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Scot Pourri
Caledonian MacBrayne
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.
$34.95 Plus postage
The Makers of Scotland: Picts, Romans, Gaels and Vikings
Tim Clarkson
During the first millennium AD the most northerly part of Britain evolved into the country known today as Scotland. The transition was a long process of social and political change driven by the ambitions of powerful warlords. At first these men were tribal chiefs, Roman generals or rulers of small kingdoms. Later, after the Romans departed, the initiative was seized by dynamic warrior-kings who campaigned far beyond their own borders. Armies of Picts, Scots, Vikings, Britons and Anglo-Saxons fought each other for supremacy. In this book the remarkable story of how ancient North Britain became the medieval kingdom of Scotland is told.
$29.95 Plus postage
Scottish Cookery
Catherine Brown
Attitudes to food and cooking have undergone a radical transformation in recent years, and the concept of using local produce has revolutionised the culinary world. Nowhere has this been taken up more enthusiastically than in Scotland, which boasts a vast and varied assortment of home-grown produce, including cheese, fish, game and vegetables. Catherine Brown's acclaimed Scottish Cookery was one of the first books to highlight the richness and diversity of Scotland's local larder, explaining how to get the best out of such ingredients in hundreds of mouth-watering and imaginative recipes. This new edition features all the original recipes which sealed the book's reputation as the leading Scottish cookery book, as well as many new dishes, fascinating culinary anecdotes and practical information on sourcing Scottish produce.
$29.95 Plus postage
Last Dance At The Wrecker's Ball
Robert Douglas
Glasgow, 1971. The old way of life is under threat for the tight-knit community in Dalbeattie Street, Maryhill. The shadow of the wrecker's ball looms large over their homes, and they must face the choice of moving to a new estate or dispersing throughout the city. But powerful friendships refuse to be broken. These characters have gone through too much together to be destroyed by some measly planning scheme. They'll face this with the same inimitable Scottish humour and strength of spirit that have carried them through other tough times. Douglas' vivid portrait of Seventies Glasgow recreates, in glorious detail, a particular time and place, but at its heart are the universal themes of love, friendship and community.
$24.95 Plus postage
The Picts
Tim Clarkson
The Picts were an ancient nation who ruled most of northern and eastern Scotland during the Dark Ages. Despite their importance in Scottish history they remain shrouded in an aura of myth and misconception. The Pictish nation seemingly vanished, leaving few traces but many unanswered questions. The most puzzling of these questions surround the great monuments that still survive in the landscape of modern Scotland: standing stones decorated with incredible skill and covered with enigmatic symbols. These stones are the vivid memorials of a powerful and gifted people who have bequeathed no chronicles to tell their story, no sagas to describe the deed of their kings and heroes.
$24.95 Plus postage
After Flodden
Rosemary Goring
After Flodden is a novel about the consequences of the battle of Flodden, as seen through the eyes of several characters who either had a hand in bringing the country to war, or were profoundly affected by the outcome. There have been very few novels about Flodden, despite its significance, and none from this perspective. It's a racy adventure, combining political intrigue and romance, and its readership will be anyone who loves historical fiction, or is interested in the history of Scotland and the turbulent, ungovernable borderlands between Scotland and England.
Patrick Paniter was James IV's right-hand man, a diplomatic genius who was in charge of the guns at the disastrous battle of Flodden in September 1513 in which the English annihilated the Scots. After the death of his king he is tormented by guilt as he relives the events that led to war. When Louise Brenier, daughter of a rogue sea trader, asks his help in finding out if her brother Benoit was killed in action, it is the least he can do to salve his conscience. Not satisfied with the news he brings, Louise sets off to find out the truth herself, and swiftly falls foul of one of the lawless clans that rule the ungovernable borderlands.
$34.95 Plus postage
The History of St Kilda
Kenneth Macaulay
As one of the most remote corners of the British Isles, the island archipelago of St Kilda has long held a fascination for travellers from mainland Britain and beyond. The unique way of life and customs of its inhabitants has generated an enormous amount of literature over a period of hundreds of years. Kenneth Macaulay's book is one of the most significant works ever written about the islands, and is a description of what he saw there on his visit of 1763, at which time the island population had dwindled to just 88.
In addition to giving vivid descriptions of the islanders themselves and their living conditions, Macaualay also offers a huge amount of information on the animals and birds found there - the sheep and cattle, and above all the wildfowl, which were used for a huge variety of purposes, including oil, shoes and medicine as well as food.
$19.95 Plus postage
Angels of Mercy: Nurses on the Western Front
Eileen Crofton
This is the story of the wartime experiences of a group of women who ran a field hospital near the trenches during World War I, often under conditions of great hardship. The text draws on the women's diaries and letters home. The Scottish Women's Hospitals unit offered their services to France and opened a hospital in the ancient Abbey of Royaumont, near Paris. The hospital operated from 1915 to 1919 and became famous for its nursing care, cleanliness and efficiency, recognised by the French authorities as a key wartime hospital.
$19.95 Plus postage
Argyll: Land of Blood and Beauty
Mary McGrigor
This book is a comprehensive study of Argyll and the Inner Hebrides. Mary McGrigor, who has lived in Argyll for many years, brings the past alive in this fascinating account which not only introduces the history, but also examines the physical remains which are Argyll's direct links with its past, from pre-Christian and Medieval sculpture to churches, great castles and houses. She also explores the industry of the area, from farming and forestry to fishing and whisky distilling, and writes about the main towns. Illustrated with spectacular, specially commissioned photography, this book captures Argyll's inexplicable magic, which continues to cast its spell over those who know and love the area; it is also a magnificent introduction for those yet to be enthralled by this 'land of blood and beauty'.
$24.95 Plus postage
Lost Glasgow
Carol Foreman
In this informative and beautifully illustrated 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, the book is comprised of four parts spanning more than eight centuries: the Medieval town; from Reformation to the Act of Union; the Merchant City, and finally the Victorian Age. Lost Glasgow provides a fascinating picture of how the city evolved and how major events throughout the centuries affected its trade, people and environment. Churches, banks and theatres as well as domestic buildings all feature in this illuminating journey through Glasgow's rich architectural past.
$34.95 Plus postage
Scottish Independence: Weighing Up the Economics
Gavin McCrone
In autumn 2014 those living in Scotland will face the most important political decision of a lifetime. Whether Scotland becomes an independent state once again, as it was before 1707, or remains within the United Kingdom will have profound consequences for everyone in Britain.
There are many issues involved in this important choice, but a key part of the debate centres around the question of whether Scotland would prosper more or less after independence. How well off are we? Would we have a faster or slower growing economy if we were independent? What currency would we use – the pound, the euro or a new currency of our own? What should our energy policy be? There are those who would like to see a more egalitarian society, like Scandinavia, with a reduction in poverty and deprivation; would we be likely to achieve that? Would we continue to be in the European Union but with Scotland becoming a member in its own right? Is that right for Scotland and what problems might that involve?
In this impartial, clearly expressed and thought-provoking book, economist Gavin McCrone addresses these, and many other, questions which are of vital importance in the run up to the referendum.
$24.95 Plus postage
Understand Scottish History: Teach Yourself
Dr David Allan
A comprehensive guide to the exciting story of this nation, from pre-history right through to the present day. With the question of Scottish independence once again on the agenda, this book will allow you to trace the events, both peaceful and bloody, that have brought the country to this point. Tracing events from the pre-history of the land and the coming of the Scots to the rise of the Scottish National Party, it provides an informative and accessible introduction to Scotland's history. Whether it is the Jacobite Rebellion, the advances of the Scottish Enlightenment or its role in WWI and WWII, this is the perfect place to start.
$24.95 Plus postage
The Union: England, Scotland and the Treaty of 1707
Michael Fry
In this fresh and challenging look at the origins of the United Kingdom, Michael Fry focuses on the years which led up to the Union of 1707, setting the political history of Scotland and England against the backdrop of war in Europe and the emergence of imperialism. He rejects the long-held assumption that the economy was of overwhelming importance in the Scots' acceptance of the terms of the Treaty, showing how they were able to exploit English ignorance of and indifference to Scotland to steer the settlement in their own favour. The implications of this have influenced the dynamics of the Union ever since, and are only being fully worked out in our own time.
$24.95 Plus postage
Robyn Young
A dazzling story of conspiracy and divided loyalties, and a superb portrait of the medieval world. To fulfil his destiny, first he must swear allegiance to his enemy...
King Edward of England marches on Scotland, inspired by an Arthurian prophecy to unite the British Isles under one crown. Only one man stands in his way. Robert Bruce is determined to claim the throne of Scotland. But, on the run and hunted by a relentless assassin, his ambition appears far from being realised. And there are other families who hunger for the crown, old rivals gathering against him. Robert was always prepared to die on the battlefield, but in this deadly game of conquest, power and treachery, what else must he sacrifice to keep his hopes alive?
$24.95 Plus postage
The Great Tapestry of Scotland
Alistair Moffat, Susan Mansfield
The brainchild of bestselling author Alexander McCall Smith, historian Alistair Moffat and artist Andrew Crummy, the Great Tapestry of Scotland is an outstanding celebration of thousands of years of Scottish history and achievement, from the end of the last Ice Age to Dolly the Sheep. Like the Bayeux tapestry, the Great Tapestry of Scotland has been created on embroidered cloth, and is annotated in English, Gaelic, Scots and Latin. This book, with a foreword by Alexander McCall Smith, tells the story of this unique undertaking - one of the biggest community arts projects ever to take place in Scotland - and reproduces in full colour a selection of the panels from the completed tapestry, together with descriptive and explanatory material.
$24.95 Plus postage
Hubris: How HBOS Wrecked the Best Bank in Britain
Ray Perman, foreword by Alistair Darling
In 1995 Bank of Scotland celebrated 300 years as Britain's oldest commercial bank. Voted 'most admired bank', respected by competitors, applauded by investors and trusted by customers, it looked forward to the next three hundred. Less than 15 years later it was bust, reviled as part of the spectacular collapse of HBOS, the conglomerate it had joined. One of the high-profile victims of the credit crunch, its spectacular fall caused seismic shock waves throughout the financial world. What went wrong?
$24.95 Plus postage
Flodden: A Scottish Tragedy
Peter Reese
In the breadth of bitter-sweet Scottish history there is no more poignant, not more important, battle than Flodden. Before Scotland's disastrous defeat at the hands of the English under the Earl of Surrey, a proud country under its dynamic Stewart king, James IV, was emerging as a distinct and flourishing nation within Europe.In this bestselling study of one of the most famous battles in history, Peter Reese recreates the drama and calamity of the battle fought just south of the River Tweed on 9 September 1513. Drawing together the political, military and historical background to the conflict, he examines the two armies and their leaders and explains the crucial tactical moves both before and during the encounter. The result is a thoroughly researched yet always accessible and realistic account of the battle Scotland has tried to forget.
$19.95 Plus postage
Lost Dundee: Dundee's Lost Architectural Heritage
Patricia Whatley
Lost Dundee 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. The book goes on to examine Dundee's next transformation into the jute capital of the world. Its identity was transformed by the arrival of railways, which separated the town from the sea, and by the great mills and factories which engulfed it on both sides. The final section illustrates the changes wrought in the twentieth century with the death of jute and its replacement as the city's major employer by tertiary education. This book draws particularly upon the rich visual history sources of Charles Lawson's drawings of old Dundee in the Central Library, the DC Thomson photographic collection, and the University of Dundee Archives.
$34.95 Plus postage
Glen Lyon
Kenneth Steven
What is the real story behind the young man who comes to Glen Lyon and begins building a house with his own hands. He could be an early farmer; he could be a clansman; he could be a survivor of Culloden. It's only when Somerled Stewart comes down after the winter to the village and sets eyes on Anna, the daughter of the blacksmith, that the mists begin to clear. Yet, although this story settles somewhere in the 20th century, Somerled Stewart himself always remains something of a timeless figure – his own ancestor. He longs to build a perfect world about him of wood and stone, as he yearns to create a flawless happiness with Anna, his bride. He must even find the gold for her wedding ring from the river; he could not bear the thought of buying it.
$17.95 Plus postage
Nor Will He Sleep: An Inspector McLevy Mystery
David Ashton
1887. The streets of Edinburgh seethe with youthful anarchy as two rival gangs of students, Scarlet Runners and White Devils, try to outdo each other in wild exploits. After a pitched battle between them, an old woman is found savagely battered to death in Leith Harbour. Enter Inspector James McLevy, a little more grizzled, but unchanging in his fierce desire to mete out justice. As the inspector delves further he meets up with one Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Jekyll and Hyde, in the city to bury his recently deceased father.
$19.95 Plus postage
Life Cycle: A Bike Ride Round Scotland and Back to Childhood
Gary Sutherland
A casual conversation between Gary Sutherland and his brother Stewart about going on a bike ride leads to an extraordinary trip in which they travel the length and breadth of Scotland. In order to recapture some of the magic of childhood years spent cycling around their home town of Hopeman on the Morayshire coast, the Sutherland brothers – older but none the wiser – set off from the back gate of the house they grew up in on a journey of a thousand miles. From the mountains of the Highlands to the traffic-snarled streets of Edinburgh and Glasgow, they ate up Scotland on two wheels and became boys again, pedalling for all they were worth on a road trip of a lifetime that brought pain and laughter in equal measure.
$24.95 Plus postage
Trains and Lovers: The Heart's Journey
Alexander McCall Smith
Imagine you're on a train. Think about all the other people on the train with you, what their lives are or have been, and the different experiences you've all had. But there is one more thing that you undoubtedly all share: you have all been in love at one time or another. in this surprising and poignant story, four strangers meet on a journey from Edinburgh to London.
$14.95 Plus postage
A Time of Tyrants: Scotland and the Second World War
Trevor Royle
Trevor Royle examines Scotland's role in the Second World War from a wide range of perspectives. The country's geographical position gave it great strategic importance for importing war material and reinforcements, for conducting naval and aerial operations against the enemy and for training regular and specialist SOE and commando forces. Scotland also became a social melting pot with the arrival of Polish and eastern European refugees, whose presence added to the communal mix and assisted post-war reconstruction.
$24.95 Plus postage
The British: A Genetic Journey
Alistair Moffat
Hidden inside all of us – every human being on Earth – is the story of our ancestry. Printed on our DNA are the origins of our lineages, the time in history and prehistory when they arose, and the epic journeys people have made across the globe. Based on exciting new research involving the most wide-ranging sampling of DNA ever made in Britain, Alistair Moffat, author of the bestselling The Scots: A Genetic Journey, shows how all of us who live on these islands are immigrants. The last ice age erased any trace of more ancient inhabitants, and the ancestors of everyone who now lives in Britain came here after the glaciers retreated and the land greened once more. In an epic narrative, sometimes moving, sometimes astonishing, always revealing, Moffat writes an entirely new history of Britain. Instead of the usual parade of the usual suspects – kings, queens, saints, warriors and the notorious – this is a people's history, a narrative made from stories only DNA can tell which offers insights into who we are and where we come from. Hard back title.
$39.95 Plus postage
Who Pays the Ferryman
Roy Pedersen
An informative and critical analysis of Scotland's ferry services. It describes the 'glory days' of how, from modest beginnings, Scotland once led the world in maritime development. It contrasts the achievements of the past with the failures, waste and inadequacy of much of today's state-owned ferry provision. In addition to showing how a more equitable fares regime can be devised, Roy Pedersen also addresses sensitive issues such as CO2 and other emissions, state versus private ownership, the place of trade unions and, most importantly of all how, the lot of our island and peninsular communities can be bettered through provision of efficient cost effective ferry services.
$19.95 Plus postage
A New Race of Men: Scotland 1815-1914
Michael Fry
War opened and closed Scotland's greatest century: a pitiless part in the defeat of Naploeon in 1815, a huge blood-sacrifice for the sake of victory from 1914. In between came the greatest contributions to the progress and happiness of the rest of mankind that the Scots have ever made – in everything from the combine harvester to the mackintosh to anaesthesia. It was a supremely successful achieving society yet one not without deep flaws, in its urban poverty, its destruction of the environment, its religious intolerance, its moral hypocrisy, its crushing of Highland culture. Hard back title.
$59.95 Plus postage
Scotland's Shame: Why it still matters
John Ashton
The bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over the small Scottish town of Lockerbie in December 1988 was one of the most notorious acts of terrorism in recent history. Its political and foreign policy repercussions have been enormous, and twenty-five years after the atrocity in which 270 lost their lives, debate still rages over the conviction of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, as well as his controversial release on compassionate grounds by Scotland's SNP government in 2009. John Ashton argues that the guilty verdict, delivered by some of Scotland's most senior judges, was perverse and irrational, and details how prosecutors withheld numerous items of evidence that were favourable to Megrahi. It accuses successive Scottish governments of turning their back on the scandal and pretending that the country's treasured independent criminal justice system remains untainted.
$19.95 Plus postage
After the Dance: Selected Stories of Iain Crichton Smith
Iain Crichton-Smith
As a child Iain Crichton Smith was raised speaking Gaelic on the island of Lewis. At school in Stornoway he spoke English. Like many islanders before and since, his culture was divided: two languages and two histories entailing exile. His divided perspective delineated the tyranny of history and religion, of the cramped life of small communities, and gave him a compassionate eye for the struggle of women and men in a world defined by denials. After the Dance proves that big themes – love, history, power, submission, death – can be addressed without the foil of irony and acquire resonance when given a local habitation and a voice that risks pure, humane, impassioned speech.
$19.95 Plus postage
Piping Traditions of the Outer Isles: Of the West Coast of Scotland
Bridget Mackenzie
This is the fifth and last book in the piping traditions series and covers the Outer Isles from Mingulay to Lewis. Written for all piping enthusiasts, this is not an academic study but instead aims to pass on the piping lore that used to be handed down with the music to piping pupils, but is no longer. Written in a light and readable style, the book takes a wide sweep of the pipers, places and piping stories of the islands, including many renowned 20th-century pipers such as 'Wee Donald' MacLeod and the Peters MacLeod, as well as pipers from the 18th and 19th centuries. Old Gaelic poems about pipers give a glimpse of piping in the Uists and Benbecula in the 18th century. Notes on the tunes also give guidance to the mood of a piece. This book is essential reading for any piper who wants to know about the background of the music.
$59.95 Plus postage
The Tobermory Cat
Debi Gliori
In the village of Tobermory, on the Scottish island of Mull, lives a very special ginger cat. But once upon a time he didn't think he was special at all – not like the woolly cats of Loch Ba, the singing cats of Staffa or the fishing cats of Fishnish. But now everyone knows about him. He's the cat who has become a legend in his own lifetime by simply being himself. He's the cat who dances on top of the fish van; the cat who speaks to otters; the cat who drives the big yellow digger; the cat who rides on top of cars. He's the Tobermory Cat.
$14.95 Plus postage
The Scottish Salmon Bible
Claire Macdonald, illustrated by Bob Dewar
Due to its high protein content, omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin D, salmon is one of the most nutritious fish available, with many health specialists recommending that it should be eaten three times a week. In this handy and varied collection of recipes, award-winning chef Claire Macdonald demonstrates the enormous versatility of salmon in forty mouth-watering recipes which show you could eat salmon seven days a week and still never tire of it. Hot-smoked salmon, cold-smoked salmon, salmon fillets and Gravalax (salmon cured with sugar, salt and dill) all feature, together with a huge range of imaginative accompaniments, from beetroot, cheese and cream to bananas, tomatoes, garlic and prosciutto.
$14.95 Plus postage
John Burnet of Barns
John Buchan
This was Buchan's first fully realised, full-length work of fiction. It tells the story of two young noblemen – John Burnet, heir to the ancient house of Barns, the last in a long line of Border reivers, and his cousin, Captain Gilbert Burnet, a dashing, ruthless soldier. Their lifelong rivalry results in treachery, betrayal and a desperate struggle for survival.
$24.95 Plus postage
The Crack: The Best of Glasgow Humour
Michael Munro
Glaswegians have always enjoyed a good laugh, and the home-grown variety best of all. This new and expanded edition of Michael Munro's best-selling book is a hilarious compendium of Glasgow humour. In addition to classics that never fail to amuse, it also features new jokes and stories, showing that the famous Glasgow tongue is as sharp and inventive as it has always been.
$14.95 Plus postage
The Battle for Britain: Scotland and the Independence Referendum
David Torrance
A 300-year-old union. A comprehensive debate. A historic decision. On 18 September 2014, Scots will decide their future: should the country quit the United Kingdom and take control of its own destiny, or should it remain part of what advocates call the most successful political and economic union of modern times? Everyone in the country has a stake in this decision. Now, in this fascinating and insightful new book, David Torrance charts the countdown to the big day, weaving his way through a minefield of claim and counterclaim, and knocking down fictions and fallacies from both Nationalists and Unionists. He plunges into the key questions that have shaped an often-fraught argument, from the future of the pound to the shape of an independent Scottish army. With access to the strategists and opinion-makers on both sides of the political divide, this book goes straight to the heart of the great debate, providing an incisive, authoritative, occasionally trenchant guide to the most dramatic constitutional question of our times - the battle for Britain.
$29.95 Plus postage
After Flodden
Rosemary Goring
Patrick Paniter was James IV's right-hand man, a diplomatic genius who was in charge of the guns at the disastrous battle of Flodden in September 1513 in which the English annihilated the Scots. After the death of his king he is tormented by guilt as he relives the events that led to war. When Louise Brenier, daughter of a rogue sea trader, asks his help in finding out if her brother Benoit was killed in action, it is the least he can do to salve his conscience. Not satisfied with the news he brings, Louise sets off to find out the truth herself, and swiftly falls foul of one of the lawless clans that rule the ungovernable borderlands.
$24.95 Plus postage
Hawick: A History from Earliest Times
Alistair Moffat
As Hawick celebrates the 500th anniversary of the fight at Hornshole, the first stirrings of the defining traditions of the common riding, Alistair Moffat takes the narrative much further back into the mists of prehistory, to the time of the Romans, the coming of the Angles and the Normans. He recounts how Hawick got its name, where the old village stood, who the early barons of Hawick were and then charts the amazing rise of the textile trade, bringing the story right up to the present day. Beneath the familiar streets and closes lies an immense story – the remarkable and unique story of Hawick. If this book shows anything, it shows that Hawick has changed radically over the many centuries since people began to live between the Slitrig and the Teviot. All that experience in one place has created and invented much and the future will turn for the better for a simple reason. Hawick's greatest invention is her people.
$34.95 Plus postage
Lost Inverness
Norman S. Newton
In Lost Inverness, Norman S. Newton scours historical and contemporary works to trace the lost architectural history of the capital of the Highlands, following the city's history from prehistory, through the Dark Ages, the Medieval period, the 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th Centuries, to the present day. This book will appeal to the vibrant Inverness local history community and to exiles everywhere, as it revives memories of shops, offices and public buildings now replaced by a homogenised streetscape.
$34.95 Plus postage
We Are Celtic Supporters
Richard Purden
The ultimate supporter's book for Celtic fans the world over and examines what created the culture, ideas and beliefs around Celtic football club. In new and exclusive interviews with supporters, he explores the Celtic way of life and the rich traditions that give context to much of the support while deconstructing some myths along the way. As a travelling supporter he visits a variety of fans in locations such as New York, Spain, Germany, Italy and various parts of the UK. He talks to well-known Celtic supporters such as James MacMillan about the often misrepresented Catholic roots, to Pat Nevin about why he fell out of love with the club and to a number of well-known rock 'n' rollers such as Noel Gallagher, Bobby Gillespie and Johnny Marr. We Are Celtic Supporters gives the inside story of how major events in Celtic's history have shaped the identity of the fans, and what it really means to follow this unique football club.
$24.95 Plus postage
Robert the Bruce: King of Scots
James Robertson, Jill Calder
In this exciting and visually stunning book, the most talented Scottish novelist of his generation teams up with Jill Calder, whose bold and colourful illustrations are a perfect complement to one of the most dramatic tales in Scottish history. In addition to the big set pieces from the Bruce story – not least of course the Battle of Bannockburn – and the other famous elements– such as the murder of the Red Comyn and Bruce and the spider – book is full of accurate historical detail and imaginative touches which offer a fresh and vital perspective on one of the great heroes of Scottish history.
$29.95 Plus postage
Bannockburn: The Battle for a Nation
Alistair Moffat
Best-selling author Alistair Moffat offers fresh insights into one of the most famous battles in history. As 8,000 Scottish solders, most of them spearmen, faced 18,000 English infantrymen, archers and mounted knights on the morning of Sunday 23 June 1314, many would have that the result a foregone conclusion. But after two days' fighting, the English were routed. Edward II fled to Dunbar and took ship for home, and only one English unit escaped from Scotland intact.
The emphatic defeat of much larger English force was the moment that enabled Scotland to remain independent and pursue a different destiny. This book follows in detail the events of those two days that changed history. In addition to setting the battle within its historical and political context Alistair Moffat captures all the fear, heroism, confusion and desperation of the fighting itself as he describes the tactics and manoeuvres that led to Scottish victory. The result is a very human picture of Bannockburn that recreates the experience not only of the leaders – Edward II and Robert the Bruce – but the ordinary men who fought to the death on both sides.
$29.95 Plus postage
The Cairngorms: A Secret History
Patrick Baker
Secret Histories of the Cairngorms is a series of journeys exploring barely known human and natural stories of the Cairngorm Mountains. It looks at a unique British landscape, its last great wilderness, with new eyes. History combines with travelogue in a vivid account of this elemental scenery. There have been rare human incursions into the Cairngorm plateau, and Patrick Baker tracks them down. He traces elusive wildlife and relives ghostly sightings on the summit of Ben Macdui. From the search for a long-forgotten climbing shelter and the locating of ancient gem mines, to the discovery of skeletal aircraft remains and the hunt for a mysterious nineteenth-century aristocratic settlement, he seeks out the unlikeliest and most interesting of features in places far off the beaten track. The cultural and human impact of this stunning landscape and reflections on the history of mountaineering are the threads which bind this compelling narrative together.
$24.95 Plus postage
With the Argylls: A Soldier's Memoir
Ray Ward
When Ray Ward died in 1999, his sons discovered an old and dusty manuscript in an Afrika Korps ammunition box in the cellar of the family home in Glasgow. These papers contained a collection of their father's memoirs, which detailed his experiences as an infantry officer during the Second World War, when he served in the 1st Battalion of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. His memoirs give vivid accounts of Ray Ward's time in Eritrea, Abyssinia, Egypt, the Western Desert, Sicily and mainland Italy, and bring to life individual episodes of bravery, adventure and danger that characterised the North African and Italian campaigns. Ray Ward was born in Glasgow in 1916. Six months after the outbreak of the Second World War, he joined the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. After the war, he was a semi-professional singer, freelance writer, and school teacher in Glasgow.
$19.95 Plus postage
The Road to Independence?: Scotland in the Balance
Murray Pittock
Is the United Kingdom really as united as its name might suggest? For many people in the UK, increasing nationalism in Scotland raises serious questions about what the UK is, and where its future lies. In The Road to Independence? now available in a revised and expanded Second Edition, Murray Pittock not only gives an account of modern Scottish nationalism, but explains what Scotland's role in Britain has been historically and why it has changed radically in the last 50 years, with the debate about independence coming to the fore.
Foreward by Alex Salmond.
$39.95 Plus postage
Wild Voices: Journeys Through Time in the Scottish Highlands
Mike Cawthorne
The journeys in this book are tales of adventure on foot and by canoe through some of the last wild places in Scotland. Each journey is haunted by the ghost of another writer – Neil Gunn, Iain Thomson, Rowena Farre – who has left behind the trace of his or her own experience of these isolated hills, glens, streams or lochs. Travelling in time as well as space, Mike Cawthorne gains a new perspective on burning contemporary issues such as land ownership, renewable energy, conservation and depopulation. On one level these are exciting and lyrical evocations of wild walks and nature in the raw, like the description of winter treks in one of Mike's earlier books, Hell of a Journey. On another level they explore the meaning of Scotland's surviving wilderness to wanderers in the past and its vital importance to us in the present day.
$24.95 Plus postage
Scotland's Choices: The Referendum and What Happens After It
Iain McLean, Guy Lodge, Jim Gallagher
Following the signing of the Edinburgh Agreement in October 2012, Scotland's voters are promised a referendum on independence in autumn 2014. If they reject independence, the proposed changes from the Calman Commission's review on Scottish Devolution will most likely be put in place. But what will happen after the referendum?
$29.95 Plus postage
Jack Whyte
As modern Scotland chooses its future, Jack Whyte presents his epic adventure about its founding hero, Robert the Bruce, and the battle for the heart of his homeland. Born to a divided kingdom. Destined to unite it. AD 1286: The King of Scots is killed, leaving no heir. Twelve-year-old Robert Bruce, heir to the great House of Bruce, comes of age amid the bitter rivalry of Scotland's most powerful nobles to claim the vacant throne. The boy is schooled in the arts of warfare and the manipulation of ruthless and violent men, but when the Scottish Crown is bestowed upon Bruce's greatest enemies, Robert travels with his family to England, swearing feudal loyalty to King Edward Plantagenet - known as 'Longshanks'. But Longshanks's increasing treachery and his brutal attempts to annexe Scotland see Robert turning renegade and returning to his home country. The Battle of Bannockburn lies ahead and a legend is born. This is the story of one man's resistance, and the bravery of a country that would not yield.
$24.95 Plus postage
Scottish Food Bible
Claire MacDonald
Scottish produce is celebrated the world over. The demand for game, for example, far exceeds what can be supplied, and Scottish cheeses surpass many from mainland Europe. In this book Claire Macdonald celebrates the very best of Scottish ingredients - from oatmeal, dairy produce, meat and fish, fruit and vegetables and even whisky - in 60 imaginative recipes for starters, main course and puddings, as well as for sauces, dressings, baking and other treats. Recipes include: Grilled goat's cheese on stir-fried beetroot with orange and Balsamic vinegar, Chocolate oatmeal biscuits, Iced honey and whisky creams, Herb crepes with smoked salmon, creme fraiche and diced cucumber, Steam-baked cod with lentils, coriander and lime, Venison fillet with green peppercorn, ginger and port sauce.
$14.95 Plus postage
A Grass Bank Beyond: Memories of Mull
Fionna Carothers
In Four Ducks on a Pond, Nicholas the Cat, assisted by novelist Annabel Carothers, observed his family of humans and animals during one year on the Ross of Mull in the early 1950s. More than fifty years later, Annabel's daughter Fionna discovered the manuscript in a desk drawer and, while preparing it for publication, was inspired to expand on the theme. A Grass Bank Beyond covers an extended period before mains services and frequent ferries brought about change to the Ross. Fionna remembers the freedom she enjoyed roaming the island on foot, bicycle, pony, or boat. On family outings she absorbed stories and legends about the island, attended agricultural shows and local concerts, and saw the Queen arrive for an official visit to Mull at the height of a great storm. With warmth and gentle humour she describes the solutions which overcame problems living in this beautiful but remote place.
$19.95 Plus postage
Fatal Rivalry, Flodden 1513
George Goodwin
This book captures the importance of the key players in the story of the Battle of Flodden- the kings and their respective queens, their nobles, diplomats and generals - as the rivalry brought the two countries inexorably to war. Fatefully, it would be an error by James, that most charismatic of commanders, and in the thick of engagement, that would make him the last British king to fall in battle, would condemn the bulk of his nobility to a similarly violent death and settle his country's fate.
$24.95 Plus postage
On the Other Side of Sorrow: Nature and People in the Scottish Highlands
James Hunter
Caring for the environment, developing rural communities and ensuring the survival of minority cultures are all laudable objectives, but they can conflict, and nowhere more so than the Scottish Highlands. As environmentalists strive to preserve the scenery and wildlife of the Highlands, the people who belong there, and who have their own claims on the landscape, question this new threat to their culture that dates back thousands of years. In this sensitive thought-provoking book, James Hunter probes deep into this culture to examine the dispute between Highlanders, who developed a strong environmental awareness a thousand years before other Europeans, and conservationists, whose thinking owes much to the romantic ideals of the nineteenth century. More than that, he also suggests a new way of dealing with the problem, advocating drastic land-use changes and the repopulation of empty glens - an approach which has worldwide implications.
$29.95 Plus postage
The Story of Scotland: Inspired by the Great Tapestry of Scotland
Allan Burnett
Age range 8-12. The brainchild of bestselling author Alexander McCall Smith, historian Alistair Moffat and artist Andrew Crummy, the Great Tapestry of Scotland is an outstanding celebration of 420 million years of Scottish history and achievement. Involving a thousand stitchers who worked on 165 separate panels, the tapestry is one of the biggest community arts projects ever to have been conceived in Scotland. In this book, specifically designed for younger readers, bestselling children's author Allan Burnett tells the story of Scotland through the Tapestry itself - a thing of wonder, full of magic and adventures and mysteries. In addition to opening windows into key moments in history and introducing some of the most significant people who have shaped the nation, the book also celebrates the lives of ordinary Scotsmen and women over the ages. From saints, soldiers and Vikings to kings and queens, Arctic whalers and footballers, this is an amazing journey through the story of Scotland.
$24.95 Plus postage
Lifting the Lid: A Life at Kinloch Lodge, Skye
Baroness Claire Macdonald
Claire Macdonald is one of the best known figures in the culinary world today. In this book Claire looks back over four eventful decades to tell the story of how she, her husband, clan chief Godfrey Macdonald of Macdonald, and their family built up Kinloch from insignificant beginnings in a remote but spectacularly beautiful corner of Skye to the great culinary institution it is today.
$24.95 Plus postage
The Puffer Cookbook
Mandy Hamilton, David Hawson
In 1975 the last surviving Clyde Puffer was found derelict in Whitby Harbour. It was lovingly restored and now plies up and down the West Coast of Scotland throughout the summer every year, carrying thousands of passengers on an idyllic cruise through some of the finest scenery on earth. Part of the experience which has drawn Puffer enthusiasts back again and again are the delicious meals prepared for them in the tiny galley, which has no electricity but limitless supplies of boiling water as befits a steam vessel! Mandy Hamilton and David Hawson have had the inspired idea of combining the wonderfully varied recipes that have been cooked on board over the years with stunning photography of unforgettable land and seascapes, and with David's exuberant paintings of food, fish, flowers, fauna and the wonderful Puffer itself. The result is a unique cookbook that captures the magic of the Clyde and the Hebrides. Lovers of Scotland, anyone who enjoys cooking and the Puffer's innumerable fans will treasure it as the perfect souvenir of happy summer days.
$39.95 Plus postage
A Wild Adventure
Tom Pow
Tom Pow's beautiful, powerful poems examine the remarkable life of Thomas Watling. Watling was born in Dumfries in September 1762 and raised by a long-suffering maiden aunt. Convicted of forging Bank of Scotland one-guinea notes he was sentenced to fourteen years in the recently founded colony of Botany Bay in Australia. The first professional artist to arrive in the colony, Watling was seconded to its Surgeon General (and amateur naturalist) John White. His pioneer paintings of birds, animals and the landscape became some of the principal records of the earliest days of Australia.
$29.95 Plus postage
Picts, Gaels and Scots: Early Historic Scotland
Sally M. Foster
Early historic Scotland was home to a variety of diverse peoples and cultures, all competing for land and supremacy. Yet by the eleventh century it had become a single, unified kingdom, known as Alba, under a stable and successful monarchy. How did this happen, and when? A new and revised edition of a highly regarded book.
$34.95 Plus postage
Highland Warrior: Alasdair MacColla and the Civil Wars
David Stevenson
Highland Warrior is a compelling and dramatic sweep through some of the most eventful years in Scottish history, told in a text both authoritative and highly readable. In 1644 James Grahame, Marquis of Montrose, stormed his way into legend with a series of astonishing victories over the Covenanters. At his side stalked a shadowy but terrible ally - Alasdair MacColla, who had a far more ancient agenda of his own. MacColla's aim was nothing less than the effective destruction of the power of Clan Campbell and its replacement by the older overlordship of the Macdonalds. MacColla was the first - and perhaps the last - great Celtic general of modern times, who lived at a dynamic time which saw the increasingly forgotten and marginalised Gaelic speaking peoples of Scotland and Ireland nearly succeed in regaining control of their lands and destiny. The author argues that it was in fact MacColla and not Montrose who was the true architect of the 'Year of Victories', and that without his Highland ally, Montrose's blunders would have doomed him to disaster, thus presenting a compelling and radical reappraisal of Scottish history during the crucial years of the 1640s.As MacColla's actions were unwittingly to lead his people and culture to ruin, so his own career ended in chaos when, despite leading his own troops in a victorious charge, an incompetent general led him to defeat and death at Knocknanuss in Ireland.
$34.95 Plus postage
Tobermory Cat 1, 2, 3
Debi Gliori
Age range 2 to 4 years. Based on a real cat known to local inhabitants as well as thousands of visitors to Mull, the island's ginger tom and his extraordinary antics have now become world famous. Young children will love this counting book in which the Tobermory Cat wakes up hungry and explores the town in search of something to eat.
$14.95 Plus postage
Isn't This All Bloody?: Scottish Writing from the First World War
Trevor Royle
As in the rest of Britain, the outbreak of hostilities in 1914 was met in Scotland with excitement and relief. In the field of literature too, the initial response was positive. But as the war progressed things changed and a more complex picture emerged - the patriotism and braggadocio was counterpointed by writers who saw the futility and horror of war. In this book, acclaimed military historian Trevor Royle introduces a huge range of literary material - including poetry, prose, fiction, non-fiction, letters and articles - by Scottish writers. Writers include; John Buchan, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Douglas Haig, Ian Hay, Harry Lauder, Hugh MacDiarmaid, Naomi Mitchison, Neil Munro, John Reith, Saki (H.H. Munro).
$34.95 Plus postage
A Drop in the Ocean: The Story of the Isle of Muck
Polly Pullar
A fascinating tale of one of the Hebrides, unique thriving small communities through the colourful anecdotes of Lawrence MacEwen, whose family have owned the island since 1896. A wonderfully benevolent, and eccentric character, his passion and love for the island and its continuing success, has always been of the utmost importance. He has kept diaries all his life and delves deep into them, unveiling a uniquely human story, punctuated with liberal amounts of humour, as well as heart-rending tragedy, always dominated by the vagaries of the sea.
$24.95 Plus postage
Maclean's Whiskypedia: A Gazetteer of Scotch Whisky
Charles Maclean
Why does Scotch whisky taste as it does? Where do the flavours come from? How might they have changed over the years? The flavour of Scotch whisky is as much influenced by history, craft and tradition as it is by science. Whiskypedia explores these influences. Introductory sections provide an historical overview, and an explanation of the contribution made by each stage of the production process. Since it's publication in 2009, Whiskypedia has become the essential handbook for whisky lovers. This new edition includes both the flavour map and Charles MacLean's unique flavour wheel, and is a comprehensive guide to all the distilleries in Scotland.
$29.95 Plus postage
Glasgow Interiors
Helen Kendrick
This book offers a glimpse into a selection of Glasgow's most impressive historic interiors. Featuring 33 of the city's most alluring buildings – both public and private – Glasgow Interiors tells the story of the city's built heritage over the past 150 years. From a dramatic Victorian swimming bath and a glittering art deco restaurant to intricately detailed art nouveau warehouses and imposing Edwardian townhouses in the city's West End, this book demonstrates the extraordinary wealth of interiors that lie behind the façades of Glasgow's buildings.
$44.95 Plus postage
Edinburgh: Mapping the City
Christopher Fleet and Daniel MacCannell
This lavishly illustrated book features 71 maps of Edinburgh which have been selected for the particular stories they reveal about the political, commercial and social life of Scotland and her capital. Many are reproduced in book form for the first time. Together, they present a fascinating insight into how Edinburgh has changed and developed over the last 500 years, and will appeal to all those with an interest in Edinburgh and Scottish history, as well as anyone interested in urban history, architectural history, town planning or the history of cartography.
$59.95 Plus postage
The Swinging Sporran: A Lighthearted Guide to the Basic Steps of Scottish Reels and Country Dances
Andrew Campbell, Roddy Martine
Revised edition. 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 Campbell 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. With further, indisposable hints on the social niceties of reeling, the conventions of the dance and the timetable of the Scottish social season, The Swinging Sporran is a hilarious companion to anyone who ventures into the social world north of the border.
$19.95 Plus postage
The Truth About St Kilda
Donald Gillies
A unique record of the isolated way of life on St Kilda in the early part of the twentieth century, based on seven handwritten notebooks written by the Rev. Donald Gillies, containing reminiscences of his childhood on the island of Hirta. It provides a first-hand account of the living conditions, social structure and economy of the community in the early 1900s, before the evacuation of the remaining residents in 1930. The memoirs describe in some detail the St Kildans' way of life, including religious life and the islanders' diet.
$29.95 Plus postage
ABC, My Grannie Caught a Flea
Ewan McVicar
Ewan McVicar, one of Scotland's best-known storytellers and song writers, has collected songs in over 40 Scottish schools to create this new condensed compendium of the 'hidden' songs of Scots childhood. Adults may lament that today's Scots children do not sing in the playground, but the kids know better. As he demonstrated in his critically acclaimed Doh Ray Me, When Ah Wis Wee, hundreds of hilarious, energetic, surreal, nonsensical and alarming rhymes and songs are still in use, some over 200 years old, others as new as today's TV ads. It is a fascinating account of Scots children's lyric lore and 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.
$19.95 Plus postage
Thistle vs. Rose
Susan Morrison, Albert Jack
A hilarious miscellany of Anglo-Scots rivalry celebrating 700 years of Love, Hatred and Indifference - published to mark the Scottish Independence referendum. It's 700 years since the Scots and English went head-to-head at the Battle of Bannockburn... and we've been winding each other up ever since. Has there ever been a better time to celebrate seven centuries of love, hatred and indifference?
Susan Morrison and Albert Jack offer the view from each side of the border in this hilarious miscellany of Anglo-Scots rivalry, featuring quotes, stories and trivia from Stephen Fry, Bill Bryson, Jimmy Carr, Robert Burns, Billy Connolly, Frankie Boyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, Samuel Johnson and many, many others.
$19.95 Plus postage
Island Wife: Living on the Edge of the Wild
Judy Fairbairns
Island Wife tells the story of Judy, who, at 19, met her Wild Pioneer. He whisked her off into an adventure, a marriage of forty years, and a life on a remote Hebridean island, where the sea-birds fly, the weather is always changing and whales swim in the deep. Along the way she bears five children, learns how to help run a rocky hill farm, a hotel, a recording studio and the first whale watching business in the UK - all the while inventively making fraying ends meet. When her children start to leave home, things fall apart and there is sadness and joy in how she puts things back together. Judy tells her story in a clear and unique voice, in turns funny, unforgettable and intensely moving.
$24.95 Plus postage
Nicola Sturgeon-A Political Life
David Torrance
This short, accessible biography charts the life story of one of Scotland's most prominent politicians and first female and current First Minister. Charting her rise through politics and just what makes this leader tick.
$24.95 Plus postage
The Scots Kitchen-Its Traditions and Recipes
F. Marian McNeill
This is the first new edition of The Scots Kitchen for over thirty years. Beautifully laid out for a new generation of readers and with charming line illustrations by Ian Macintosh, it is introduced by the well-known cookery writer and broadcaster, Catherine Brown. She describes the impact this pioneering book has had on the whole of Scottish cuisine and traces the fascinating life story of Marian McNeill herself. Notes explain how to use the book so that its treasure trove of recipes can be explored in the modern kitchen. As well as being a practical guide to all aspects of Scottish cooking, this is above all a book to be read for pleasure, to refer to and savour again and again
$39.95 Plus postage
Whisky From Small Glasses: A DCI Daley Thriller
Denzil Meyrick
A compelling new series of crime novels, packed with accurate police procedure and gritty, dark humour. DCI Jim Daley is sent from the city to investigate a murder after the body of a woman is washed up on an idyllic beach on the West Coast of Scotland. Far away from urban resources, he finds himself a stranger in a close-knit community. Love, betrayal, fear and death stalk the small town, as Daley investigates a case that becomes more deadly than he could possibly imagine.
$24.95 Plus postage
Vikings A History
Neil Oliver
The Vikings famously took no prisoners, relished cruel retribution, and prided themselves on their blood-thirsty skills as warriors. But their prowess in battle is only a small part of their story, which stretches from their Scandinavian origins to America in the west and as far as Baghdad in the east. As the Vikings did not write their history, we have to discover it for ourselves, and that discovery, as Neil Oliver reveals, tells an extraordinary story of a people who, from the brink of destruction, reached a quarter of the way around the globe and built an empire that lasted nearly 200 years. Drawing on the latest discoveries that have only recently come to light, Neil Oliver goes on the trail of the real Vikings. Where did they emerge from? How did they really live? And just what drove them to embark on such extraordinary voyages of discovery over 1000 years ago? Vikings will explore many of these questions for the first time in an epic story of one of the world's great empires of conquest.
$24.95 Plus postage
A History of Ancient Britain
Neil Oliver
Who were the first Britons, and what sort of world did they occupy? In A History of Ancient Britain Neil Oliver turns a spotlight on the very beginnings of the story of Britain; on the first people to occupy these islands and their battle for survival. There has been human habitation in Britain, regularly interrupted by Ice Ages, for the best part of a million years. The last retreat of the glaciers 12,000 years ago brought a new and warmer age and with it, one of the greatest tsunamis recorded on Earth which struck the north-east of Britain, devastating the population and flooding the low-lying plains of what is now the North Sea. The resulting island became, in time, home to a diverse range of cultures and peoples who have left behind them some of the most extraordinary and enigmatic monuments in the world. Through what is revealed by the artefacts of the past, Neil Oliver weaves the epic story - half a million years of human history up to the departure of the Roman Empire in the Fifth Century AD. It was a period which accounts for more than ninety-nine per cent of humankind's presence on these islands. It is the real story of Britain and of her people.
$29.95 Plus postage
How to Read Scottish Buildings
Daniel MacCannell
Scotland has a huge and diverse amount of built heritage. Yet most writing about this fascinating subject is overly technical – an alphabet soup of L-plans, Z-plans and bartizans. How to Read Scottish Buildings is a unique, informative and refreshing companion to Scottish architecture that dispenses with jargon to enable us to appreciate Scottish buildings with regard to their ages, styles, influences, and functions, as well as the messages that their builders, owners and occupants intended them to convey. Readers will be able to answer for themselves a whole host of questions about function, style, age and building techniques that will make a visit to any historic Scottish building a rewarding and enriching experience.
$24.95 Plus postage
Scottish History Without the Boring Bits
Ian Crofton
As an antidote to more sober accounts of Scotland's history, Ian Crofon offers a colourful chronology of the eccentric, the infamous, the bawdy, the horrific and the hilarious people and events that have spattered across the pages of our nation's story. From the Royal High School riot to Marocco the Wonder Horse, from the War of the One-Eyed Woman to the MP cleared of stealing his ex-mistress's knickers, A History of Scotland Without the Boring Bits includes a host of little-known tales that you won't find in more conventional works of history,
$29.95 Plus postage
Scotland Forever: The Scots Greys at Waterloo
Iain Gale
One of the most iconic incidents of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 was the charge of the Scots Greys, a crack cavalry regiment, into the heart of the French army. It was a moment of supreme daring and horse-riding skill, and Sergeant Ewart of the Greys succeeded in snatching one of Napoleon's coveted eagle standards. However it was also a military blunder. The Greys were quickly surrounded by enemy cavalry and cut to pieces. Of the regiment's 442 officers and men almost half, 198, were killed or injured. In the end the battle was won by the British and their allies and the eagle of the French 45th regiment is now on show in Edinburgh Castle. Iain Gale brings the bare outline of this legendary military exploit to life, giving the stories of the men involved and reconstructing the prelude, the aftermath, life in the Greys and the Battle of Waterloo as a whole. It is a uniquely exciting story of courage and military tactics in the heat of war.
$24.95 Plus postage
Tig and Tag
Benedict Blathwayt
A delightful story featuring two naughty young lambs, for readers aged 3-7. One night at Bay Farm, three lambs are born. The mother sheep has only enough milk for one lamb, so the farmer's wife decides to look after the other two herself. Tig and Tag soon show their mischievous natures, and get into all sorts of trouble. But when a dog comes to threaten the rest of the sheep, Tig and Tag know exactly what to do, and save the day. It's not long before the naughty lambs are in trouble again as they try to avoid getting dipped and sheared. Hiding on an island might seem like fun, but they soon find it isn't, and realize they'd rather be at home after all . . .
$15.95 Plus postage
The Vikings in Islay: The Place of Names in Hebridean Settlement History
Alan Macniven
The Hebridean island of Islay is well-known for its whisky, its wildlife and its association with the MacDonald Lords of the Isles. There would seem to be little reason to dwell on its fate at the hands of marauding Northmen during the Viking Age. Despite a pivotal location on the 'sea road' from Norway to Ireland, there are no convincing records of the Vikings ever having been there. The Vikings in Islay presents a systematic review of around 240 of the island's farm and nature names. The conclusions drawn turn traditional assumptions on their head. The romance of Islay's names, it seems, masks a harrowing tale of invasion, apartheid and ethnic cleansing.
$59.95 Plus postage
Para Handy
Neil Munro
Para Handy has been sailing his way into the affections of generations of Scots since he first weighed anchor in the pages of the Glasgow Evening News in 1905. The master mariner and his crew – Dougie the mate, Macphail the engineer, Sunny Jim and the Tar – all play their part in evoking the irresistible atmosphere of a bygone age when puffers sailed between West Highland ports and the great city of Glasgow. This definitive edition contains all three collections published in the author's lifetime, as well as those that were unpublished and a new story which was discovered in 2001. Extensive notes accompany each story, providing fascinating insights into colloquialisms, place-names and historical events. This volume also includes a wealth of contemporary photographs, depicting the harbours, steamers and puffers from the age of the Vital Spark.
$34.95 Plus postage
Cruachan!The Hollow Mountain
Marian Pallister
'Cruachan!' was the battle cry of the Campbells. In the early 1960s, the invasion of the 3,000 men who hollowed out Argyll's noblest and highest mountain as part of a massive hydroelectric project could have annihilated the local community. Instead, the people of Loch Awe, Dalmally and Taynuilt welcomed the invaders, embraced the project and emerged the winners. Fifty years on, an integrated community still lives under the Hollow Mountain, and the cry 'Cruachan!' signifies a Scottish success story. In this book, based on interviews, media reports, court reports and film archive material, Marian Pallister tells the story of the project – featuring the extraordinary experience of those who worked on the mountain as well as the effects on the local community of one of the biggest civil engineering projects ever to have been undertaken in Scotland. She also considers the long-term effects of the project, looking at how the community was changed by the experience.
$24.95 Plus postage
None Dare Oppose: The Laird, The Beast and the People of Lewis
John Macleod
In 1844 Sir James Matheson bought the Isle of Lewis, awash with hope and good intentions, only, in 1853, to put a rat-faced factor from Tain in sole charge of the estate. Within months Donald Munro, the self-styled 'Chamberlain of the Lewis', had seized practically every office of civic, legal and industrial power in the community and for the next two decades held the entire island under an absolute reign of terror. In None Dare Oppose, John Macleod paints a stunning portrait of island society in Victorian Scotland held under a capricious and feudal oppression – until one quiet, decent corner of that island fearlessly rose against the subjugation, marching on Stornoway to a gripping court-room finale. It is an astonishing and powerful tale, beautifully accomplished and compellingly told.
$24.95 Plus postage
On Foot Through Clydesdale
Iain C. Lees
First published in 1932, Iain C. Lees's book On Foot through Clydesdale is a fascinating and delightful introduction to the history, folklore, traditions and landscape of Lanarkshire – a county often assumed to have been blighted by collieries, steelworks, factories and other industrial enterprises. Yet Clydesdale has areas of extraordinary natural beauty, including the world-famous Falls of Clyde, considered to be one of the most romantic spots in the country. Clydesdale's past is also full of historical resonances – the Romans were much in evidence there; William Wallace lived there; Covenanters hid there; and the area was of crucial importance during the Industrial Revolution. Iain C. Lees explores the well-known parts as well as the hidden gems of Clydesdale in this delightful, nostalgic travel classic.
$24.95 Plus postage
Mary Queen of Scots
Antonia Fraser
Mary Queen of Scots passed her childhood in France and married the Dauphin to become Queen of France at the age of sixteen. Widowed less than two years later, she returned to Scotland as Queen after an absence of thirteen years. Her life then entered its best known phase: the early struggles with John Knox, and the unruly Scottish nobility; the fatal marriage to Darnley and his mysterious death; her marriage to Bothwell, the chief suspect, that led directly to her long English captivity at the hands of Queen Elizabeth; the poignant and extraordinary story of her long imprisonment that ended with the labyrinthine Babington plot to free her, and her execution at the age of forty-four.
$29.95 Plus postage
Orkney: A Historical Guide
Caroline Wickham-Jones
Orkney lies only 20 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 stone structures. As a result, the islands boast a large number of exceptionally well-preserved remains, which help us to form a detailed picture of Orcadian life through the ages. In this updated edition of her best-selling book, Caroline Wickham-Jones, who has worked extensively on Orcadian sites for many years, introduces the history of the islands and provides a detailed survey of the principal places and sites of historic interest.
$24.95 Plus postage
Bake with Maw Broon
Always up to her elbows in flour or stirring bubbling pots of homemade jam, Maw Broon has been baking cracking cakes, braw biscuits and perfect pastry for her hungry family for years. And now, in BAKE with Maw Broon, she finally shares her secrets...Following on from the bestselling Maw Broon's Cookbook, Maw will show you how to bake a mouth watering collection of sweet favourites, from shortbread to sugar craft, from Dundee cake to Edinburgh tart, and from black bun to clootie dumpling. Beautifully designed and easy to follow, Bake with Maw Broon is the definitive guide to traditional baking for all the family.
$34.95 Plus postage
Maw Broon's But An' Ben Cookbook
A cookbook with a difference, this nostalgic collection of recipes dates back to 1940 and is entirely different, but just as good as, the first Maw Broon cookbook. Funny, inventive and full of humour and comic strips from "The Broons", with witty comments from the family members throughout, this second cookbook has more balance with both sweet, traditional, recipes as well as recipes with lighter, healthier ingredients.
$34.95 Plus postage
Maw Broon's Afternoon Tea Book
Maw Broon and the Glebe Street Afternoon Tea Ladies bring you the best of their Scottish recipes for fancy cakes and dainty savouries. They've also written their very own (idiosyncratic) advice on the etiquette of afternoon tea for their friends and family, at home and abroad in the Commonwealth and Empire. This is the perfect gift, full of Broons humour and delicious Scottish recipes to enable you to host your own afternoon tea party - or just conduct yourself with manners when you're in a posh tearoom. All the main recipes are braw.
$24.95 Plus postage
Scotland's Last Frontier-A Journey Along the Highland Line
Alistair Moffat
The Highland Line is the most profound internal boundary in Britain. First recognised by Agricola in the first century AD (parts of its most northerly portion mark the furthest north the Romans got) it divides the country both geologically and culturally, signalling the border between Highland and Lowland, Celtic and English-speaking, crofting and farming. In Scotland's Last Frontier best-selling author Alistair Moffat makes a
journey of the imagination, tracing the route of the Line from the River Clyde through Perthshire and the North-east. In addition to exploring the huge importance of the Line over almost two thousand years, he also shows how it continues to influence life and attitudes in 21st-century Scotland. The result is a fascinating book, full of history and anecdote, and featuring an introduction by James Naughtie.
$24.95 Plus postage
Scotland: A History from Earliest Times
Alistair Moffat
From the Ice Age to the recent Scottish Referendum, historian and author Alistair Moffat explores the history of the Scottish nation. As well as focusing on key moments in the nation's history such as the Battle of Bannockburn and the Jacobite Risings, Moffat also features other episodes in history that are perhaps less well documented. From prehistoric timber halls to inventions and literature, Moffat's tale explores the drama of battle, change, loss and invention interspersed with the lives of ordinary Scottish folk, the men and women who defined a nation.
$59.95 Plus postage
Lismore-The Great Garden
Robert Hay
This island of Lismore boasts a remarkably rich heritage, both in terms of historic monuments and of an unbroken tradition of Gaelic culture. From their first sight of Tirefour Broch, dominating approaches from the mainland, visitors to the Isle of Lismore can explore an outstanding heritage of monuments to the past – Bronze Age cairns, medieval castles, the Cathedral of Argyll, carved graveslabs, deserted townships and watermills, not to mention a Stevenson lighthouse. Because of its strategic position at the mouth of the Great Glen and its fertility, the island played an important part in the prehistory and early history of the West Highlands and Islands. In this book, Robert Hay tells the story of Lismore from earliest times to the present day, providing fascinating insights into the island's history, as well as that of the whole area.
$24.95 Plus postage
The Magicians of Scotland
Ron Butlin
Following on from the runaway success of The Magicians of Edinburgh (now in its sixth reprint), renowned poet and novelist Ron Butlin conjures up Scotland's past, present and future in this new collection. From Skara Brae and the Roman invasion to the independence referendum and beyond, the former Edinburgh Makar (Poet Laureate) explores what Scotland means to itself and to the outside world. With his customary wit and insight, he takes a good hard look at some of its magicians – from James Hutton to Professor Peter Higgs, from Robert Burns to Dame Elizabeth Blackadder and even Tony Blair. Underlying all these poems is a deep love for Scotland's uniqueness, and its magic!
$24.95 Plus postage
The Little House by the Sea
Benedict Blathwayt
A delightful story for readers aged 3-7. Fisherman Sam McFin moves into a little house by the sea with his dog, Jock. Nobody has lived there for a long time, but the house is home to lots of others – sheep, sparrows, rabbits, mice and a stray cat. What will happen to them when a human wants to live there too? They needn't worry, as all are welcome. Sam and Jock are soon used to their new home, and go out every day to catch fish. They also take people on a trip to Smuggler's Island. Join them as they head to the island and spot seals, seagulls, puffins and arrive at the Smuggler's Cave, where Sam tells them stories of pirates and treasure.
$16.95 Plus postage
Set in Stone-The Geology and Landscapes of Scotland
Alan McKirdy
The land that was to become Scotland has travelled across the globe over the last 3,000 million years – from close to the South Pole to its current position. During these travels, there were many continental collisions, creating mountain belts as high as the present-day Himalayas. The Highlands of Scotland were formed in this way. Our climate too has changed dramatically over the last 3 billion years from the deep freeze of the Ice Age to scorching heat of the desert. And within a relatively short time – geologically speaking, we will plunge back into another ice age. In Set in Stone, Alan McKirdy traces Scotland's amazing geological journey, explaining for the non –specialist reader why the landscape looks the way it does todays. He also explores Scots and those working in Scotland have played a seminal role in the development of the science of geology, understanding Earth processes at a local and global scale.
$24.95 Plus postage
The Railway Atlas of Scotland: Two Hundred Years of History in Maps
David Spaven
The rich diversity of Scotland's railway network has never before been the subject of a specialist atlas. This book showcases 181 topographical and railway maps, telling the story of the country's railways from the early nineteenth century to the present day. Researched and written by David Spaven – who co-wrote the best-selling Mapping the Railways on the history of Britain's rail network – this beautiful atlas allows the reader to understand the bigger story of the effects of the railway on the landscape and the impact of Scotland's distinctive geography on the pattern of railway development over a period of nearly two hundred years. The unique map selection is supported by an informative commentary on key cartographic, geographical and historical features, and will appeal not just to railway enthusiasts and those who appreciate the beauty of maps, but also to readers fascinated by the role of railways in Scottish history.
$69.95 Plus postage
Robyn Young
First published on the 700th anniversary of the pivotal event in Scottish history, the epic story of Robert Bruce comes to a climax at the Battle of Bannockburn. Robert has achieved his great ambition to be crowned King of Scotland, but in doing so has provoked the wrath of the new king of England, Edward II. Raising the feared dragon banner, Edward marches north, determined to recapture the kingdom. But the English are not Robert's only enemies, and he is forced to flee after murdering his great rival John Comyn, splitting the kingdom apart. Robert has a crown, but no country, the will to lead, but no real authority. Fighting from hidden strongholds and the Western Isles, with the support of a few brave men and the alluring noblewoman, Christiana, Robert drives towards Bannockburn where an epic confrontation with Edward will decide the future of Scotland.
$24.95 Plus postage
The People's Friend Annual 2016
Packed with feel-good short stories and makes a perfect gift! 25 brand-new short stories as well as favourite "Friend" authors.
Hard cover Annual also includes watercolour paintings of British beauty spots also seasonal poems.
$22.95 Plus postage
The Beano Annual 2016
If you like nice stories about nice boys and girls doing nice things, then this isn't the book you're looking for. If you like to see teachers getting splatted with tomatoes, policemen being chased by gnashing dogs and grown-ups getting exactly what they deserve, then this is the book for you. Join Dennis the Menace, Roger the Dodger, Minnie the Minx and The Bash Street Kids for mischief, mayhem and menacing in The Beano Annual 2016 - the best Beano Annual ever!
$24.95 Plus postage
The Dandy Annual 2016
Stretch those laughter muscles as The Dandy Annual returns for another side-splitting serving of jolly japes, crafty schemes and wizard wheezes! Catch up with Desperate Dan, Winker Watson, Corporal Clott, Keyhole Kate, The Jocks and the Geordies and more! Loved by the young and the young-at-heart alike, The Dandy Annual is a book for the whole family to enjoy.
$24.95 Plus postage
Sunset Song (Film edition)
Lewis Grassic Gibbon
Latest release to coincide with the film release. Faced with the choice between her harsh farming life and the seductive but distant world of books and learning, the spirited Chris Guthrie decides to remain in her rural community. But as the devastation of the First World War leaves her life—and community—in tatters, she must draw strength from what she loves and endure, like the land she loves so intensely. Brutal and beautiful, passionate and powerful, Sunset Song is a moving portrait of a declining way of life and an inspirational celebration of the human spirit. And in Chris Guthrie, Grassic Gibbon has given us one of literature's most unforgettable heroines.
$19.95 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.
$29.95 Plus postage
Scottish gaelic in Twelve Weeks:With Audio CD
Roibeard O Maolalaigh , Iain MacAonghuis
Scottish Gaelic in Twelve Weeks has been written both as a self-tuition course for beginners and also for use within the classroom. Each lesson in the book contains some essential points of grammar explained and illustrated, exercises, a list of new vocabulary (with a guide to pronunciation, using the International Phonetics Alphabet), and an item of conversation. 3 CD's with book for phonetics and mini Scottish Gaelic-English dictionary.
$59.95 Plus postage
Tales of the Morar Highlands
Alasdair Roberts
Beyond Fort William, on the road to the Isles, lies Morar, the 'Highlands of the Highlands' and centre of the 'Rough Bounds', that wild, desolate but uniquely beautiful part of Scotland that was once the homeland of the Clan Macdonald of Clanranald, Lords of the Isles. Inspired by bards, writers and images of the past, Alasdair Roberts has collected and revitalised a huge number of traditional tales which transport the reader to the heart of this remote and beguiling landscape.
$24.95 Plus postage
Tracing Your Scottish Ancestors: The Official Guide 6th Ed
National Archives of Scotland
With 5 million people in Scotland, and over 30 million of Scottish descent scattered over the globe, it is not surprising that research into Scottish family history is so popular—especially now that huge amounts of information on family origins are available online. If you are one of those who wish to trace their roots in Scotland, this major new edition of the official guide is the one book you must have.
$29.95 Plus postage
Arras, 1917: The Journey to Railway Triangle
Walter Reid
Arras, 1917 is a biography of the author's uncle, Ernest Reid, who died in 1917, an officer in the Black Watch, of wounds sustained in the Battle of Arras. This is the true and poignant account of a young Scottish officer, pinned down and fatally wounded in No-man's land on the first day of the Battle of Arras, on Easter Monday 1917. The gripping narrative creates a mood of sombre inevitability.
$19.95 Plus postage
The Celtic Place-Names of Scotland
W.J Watson
This is the only paperback edition of this classic work, which is essential reading for anyone interested in Scottish history and the derivations of place names the length and breadth of the country. Many place-names date before the arrival of the Celts (the name 'Tay', for example, is almost certainly thousands of years old), and each successive group of invaders and settlers Britons, Dalriadic Scots, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, Normans, Picts and many others constantly adding and enriching, leaving their own unique story in the landscape.
The book is divided into sections dealing with early names, territorial divisions, general surveys of areas; it also looks at saints, church terms and river names. For the scholar, and indeed anyone interested in the subject, this book is a prime reference point which has never been surpassed.
$39.95 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.
$24.95 Plus postage
The Man Who Gave Away His Island
Ray Perman
In 1938 John Lorne Campbell bought the Isle of Canna. He wanted to preserve part of the traditional Gaelic culture and show that efficient farming methods could be compatible with wildlife conservation and sustainability. But his determination to get the island forced him to pay more than he could afford and he spent the next ten years burdened by debt and often close to despair. This is the story of a remarkable man and his triumph over adversity, bank managers and bureaucrats to fulfil his dream.
$29.95 Plus postage
A History of Scotland
Neil Oliver
Scotland is one of the oldest countries in the world with a vivid and diverse past. Yet the stories and figures that dominate Scottish history - tales of failure, submission, thwarted ambition and tragedy - often badly serve this great nation, overshadowing the rich tapestry of her intricate past. Historian Neil Oliver presents a compelling new portrait of Scottish history, peppered with action, high drama and centuries of turbulence that have helped to shape modern Scotland. Along the way, he takes in iconic landmarks and historic architecture; debunks myths surrounding Scotland's famous sons; recalls forgotten battles; charts the growth of patriotism; and explores recent political developments, capturing Scotland's sense of identity and celebrating her place in the wider world.
$29.95 Plus postage
Place-Names of Scotland
Iain Taylor
Scotland is a land of many languages – Gaelic, Norse, Pictish, Brythonic, Anglo Saxon, Modern English and some from before recorded time. The result for the visitor is a confusing series of overlapping layers of place names, difficult to understand and often more difficult to pronounce. From Eass Forss (Waterfall Waterfall!) to Edinburgh (The Fort of Eidyn) for the first time in one place we have a simple reckoner to where means what with derivations. Packed with information this is an essential short guide by an expert to the names that shaped and still shape our history.
$24.95 Plus postage
The Scottish Enlightenment
Alexander Broadie
The Scottish Enlightenment was one of the truly great intellectual and cultural movements of the world. Its achievements in science, philosophy, history, economics, and many other disciplines were immense; and its influence has hardly, if at all, been dimmed in the intervening two centuries.
This book, written for the general reader, considers the achievement of this most astonishing period of Scottish history. It attends not only to the ideas that made the Scottish Enlightenment such a wondrous moment but also to the people themselves who generated these ideas – men such as David Hume and Adam Smith who are still read for the sake of the light they shed on contemporary issues.
$29.95 Plus postage
Staying On Past the Terminus
Robert Douglas
Glasgow 1961. It is ten years since we last visited the close at 18 Dalbeattie Street in Maryhill. The stalwarts are still there...Ella, Drena, Rhea and 'Granny' Thomson (86). Irma the German war bride speaks fluent Scots nowadays. Well, 'Fluent' if you were brought up in the same close as the Broons and Oor Wullie. Glasgow's beloved trams still run on the Maryhill Road. But not for long. There will not be a tramcar left in Glasgow by the end of next year. The new tenant, Frank Galloway knows all about this - he's a driver. The other new arrival is Ruby Baxter who impresses no one with her attitude - as Granny Thomson says "She's no better than she ought to be, that yin!" Robert Douglas brings his usual blend of laughter and tears to this latest novel and his many fans will not be disappointed.
$24.95 Plus postage
There's Only One Dixie Deans
Dixie Dean
Dixie Deans is a true Celtic football club legend. Between 1971 and 1976, he scored 132 goals in 184 games – a tally that earned him a place in the pantheon of greats to have worn the famous green and white hoops – and was part of the great Celtic team that swept to nine consecutive Scottish league titles and dominated a golden era for our national game.Dixie cemented his status in football folklore by becoming the first Scottish player to hit hat-tricks in two cup finals, but he is remembered just as much for the special bond he struck with the fans – ties that remain as strong today, exactly 40 years after he first signed for Celtic from Motherwell. Now Dixie, a member of the Celtic Hall of Fame, opens his scrapbook of memories on a lifetime of adventures in the beautiful game of football.
$39.95 Plus postage
Scotland: Mapping the Nation HB
Margaret Wilkes
Whilst documents and other written material are obvious resources that help shape our view of the past, maps too can say much about a nation's history. Compiled by three experts who have spent their lives working with maps, Scotland: Mapping the Nation offers a fascinating and thought-provoking perspective on Scottish history which is beautifully illustrated with complete facsimiles and details of hundreds of the most significant manuscript and printed maps from the National Library of Scotland and other institutions, including those by Timothy Pont, Joan Blaeu and William Roy, amongst many others.
$74.95 Plus postage
The Appin Murder: The Killing of the Red Fox
Seamus Carney
The wild weather having delayed the proceedings, it was five o'clock before the blacksmith hung the body in chains and the onlookers turned for home through the gloaming. Margaret probably stayed overnight at Ballachulish House. She had bought sugar and a quarter pound of tea on the previous day, presumably to serve to sympathisers at the wake. The laird had layed in six bottles of wine and spirits and a barrel of coal. No doubt his fires burned late as the mourners drank to the memory of the man whose corpse was visible from the windows. With its dark undercurrents of Jacobitism, intrigue, greed and revenge this incident has caught the popular imagination. Theories abound as to who actually fired the fatal shot at Colin Campbell of Glenure and brought down the wrath of Clan Campbell on the intransigent Stewarts of Appin. The murder inspired Stevenson's Kidnapped and Catriona. Its consequences sent tremors into the highest reaches of Scottish society. Seamus Carney's account remains the definitive account of this still baffling mystery.
$19.95 Plus postage
Around the Peat Fire
Calum Smith
The year was 1912; the date the twenty-ninth of May. In a little geo at the village of Shawbost on the Atlantic coast of Lewis in the Western Isles, a group of crofter women were gathering seaweed. The inward surge of an ataireachd bhuan ('the everlasting swell') swirled up to their feet. Beneath the outward heave of the receding water the shingle grumbled. It was on this day that Calum Smith was born, and his mother was one of those working on the beach. While his childhood was a happy one, it was one of very considerable poverty, and his story gives a unique insight into life on Lewis through the First World War and to the opening of the Second. Full of humour and life, his memoirs are a celebration of a still largely Gaelic culture and society in the throes of great change. His boyhood and education took place in and around Stornoway (at Shawbost and Laxdale) and the book is peopled with characters and families well known in Lewis to this day. It is also the story of an island and community at a time now at the edge of memory and about which little is written. This extended anthology edition has been supplemented with numerous articles by Calum Smith, making it the definitive collection of his work.
$24.95 Plus postage
Moidart-Among the Clanranalds
Charles MacDonald
When Charles MacDonald wrote this history of the great family of the Clanranalds from Moidart, he was able not only to draw on the works of professional historians, but on living local tradition and his own observations from over quarter of a century. With an instinct for a good anecdote, an eye for detail and a warm and gentle humour, he produced a minor classic.
This modern edition has notes of explanation, a guide to the places, people and families mentioned in the text, contemporary illustrations, maps and a family tree.
$24.95 Plus postage
Old and New World Highland Bagpiping
John G. Gibson
The result of over thirty years' oral fieldwork among the last of the Gaels in Cape Breton, as well as an exhaustive synthesis of Scottish archival sources, this book shows that traditional community bagpiping in the Old and New World Gaidhealtachdan was, and for a long time remained, the same. John Gibson explores the distortions introduced by the tendency to interpret the written record from the perspective of modern, post-eighteenth-century bagpiping.
$44.95 Plus postage
The Final Curtsey: A Royal Memoir
Margaret Rhodes
This is the intimate and revealing autobiography of Margaret Rhodes, the first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II. Margaret was born into the Scottish aristocracy, her home frequently visited by royalty. She was a bridesmaid at the wedding of her cousin, Princess Elizabeth to Prince Philip, and three years later the King and Queen attended her own wedding. In 1990 she was appointed as a Lady-in-Waiting to the Queen Mother, acting also as her companion. The Queen Mother regarded Margaret Rhodes as her 'third daughter', and she has been extremely close to her cousins the Queen and Princess Margaret throughout their lives.
$19.95 Plus postage
The Road to Lisbon
Martin Greig , Charles McGarry
In 1967 Celtic manager Jock Stein stepped from the tunnel of Lisbon's Estádio Nacional and took up a position pitch-side as his team of home-grown journeymen trotted out to face Inter Milan, the charismatic superstars of Italian football, in the European Cup final. Celtic were a team forged in Stein's own image, steeled with a relentless industry and integrity by their inspirational manager whose character had, in turn, been honed by the horrors of the deep dark of the Lanarkshire coalfields. Martin Greig and Charlie McGarry's extraordinary novel delves to the very heart of that incredible season through the eyes of Stein – as he plots and plans and drags his team to the very pinnacle of European club football – and those of Tom, an idealistic young fan from the East End of Glasgow, whose dreams of life beyond the decaying slums of the Gorbals are inextricably tied to those of his heroes. The Road to Lisbon is a novel of hopes and dreams, of self discovery and triumph over adversity.
$19.95 Plus postage
Norman MacLean
In Contracts, the concluding novel of his highly acclaimed comedy trilogy, Norman Maclean writes with insight and élan about the birth and horrible growing pains of a new creature: Gaelic television. Get to know the greedy – mainly male – apparatchiks of the Gaelic Broadcasting Fund and all the deluded and vain hustlers who are in a frenzy to join the feeding trough of public money provided by the government's injection of £10 million into Gaelic broadcasting. Norman Maclean's brilliant and hilarious satire is another virtuoso performance on the perennial themes of greed, lust and folly.
$19.95 Plus postage
Butt and Ben: A Highland Boyhood
Donald Sutherland
Donald Sutherland grew up in Oban at the beginning of the twentieth century. In this charming and perceptive memoir, he reminisces about his early life there, painting a detailed picture of those halcyon years just before the outbreak of the First World War. His privileged upbringing gave him a unique perspective on the upper stratum of society and their concerns and pastimes, and his book abounds with amusing incident and eccentric personalities: the American visitor who mistook young Donald's kilt for a skirt and thought he was a girl, the sharp-shooting Princess Radziwill who tried to bag a Highland goat (which later suffered at the hands of a none-too skilled taxidermist) and the clan Maclaine heir who ran off to the London stage are just some of the characters which feature.
$19.95 Plus postage
Hebridean Sharker
Tex Geddes
In Hebridean Sharker Tex Geddes describes his exploits during the 1950s as a hunter of basking sharks in the waters of the Minch, between the Inner and Outer Hebrides. Using an adapted whaling harpoon, he and his crew stalked these huge fish often in perilous conditions, the liver of which is a valuable source of oil. Always a maverick, before World War II Geddes had been a boxer and a rumrunner to Newfoundland. During the war he established a reputation as an expert knife-thrower and bayonet fencer and served in the Special Forces with Gavin Maxwell (author of Ring of Bright Water). He combined the hazardous pursuit of sharks with crewing the local lifeboat, ring-net fishing, lobstering, deer-stalking and salmon poaching. He went on to purchase the tiny island of Soay, where he lived with his wife Jeanne, continued to hunt sharks and became the Laird. His story is full of adventures and fantastic descriptions of a seagoing life in the islands. It has become a Hebridean classic.
$29.95 Plus postage
Renfrewshire: A Scottish County's Hidden Past
Derek Alexander
Renfrewshire is largely ignored in the general studies of Scotland's cultural heritage. In Renfrewshire, Derek Alexander redresses the balance and for the first time provides an overview of the archaeological evidence for the county, which includes the Local Authority Areas of Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire and Inverclyde.
Surprisingly, close examination reveals a wide variety of sites and artefacts that relate to the full range of prehistoric and historic human activity in Scotland. From the first flints left by the Mesolithis hunter-gatherers to the imposing remains of Renfrewshire's industrial past, which are among some of Scotland's earliest examples.
$34.95 Plus postage
Highland Homespun
Margaret Leigh
In May 1933 Margaret Leigh took over the tenancy of Achnabo farm, in a beautiful corner of the West Highlands overlooking the isle of Skye. In this unsentimental yet exquisitely written book, she recounts a year of farming life there, from the burning of the land and ploughing in March, through planting and sowing in April to haymaking and harvesting in September. Incidental details – such as a visit to the smithy, the arrival of some new bulls and the annual journey of the cows to the summer shielings – provide fascinating insights into farming life. Local characters and customs feature too, adding another rich dimension to this reflective and poignant memoir of a world now vanished forever.
$24.95 Plus postage
Crappit Heids for Tea: Recollections of a Highland Keeper's Daughter
Chris Fletcher, Annie Tindley
Sutherland is one of the most ruggedly beautiful and sparsely populated parts of Scotland. In the nineteenth century, the Duke of Sutherland set about improving his landholdings to make them more productive by building lodges for sporting tenants who came to enjoy the summer fishing and shooting grouse and deer. In the 1870s some 3,000 acres of land were reclaimed at Shinness. A lodge was built there in 1882 and allocated some 2,500 acres of moorland for grouse and grazing, together with the fishings on Loch Shin and its rivers. One of the first keepers at the estate was John Fraser. His daughter, Iby, became a teacher at Lairg School. In the 1970s, long after the Fletcher family had taken on Shinness Estate, Iby wrote down some recollections of her early life for Mrs Fletcher's interest. In this book provides a fascinating picture into life in and around the lodge during the early part of the twentieth century. In addition to her charming and insightful descriptions of everyday life – from, cooking framing and gamekeeping to medicine, schooling and childhood games – she also talks of events which had a profound effect on communities everywhere, including the coming of the motor car and the First World War.
$24.95 Plus postage
Set on a Hill: A Strategic View Over Scottish History
Robin Bell
Set on a Hill is an engrossing and entertaining book which looks at the broad sweep of Scotland's history from the perspective of just one small Scottish town – Auchterarder. The story begins in the first century AD, when the Strathearn area lay near the northern frontier of the Roman empire, and continues through the age of Picts, Scots and Britons and Vikings to the coming of Christianity and the medieval Church. Robin Bell then traces Auchterarder's history through the Renaissance, Enlightenment, the Agricultural and Industrial revolutions, the improvements of the Victorian era, the two world wars and ends in 2005, when the world-famous Gleneagles hotel hosted the G8 summit.
$37.95 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.
$24.95 Plus postage
Hell of a Journey: On Foot Through the Scottish Highlands in Winter
Mike Cawthorne
Hell of a Journey describes what is arguably the last great journey to be undertaken in Britain: the entire Scottish Highlands on foot in one winter. On one level it is a vivid and evocative account of a remarkable trek – never attempted before – on another it celebrates the uniqueness of the Highlands, the scenery and ecology of 'the last wilderness in Europe'. The challenge Mike Cawthorne set himself was to climb all 135 of Scotland's 1,000-metre peaks, which stretch in an unbroken chain through the heart of the Highlands, from Sutherland to the Eastern Cairngorms, down to Loch Lomond, and west to Glencoe.
$29.95 Plus postage
Whisky Galore
Compton Mackenzie
It's 1943 and the war has brought rationing to the Hebridean islands of Great and Little Todday. When food is in short supply, it is bad enough, but when the whisky runs out, it looks like the end of the world. Morale is at rock bottom. George Campbell needs a wee dram to give him the courage to stand up to his mother and marry Catriona. The priest, the doctor and, of course, the landlord at the inn are all having a very thin time of it. There's no conversation, no jollity, no fun – until a shipwreck off the coast brings a piece of extraordinary good fortune.
$24.95 Plus postage
Auld Enemies: The Scots and the English
David Ross
For almost a thousand years, Scotland and England have been neighbour nations. For more than half that time, they were foreign countries, often at war. Four hundred years ago, they began to share a monarchy; three hundred years ago, they joined in a United Kingdom. A new concept of 'Britishness' arose, but for most purposes Scots remained Scots and English remained English, and the old sense of rivalry remained. In olden times, a war of words and propaganda accompanied the fighting. As the countries got to know each other better and the fighting died down, the verbal exchanges continued, and became sharper, more wide-ranging, and funnier. This book provides a unique record of the long contest of verbal warfare across the Border, from its beginnings right up to the present day. Auld Enemies will be a useful handbook that can be enjoyed whichever side you're on.
$14.95 Plus postage
The Glasgow Smile
Allan Brown
Few cities can rival Glasgow for their contribution to the history of British humour. From the gladiatorial atmosphere of the old Empire Theatre, dubbed the 'graveyard of English comics', to the front-page controversies of Frankie Boyle today, the city and its citizens have trademarked their own two-fisted brand of confrontational, but always hilarious, comedy. In this, the first dedicated overview, Allan Brown gives a historical, kaleidoscopic and encyclopedic account of the people, places, performers and procedures that have made Glasgow a by-word for a certain kind of rough, tough quick-wittedness. Every facet of Glaswegian life is considered, viewed through the prism of the city's sense of humour; from the showbiz renown of Billy Connolly and Chic Murray, Kevin Bridges and Boyle, to the occasions the lighter side was seen in Glasgow's history of television, film, literature, football, law, science, academe, crime and art. Through profiles, criticism, tales and anecdotes, The Glasgow Smile – fittingly also the term for infamous Glasgow gang punishment – is a treasury of the city's past and present, and of its own very particular approach to the absurd.
$29.95 Plus postage
A Dictionary of Scottish Phrase and Fable
Ian Crofton
This authoritative, entertaining and eminently browsable reference book, arranged in easily accessible A–Z format, is an absorbing and imaginative feast of Scottish lore, language, history and culture, from the mythical origins of the Scots in Scythia to the contemporary Scotland of the Holyrood parliament and Trainspotting. Here Tartan Tories rub shoulders with Torry girls, the Misery from the Manse exchanges a nod with Stalin's Granny, Thomas the Rhymer and the Wizard of Reay walk hand in hand with Bible John, and the reader is taken for a rollercoaster ride round Caledonia, from Furry Boots City to the Costa Clyde, via the Cold Shoulder of Scotland, the West Lothian Alps and the Reykjavik of the South. The result is a breathtaking and quirky celebration of Scotland, packed with fact and anecdote.
$59.95 Plus postage
Piping Traditions of the Isle of Skye
Bridget Mackenzie
A follow-on to three earlier books on piping traditions this book covers the Isle of Skye. There is so much material on piping in Skye that it merits a book of its own. Written for all piping enthusiasts, this is not an academic study but instead aims to pass on the piping lore that used to be handed down with the music to piping pupils, but is no longer. Written in a light and readable style, the book takes a wide sweep of the pipers, places and piping stories of the island, including notes on the background of all the tunes prescribed for the Skye competitions, discussion of the MacCrimmon and MacArthur schools, even Simon Fraser's MacCrimmon traditions preserved in Australia, and entertaining anecdotes about a host of Skye players. This book is essential reading for any piper who wants to know about the home of piping.
$59.95 Plus postage
When Piping Was Strong: Tradition, Change and the Bagpipe in South Uist
Joshua Dickson
Based on documented history and insights of local performers looking back on a lifetime of music making, Joshua Dickson examines the role of piping and pipers within the wider framework of Hebridean custom and how it has changed over the course of time.
By considering historical and cultural contexts such as the patronage of the old Clanranald aristocracy, the grass-roots traditions of song, story and dance and the legacy of 'improved' notions of transmissions and performance in the piping world, a picture emerges of dynamic musical tradition which has adapted and survived through centuries of sweeping social change.
Overall, this book is a record of the history and aesthetics of the Great Highland bagpipe in the southern Outer Hebrides from as much as the internal Gaelic perspective as it is possible for an outsider to comprehend. Interviews with local sources were conducted in Gaelic and consideration is given to the context of traditional Gaelic social culture. It therefore fills a gap in Scottish ethnology and piping history often neglected through a lack of impetus among Gaelic-speaking scholars.
$59.95 Plus postage
Piping Traditions of the Inner Isles: The West Coast of Scotland
Bridget Mackenzie
A follow-on to two earlier books on piping traditions this book covers the Inner Isles from Arran to Raasay, excluding Skye, which is covered in a separate book. Written for all piping enthusiasts, this is not an academic study but instead aims to pass on the piping lore that used to be handed down with the music to piping pupils, but is no longer. Written in a light and readable style, the book takes a wide sweep of the pipers, places and piping stories of the islands, including the rich piping tradition in Tiree, the Rankins piping school on Mull, legendary figures such as jovial Andrew MacNeil in Colonsay and the great Mackay pipers of Raasay. Notes on the tunes also give guidance to the mood of a piece. This book is essential reading for any piper who wants to know about the background of the music.
$59.95 Plus postage
The Wars of the Bruces
Colm McNamee
The Bruces of fourteenth-century Scotland were formidable and enthusiastic warriors. Former studies of this period of history tend to concentrate on events in Scotland, but England's war with Robert Bruce profoundly affected the whole of the British Isles. Scottish raiders struck deep into the heartlands of Yorkshire and Lanarkshire; Edward Bruce was proclaimed King of Ireland and came close to subduing that country, and The Isle of Man was captured and a Welsh sea-port raided. In the North Sea, the Scots allied with German and Flemish pirates to cripple England's vital wool trade and disrupt her war effort.
$34.95 Plus postage
Lost Perth
Jeremy Duncan
As one of Scotland's most historically significant cities, Perth has played an important role in the nation's story. Not surprisingly for a place that has seen continuous human settlement for thousands of years, much has come and gone over the centuries.
The followers of Knox and Cromwell, and later the slum clearers, planners and developers, each had their own reasons for taking a pickaxe to Perth, but the cumulative effect of their actions has been to convert most of the ancient city to rubble and road infill. This is the first book to consider just how much of Perth has been lost over the centuries and why. As well as looking at the ancient monasteries and chapels and other great buildings such as Gowrie House, Cromwell's hated citadel and the first City Hall, Jeremy Duncan uncovers the vanished streets, waterways and open spaces, the once-cherished industries, beloved sporting venues and many other topics, ranging from schools and shops to post offices and prisons.
$34.95 Plus postage
Lost Dundee: Dundee's Lost Architectural Heritage
Patricia Whatley
Lost Dundee 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. The book goes on to examine Dundee's next transformation into the jute capital of the world. Its identity was transformed by the arrival of railways, which separated the town from the sea, and by the great mills and factories which engulfed it on both sides. The final section illustrates the changes wrought in the twentieth century with the death of jute and its replacement as the city's major employer by tertiary education. This book draws particularly upon the rich visual history sources of Charles Lawson's drawings of old Dundee in the Central Library, the DC Thomson photographic collection, and the University of Dundee Archives.
$34.95 Plus postage
Way of the Wanderers: The Story of Travellers in Scotland
Jess Smith
TV programmes like My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, books like Gypsy Boy and the recent disturbances at Dale Farm have created enormous interest in the history and lifestyle of gypsies. Scottish gypsies, known as travellers, have wandered Scotland's roads and byways for centuries, and their turbulent history is captured in this passionate new book by Jess Smith, the bestselling author of Jessie's Journey. This is less a conventional history than a personal pilgrimage through the stories, songs and culture of a people for whom freedom is more important than security and a campfire under the stars is preferable to a warm hearth within stone walls. Settled society has always discriminated against travellers and Jess tells shocking stories of bullying, violence, the enforced break-up of families and separate schooling. But drawing on her own and her family's experiences, she also captures the magic and drama of days wandering the roads and working the land, and brings to life the travellers' rich and vibrant traditions.
$24.95 Plus postage
The Drove Roads of Scotland
A.R.B. Haldane
One of the great classics of Scottish history, The Drove Roads of Scotland interweaves folklore, social comment and economic history in a fascinating account of Scotland's droving trade and the routes by which cattle and sheep were brought from every corner of the land to markets in central Scotland. In pastoral Scotland, the breeding and movement of livestock were fundamental to the lives of the people. The story of the drove roads takes the reader on an engrossing tour of Scottish history, from the lawless cattle driving by reivers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to the legitimate movement of stock which developed after the Union of the Crowns, by which time the large-scale movement of stock to established markets had become an important part of Scotland's economy, and a vital aspect of commercial life in the Empire.
$29.95 Plus postage
The Flag in the Wind
John MacCormick
Born in Glasgow in 1904, Dr John MacCormick studied law at Glasgow University and was one of the chief founding members of the National Party of Scotland in 1928 and, with the merger of the NPS and the Scottish Party, of the Scottish National Party in 1934. In 1942 he left the SNP and was instrumental in the forming the Scottish Convention which went on to produce the Scottish Covenant in 1949, upon which nearly two million signatures of support for a Scottish parliament were obtained. After a high-profile trip to the US and Canada to present Scotland's case for Home Rule he was voted Lord Rector at Glasgow University. During his stint in this position he became involved in the plot to steal the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey before going on to publish The Flag in the Wind in 1955. With a new introduction by the author's son, this updated edition of John MacCormick's seminal work examines the early years of the twentieth-century Nationalist movement in Scotland, providing an invaluable insight into people and events that help create and then shape the SNP and its campaign to secure a devolved Scottish Assembly.
$29.95 Plus postage
Para Handy
Neil Munro
Para Handy has been sailing his way into the affections of generations of Scots since he first weighed anchor in the pages of the Glasgow Evening News nearly a hundred years ago. The master mariner and his crew – Dougie the mate, Macphail the engineer, Sunny Jim and the Tar – all play their part in evoking the irresistible atmosphere of a bygone age when puffers sailed between West Highland ports and the great city of Glasgow.
This definitive edition contains all three collections published in the author's lifetime, as well as a new story never previously published which was discovered in 2001. Extensive notes accompany each story, providing fascinating insights into colloquialisms, place-names and historical events. This volume also includes a wealth of contemporary photographs, depicting the harbours, steamers and puffers from the age of the Vital Spark.
$29.95 Plus postage
Land of the Lost:Exploring the North-east's Vanished Townships
Robert Smith
This is a book about a search for a sense of the past, looking at old days and old ways; hoping, perhaps, to find a whisper of those 'voices on the braes'. This is the story of the vanished peoples and communities of the Northeast; of people and places whose lives, achievements and traditions are today on the very edge of memory. Through Deeside, Donside, Strathavon and beyond, Bob Smith searches out the deserted and forgotten villages and clachans which lay throughout the area and whose rich history is now often simply commemorated by anonymous ruins set deep in remote glens. First published in 1997, Land of the Lost was an instant success. This new edition has been expanded by almost half to incorporate chapters on the glens south of Strathdon, the area around Belnagauld and the Bunzeach, Mulloch Hill, the track known as the Pollach Road, the fermtouns around Monymusk, and the area around Foudland. It also includes numerous rare archive photographs.
$34.95 Plus postage
Somewhere To Lay My Head
Robert Douglas
We left Robert a long way from home, a sixteen-year-old recruit in the RAF. Now, we follow his escape from the Forces (until National Service a few years later!), his return to Glasgow and life down the pit. Once more, Robert's fantastic memory for people, places and anecdotes, combined with an ear for individual voices and the brilliant ability to evoke a bygone sense of community, will enchant his readers and sometimes appal them with the brutality of conditions he experienced. Robert Douglas remembers the fast changing Britain of the 50'5 & 60's in a string of engaging anecdotes, told with characteristic humour and a keen eye for detail.
$24.95 Plus postage
Arran: A History
Thorbjorn Campbell
Arran is an archaeological and geological treasure trove of stunning scenic beauty. Its history stretches back to the great stone circles, more than 5,000 years old, whose remnants still decorate the plains of Machrie. Runic inscriptions tell of a Viking occupation lasting centuries. Later, in 1307, King Robert the Bruce began his triumphant comeback from Arran. In this book, Thorbjorn Campbell gives an original, fascinating and comprehensive account of Arran's long and eventful history.
$24.95 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.
$39.95 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.
$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.
$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.
$29.95 Plus postage
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.
$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.
$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.
$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.
$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.
$29.95 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.
$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.
$29.95 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.
$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.
$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.
$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.
$24.95 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.
$30.95 Plus postage
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.
$29.95 Plus postage
Made in Scotland: Household Names That Began in Scotland
Carol Foreman
This new edition features the stories behind a wide number of the best-known household names that originated in Scotland. It is a fascinating and nostalgic journey into the past and a wonderful celebration of Scottish industry. It includes a huge number of photographs of old advertisements, slogans and trademarks of all the products featured. From Robertson' Golden Shred Marmalad to cornfour and The Beano,hundreds of brand names known across the world can trace their origins to Scotland.This new,expanded edition of Made in Scotland features the stories behind a large number of the best known household names that began in Scotland.
$29.95 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.
$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.
$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.
$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.
$19.95 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.
$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).
$59.95 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.
$29.95 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.
$24.95 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.
$44.95 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!
$24.95 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.
$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.
$59.95 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.
$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.
$27.95 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
$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.
$24.95 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.
$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.
$24.95 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.
$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.
$34.95 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.
$27.95 Plus postage
Glasgow Shops: Past and Present
Carol Foreman
Glasgow Shops: Past and Present contains a fascinating selection of photographs of shops and advertisements ranging from the eighteenth century to the present day. The vintage photographs show how people shopped in times gone by and what they were able to buy and many will remember names such as Lipton, A Massey & Sons and Templeton's where groceries were bought before the supermarket days of Tesco and Morrisons.
$29.95 Plus postage
River of Fire: The Cyderbank Blitz
John Macleod
Clydebank was – in hindsight – an obvious target for the attentions of the Luftwaffe. When, on the evening of 13 March 1941, the authorities first detected that Clydebank was 'on beam' – targeted by the primitive radio-guidance system of the German bombers – no effort was made to raise the alarm or to direct the residents to shelter or flight. Within the hour, a vast timber-yard, three oil-stores, and two distilleries were ablaze, one pouring flaming whisky into the Clyde itself in vivid ribbons of fire. John MacLeod tells the story of the Clydebank Blitz and the terrible scale of death and devastation, speculating on why its incineration has been so widely forgotten and its ordeal denied any place in national honour.
$29.95 Plus postage
When George Came to Edinburgh: George Best at Hibs
John Neil Munro
This is the inside story of what happened when the world's most famous footballer joined the tenth best team in Scotland. John Munro weaves together an absorbing and unique portrait of a lost icon with insights from his widow, his team-mates, his drinking buddies and many of the fans who saw his great performances; this is the definitive story of what happened when George Best came to Edinburgh.
$24.95 Plus postage
And On This Rock:The Italian Chapel Orkney
Donald S. Murray
Thousands of visitors go to the Italian Chapel in Orkney every year, witnesses to a series of remarkable acts of transformation. Among these are the Churchill Barriers nearby, straddling the ocean to link a number of Orkney's southernmost islands to its mainland. Constructed to protect Britain's naval fleet in Scapa Flow during World War Two, its builders included a group of Italian soldiers imprisoned in this bleak and windswept part of Scotland. In the course of this, they not only played a part in changing Orkney's way-of-life forever but also transformed a simple Nissen Hut, constructing through their labours a place-of-worship that still stands till this day a remarkable symbol of their identity and faith.
$29.95 Plus postage
Haunted Scotland
Roddy Martine
In the global world of the Internet, where anything is possible, where scientists never cease to astonish yet seem to provide more questions than answers, Roddy Martine looks beyond the everyday and the normal, searching for answers in the mysteries of Haunted Scotland. Collected over many years, the author retells stories that have evolved through the mists of time, while others he recounts are based on interviews with those who claim to have experienced real-life paranormal encounters.
$24.95 Plus postage
Inside Edinburgh
David Torrance
In Inside Edinburgh, David Torrance takes us on a journey of discovery beyond the grand architectural façades of Scotland's capital, revealing the often private interiors of Edinburgh's most unique buildings. In this brilliantly conceived and illuminating pictorial record of 100 of Edinburgh's most fascinating period interiors, specially commissioned photographs capture the varied atmospheres of these venerable locations, from hotels, restaurants, shops, pubs, hospitals, and gentlemen's clubs to town houses. Each photograph is accompanied by a short text which not only describes the key features of architectural and design interest, but also uncovers related historical anecdotes.
$59.95 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. Almost 600 years after its creation it remains an enigma that continues to confound, intrigue and fire the imagination of those who believe that the treasures of the Knights Templar lie hidden within its precincts, as well as other more outlandish speculations. 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.
$29.95 Plus postage
Banner in the West: A Spiritual History of Lewis and Harris
John Macleod
From the unfathomable Standing Stones of Callanish to the quiet dignity of Christian commitment, the people of Lewis and Harris have, for millennia, sought for eternal meaning through their struggles in a robust, stripping environment. Even today, as their Gaelic world is increasingly besieged by change, migration and the impact of the mass-media, their distinctive spirituality continues to fascinate a wider world. Today, the Long Island is, to many, Britain's "last stronghold of the pure Gospel"; a place still defined by heartfelt religion – a community where, for instance, the threat of a Sabbath ferry service can still arouse considerable passion.
$39.95 Plus postage
Dr Finlay's Casebook
A. J. Cronin
Dr Finlay's Casebook is a delightful collection of episodic stories of Dr Finlay and his life in the fictional Scottish village of Tannochbrae during the inter-war years and based on A.J. Cronin's own experiences as a doctor. The BBC went on to dramatise these stories on both television and radio, with the television adaptation drawing weekly audiences of 12 million viewers. This omnibus edition of Doctor Finlay of Tannochbrae and Adventures of a Black Bag revive Cronin's masterpiece for a contemporary audience – stories which are tragic, funny and wry and which are a celebration of Cronin's tremendous talent.
$24.95 Plus postage
Burke and Hare
Owen Dudley Edwards
In a boarding house in West Port, an old army pensioner dies of natural causes. He owes the landlord £4 rent. Instead of burying the body, the landlord, William Hare, and his friend, William Burke, fill the coffin with bark and sell the corpse to Dr. Robert Knox, an ambitious Edinburgh anatomist. They make a profit of £3 and 10 shillings. After this encouraging outcome, Burke and Hare decide to suffocate another sickly tenant. So begins the criminal career of the most notorious double act in serial killing. It's a tale of desperation and greed, of outsiders, ambition, corruption, love and betrayal. And it's all true!
$24.95 Plus postage
Scott-land: The Man who Invented a Nation
Stuart Kelly
His name and image are everywhere – from Bank of Scotland fivers to the bizarre monument in Edinburgh's city centre. Scott-land presumes that the reader will have only a hazy awareness of Sir Walter Scott, and, although Stuart Kelly will offer insights into Scott's works and biography, this is emphatically not a conventional literary biography, nor is it a critical study. Partly a surreptitious autobiography – Stuart Kelly was born near Abbotsford – his examination of Scott's legacy and character come to change his own thoughts on writing, reviewing, being Scottish, and being human.
$24.95 Plus postage
Knoydart: A History
Denis Rixson
Knoydart – the northern edge of the 'Rough Bounds' is one of the most evocative names in Scotland. This text offers a history of Knoydart from the earliest times to the present day. A remote and desolate peninsula, its name derives from Viking settlers who only reckoned it worth three ouncelands – compared to five for the island of Eigg. The land continues to lie at the heart of the Knoydart problem and the book attempts to place events in their larger historical context. This is the struggle of a community to preserve itself against the harshness of the environment and the cynical exploitation of man.
$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.
$24.95 Plus postage
As It Was / Sin Mar BHA: An Ulva Boyhood
Donald W. Mackenzie
In 2000, Donald W. MacKenzie wrote As It Was/Sin Mar a Bha: A Ulva Boyhood, which is a combination of autobiography and a potted history of the island. His father was a Kirk minister, who moved there from Rothesay, where he had been in charge of the Gaelic church there. MacKenzie describes as a child, his early impressions of the island in the 1920s, and how the minister's children slowly began to recognise the landscape of eviction.
$20.95 Plus postage
Golf on the Rocks
Gary Sutherland
Gary Sutherland was a lapsed golfer, until he acquired his late dad's putter. After studying a crumpled golf map of Scotland, Gary decided to embark on a voyage. His target was to play 18 rounds of golf on 18 Scottish islands in honour of his dad, a ship's captain who, when he wasn't at sea, was never off the golf course. His journey would take him from the Northern Isles to the Outer Hebrides. Playing in the Harris hail and Arran sunshine, he would encounter an odd variety of golfing hazards, including sheep on the tees, cows on the fairways and electric fences round the greens. This is golf in the raw - a million miles from St Andrews. It is a life-affirming tale of remembrance and discovery. It's about having a laugh and holding on to what's dear. And it's about a putter with magical properties. You can believe what you choose to, but it all happened... (Hard Back copy).
$44.95 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.
$34.95 Plus postage
Essential English-Gaelic/Gaelic-English Dictionary
Angus Watson
This combined hard back dictionary is ideal for learners of Gaelic at all levels, and its generous coverage of vocabulary from fields such as business and IT makes it a valuable tool for all those who require an up-to-date reference work. It contains a large amount of explanatory material, numerous examples of usage and idiomatic phrases and expressions. Many registers and styles are sampled, from the familiar (and occasionally the vulgar) to the formal and the literary.
$44.95 Plus postage
Britain's Last Frontier: A Journey Along The Highland Line
Alistair Moffat
The Highland Line is the most profound internal boundary in Britain. First recognised by Agricola in the first century AD (parts of its most northerly portion mark the furthest north the Romans got) it divides the country both geologically and culturally, signalling the border between Highland and Lowland, Celtic and English-speaking, crofting and farming. In Britain's Last Frontier best-selling author Alistair Moffat makes a journey of the imagination, tracing the route of the Line from the River Clyde through Perthshire and the North-east. In addition to exploring the huge importance of the Line over almost two thousand years, he also shows how it continues to influence life and attitudes in 21st-century Scotland. The result is a fascinating book, full of history and anecdote.
$39.95 Plus postage
Tom Morris of St Andrews: The Colossus of Golf 1821-1908
David Malcolm
This is the biography of the great Tom Morris of St Andrews, who presided over one of the most illustrious periods in the history of golf, who – more than anyone before or since in any game – stamped his individual character upon his sport and how, in large measure, made golf what it is today.
$34.95 Plus postage
Back to Caledonia: Scottish Homecomings from the 17th Century to the Present
Mario Varricchio
Return migration is a largely neglected area of historical research in all countries, including Scotland. The contributors to this volume shed light on the experience of Scottish emigrants who decided to head back home, through five centuries of Scottish history, by exploiting analytical tools from history, anthropology, sociology and literature. Drawing on diverse sources, including 'traditional' historical sources as well as literary and 'lived experience' documents, this collection of essays opens up new avenues of research and features pioneering work.
$49.95 Plus postage
Lost East Lothian
Craig Statham
East Lothian, a unitary authority area including the old county of Haddingtonshire, is one of Scotland's most historic places. In this beautifully illustrated book, featuring over 100 old photographs, maps and prints, Craig Statham explores an enormous range of lost buildings which have been central to all aspects of the history of the county over a period of thousands of years, but which now no longer exist, lie in ruins or are no longer used for their original function. Grouped by theme, the book includes all types of lost buildings, from castles, mansion houses, streets and even whole villages to hospitals, factories, churches, schools, hotels and even swimming pools.
$34.95 Plus postage
Lost Banff and Buchan
Daniel Maccannell
The region north of Aberdeen and east of Moray is difficult to define. Neither highland or lowland, depopulated or populous, it is a land of surprising contrasts. In this book Daniel MacCannell uncovers many aspects of lost Banff and Buchan. In addition to buildings, transport networks, industries, and ways of life which now no longer exist, from whaling to open-air market trading, he also considers other elements which have been forgotten over time.
$34.95 Plus postage
Lost Ayrshire
Dane Love
Over the centuries, countless buildings have been built and demolished throughout the county of Ayrshire. This informative and beautifully illustrated book looks at a wide selection of these, from castles that have been destroyed or replaced by modern mansions, to country houses that have succumbed to dry rot or lack of funds for their upkeep. Dane Love also visits various burghs and villages, rediscovering the lost architecture of everyday buildings including churches, banks, tollbooths, public halls, schools, shops and houses.
Ayrshire was once rich in mining and other industries that have now disappeared. This book details the county's lost coalmines and the associated miners' rows, as well as former cotton mills, power stations, shipyards, factories and other places of work. As well as lost buildings from the distant past, Dane Love includes some more recent examples of architectural losses. In some cases these are welcome, but in many they are regrettable. Only through this book will the reader discover just how much of Ayrshire's heritage has been lost over the years.
$34.95 Plus postage
Night Song of the Last Tram
Robert Douglas
A wonderfully colourful and deeply poignant memoir of growing up in a 'single end' - one room in a Glasgow tenement - during and immediately after the Second World War. Robert Douglas paints a hugely moving picture of a chilhood spent below the poverty line in post-war Glasgow which, for all its deprivation, was full of remarkable characters and blessed with an unshakable spirit. Night Song of the Last Tram is a superb evocation of childhood and of a Glasgow of trams and tenements that has long since disappeared.
$24.95 Plus postage
Tea at Miss Cranston's
Anna Blair
Anna Blair recreates a bygone era through the recollections of countless Glaswegians who shared their memories with her during extensive interviews. Nostalgic yet never rose-tinted or bitter, they offer a candid picture of the joys and hardships – as well as of the mundane and everyday occurrences – of past times. This omnibus edition of her much acclaimed books is a feast of history and together provide a fascinating glimpse into the vibrant and intimate sides of a great city in years gone by.
$22.95 Plus postage
The Poor Had No Lawyers-Who Owns Scotland and How They Got It
Andy Wightman
New edition.Who owns Scotland? How did they get it? What happened to all the common land in Scotland? Has the Scottish Parliament made any difference? Can we get our common good land back? In The Poor Had No Lawyers, Andy Wightman, author of Who Owns Scotland, updates the statistics of landownership in Scotland and takes the reader on a voyage of discovery into Scotland's history to find out how and why landowners got their hands on the millions of acres of land that were once held in common. He tells the untold story of how Scotland's legal establishment and politicians managed to appropriate land through legal fixes. From Robert the Bruce to Willie Ross and from James V to Donald Dewar, land has conferred political and economic power. Have attempts to redistribute this power more equitably made any difference and what are the full implications of the recent debt-fuelled housing bubble? For all those with an interest in urban and rural land in Scotland, this updated edition of The Poor Had No Lawyers provides a fascinating analysis of one the most important political questions in Scotland – who owns Scotland and how did they get it?
$24.95 Plus postage
The Flowers of the Forest: Scotland and the Great War
Trevor Royle
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.'
$24.95 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.
$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.
$29.95 Plus postage
The Sea Kingdoms: The History of Celtic Britain and Ireland
Alistair Moffat
Alistair Moffat's journey, from the Scottish islands and Scotland, to the English coast, Wales, Cornwall and Ireland, ignores national boundaries to reveal the rich fabric of culture and history of Celtic Britain which still survives today. This is a vividly told, dramatic and enlightening account of the oral history, legends and battles of a people whose past stretches back many hundreds of years. The Sea Kingdoms is a story of great tragedies, ancient myths and spectacular beauty.
$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.
$29.95 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.
$29.95 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.
$29.95 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.
$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.
$59.95 Plus postage
Soor Plooms and Sair Knees: Growing Up in Scotland After the War
Bob Dewar
Soor Plooms and Sair Knees is an hilarious and moving recollection of the writer's childhood in a small Scottish east coast town during the immediate post-war years. In this warm-hearted, funny, and magnificent portrait, Bob Dewar recalls the community spirit of 1940s Scotland with perfectly balanced nostalgic recollections and glorious illustrations.
$34.95 Plus postage
Stornoway Black Pudding Bible
Seamus Macinnes
Black – or blood – pudding has a venerable past that stretches back to allusions in Homeric literature and a present that ensures its enduring popularity in the cuisines of, among others, Spain, France and Portugal. The Stornoway Black Pudding Bible is a celebration of the quality and versatility of black pudding, and above all is an encouragement to strike out in novel and fresh ways of cooking and enjoying this remarkable and underrated ingredient.
$14.95 Plus postage
Father Allan
Roger Hutchinson
Father Allan – Maighstir Ailein to his Gaelic-speaking people – was a witty, accomplished, intellectual and dedicated man; one of the most renowned of Hebridean personalities and probably the most celebrated Hebridean priest since St Columba. The compelling tale of his remarkable life is also implicitly the story of the north-west Highlands in the late nineteenth century and the Catholic Hebrides in their transcendent prime, where culture overflows with myth and adventure, colour, character and extraordinary unspoilt beauty.
$29.95 Plus postage
Invented in Scotland
Allan Burnett
In the home, on the road, in business, the classroom, sport, finance, medicine, farming, travel, crime and war, Scottish inventors have truly revolutionised the modern world. In this lavishly illustrated account, Allan Burnett examines the life and works of host of remarkable individuals whose inventions propelled humanity out of fumbling darkness and into a brighter future, allowing us to work faster, build better, travel further and live longer.
$29.95 Plus postage
The Management: Scotland's Great Football Bosses
Rob Robertson
In exclusive interviews with Sir Alex Ferguson, George Graham, Jim McLean, Eddie Turnbull, Graeme Souness, Gordon Strachan, Kenny Dalglish, David Moyes, Alex McLeish and Walter Smith, as well as a host of others, Michael Grant and Rob Robertson reveal the huge contribution Scots managers have made to the world game. With a special section on Scots who managed the Old Firm, it also shows for the first time how Scottish coaches have spread their football gospel all round the world and why places such as Brazil, Italy and the Czech Republic have them to thank for driving forward their domestic game. Insightful, measured, revealing and utterly unique, this is a must-read for football fans the world over.
$29.95 Plus postage
Caledonia Dreaming: 100 Scots Who Changed The World, Not Always For The Better!
John K.V Eunson
So what have the Scots ever done for the world then? Well, most people will know about John Logie Baird (inventor of television), Alexander Graham Bell (the telephone) and Alexander Fleming (penicillin). But what about Alexander Cummings from Edinburgh? It would be hard to imagine getting through the day without using his invention -- the flushing toilet. Or how about William Cullen from Glasgow? There would be a lot of sour milk (and warm beer) without the first man to demonstrate artificial refrigeration. And then there's Alexander Bain from Caithness? Can anyone really imagine a world without his invention -- the fax machine? The list goes on and on; Janet Keillor from Dundee (marmalade), James Clerk Maxwell from Edinburgh (radio waves), John Reith from Stonehaven (the BBC), James Black from Uddingston (beta-blockers) James Bowman Lindsay from Angus (light bulbs), James Goodfellow from Paisley (the ATM), Dugald Clerk from Glasgow (the two-stroke engine), Alexander McRae from the Kyle of Lochalsh (speedos), James Blyth from Kincardineshire (the first electricity producing wind turbine). Caledonia Dreaming tells the often frankly unbelievable stories behind these discoveries and looks at how they, along with the writers, philosophers, philanthropists and bankers of Scotland have left their unique, indelible mark on the modern world.
$24.95 Plus postage
Scots Poems for Children
Anne Forsyth
This delightfully illustrated anthology has been selected from the whole range of Scots poetry. A celebration of the richness and vigour of the Scots language, this lyrical selection of over 70 entertaining poems is sure to appeal across the generations. It brings together traditional rhymes and old favourites, bairn sangs and recitations, as well as the best of modern writing.
$19.95 Plus postage
The Caledonian Canal
A. D. Cameron
The Caledonian Canal records the history of one of Scotland's most massive engineering projects, from Thomas Telford's first survey in 1801 into the twenty-first century. This book has long been recognised as the authoritative work on the canal as well as a reliable and useful guide to the surrounding area. There are intriguing old plans, not discovered until 1992, and a survey of the dramatic rise in pleasure-craft traffic during the last two decades. A fitting celebration of this remarkable feat of engineering.
$29.95 Plus postage
The Forth Bridge
Sheila Mackay
The Forth Bridge was the greatest engineering feat the Victorian world had ever seen and remains, to this day, one of the great achievements of mankind. The Forth Bridge: A Picture History, tells the dramatic story of its construction using rare archive photographs.
$32.95 Plus postage
ABC, My Grannie Caught a Flea
Ewan McVicar
Ewan McVicar, one of Scotland's best-known storytellers and song writers, has collected songs in over 40 Scottish schools to create this new condensed compendium of the 'hidden' songs of Scots childhood. Adults may lament that today's Scots children do not sing in the playground, but the kids know better. As he demonstrated in his critically acclaimed Doh Ray Me, When Ah Wis Wee, hundreds of hilarious, energetic, surreal, nonsensical and alarming rhymes and songs are still in use, some over 200 years old, others as new as today's TV ads. It is a fascinating account of Scots children's lyric lore and 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.
$24.95 Plus postage
A Time of Tyrants: Scotland and the Second World War
Trevor Royle
Acclaimed military historian Trevor Royle examines Scotland's role in the Second World War. The country's geographical position gave it great strategic importance for importing war materiel and reinforcements, for conducting naval and aerial operations against the enemy and for training regular and specialist SOE and commando forces. Scotland also became a social melting pot with the arrival of Polish and eastern European refugees, whose presence added to the communal mix and assisted post-war reconstruction. Based on previously unseen archives in the Scottish Record Office, A Time of Tyrants is the first history of the unique role played by Scotland and the Scots in the global war to defeat Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.
$59.95 Plus postage
The Last Laird of Coll
Mairi Hedderwick
Kenneth Stewart is the last of the old Lairds of Coll, one of the loveliest of all the Hebridean islands. In this book Mairi Hedderwick, one of the island's best known inhabitants who has also known the laird since her first visit to the island more than fifty years ago, explores the laird's lifelong connection with Coll. The love of both for the island and its people shine through in these entrancing recollections.
$19.95 Plus postage
The Hebrides at War
M Hughes
The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest and toughest battle of the Second World War, and for the course of it, the Western Highlands and islands of Scotland represented the front line. From 1939 to 1945, places like Oban, Tobermory, Tiree, Benbecula and Stornoway were important strategic bases and training centres for both the RAF and navy as they sought to protect vital Atlantic convoys from the German U-boat threat. This book brings together photographs and memories of the men and women who served and lived in Oban and the Hebrides during these years. It forms a fascinating and unique record of the events, tragedies, people and landscape of the war years in the west of Scotland.
$29.95 Plus postage
Aberdeen Curiosities
Robert Smith
We read of the two great illusionists, Dr Walford Bodie and John Anderson; the collector, George 'Taffy' Davidson; the three generations of Cocky Hunters, bric-a-brac dealers extraordinaire, as well as a host of others. Bob Smith also explains the significance of some of Aberdeen's well-known and lesser-known buildings and monuments: we discover, for example, the true significance of Scarty's monument (a sewer ventilator), the various uses to which the market cross has been put (from execution ground to post office) and the story of the murder commemorated by Downie's Cairn. The result is a rich and varied celebration of Aberdeen that is essential reading for Aberdonians and visitors alike.
$29.95 Plus postage
Scottish Inventors
Gary Smailes
For a small country, Scotland has produced a huge number of people whose brilliance and ingenuity have literally changed the world. In this amusing and informative book, aimed at children from 9–12, Gary Smailes tells the stories of 32 famous (and not so famous!) men and women, and their often bizarre inventions, who have put Scotland on the map. Includes: James Watt, Henry Bell, Thomas Telford, John Loudon McAdam (Transport); Alexander Graham Bell, John Logie Baird (Communications); Robert Stevenson, Thomas Stevenson (Lighthouses); Barbara Gilmour, Alexander Grant (Food); Robert Melville, Patrick Ferguson (Warfare); James Douglas (Crime); James Baird, James Young Simpson (Medicine); Charles Mackintosh (Raincoats!)
$14.95 Plus postage
World War II: Scottish Tales of Adventure
Allan Burnett
Acclaimed children's author Allan Burnett turns his attention to the Second World War in a book of explosively exciting and emotionally charged tales of bravery and adventure. Featuring the true exploits of soldiers, spies, pilots, sailors and many others, these stories, all based on interviews with these heroes themselves or their descendants, offer a unique, personal insight into the Second World War that no conventional history book can ever hope to match.
$14.95 Plus postage
Six Months Without Sundays:The Scots Guards in Afghanistan
Max Benitz
Helmand Province, Afghanistan, 2010: the British campaign is in its fifth summer and entering an arduous new phase. British soldiers must partner Afghan forces, protect and win over a sceptical population as well as battle a tenacious enemy. Their weapons will be agricultural handouts and new roads rather than bombs and artillery. It is a controversial plan, not least for the soldiers, some only eighteen years old, who patrol through fields laced with mines and endure sniper-fire in their makeshift checkpoints. Who are these young troops? Trained for war, can they switch to this new reality? What cost will the campaign have on soldiers and civilians alike? Are the Afghan forces and government viable in the eyes of the local people? Is this even the right plan?
To answer these questions, Max Benitz spent months living and training with the soldiers in this world-renowned battalion and was allowed a unique look into their lives. His book provides an intimate and insightful picture of this controversial war: the war-weary locals who hedge their bets, the frustrations of battling a skilled and seemingly invisible enemy, and, above all, the resilience, talent and humour of the soldiers
$19.95 Plus postage
The Long Way Home
John McCallum
A true story of romance and escape during the Second World War. Now, due to the declassification of documents under the Official Secrets Act, Glasgow-born John McCallum is finally able to tell the thrilling story of his adventure, in which he recaptures all the danger, audacity and romance of one of the most daring escapes of the Second World War. The other great escape!
$19.95 Plus postage
The Wall: Rome's Greatest Frontier
Alistair Moffat
Hadrian's Wall is the largest, most spectacular and one of the most enigmatic historical monument in Britain. Nothing else approaches its vast scale: a land wall running 73 miles from east to west and a sea wall stretching at least 26 miles down the Cumbrian coast. Built in a ten-year period by more than 30,000 soldiers and labourers at the behest of an extraordinary emperor, the Wall consisted of more than 24 million stones, giving it a mass greater than all the Egyptian pyramids put together. At least a million people visit Hadrian's Wall each year and it has been designated a World Heritage Site. In this new book, based on literary and historical sources as well as the latest archaeological research, Alistair Moffat considers who built the Wall, how it was built, why it was built and how it affected the native peoples who lived in its mighty shadow.
$29.95 Plus postage
The Macsween Haggis Bible
Jo Macsween , Bob Dewar
Scotland's National dish is the source of endless jokes and horror stories, yet continues to provoke curiosity around the world. With an ancient history and an eight-verse tribute penned by Robert Burns, haggis is a Scottish cultural icon. So how did it come to acquire its bad boy image and earn such mixed reviews, ranging from the devotion of its fans to the deep revulsion of the uninitiated? In this informative and light-hearted book, Jo Macsween of the famous family of Edinburgh haggis makers, expertly guides you through the myths and magic to a new realm of haggis appreciation. Featuring fifty mouth-watering recipes, Jo rewrites the rules and demonstrates that haggis is a versatile ingredient that can be savoured at all times of day and throughout the year. She even dares to challenge the long-standing association of haggis with whisky, and recommends a new coterie of drinking companions.
$14.95 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.
$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.
$45.95 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.
$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.
$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.
$29.95 Plus postage
My Weekly Annual 2013
Top-quality, entertaining fiction from Scotland.Rewarding mix of delightful short stories and fun features.
My Weekly Annual is based on the top magazine for women who love good reading. Whether you are adventurous, emotional, into crime fiction or love a good heart-warming story, you will not be disappointed. This handily formatted book is packed full of short stories, recipes, celebrity articles, inspirational real-life articles, latest fashion and beauty, travel pieces and finance plus nostalgic features on how we used to dress!
$15.95 Plus postage
Scotland's Castle Culture
Audrey Dakin
The castle is an iconic building type and one of the most distinctive architectural emblems in the British Isles. This book covers the entire history of Scotland's castles, from the very first stone castles in the 13th century to those of the present day. Ever since its medieval origins, the concept of the castle has undergone constant changes, with the tall tower house being superseded in the 17th century by the classical house, and in the 18th century by a fashionable building type designed by major architects such as Robert Adam. While Scotland's Castle Culture in many ways marched with European fashion, much was distinctively Scottish – as seen in the reluctance to abandon castles as residences, and then in the power of the castle's resurgence as a building type during the years when Scotland was one of the most ferociously modernising countries in the world: the Victorian age. At this time there were few modern building types that were not candidates for castellation: not just houses, but also farms, lighthouses, banks, schools and even railway stations. Lastly, the book takes us to the present, where most castles, of whatever century, are now protected for their value as national heritage.
$49.95 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.
$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.
$29.95 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.
$24.95 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.
$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.
$17.00 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.
$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.
$24.95 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.
$29.95 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.
$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.
$29.95 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.
$29.95 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.
$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.
$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.
$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.
$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.
$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.
$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.
$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.
$34.95 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.
$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.
$29.95 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.
$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.
$23.95 Plus postage
The Scots-A Genetic Journey
Alistair Moffat , James F. Wilson
History has always mattered to Scots, and rarely more so than now at the outset of a new century, after more than parliament and the new census of 2011. An almost limitless archive of our history lies hidden inside our bodies story of Scotland around with us. The mushrooming of genetic studies, of DNA analysis, is rewriting our history in In The Scots: A Genetic Journey, Alistair Moffat explores the history that is printed on our genes, and in a remarkable uncovers the detail of where we are from, who we are and, in so doing, vividly paints a DNA map of Scotland.
$29.95 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.
$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.
$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.
$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.
$24.95 Plus postage
The Pocket Book of Scottish Quotations
David Ross
The Scots have always had a reputation for clarity of thought and also for the vigour with which it is put into words. This new edition of David Ross's acclaimed collection spans the entire gamut of a nation's recorded thought and experience from Calgacus in AD 84 to Annabel Goldie in 2011. It covers a vast range of subject matter and demonstrates a remarkable variety of moods and tones, from the literary to the colloquial and bawdy. Packed with sharp observation and humour, it sounds other notes too. Meditative, triumphant, tragic, accusing, tender – and often hilarious – it reveals the spirit of Scotland in a truly unique way.
$19.95 Plus postage
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