23.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Cross of St Andrew | | Ursula Hall | Saint Andrew, Scotland’s patron saint, was reputedly crucified at Patras on a cross of X shape, now the well-known white cross on blue of the Saltire flag. However, the association of the saint with the X-shaped cross is not a feature in the early cult of Saint Andrew and does not appear in any of the apocryphal material describing his martyrdom. Using both literary and iconographical evidence, Ursula Hall attempts to determine when, where and how this development in the popular tradition and in the depiction of Saint Andrew’s death might have taken place.
| | Pages: 224 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Cannae Sutra: The Scots Joy of Sex | | Rupert Besley | All is revealed (well, not quite all – this is Scotland) in The Cannae Sutra, a ground-breaking exposé of the nation’s best-kept secrets. The book contains previously unpublished historical material along with helpful advice on ticklish subjects. Topics covered include: techniques, positions, rubberwear, bondage, group sex, sheep love, Scottish porn, secrets of the sporran, FAQs of Life, shortbread fingers, Gaelic symbols, cybersex, curling and socks.
| | Pages: 128 | | Price: $18.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Skye: The Island and Its Legends | | Otta F. Swire , Ronald Black | A fabulous treasury of legend and wonder; tales of monsters who dwell in lakes, of small people who trap humans in earthen mounds where time stands still; of dark, shape- shifting spirits whose cloak of human form is betrayed by the sand and shells which fall from their hair. In the absence of a written tradition, for generations of Skianachs, these tales, handed down orally, contained the very warp and weft of Hebridean history. They take us far beyond Christian times, to the edge of the Iron Age, and interweave with threads from the wider Atlantic tradition of Gaelic heroic myth and legend.
| | Pages: 240 | | Price: $26.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Secrets of Rosslyn | | Roddy Martine | Ever since its creation in the mid fifteenth century, Rosslyn Chapel has cast a mesmerising spell over all who have visited it. Nestling in an exquisite glen barely seven miles from the centre of Edinburgh, it exudes an extraordinary atmosphere, serene yet charged, as if it holds the secret of some vast, unearthly mystery. In this book, Roddy Martine sifts through mounds of unfounded conjecture and fantasy to make sense of the various theories surrounding the chapel. The Secrets of Rosslyn lets the facts speak for themselves, showing that the truth is no less amazing than fiction.
| | Pages: 240 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Robbie Shepherd's Doric Columns | | Robbie Shepherd | | Reflecting on current affairs, books and films, Robbie Shepherd’s weekly column in the Aberdeen Press and Journal has long enjoyed an enthusiastic following. Written in Doric, and prefaced by a quote from a Doric poem, each column discusses contemporary events in a tongue that, though still spoken today, is also evocative of the past. Delighting local readers, clippings of Robbie’s articles also find their way all over the world, reuniting relatives and friends with the memories of their homeland and their mither tongue. | | Pages: 176 | | Price: $18.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | St Andrews: City by the Northern Sea | | Raymond Lamont-Brown | St Andrews is an ancient burgh, unique in Scottish history. Once the ecclesiastical capital of Scotland, it is the location of the nation’s oldest university. Claims to the town’s status as the birthplace of golf may remain controversial, but there is no doubt at all that it has become the home of golf as the game is played today. For over a hundred years, the burgh has also been a popular seaside resort. Today, it ranks as one of the most prominent historic towns in Europe.
| | Pages: 224 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Flowers of the Forest: Scotland and the Great War | | Trevor Royale | Today we are as far away from the First World War as the Edwardians were from the Battle of Waterloo, but it casts a shadow over Scottish life that was never produced by the wars against Napoleon. The country and its people were changed forever by the events of 1914-1918. Once the workshop of the empire and an important source of manpower for the colonies, after the war, Scotland became something of an industrial and financial backwater. Emigration increased as morale slumped in the face of economic stagnation and decline. The country had paid a disproportionately high price in casualties. There was a sudden crisis of national self-confidence, leading one commentator to suggest in 1927 that ‘the Scots are a dying race.’
| | Pages: 400 | | Price: $30.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Great Clyde at War | | Ronald Armstrong | The great River Clyde and its estuary played a central part in both World Wars and were of vital significance to the Allied cause. It was also the scene of human tragedy in the form of the Clydebank and Greenock blitzes. Told through numerous period photographs, including those taken by Luftwaffe reconnaissance missions, this book is a magnificent picture of a nation at war and the mighty river which was its lifeline.
| | Pages: 192 | | Price: $60.00 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Glasgow City at War | | Brian Osbourne | This lavishly illustrated book explores the impact of the First and Second World Wars on the city of Glasgow, its people and its industries. The citizens of Glasgow were affected by war in a variety of ways: the topics covered are wide ranging and include the role of Volunteer Defence Forces and the Home Guard; changing patterns of employment, especially for women, in factories, munitions and nursing; the fear and devastation caused by air raids and the experience of evacuation; and of course the courage and sacrifice of Glasgow's servicemen and women in the Army, Air Force and Navy. There is also extensive coverage of how war shaped Glasgow's industries, in particular the importance of warship building in the Clyde shipyards, and the large-scale manufacture of artillery and munitions. Wartime also brought many new people to Glasgow: servicemen and women from occupied Europe and from across the Atlantic, as well as visiting politicians and royalty. Some of these special visits are illustrated, as are the great victory parades where thousands came together to celebrate that war was finally over. The authors have drawn on a wide variety of sources in writing this fascinating and moving book, but it is perhaps the period photographs which will impress the reader most. Many have never been published before, and they tell the story of Glasgow at war most vividly and powerfully.
| | Pages: 192 | | Price: $60.00 Plus postage | | | |
|  | To the Edge of the Sea: Memoirs of a Crofter's Child | | Christina Hall | In this memoir, Christina Hall writes with sharp observation about her childhood on the Hebridean island of South Uist in the 1940s and 1950s. Humour and anguish reflect the spirit of a girl living through a time of dramatic change in her life, her family and the land that she loves. Beginning with her earliest memories, the book recounts her life up to the end of secondary school and is set in Uist, Benbecula, Barra and Fort William.
While it is fundamentally her story, To the Edge of the Sea is also interwoven with the culture, characters and events of the islands from that time.
| | Pages: 200 | | Price: $24.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Highland Folk Ways | | I.F. Grant | | This is the classic book on the ancient customs, crafts and techniques of the Scottish Highlands. The past is evoked with a fascinating blend of historical narrative and detail, with descriptions of the fireplaces and furniture, the creels and cas chroms which were a vital part of everyday life in the Highland communities, but which have now become strange in the modern world of machinery and technology. | | Pages: 128 | | Price: $39.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Burns Supper Companion | | Nancy Marshall | In 1801, some five years after Robert Burns’ death, nine of his friends sat down to dinner in what is now known as Burns Cottage in Alloway. They gathered to celebrate his extraordinary life and to gave thanks for his friendship. Over the years the informal theme from that evening has developed into the mystical ritual known as Burns Night. The traditional format of the evening is laid out in The Burns Supper Companion according to the Burns Federation and some of the oldest Burns clubs in existence. This fascinating insight into the traditions surrounding Burns Night includes a biography of Robert Burns, poems, songs and quotations, simple speeches and even a recipe for haggis.
| | Pages: 114 | | Price: $17.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Borders | | Alistair Moffat | This is the story of an ancient place; where hunter-gatherers penetrated into the virgin interior, where Celtic warlords ruled, the Romans came but could not conquer, where the glittering kingdom of Northumbria thrived, the place where David MacMalcolm raised great abbeys, where the Border Reivers rode into history, and where Walter Scott sat at Abbotsford and brooded on the area’s rich and historic legacy.
| | Pages: 586 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Orkney: A Historical Guide | | Caroline Wickham Jones | Orkney lies only twenty miles north of mainland Scotland, yet for many centuries its culture was more Scandanavian than Scottish. Strong westerly winds account for the scarcity of trees on Orkney and also for the tradition of well-constructed buildings out of stone. As a result, exceptionally well-preserved remains are to be found in the islands, providing a rounded view of society through the ages. Sites and remains to be explored include settlements from the stone age, stone circles and burials from the bronze age, iron age brochs, Viking castles and more.
| | Pages: 240 | | Price: $22.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Hidden Scotland | | Ann Lindsay | Did you know that herds of bison used to roam the Scottish countryside? Or that the first elephant to visit Scotland got stuck in a pub in Renfrewshire? In this marvellously entertaining and informative book, Ann Lindsay introduces a bewildering range of quirky, intriguing and amusing details about Scotland’s past and present. Some of what she reveals is verifiable by fact, some shrouded in mystery and superstition, yet all enriches our understanding and appreciation of this fascinating country.
| | Pages: 320 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Castles of Scotland | | Martin Coventry | The Castles of Scotland (4th edition) is the most complete and comprehensive guide available to the nation’s wealth of castles. This new edition is the culmination of 10 years’ research, and covers more than 2700 castles as well as mansions and historic houses, all alphabetically organised, with detailed maps, visiting information, illustrations, and anecdotes of hauntings and family histories. This is the ‘bible of Scottish castles’, an absolute must for all castle enthusiasts and anyone interested in Scottish history.
| | Pages: 704 | | Price: $89.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Brow of the Gallowgate | | Doris Davidson | The brow of the Gallowgate is where Albert Ogilvie buys his property in 1890 – the shop he has dreamed of for years, and above it, a house with nine rooms to accommodate the large family he and his beloved wife, Bathie, desire. The couple have 8 babies and employ 3 nursemaids. One of the nursemaids, Bella Wyness, is troublesome and sly and creates a set of distressing circumstances resulting in her dismissal. The years go by, with their joys and sorrows, and war splits up the close-knit Ogilvies, some of whom eventually emigrate to New Zealand. And it is there that Bella, her resentment of the family grown to black hatred, will wreak her terrible revenge . . .
| | Pages: | | Price: $22.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Story of My Boyhood and Youth | | John Muir | In this moving memoir of an unusual childhood, John Muir recalls his younger days in East Lothian with a startling clarity, depicting a wild boy whose quiet individuality and determination were already emerging. Born in mid nineteenth-century Scotland, Muir was eleven when his fanatically religious father took the family to build a new life in America’s vast wilderness. Muir charts their pioneering years in Wisconsin, where his battles for survival powerfully anticipate the extraordinary career which was to follow
| | Pages: 160 | | Price: $22.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Green Isle of the Great Deep | | Neil Gunn | Two unlikely friends, representing the extremes of age and youth, are out on an undercover poaching trip when they become swept up in the currents of a salmon pool. When they awaken they have been transported from the Highlands of our world to an alternative Highland universe. Told fully in Highland dialect, The Green Isle of the Great Deep is a both a wonderful Scottish parable and a warning of the dangers of power and its abuse.
| | Pages: 252 | | Price: $19.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Thistle and the Grail | | Robin Jenkins | The Thistle is the unlucky local football team of Drumsagart, a drab industrial town in Lanarkshire. Cursed with poverty, an ineffective president and a string of defeats, the Thistle players are running low on morale, especially when it seems so many people are against them. Despite their dismal prospects the team cling to the beautiful game as a last hope and dream. And, when they actually start winning, a momentum grows up in the community around them, as they come to represent ambition and hope. The Holy Grail of football, the Scottish Junior Cup, glitters at the end of a string of matches and suddenly the entire town of Drumsagart is depending on it.
| | Pages: 320 | | Price: $17.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The White Cockade: And Other Jacobite Tales | | Stuart McHardy | | Many of the stories that survive from the period when the Jacobites threatened to overturn the British Government and reinstall the Stuart Dynasty are tales of great daring heroism and loyalty set against venal double-dealing and treachery. This book gathers a selection of these tales, creating a vivid picture of Jacobean life. | | Pages: 224 | | Price: $24.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Stevenson's Scotland | | Robert Louis Stevenson | For the first time, the best of Robert Louis Stevenson's writings about Scotland, in prose and verse, and including extracts from his letters, are collected in one entertaining and evocative anthology. His words are presented in the form of a journey, starting in Edinburgh, crossing over the Forth to Fife, then heading via Kirriemuir, Pitlochry and Blair Atholl as far as the Orkney Islands and Shetland. From here the route returns through the Highlands to the west coast, Oban and the Islands; down to Dumfries and Galloway, cutting across Border country and back again, inevitably, to Edinburgh and home. It is a magical tour that shows the familiar land of Scotland as seen through a poet’s fresh and penetrating eye.
| | Pages: 176 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Traditional Scottish Cookery | | Theodora Fitzgibbon | It is remarkable that a country as small as Scotland should have so many traditional dishes, not only ones which survive in Scotland today, but ones which are famous throughout the world. Traditional Scottish Cookery brings together mouthwatering recipes from the whole range of Scottish cuisine—from the simple scones, bannocks and broths of the Highland Gaels to the richly sophisticated meat and game dishes that are a legacy of the Auld Alliance with France. There is something to suit every palette in this sumptous selection which will appeal to both Scots and visitors to Scotland.
| | Pages: 288 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Scottish Cookery | | Catherine Brown | Since it was first published in 1985, Catherine Brown’s Scottish Cookery has become established as the key modern book on Scotland’s national cuisine. It gives recipes and methods for all the traditional dishes—from Haggis to Finnan Haddock, from Cocka-Leekie to Skirlie, from Atholl Brose to Shortbread, as well as dishes brought into the country by Scotland’s many immigrants. Scotland’s cooks have access to ingredients of the highest quality and modern Scottish cooking uses them imaginatively, incorporating influences from many other great culinary traditions.
| | Pages: 304 | | Price: $39.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Scotland, Scotland: The Complete Who's Who of Players Since 1946 | | Dean Philip Hayes | More than 470 players have represented Scotland on the football pitch since 1946. This comprehensive book profiles all of them. Each player’s Scotland record is explored in a mini-biography complemented by a full statistical record of every match he played. It includes legendary players like Jim Baxter, ‘Jinky’ Johnstone, Denis Law, Kenny Dalglish and Ally McCoist. A vital collection for every football fan.
| | Pages: 480 | | Price: $44.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | A Sense of Belonging to Scotland: Complete Collection | | Andy Hall | Following the success of Andy Hall’s A Sense of Belonging to Scotland and Further Journeys, both books are now available in one collection. Featuring stunning photography and memorable contributions from celebrities such as Ewan McGregor, Emma Thompson, Denis Law, Ian Rankin and Colin Montgomerie, this is a celebration of everything that is special about Scotland—its light, its atmosphere, its colour, its diversity, its character and its achievements.
| | Pages: 224 | | Price: $62.00 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Scots Kitchen | | F. Marian McNeill | A new edition of F Marian McNeill’s most popular book, first published in 1929. This bestselling classic gives a delightful account of eating and drinking in Scotland through the ages, with definitive recipes for all the old national dishes, like Cream Crowdie, Cullen Skink, Athole Brose and Colcannon. As well as being the most important book on Scottish cookery yet to appear, it is a work to refer to and savour again and again. Its practical value and its charm increase as the years go by.
| | Pages: 272 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Awa' An' Bile Yer Heid! | | David Ross | The best insults, according to the author, occupy an indefinite space between wit and abuse, containing elements of both to varying degree; they must always sting the victim, or else they are a failure. This book is full of rich and expressive examples of insult and invective for all occasions from all over Scotland. These have been passed down through the centuries or have emerged in modern times, proving that clever insults are infinitely more amusing and memorable than good jokes.
| | Pages: 246 | | Price: $19.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Man Who Sold Nelson and Other Scottish Frauds | | Dane Love | In this fascinating book, Dane Love uncovers a strange collection of tales of devious fraudsters and curious hoaxes. Spanning the 18th century to the present day, these tales range from the quaint to the absurd, touching on all social classes and settings in society. Among them are the phoney minister who established a church and performed illegal marriage ceremonies, a middle-aged gentleman who passed himself off as an adolescent schoolboy, and the man who persuaded the world that he was the prince of an imaginary country. This book also looks at more familiar Scottish mysteries such as those surrounding the Loch Ness monster, the ‘Great Highland Hoax’ of Ossian’s poems, and the Burns Temple Hoax. This highly entertaining read makes us realise just how gullible many of us have been and may also continue to be.
| | Pages: 216 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Scots and the Union | | Christopher A. Whatley | Tracing the background to the 1707 Treaty of Union, this book explains why union happened and assesses its impact on Scottish society, including the bitter struggle with the Jacobites for acceptance of the union in the two decades that followed its inauguration. Christopher Whatley offers a radical new interpretation of the causes of union, largely rejecting the idea that the Scots were ‘bought and sold for English gold’, emphasising instead the international, dynastic and religious contexts in which the union was negotiated.
| | Pages: 440 | | Price: $45.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Highland Clearances | | Eric Richards | The Clearances were the most rugged and painful of many attempted ‘solutions’ to the problem of those who maintain a population on marginal and infertile land. In drawing attention away from the mythology or the hard facts of what actually happened, this book offers a balanced analysis of events which created a terrible scar on the Highland and Gaelic imagination, the historical legacy of which still lies unresolved in the twenty-first century.
| | Pages: 512 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Union: England, Scotland and the Treaty of 1707 | | Michael Fry | The story of modern Britain began 300 years ago, with the Treaty of Union between England and Scotland in 1707. In this fresh and challenging look at the origins of the United Kingdom, the first full study for four decades, Michael Fry traces the fault-lines of the present time right back to the treaty drawn up between the ruling classes of Scotland and England three centuries ago.
| | Pages: 320 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Lost Aberdeen | | Diane Morgan | The initial chapters are an odyssey through the early town, from the Green to the Gallowgate, charting the disappearance of the irreplaceable medieval townscape. Moving on to more modern times she traces the evolution and gradual erosion of the Granite City, whose stylish yet restrained architecture once brought visitors from all over the world to see an Aberdeen which they recognised and valued as a unique city. She writes of George Street, originally planned as ‘an elegant entrance to the city’ and of Union Street, a marvel of early nineteenth century engineering with stunning symmetry, elegant terracing and memorable shops. There is also a requiem for Archibald Simpson’s splendid New Market and the sadly missed Northern Co-operative Society Arcade.
| | Pages: 244 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Hunting Grounds : A Scottish Football Safari | | Gary Sutherland | Some people bag Munros; Gary Sutherland hunts grounds. Come rain, shine, sleet and snow, he visits each of the 42 football grounds in Scotland during one season, documenting the singing, the swearing, the sheer nonsense of what occurs every Saturday afternoon. Join Gary to re-live the glorious Scottish football season in its entirety.
| | Pages: 240 | | Price: $24.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Lost Argyll | | Marian Pallister | | In Lost Argyll, Marian Pallister looks not only at the lost architectural heritage of Argyll but also at its lost industries, ferries, roads, bridges, and archaeological monuments. Poltalloch House, for example, built in the 1840s as a monument to commerce and investment, lies ruinous, its owners having stripped it of its roof to avoid paying crippling rates; Campbeltown once bristled with distilleries until a cocktail of economic factors left it with only two; little remains of even the jetties at Loch Awe and West Loch Tarbert, two of the busiest waterways in times past. | | Pages: 304 | | Price: $34.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Bannockburn: The Scottish War and the British Isles, 1307-1323 | | Michael Brown | Fought on the fields south of Stirling at midsummer 1314, the Battle of Bannockburn is the best-known event in the history of Medieval Scotland. Over two intense days Robert Bruce’s Scottish army was pitted against the might of Edward II’s English troops. This battle to determine Scotland’s status as a distinct realm was won decisively by the Scots with significant English casualties. This book analyses the road to Bannockburn, the campaign of 1314 and the aftermath of the fight.
| | Pages: 224 | | Price: $62.00 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Don: The Willie Miller Story | | Willie Miller, Rob Robertson | Willie Miller is a hero to tens of thousands of Aberdeen and Scotland fans after a glittering career that made him one of the country’s most capped and celebrated players, as well as the most successful ever club captain outside the Old Firm. This book gives a unique insight into professional football during Miller’s era and what it was like to lead a team managed by Sir Alex Ferguson and hold aloft the European Cup-Winners’ Cup after victory over Real Madrid in 1983. It also tells previously untold stories about Sir Alex gleaned from their seven successful years together at Aberdeen. During that time Aberdeen won three Scottish league titles, four Scottish Cups, one Scottish League Cup, the European Cup Winners’ Cup and the European Super Cup. Forward by Sir Alex Ferguson.
| | Pages: 292 | | Price: $24.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Whisky Dream: One Man's Battle to Resurrect a Sleeping Giant | | Stuart Rivans | Whisky Dream tells the extraordinary story of one man’s dream to raise from the dead not one, but two of Islay’s most cherished malts. After a hard-fought battle, former wine merchant Mark Reynier, together with old business partner Simon and masterblender Jim McEwan reopened Bruichladdich in 2001 after seven years of silent mash-tuns. Their astonishing journey involved scrapes with a top secret MOD submarine, US military satellites, the CIA, faceless multinationals, patronising bank staff, supply problems, all-new international sales and distribution network, and an eleventh hour, £7.5 million bank loan.
| | Pages: 224 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Our City | | Various | The first in a new series of OneCity books (crime and London to follow in 2009), this is a cracking collection of specially commissioned stories for upper primary school children, by nine of the best children’s writers, who are either based in Scotland or have a Scottish background. All stories will include themes relevant to the work of the OneCityTrust. Beautifully illustrated by author and illustrator John Fardell.
| | Pages: 208 | | Price: $19.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Master of Ballantrae & Weir of Hermiston | | Robert Louis Stevenson | The Master of Ballantrae takes a deep, disturbing turn after Kidnapped and Catriona, with its tale of rival brothers caught in a web of hatred, obsession, love and betrayal which draws them to adventures in frozen wastes of North America. Stevenson’s fascination with the divided nature of the human self, so famously demonstrated in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, recurs in Weir of Hermiston with its awful father–son confrontation.
| | Pages: 352 | | Price: $29.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Lost Dundee | | Patricia Whatley | Brings the second city of renaissance Scotland back to life showing, through previously undiscovered photographs and drawings, the life and the maritime quarter of this great port. It illustrates Dundee’s transformation into a major Georgian town at the centre of the flax trade between St Petersburg and the USA, with the development of major public buildings a result of the influx of wealth into the region. Essential to the understanding of this constantly re-generating city, this book contains 150 drawings, photographs and plans of Dundee. Hard back version.
| | Pages: 224 | | Price: $49.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | Dad's Army | | Neil Drysdale | Tells the remarkable story of how the cricketers of a little Scottish village marched all the way to Lord’s and won the National Village Cup in 1985. Dad’s Army relates another side to cricket, and Ian Botham tells of how he celebrated Freuchie’s win with the Fifers in the midst of a Test match against Australia. It is an inspiring, poignant, funny tale of small-town players bursting into the limelight.
| | Pages: | | Price: $24.95 Plus postage | | | |
|  | The Essential Gaelic-English Dictionary | | Angus Watson | This dictionary is intended for learners of Gaelic – from beginners to university and college students. It gives generous coverage of the core of the language, but the inclusion of vocabulary from fields such as business and IT means that it will also be a valuable tool for all who require an up-to-date reference work.
| | Pages: 340 | | Price: $35.00 Plus postage | | | |
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