BIRLINN NEW TITLES 2016
Birlinn Limited was established in 1992 by Managing Director Hugh Andrew, and is comprised of a number of imprints. Birlinn publishes Scottish and general UK interest books, from biography to history, military history, cookery and Scottish Gaelic. The name comes from the old Norse world ‘birlinn’, meaning a long boat or small galley used especially in the Hebrides and West Highlands of Scotland in the Middle Ages. BC Books is a new children’s imprint, launched in 2015. It is designed to provide writing and illustration of the highest quality for young readers in Scotland and beyond. Birlinn is dedicated to nurturing young readers and helping them discover a passion for reading that will last a lifetime. Polygon publishes literary fiction and poetry, both classic and modern, from Scottish writers such as Robin Jenkins, George Mackay Brown and the author of the No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, Alexander McCall Smith, as well as selected music and film titles. International writers including Jan-Philipp Sendker are also published under this imprint. Polygon was originally set up by students of Edinburgh University in the late 1960s. Arena Sport is Birlinn’s sport imprint. The sport books range from football and rugby, to golf and cycling. These books have an international as well as national appeal. Arena’s first titles were published in June 2013. John Donald publishes academic books.
www.birlinn.co.uk www.polygonbooks.co.uk
2016 NEW TITLES BIRLINN JOHN DONALD
www.birlinn.co.uk
CONTENTS NEW TITLES 2 3 4 4 5 5 6 6 7 7 8 9 10 10 11 11 12 12 13 13 14 14 15 15
Darien: A Journey in Search of Empire John McKendrick Keeping the Jewel in the Crown: The British Betryal of India Walter Reid The Chain Bridge Honey Bible Liz Ashworth The Scottish Oats Bible Nicola Fletcher The Question of Scotland: Devolution and After Tam Dalyell My Remarkable Journey: The Autobiography of Britain’s First Muslim MP Mohammad Sarwar Wild Island Jane Smith The Lady of the Lake Walter Scott Remembering Sam: The Life and Times of Sam Galbraith Graham Teasdale The Radical Rising: The Scottish Insurrection of 1820 Peter Berresford Ellis & Seumas Mac a’ Ghobhainn The Colouring Book of Scotland Eilidh Muldoon Tobermory Sam Jones, Nic Davies & Brian Swinbanks Poacher’s Pilgrimage: An Island Journey Alistair McIntosh A Rum Affair: A True Story of Botanical Fraud Karl Sabbagh Landscapes in Stone: Arran Alan McKirdy Landscapes in Stone: Skye Alan McKirdy The Way it Was: A History of Gigha Catherine Czerkawska The Crinan Canal Marian Pallister Abbotsford to Zion: The Story of Scottish Place-names Around the World Elspeth Wills Scottish Baking Sue Lawrence Upper Clydesdale: A History and a Guide Daniel Martin Eriskay Where I Was Born Angus Edward McInnes Celtic Scotland Ian Armit Islay Voices Jenni Minto & Les Wilson
NEW EDITIONS 16 16 17 17 18 18 19 19 20 20 21 21 22 22
Isolation Shepherd Iain R. Thomson The Man Who Gave Away His Island: A Life of John Lorne Campbell of Canna Ray Perman The Grand Scuttle: The Sinking of the German Fleet at Scapa Flow in 1919 Dan Van der Vat Bannockburn: The Battle for a Nation Alistair Moffat The Secrets of Rosslyn Roddy Martine Summer Walkers Timothy Neat The Highland Clearances Eric Richards Glasgow From the Air Carol Foreman Mingulay: An Island and Its People Ben Buxton Nicola Sturgeon: A Political Life David Torrance The Picts: A History Tim Clarkson Hidden Scotland: Scotland’s Hidden Past Ann Lindsay The Hunt for Rob Roy: The Man and the Myths David Stevenson Scots Who Made America Rick Wilson
CONTENTS JOHN DONALD 23 23 24 24 25 26 26 27 28 29
‘The Wild Black Region’: Badenoch 1750 - 1800 David Taylor Voices of the Forest: A Social History of Scottish Forestry in the Twentieth Century Mairi Stewart Kinship, Church and Culture: Collected Essays and Studies by John W.M. Bannerman Edited by Dauvit Broun and Martin MacGregor Brilliant Lives: The Clerk Maxwells and the Scottish Enlightenment John Arthur The Campbells of the Ark: Men of Argyll in 1745 Ronnie Black Scotland’s Merlin: A Medieval Legendand its Dark Age Origins Tim Clarkson Scottish Arctic Whaling: 1750 to World War I Chelsey W. Sanger Outlaws of Medieval Scotland: Challenges to the Canmore Kings 1058-1266 R. Andrew MacDonald Hebridean Folk Songs Volumes 1 - 3 John Lorne Campbell Cremation in Modern Scotland: History, Architecture and the Law Peter C. Jupp (et. al)
STATIONERY 30 31 31
Hebridean Stationery 2017 Mairi Hedderwick Scottish Historical Maps Calendar 2017 In Association with the NLS Puffer Calendar 2017 David Hawson
KEY TITLES FROM 2015 32
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Set Adrift Upon the Word: The Sutherland Clearances James Hunter The Railway Atlas of Scotland: 100 Years of History in Maps David Spaven Edinburgh: Mapping the City Chris Fleet and Daniel MacCannell Glasgow: Mapping the City John Moore Scotland: A History From Earliest Times Alistair Moffat 101 Gins To Try Before You Die Ian Buxton The Great Tapestry of Scotland Andrew Crummy, Alistair Moffat, Alexander McCall Smith, Susan Mansfield
Non-Fiction John McKendrick Darien
A Journey in Search of Empire
JOHN MCKENDRICK was born and brought up in Glasgow. He studied at the LSE and Oxford and is currently a barrister in London and an advocate in Edinburgh. He also worked for two years in Panama And the Caribbean.He was Times Lawyer of the Week in September 2013.
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The Company of Scotland and its attempts to establish the colony of Caledonia on the inhospitable isthmus of Panama in the late seventeenth century is one of the most tragic moments of Scottish history. Devised by William Paterson, the stratagem was to create a major trading station between Europe and the East. It could have been a triumph, but inadequate preparation and organization ensured it was a catastrophe – of the 3000 settlers who set sail in 1688 and 1699, only a handful returned, the rest having succumbed to disease, and the enormous financial loss was a key factor in ensuring union with England in 1707. Based on archive research in the UK and Panama, as well as travelling to Darien itself, John McKendrick explores this fascinating and seminal moment in Scottish history. A unique blend of travelogue and history, Darien uncovers fascinating new information from New World archives about the role of the English and Spanish, and about the identities of the settlers themselves.
ISBN: 9781780273204 Price: ÂŁ20 Format: 234 x 156mm hbk Rights: World All Languages February 2016 288pp
Non-Fiction Walter Reid Keeping the Jewel in the Crown The British Betrayal of India This a stimulating and controversial account of Britain’s role in Indian independence, written by a respected and prolific historian.
WALTER REID studied at the universities of Oxford and Edinburgh. He has written a number of acclaimed books of military and political history, including Churchill: Under Friendly Fire and Empire of Sand: How Britain Made the Middle East.
When India became independent in 1947, the general view, which has prevailed until now, is that Britain had been steadily working for an amicable transfer of power for decades. In this book Walter Reid argues that nothing could be further from the truth. With reference to a vast amount of documentary material, from private letters to public records and state papers, he shows how Britain held back political progress in India for as long as possible – a policy which led to unimaginable chaos and suffering when independence was granted, and which created a legacy of hatred and distrust that continues to this day.
ISBN: 9781780273365 Price: £17.99 Format: 234 x 156mm hbk Rights: World All Languages May 2016 224pp
‘Instructive and convincing . . . deftly tracks Whitehall’s half-baked attempts to deflect the Indian demand for self-determination One can only sympathise with those who had to wrestle with the consequences’ John Keay, author of India: A History
9781780270616 £12.99 pbk
9781843410591 £12.99 pbk
‘‘A fascinating, robust and provocative version of the sunset of the Raj’’ Lawrence James, author of Raj: The Making and Unmaking of British India
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Non-Fiction Liz Ashworth Nicola Fletcher The Chain Bridge Honey Bible illustrated by Bob Dewar LIZ ASHWORTH is a Scottish food writer and food product developer, with a particular interest in using local products. The author of a pioneering series of cookery books for beginners of all ages, she writes food columns in various publications, and coordinates the food programme in the annual Orkney International Science Festival. Her most recent book is Orkney Spirit: Food Journeys with Liz Ashworth.
Since before history, honey has added delicacy and sweetness to the Scottish diet. Scottish honey, with its fragrances of heather, meadowsweet, clover and birch, is a unique, magical ingredient, and the Honey Bible features a host of easy-to-prepare recipes drawing on this wonderful resource. Liz Ashworth introduces us to its versatility from dishes as varied as medieval sweet pickled salmon and honey-spiced beetroot, to the delectable cranachan and more contemporary chocolate honey fudge cake. Prepared in collaboration with one of the UK’s oldest and largest honey farms, Chain Bridge in the Borders, this book draws on the experience and traditions of generations of skilled beekeepers and Scottish cooks in the use of this quintessentially natural and organic food.
ISBN: 9781780273440 Price: £4.99 Format: 156 x 111mm pbk Rights: World All Languages June 2016 96pp b/w illus. throughout
The Scottish Oats Bible illustrated by Bob Dewar
NICHOLA FLETCHER has written a number of highly acclaimed cookery books, including Charlemagne’s Tablecloth, Nichola Fletcher’s Ultimate Venison Cookery, Caviar: A Global History and Birlinn’s The Venison Bible. In 2014 she was awarded and MBE for services to the Scottish venison industry. BOB DEWAR has illustrated over 40 books, and his work has featured in the Scotsman, Herald, Sunday Post and Scottish Field.
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Scottish oats are famous the world over. In this practical and imaginative book, award-winning cookery writer Nichola Fletcher features 45 recipes which show the remarkable versatility of different kind of oats. Arranged in themed sections – breakfasts; soups and savouries; desserts and sweets and drinks – the result is a huge variety of mouthwatering recipes, from fish haggis, wild mushroom risotto and grouse soup to oatmeal candy, spiced oatmeal cake and a detox oatmeal drink, that show how oats can be combined with a vast range of other ingredients and also take centre stage themselves.
ISBN: 9781780273648 Price: £4.99 Format: 156 x 111mm pbk Rights: World All Languages June 2016 96pp b/w illus. throughout
Non-Fiction Tam Dalyell Mohammad Sarwar The Question of Scotland Devolution and After In September 2014, with the Scottish independence referendum, the United Kingdom came close to being broken apart after three centuries as one of the most successful political unions in history. Yet despite a conclusive No vote, the SNP took almost every seat in Scotland at the 2015 general election. TAM DALYELL was born in Edinburgh in 1932. He joined the Labour Party in 1956 after the Suez Crisis and served as an MP from 1962 to 2005, first for West Lothian and then for Linlithgow. He retired as Father of the House and Scotland’s longest serving politician in 2005.
In this book Tam Dalyell offers a personal reflection on why the UK is on the brink of the most serious constitutional crisis in its history. But this is not just a history of why we have ended up where we are. Dalyell also offers sage advice and suggests ways forward which will inform debate as the UK moves into a new political era.
ISBN: 9781780273686 Price: £9.99 Format: 198 x 129mm pbk Rights: World All Languages July 2016 176pp
My Remarkable Journey
The Autobiography of Britain’s First Muslim MP WITH BOB WYLIE
MOHAMMAD SARWAR is a prominent Pakistani politician and successful businessman. Sarwar is a former British politician, who served as a Labour parliamentarian from 1997 to 2010, representing Glasgow Central. He was also the first Muslim to sit in the British parliament. He renounced his British citizenship in August 2013 following confirmation of his governorship.
This is the inspirational account of how Mohammad Sarwar rose to political power from modest beginnings in rural Pakistan. Born in Punjab in 1952, Sarwar’s early years were characterized by hardship and persecution. But this all changed after arriving in Glasgow, where he transformed a corner shop on the verge of bankruptcy to a Cash-and-Carry wholesale business with a turnover of more than £200m a year. From business he moved into politics, becoming MP for Glasgow Govan, then Glasgow Central. No stranger to controversy – he voted against Tony Blair’s decision to invade Iraq, and was famously caught in a News of the World sting in 1997 for allegedly bribing an election rival – he has also been heavily involved in extensive charity humanitarian work in Pakistan.
ISBN: 9781780273167 Price: £20 Format: 234 x 156mm hbk Rights: World January 2016 288pp 16pp colour plate section
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Non-Fiction Jane Smith Sir Walter Scott Wild Island
A Year in the Hebrides JANE SMITH was born in Sussex. After gaining a degree in Zoology, she became a wildlife film-maker for the BBC Natural History Unit and National Geographic, winning an Emmy for her work. When her children were born she changed direction, creating wildlife artwork as another way of communicating her passion for the natural world. She now lives in Argyll with her husband, also a wildlife filmmaker, and children.
This is a book for anyone interested in wildlife, for art lovers, for tourists wanting a memento of their holiday, for everyone who loves the west coast of Scotland. It depicts a year in the life of Oronsay, a remote island that is farmed by the RSPB for the benefit of wildlife, and follows artist Jane Smith, as she attempts to portray the interactions of wildlife, farm animals and human inhabitants. A humorous, first-hand, personal view of island life, both human and otherwise, this book is illustrated with Jane Smith’s vibrant and acutely observed sketches, paintings and prints.
ISBN: 9781780272696 Price: £20.00 Format: 234 x 190mm hbk Rights: World All Languages March 2016 160 pp Colour illus. throughout
The Lady of the Lake Introduction by Stuart Kelly SIR WALTER SCOTT (17711832) is universally acclaimed as one of the world’s greatest writers who was of seminal importance in the development of the historical novel. STUART KELLY is a freelance journalist and writer. He is the author of Scott-Land: The Man Who Invented a Nation (Polygon)
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The Lady of the Lake marked the pinnacle of Walter Scott’s popularity as a poet, with record-breaking sales and ecstatic reviews which helped spread his fame far beyond Britain. It also inspired thousands to flock to Loch Katrine in the Trossachs to see for themselves the isle where the banished James of Douglas and his daughter Ellen take refuge, and where the mysterious knight, James Fitz James, arrives and sets in motion a chain of events which have far-reaching consequences for them all. The Lady of the Lake is a key work of the Romantic movement which swept Europe by storm in the early nineteenth century.
ISBN: 9781780273372 Price: £9.99 Format: 198 x 129mm pbk Rights: N/A April 2016 224pp
Non-Fiction
Graham Teasdale Peter Berresford Ellis & Seumas Mac a’ Ghobhainn Remembering Sam
The Life and Times of Sam Galbraith GRAHAM TEASDALE, The editor, is Emeritus Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Glasgow and knew Sam Galbraith well. The 27 contributors include fellow politicians such as Alistair Darling and Brian Wilson, eminent figures from the world of medicine, such as Harry Burns, David Hamilton and Harpreet Kohli, as well as close friends like Muriel Gray and members of Sam Galbraith’s family.
Sam Galbraith, an exceptionally talented young neurosurgeon in Glasgow, was led by strong socialist values to seek a political career. Soon after election to Parliament in 1987 at 42 years old, he devloped a serious lung condition that required him to undergo a lung transplant and left him with limited health. Despite this, he went on to hold Ministerial posts, first in Westminster and then in the new Scottish Parliament. In government he abolished markets in the NHS in Scotland and, by highlighting the relation between deprivation and illness, he was able to achieve his ambition to make a difference to health on a large scale. When Sam died aged 68 he was the longest living survivor of a lung transplant. His story is told by colleagues, friends and family.
ISBN: 9781780273389 Price: £12.99 Format: 198 x 129mm hbk Rights: World All Languages May 2016 208pp
The Radical Rising
The Scottish Insurrection of 1820 PETER BERRESFORD ELLIS, an acknowledged expert on the Celtic world, is an historian, literary biographer and novelist. He is author of the bestselling Sister Fidelma historical mysteries (writing as Peter Tremayne). SEUMAS MAC A’ GHOBAINN was a Scottish author, essayist and propagandist who died in 1987. He was co-author (with Peter Berresford Ellis) of The Problem of Language Revival (1971).
Glasgow, April 1820. The last armed uprising on British soil, intent on severing the Union and establishing a radical Scottish republic, ended in executions, imprisonments, transportations and 85 trails for high treason. Yet despite its political and social importance, the story of this working-class revolution vanished from the historical record. This book restores the radical rising to its rightful place in history, offering an incisive analysis of the rising itself and the events which led up to it, vividly recapturing the extraordinary heroism of its leaders, John Baird and Andrew Hardie, and the savagery with which the movement was crushed by the forces of the British state.
ISBN: 9781780273839 Price: £14.99 Format: 198 x 129mm pbk Rights: World English Language April 2016 416pp 16pp b/w plates
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Non-Fiction Eilidh Muldoon The Colouring Book of Scotland EILIDH MULDOON studied Art History and gained an MFA in Illustration from Edinburgh College of Art in June 2013, where she is currently Illustrator in Residence. She is also a freelance artist and illustrator whose work has appeared in prints, greetings cards and giftware.
A unique Scottish colouring book suitable for adults as well as children featuring 20 of the country’s most iconic places, including: Edinburgh Castle • Forth Rail Bridge • St Andrews • HMS Discovery, Dundee • Balmoral Castle • Loch Ness/Urquart Castle • Dunrobin • Castle, Stromness, Orkney • Skara Brae • Callanish standing stones • Lews Castle, Lewis • Highland Games • Eilean Donan • Duart Castle, Mull • Tobermory, Skye • Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow • Caerlaverlock Castle • Abbotsford House • Melrose Abbey • Rosslyn Chapel • Falkirk Wheel • Stirling Castle • Edinburgh Christmas Market Eilidh Muldoon’s illustrations are ideal for all levels of colouring – for those who like a colouring challenge, yet simple enough for those with less patience to create beautiful colour artwork in a short time.
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ISBN: 9781780274058 Price: £7.99 Format: 250 x 250mm hbk Rights: World All Languages June 2016 48pp b/w illus. throughout
Non-Fiction Nic Davies, Sam Jones and Brian Swinbanks Tobermory SAMANTHA (‘SAM’) JONES is a landscape photographer who runs her business, Islandscape Photography, on Mull. She was RNLI Photographer of the Year in 2011 and a finalist in the Scottish Nature Photography Awards in 2013.
Tobermory, the principal town on the island of Mull, is one of the prettiest towns in the Hebrides. Its principal street, Main Street, with its buildings painted in distinctive bright colours, is also one of the most well-known views in Scotland.
NIC DAVIES has worked in wildlife conservation and animal welfare since 1989. He now lives on Mull, engaged in photography, wildlife guiding and the conservation of otters and marine species. His photographs have has featured in publications and TV programmes worldwide.
This book includes the work of three local photographers, uniquely qualified to capture the spirit of this magical place in all its moods. In addition to pictures of the town, its views, surrounding countryside and wildlife – on land and sea – it also features the people of Tobermory itself, at work and at leisure. The result is a vivid portrait of a vibrant community in an exquisitely beautiful natural setting.
BRIAN SWINBANKS Is an Industrial and Graphic Designer. He has designed children’s toys at Raleigh Bicycles and was awarded with brother Duncan a British Design Award. He has run his own Charter Boat business and is Chair of the Tobermory Harbour Association.
ISBN: 9781780273150 Price: £9.99 Format: 248 x 190mm hbk Rights: World All Languages May 2016 96pp Colour Illus. throughout
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Non-Fiction Alastair McIntosh Karl Sabbagh Poachers’ Pilgrimage An Island Journey ALASTAIR MCINTOSH is an independent writer, broadcaster, speaker and activist who is involved in a wide range of contemporary issues, from land reform, globalization and nonviolence to psychology, spirituality and ecology.
The islands of the Outer Hebrides are home to some of the most remote and spectacular scenery in the world. They host an astonishing range of mysterious structures – stone circles, beehive dwellings, holy wells and ‘temples’ from the Celtic era. Over a twelveday pilgrimage, often in appalling conditions, Alastair McIntosh returned to the islands of his childhood and explored the meaning of these places. He went from the most southerly tip of Harris to the northerly Butt of Lewis. The book is a walk through space and time, across a physical landscape and into a spiritual one. Alastair had just come back from lecturing at military institutions across Europe. This is a moving book, a powerful reflection not simply of this extraordinary place and its people met along the way, but of imaginative hope for humankind.
Cover not yet available
ISBN: 9781780273617 Price: £17.99 Format: 234 x 156mm hbk Rights: World All Languages June 2016 272pp 16pp colour plates
A Rum Affair
A True Story of Botanical Fraud KARL SABBAGH is a writer, journalist and TV producer. He is the author of a dozen books, including The Living Body (with Christian Barnaard), Power into Art and Palestine: A Personal Journey.
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In the 1940s, the eminent British botanist John Heslop Harrison proposed a controversial theory: that vegetation on the islands off the west coast of Scotland had survived the last Ice Age. His premise flew in the face of what most botanists believed – that no plants had survived the 10,000year period of extreme cold. Harrison didn’t anticipate, however, an amateur botanist called John Raven, who boldly questioned whether these grasses were truly indigenous to the area, or whether they had been transported there. This is the story of what happened when a tenacious amateur set out to find out the truth, and how he uncovered a most extraordinary fraud.
ISBN: 9781780273860 Price: £9.99 Format: 198 x 129mm pbk Rights: World All Languages June 2016 288 pp 8pp b/w plates
Non-Fiction Alan McKirdy
Landscapes in Stone: Arran
ALAN MCKIRDY has written many popular books and book chapters on geology and related topics and has helped to promote the study of environmental geology in schools. Before his recent retirement he was Head of Information Management at Scottish Natural Heritage. He is the author of Land of Mountain and Flood and Set in Stone.
The Isle of Arran dominates the Firth of Clyde. A favourite haunt of holidaymakers, it is also a place of fascination for the geologist, offering a huge variety of rocks that represent a massive slice through geological time. From the ancient bent and buckled strata of Dalradian - a small fragment of the roots of the once mighty Scottish Highlands – the dramatic Northern mountains though which ice gouged its way during the Ice Age, to the relatively recent (some 60 million years ago!) rocks associated with the Arran volcano, the geological record tells an amazing tale. This book is a fascinating introduction to the landscape of Arran – one of the most significant geological areas of the country
ISBN: 9781780273693 Price: £7.99 Format: 165 x 230mm pbk Rights: World All Languages July 2016 48pp Colour illus. throughout
Landscapes in Stone: Skye 9781780271514 £9.99 pbk
‘[A] concise and lavishly illustrated guide to the extraordinary landscape and geology of Scotland, a land mass that has traveled across the surface of the globe for 3,000 million years. The next time you look at a mountain, think about how it came to be there’ – Scotland Magazine
The Isle of Skye offers a magical combination of wild land and breathtaking natural beauty. Skye’s geological history involves some of the most ancient rocks on the planet, and the development of one of the mightiest volcanoes ever to blow its top. Skye is also known as Scotland’s ‘dinosaur island’, yielding the remains of many species of plant and meateating creatures that stalked land some 140 million years ago. This book provides key information about the formation of the island and the on-going processes of natural landscape evolution that continue to leave their mark on these spectacular vistas.
ISBN: 9781780273723 Price: £7.99 Format: 165 x 230mm pbk Rights World All Languages July 2016 48pp Colour illus. throughout
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Non-Fiction Catherine Czerkawska Marian Pallister The Way it Was A History of Gigha CATHERINE CZERKAWSKA is a playwright and novelist who writes for the theatre, and for BBC Radio. Her novel The Curiosity Cabinet was published by Polygon in 2005 and was shortlisted for the Dundee Book Prize. She has a postgraduate degree in Folk Life Studies, hence her lifelong interest in oral history and tradition.
The island of Gigha is a small gem, the most southerly of the true Hebridean islands, lying just off Tayinloan on Scotland’s Kintyre peninsula. Gigha’s good harbours, fertile land, mild climate and strategically useful position have given it a fascinating history. Catherine Czerkawska relates the sometimes turbulent story of the people of Gigha, from the settlers of prehistoric times, through successive incomers including the Celts, the Vikings, and the McNeill lords of this island. The author, like so many people, fell helplessly in love at first sight with Gigha and returns to it time and again. This book explores just what it is that makes the island such an enchanting place.
ISBN: 9781780273853 Price: £12.99 Format: 198 x 129mm pbk Rights: World All Languages June 2016 336pp 16pp b/w plate section
The Crinan Canal
MARIAN PALLISTER has worked as a features writer and commentator covering social issues in Scotland and round the world, particularly in disaster and war zones. She also founded the Mhuthanzia Lilanda Initiative, a charity which supports the education of vulnerable young people in Zambia.
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9781780272207 £9.99 pbk
Known as ‘Britain’s most beautiful shortcut’, the Crinan Canal runs from Ardrishaig on Loch Fyne nine miles across the Kintyre peninsula to the west coast of Scotland. Designed by John Rennie after initial survey work by James Watt in 1771, the canal was opened in 1801, with further improvements made by Thomas Telford in the second decade of the nineteenth century. These days the canal is a popular route for leisure craft. In the book Marian Pallister tells the story of the canal from its origins to the present day, discussing how it was built, who built it, how it changed life in the surrounding areas, and how it has been used.
ISBN: 9781780273464 Price: £9.99 Format: 198 x 129mm pbk Rights: World All Languages June 2016 240pp 16pp b/w plate section
Non-Fiction Elspeth Wills Sue Lawrence Abbotsford to Zion After graduating from St Andrews University in history in 1970, ELSPETH WILLS has spent her career as a researcher, interpreter and writer within advertising, marketing, economic development and visitor attraction environments. She has written over a dozen books on subjects as varied as natural history, new town development and Scottish innovation.
The Story of Scottish Place-names Around the World Over the centuries countless Scots have travelled to every conceivable corner of the globe – some to start a new life, others as entrepreneurs, explorers, missionaries, colonial administrators, soldiers or in a multitude of other contexts. This book takes the reader on a journey from the wastes of Antarctica to the South African Highlands, from Canada’s prairies to Australia’s vineyards. It visits cities and deserted villages, scales mountain peaks and calls in at far-flung islands. All these places have one thing in common – the fact that they were named by, or after, Scots. The places named and the people they honoured provide a different way of looking at the influence of Scots overseas, whether railroad engineer, pioneer farmer, displaced crofter or multi-millionaire.
Cover not yet available
ISBN: 9781780274072 Price: £9.99 Format: 198 x 129mm pbk Rights: World All Languages July 2016 224pp
Scottish Baking In recent times Britain as a whole can’t get enough of programmes like The Great British Bake-off and The Fabulous Baker Boys, but Scotland has always had a wonderful tradition of baking in both sweet and savoury recipes.
SUE LAWRENCE is a food writer and journalist who has written many books on cooking and baking, including The Scottish Kitchen (2002), The Sue Lawrence Book of Baking (2004) and Eating In (2011). She lives in Edinburgh.
Leading cookery writer Sue Lawrence has now combined her two passions, for baking and Scottish cooking, into one definitive book. A compendium of 70 easy-to-follow recipes, it brings together the traditional breads, scones and cakes that have shaped Scotland’s great baking heritage and new contemporary bakes.
‘There couldn’t be a book by Sue Lawrence that I wouldn’t want to own. She writes beautifully . . . and her recipes make me ravenous’ – Nigela Lawson
ISBN: 9781780274102 Price: £12.99 Format: 234 x 190mm pbk Rights: World All Languages July 2016 144pp
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Non-Fiction Daniel Martin Angus Edward MacInnes Upper Clydesdale A History and Guide DANIEL MARTIN was born in Carluke and lived there his whole life. Widely respected as a local historian, he was also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and taught Mathematics at Glasgow University. He died in 2006.
Upper Clydesdale, the rural part of South Lanarkshire, is one of the most beautiful parts of the country. Its main centres of population include Carluke, Carnwath, Lanark, New Lanark, Biggar, Lesmahagow, Douglas and Coulter, Abington, Crawford and Leadhills. In this affectionate and intimate portrait of the area, local historian Daniel Martin roves from prehistoric and Roman through medieval and covenanting to industrial and modern times, covering a huge range of themes – including archaeology, history (natural, local and ecclesiastical) and the many places of interest in the area, such as New Lanark, the Falls of the Clyde and Craignethan Castle. Famous figures connected with the area include William Wallace, Robert Burns, Lord Braxfield, William Gladstone and Hugh MacDiarmid.
ISBN: 9781780273976 Price: £12.99 Format: 216 x 138mm pbk Rights: World All Languages June 2016 256pp
Eriskay Where I Was Born ‘Hugely readable… sometimes grim, sometimes angry, sometimes very funny… MacInnes is a marvellous storyteller, and he writes exactly as he speaks, with Gaelic idioms woven effortlessly into his gloriously Hebridean English’ – Donald Meek, Twentieth Century Gaelic and Hebridean Literature
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Angus Edward MacInnes, born at Haun, Eriskay in the Outer Hebrides in 1925, returned in his imagination to the island of his birth to create what, since its first publication in 1997, has become a classic account of an almost forgotten way of life. His autobiography, told with the captivating rhythms and story-telling techniques of his native Gaelic, combines the author’s personal experiences with his observations of life around him. The result is a complete picture of Eriskay, from its topography to descriptions of the islanders’ dress, diet and schooling. The island’s traditions are brought vividly to life with amazing – but, the author insists, true – tales of ‘giants’, strong men, ghosts and the second sight.
ISBN: 9781780273815 Price: £12.99 Format: 198 x 129mm pbk Rights: World All Languages June 2016 272pp
Non-Fiction Ian Armit Jenni Minto & Les Wilson Celtic Scotland
Early Historic Scotland
IAN ARMIT is Professor of Archaeology at the University of Bradford, having previously taught at Queen’s University, Belfast. Prior to that, he an Inspector of Ancient Monuments with Historic Scotland.
This authoritative and beautifully illustrated book is aimed at the general reader who wants to know about the mysterious people who inhabited Scotland from the Bronze Age onwards. They created wonderful works of art in gold and silver and their brochs and hillforts are scattered over the Scottish landscape. Many modern-day Scots are descended from them. Using the results of modern archaeology and historical sources, Ian Armit answers the key questions about who the Celts were, where they came from, their relationship with other Celtic tribes throughout Europe, their customs and beliefs and their daily life. It is a fascinating story told with flair and clarity by one of Britain’s leading experts on the Celts.
ISBN: 9781780272924 Price: £14.99 Format: 246 x 189mm pbk Rights: World All Languages June 2016 144pp Colour plate section & integrated mono
Islay Voices JENNI MINTO studied accountancy at Aberdeen University and worked for BBC Scotland in a variety of business support roles. She has played a prominent role in setting up Islay’s community owned wind turbine and currently works at the Museum of Islay Life. LES WILSON is a writer, and award winning documentary maker who specialises in Scottish Historical subjects. Jenni and Les are married and moved to Islay in 2011, after having a holiday home there for many years..
Many travellers have had their imaginations captured by the beautiful Hebridean island of Islay, among them the renowned Thomas Pennant and Martin Martin. But Ileachs – the natives of Islay – have also been inspired to record their experience. And there were the ‘non-professional’ writers – the diary and letter writers whose intensely personal musings give us startling insights into the lives of the ordinary Ileachs that historians all too often ignore. This anthology distils the essence of Islay through a very personal selection of writing. Some of the writing is profound, some of it quirky, but all reveals a fascinating aspect of Islay that together presents a revealing and moving ‘people’s history’ of Islay.
ISBN: 9781780272948 Price: £20.00 Format: 246 x 189mm pbk Rights: World All Languages July 2016 224pp
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New Editions Iain R. Thomson Ray Perman
Isolation Shepherd IAIN THOMSON was born in Inverness, but was raised and educated near Liverpool. On leaving school in the late 1940s, he returned to Scotland to work on a farm in Aberdeenshire. He is the author of three books, all of them vivid depictions of some of the wildest and most remote parts of the Highlands. He currently lives outside Inverness.
In August 1956 a young shepherd, his wife, two-year-old daughter and tenday-old son sat huddled in a small boat on Loch Monar in Ross-shire as a storm raged around them. They were bound for a tiny, remote cottage at the western end of the loch which was to be their home for the next four years. Isolation Shepherd is the moving story of those years. Set against the awesome splendour of some of Scotland’s most spectacular scenery, Iain R. Thomson’s classic book provides a sensitive, richly detailed account of the shepherd’s life through the seasons and recreates the events that shaped the family’s life in Glen Strathfarrar before the area was flooded as part of a huge hydro-electric project.
ISBN: 9781780274041 Price: £8.99 Format: 198 x 129mm pbk Rights: World All Languages February 2016 240pp
The Man Who Gave Away His Island A Life of John Lorne Campbell of Canna In 1938 John Lorne Campbell bought the Hebridean isle of Canna. He wanted to prevent it becoming a rich man’s playground (like so many other islands and Highland estates), to preserve a part of traditional Gaelic culture and show that efficient farming methods could be compatible with wildlife conservation and sustainability. RAY PERMAN was a journalist for 30 years in London and Scotland. In 1977 he first visited Canna and met John Lorne Campbell, with whom he corresponded until John’s death in 1996.
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This acclaimed book is an insightful and human portrait of one of the twentieth century’s most significant scholars of the Gaelic world. 2016 marks the 20th anniversary of his death.
ISBN: 9781780274119 Price: £9.99 Format: 198 x 129mm pbk Rights: World All Languages February 2016 272pp 16pp b/w plates
New Editions Dan Van der Vat Alistair Moffat The Grand Scuttle
The Sinking of the German Fleet at Scapa Flow in 1919 The Grand Scuttle became a folk legend in both Germany and Britain. However, few people are aware that Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter became the only man in history to sink his own navy because of a misleading report in a British newspaper; that the Royal Navy guessed his intention but could do nothing to thwart it; that the sinking produced the last casualties and the last prisoners of the war. DAN VAN DER VAT, born in Holland and educated in England, became a fulltime author after 25 years in journalism. He has published seven books on maritime history, including The Ship that Changed the World and The Riddle of the Titanic (with Robin Gardiner), as well as a biography of Albert Speer.
This is the remarkable story of the scuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow. It contains previously unused German archive material, eyewitness accounts and the recollections of survivors, as well as many contemporary photos which capture the awesome spectacle of the finest ships of the time being deliberately sunk by their own crew.
ISBN: 9781843410690 Price: ÂŁ8.99 Format: 198 x 129mm pbk Rights: World All Languages April 2016 240pp 2 x 8pp b/w plates
Bannockburn
The Battle for a Nation
ALISTAIR MOFFAT was born and bred in the Scottish Borders. A former Director of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Director of Programmes at Scottish Television, he now runs the Borders Book Festival and the DNA testing company, BritainsDNA (britainsdna.com). He is also the author of numerous bestselling books.
In this book, best-selling author Alistair Moffat offers fresh insights into one of the most famous battles in history, yet one which is surprisingly little understood. Where exactly was it fought; and what happened at the Scottish council of war the night before the second day to persuade the Scots to attack at dawn? This book follows in detail the events of those two days that changed history, and captures all the fear, heroism, confusion and desperation as he describes the tactics and manoeuvres that led to a stunning and unexpected Scottish victory.
ISBN: 9781780272795 Price: ÂŁ7.99 Format: 198 x 129mm pbk Rights: World All Languages May 2016 224pp
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New Editions Roddy Martine Timothy Neat The Secrets of Rosslyn
RODDY MARTINE is a freelance journalist, author and broadcaster based in Edinburgh. He has written a number of bestselling books, including Living in the Highlands (Thames and Hudson, 2000), Scottish Clans and Family Names (Mainstream, various edns) and The Edinburgh Military Tattoo (Robert Hale, 2001).
Nestling in an exquisite glen just seven miles from the centre of Edinburgh, Rosslyn Chapel is one of the world’s most extraordinary places. Ever since it was built in the mid fifteenth century it has cast a mesmerising spell over all who have visited it, exuding an aura of profound mystery, as if it holds the key to some vast, unearthly secret. Six hundred years later it continues to confound and intrigue. Roddy Martine sifts through mounds of unfounded conjecture and fantasy to make sense of it all. The Secrets of Rosslyn is the only book that lets the facts speak for themselves, showing ultimately that the truth is no less amazing than fiction.
ISBN: 9781780274089 Price: £8.99 Format: 198 x 129mm pbk Rights: World All Languages April 2016 224pp 16pp colour plates
Summer Walkers
TIMOTHY NEAT is an art historian, film-maker and writer. He is the author of numerous books, including Part Seen, Part Imagined, a study of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and a twovolume biography of Hamish Henderson. His film Play Me Something was Best Film, Festival de Cinema de Barcelona, 1989.
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The Summer Walkers is the name the crofters of Scotland’s North-west Highlands gave the Travelling People – the intinerant tinsmiths, horse-dealers, hawkers and pearl-fishers who made their living ‘on the road’. These people are not gypsies – they are indigenous Gaelic-speaking Highlanders who are heirs to a vital and ancient culture. This book documents their way of life and explores their customs, superstitions, unique language, stories, poetry and songs rough photographs and remembrances. The result is a poignant and deeply moving record of a way of life now on the verges of living memory.
ISBN: 9781780273969 Price: £14.99 Format: 260 x 189mm pbk Rights: World All Languages June 2016 240pp b/w illus. throughout
New Editions Eric Richards Carol Foreman The Highland Clearances
ERIC RICHARDS is Emeritus Professor of History at Flinders University, Australia and previously taught at Stirling University, Scotland. His published work includes an acclaimed biography of Patrick Sellar, which was awarded the prize for Scottish History Book of the Year (1999) by the Saltire Society.
This book traces the origins of the Clearances from the eighteenth century to their culmination in the crofting legislation of the 1880s. It shows how the Clearances were one of many ‘attempted’ solutions to the problem of how to maintain a population on marginal and infertile land, and were, in fact, part of a wider European movement of rural depopulation. In drawing attention away from the mythology to the hard facts of what actually happened, The Highland Clearances offers a balanced analysis of events which created a terrible scar on the Highland and Gaelic imagination.
ISBN:9781780273846 Price: £12.99 Format: 198 x 129mm pbk Rights: World All Languages May 2016 512pp 8pp b/w plates, maps
Glasgow From the Air CAROL FOREMAN was born in Glasgow and has lived there all her life. She is the author of a number of acclaimed books on Glasgow and lectures on the city to many local groups.
The concept of island hopping conjures up visions of freedom and adventure, whether it be in the sunny Aegean or the exotic Caribbean. The Hebrides offer Scotland’s unique take – large skies, crashing seas and magnificent scenery, as well as wildlife, history, archaeology, sports and countless other attractions. Each island has a unique and individual character, landscape and history which have attracted and intrigued travellers and visitors for hundreds of years. Hebridean Island Hopping covers everything needed to get the most from a visit to any of the islands off the west coast of Scotland.
ISBN: 9781780273983 Price: £12.99 Format: 272 x 215mm pbk Rights: World All Languages June 2016 192pp b/w & colour throughout
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New Editions Ben Buxton David Torrance Mingulay
An Island And Its People
BEN BUXTON first explored the Hebrides in the 1970s. Later, while studying for a degree in archaeology, he investigated the archaeology and history of Mingulay. Ben He teaches adult education classes in archaeology and is Curator at Wareham Museum.
Ben Buxton documents the story of a people and of this remote, barren and ruggedly beautiful island that lies at the southern end of the Outer Hebrides. Looking back through the annals of history, he uncovers the traditions of a hospitable, close community which thrived under clan rule. But set in lonely isolation in the stormy Atlantic, with no proper landing place, absentee landlords and insufficient fertile land, life for Mingulay’s inhabitants was hard, and by 1912, the ‘voluntary’ evacuation of the island was complete. This is the poignant story of Mingulay and the life of its people – now lost beyond the grasp of living memory.
ISBN: 9781780273044 Price: £12.99 Format: 198 x 129mm pbk Rights: World All Languages June 2016 288pp
Nicola Sturgeon A Political Life
DAVID TORRANCE is a freelance journalist based in London, and author of a number of political biographies, including George Younger, David Steel and Alex Salmond.
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How did a working-class girl from Ayrshire become one of Scotland and the UK’s most prominent politicians? Identified as a rising star by the SNP leadership shortly after she joined the party as a teenager, when the Nationalists formed their first Scottish Government in 2007 Nicola Sturgeon swiftly became one of its most successful ministers. By the time Alex Salmond resigned as First Minister after the No vote in the Scottish independence referendum, she was viewed as his natural successor, leading her party to its remarkable success at the 2015 general election. In this book, David Torrance traces the life and career of a remarkable woman.
ISBN: 9781780273457 Price: £9.99 Format: 198 x 129mm pbk Rights: World All Languages June 2016 256pp
New Editions Tim Clarkson Ann Lindsay The Picts A History
TIM CLARKSON worked in academic librarianship before setting up a business with his wife. He gained an MPhil in archaeology (1995) and a PhD in medieval history (2003) from the University of Manchester. He is author of The Men of the North (2010) and The Makers of Scotland (2012).
The Picts were an ancient nation who ruled most of northern and eastern Scotland during the Dark Ages. Despite their historical importance, they remain shrouded in myth and misconception. Absorbed by the kingdom of the Scots in the ninth century, they lost their unique identity, their language and their vibrant artistic culture. Amongst their few surviving traces are standing stones decorated with incredible skill and covered with enigmatic symbols – vivid memorials of a powerful and gifted people who bequeathed no chronicles to tell their story, no sagas to describe the deed of their kings and heroes. In this book Tim Clarkson pieces together the evidence to tell the story of this mysterious people from their emergence in Roman times to their eventual disappearance.
ISBN: 9781780274034 Price: £9.99 Format pbk: 198 x 129mm Rights: World All Languages June 2016 240pp
Hidden Scotland
Scotland’s Hidden Past ANN LINDSAY is the author of a number of bestselling books, including The Dried Flower Garden (Batsford) and Seeds Blood and Beauty: Scottish Plant Explorers (Birlinn). She has also contributed over to the years to a wide range of newspapers and magazines, including Sunday Herald, Sunday Post, Country Life and the Scots Magazine.
In this marvellously entertaining and informative book, Ann Lindsay introduces a huge 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. Packed with information on curious places, bizarre happenings and perplexing oddities, Hidden Scotland will surprise even the most erudite student of Scottish culture. It includes instructions on how to get to all the places mentioned in the book, making it an indispensable companion to those keen to explore the more alternative destinations on Scotland’s tourist trail.
ISBN: 9781780274096 Price: £12.99 Format: 216 x 138mm pbk Rights: World All Languages June 2016 256pp
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New Editions David Stevenson Rick Wilson The Hunt for Rob Roy The Man and the Myths This is the first time that Rob Roy’s life has been written with a full range of sources. The picture that emerges is indeed striking, but not heroic. The Story of a man deeply wronged and oppressed, forced into outlawry, has to be modified by the clear evidence that he was only outlawed after undertaking a careful plan to swindle his creditors. DAVID STEVENSON is Professor Emeritus of Scottish History at the University of St Andrews and the author of numerous books, including the standard two-volume history of the Covenanters.
With this book Scotland may lose a hero of the old-fashioned and unreal sort, but it gains a Rob Roy whose life-story emerges as one that was dramatic and certainly more human. This radical revision of popular views on Rob Roy is based on much recently discovered material and is the first new biography for thirty years.
ISBN: 9781780273785 Price: £9.99 Format: 198 x 129mm pbk Rights: World All Languages May 2016 368pp 16pp b/w plate section
Scots Who Made America What would America have been without the Scots? Andrew Carnegie, the humble weaver’s son who went there to become the world’s richest man, thought it might have been ‘a poor show’.
RICK WILSON grew up in the same small-town street where David Buick, founder of the Buick car company, was born. As a journalist he has worked not just on daily newspapers in London’s Fleet Street but also in The Netherlands and his native Scotland as a magazine editor.
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This book is an unapologetic celebration of what he was proudly talking about – little Scotland’s huge human contribution to the cultural identity of the Big Country. Rick Wilson profiles an intriguing selection of Scottish innovators who have projected their genius, energy and inspiration across the Atlantic.
ISBN: 9781780273808 Price: £7.99 Format: 198 x 129mm pbk Rights: World All Languages May 2016 216pp 2 x 8pp b/w plate section
John Donald David Taylor Mairi Stewart ‘The Wild Black Region’ Badenoch 1750 - 1800
DAVID TAYLOR graduated in Scottish Historical Studies from the University of Edinburgh, and gained a PhD from the University of the Highlands and Islands. After teaching history at Douglas-Ewart High School he was Principal Teacher of History and Modern Studies at Kingussie High School (Badenoch) for thirty years. Now retired, he lives in Orkney.
This book tells the fascinating story of Badenoch, a forgotten region in accounts of Scottish history. Situated in the heart of the Highlands and with its own distinct historic and geographic identity, Badenoch was in the throes of dramatic change in the post-Culloden decades. This groundbreaking study reveals some radical differences from trends across the rest of the Highlands. Duke, tacksman and erstwhile clansman tried to forge their individual – and often irreconcilable – destinies in a rapidly changing world. In doing so, all were increasingly drawn into the wider, and often lucrative, dimensions of British state and empire.
ISBN: 9781906566982 Price: £25.00 Format: 234 x 156mm pbk Rights: World All Languages February 2016 336pp 16pp colour plates; 8pp b/w plates; maps
Voices of the Forest
A Social History of Scottish Forestry in the Twentieth Century
MAIRI STEWART graduated in Geography from Glasgow University. After spending ten years working in conservation and land management, her interest in woodland history led her to undertake an MPhil at the University of St Andrews. She is currently a freelance historical researcher specialising in environmental history.
The creation of large new tracts of forest, together with the development of a modern wood processing sector, was the single biggest transformation to occur in the Scottish countryside during the twentieth century. While the environmental and landscape impacts of this change have been much commented upon, its impact on Scottish culture and society has attracted comparatively little attention. This book tells the fascinating story of the human side of forestry, drawing heavily on the thoughts, experiences and reflections of a wide range of individuals from all levels and all sectors of the industry as it has developed in Scotland over the last 100 years.
ISBN: 9781906566647 Price: £20.00 Format: 245 x 240mm pbk Rights: World All Languages February 2016 304pp 120 b/w; 80 colour throughout
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John Donald Broun & MacGregor (ed.) John Arthur Kinship, Church and Culture Collected Essays and Studies by John W.M. Bannerman JOHN BANNERMAN studied Celtic languages at the University of Glasgow and gained a PhD from the University of Cambridge. He joined the history department at Edinburgh University in 1967 and worked there for 30 years, while also running the family farm at Balmaha, Stirlingshire. He published a number of influential works on Gaelic Scotland, including Studies in the History of Dalriada and a major contribution to Late Medieval Monumental Sculpture in the West Highlands. He retired from teaching in 1997 and took up farming full-time at Balmaha. He died in 2008.
John Bannerman (1932–2008) saw the history of Scotland from a Gaelic perspective, and his outstanding scholarship made that perspective impossible to ignore. As a historian, his natural home was the era between the Romans and the twelfth century when the Scottish kingdom first began to take shape, but he also wrote extensively on the MacDonald Lordship of the Isles in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, while his work on the Beatons, the notable Gaelic medical kindred, reached into the early eighteenth century. Across this long millennium, Bannerman ranged and wrote with authority and insight on what he termed the ‘kinbased society’, with special emphasis upon its church and culture, and its relationship with Ireland.
ISBN: 9781906566913 Price: £25.00 Format: 234 x 156mm pbk Rights: World All Languages February 2016 320pp b/w throughout
Brilliant Lives
The Clerk Maxwells and the Scottish Enlightenment JOHN ARTHUR graduated from the University of Toronto before returning to Scotland to complete a PhD in physics at the University of Edinburgh. He spent most of his career specialising in electronic and microwave technology developments for communications and radar. In addition to a recent book on electromagnetic theory, he has published many papers. He is a trustee of the James Clerk Maxwell Foundation, a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Physics,
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James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) was the greatest physicist of the nineteenth century, and although his scientific contribution is now acknowledged to be on a level with those of Newton and Einstein, he has generally not received the acclaim that he deserves. This book goes beyond the life of the man himself to explore five generations of his family and those with whom they were connected, predominantly middleranking lowland Scots who were interlinked through marriage. ISBN: 9781906566975 Price: £25.00 Format: 234 x 156mm pbk Rights: World English Language April 2016 288pp 16pp colour plate section
John Donald Ronald Black The Campbells of the Ark Men of Argyll in 1745 VOLUMES 1 & 2
RONALD BLACK is a retired Senior Lecturer in Celtic Studies at the University of Edinburgh and Gaelic Editor of the Scotsman. He is a regular broadcaster and contributes to a wide variety of newspapers and journals. He lives in Peebles, Scotland.
In the course of his long poem An Airce, ‘The Ark’, the Jacobite poet Alexander MacDonald shows the Campbells being subjected to trial by water for the part they played in defeating Prince Charles’s army in 1745–6. Some will be drowned outright, he says, some just given a good ducking – and some will be honourably treated. He names forty individuals; Ronald Black puts their lives and deeds under the microscope to see how far they deserved their allotted fate. The result is a well-balanced portrait of the leading men of Argyll in the eighteenth century and a refreshingly new perspective on one of the most colourful episodes in Scottish history: the rising of the ’45 as seen through the eyes of Highlanders who helped to crush it. The Campbells of the Ark includes a detailed study of the sixtythree locally based companies of the Argyllshire Militia of 1745–6, covering every corner of this fascinating county, from Kintyre to Ardnamurchan, from Islay to Genorchy.
Cover not yet available
ISBN: Volume 1 – 9781906566890 ISBN: Volume 2 – 9781910900062 Price: £25.00 Format: 234 x 156mm pbk Rights: World All Languages August 2016 512pp, 512pp 16pp colour plates; 7 maps
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John Donald Tim Clarkson Chelsea W. Sanger Scotland’s Merlin
A Medieval Legend and its Dark Age Origins
TIM CLARKSON worked in academic librarianship before setting up a business with his wife. He gained an MPhil in archaeology (1995) and a PhD in medieval history (2003) from the University of Manchester. He is author of The Men of the North (2010) and The Makers of Scotland (2012).
Who was Merlin? Is the famous wizard of Arthurian legend based on a real person? In this book, Merlin’s origins are traced back to the story of Lailoken, a mysterious ‘wild man’ who is said to have lived in the Scottish Lowlands in the sixth century AD. The book considers the question of whether Lailoken belongs to myth or reality. It looks at the historical background of his story and discusses key characters such as Saint Kentigern of Glasgow and King Rhydderch of Dumbarton, as well as important events such as the Battle of Arfderydd.
ISBN: 9781906566999 Price: £14.99 Format: 234 x 156mm pbk Rights: World All Languages April 2016 272pp 8pp b/w plates
Scottish Arctic Whaling CHESLEY SANGER grew up in Newfoundland. He gained a PhD in the Origins of the Scottish Northern Whale Fishery from the University of Dundee. He has published a number of books, including Twentieth-Century Shore-Station Whaling in Newfoundland and Labrador, 2006 (with A.B. Dickinson), which received the Canadian Nautical Research Society Award for Best Book. He also received the New Bedford Whaling Museum Waterman Award for ‘contribution to the history of whaling’ (2008). He is an Emeritus Professor at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada.
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Scottish Arctic Whaling brings to light a previously little-known but important Scottish industry. The author’s extensive use of original sources such as log-books and diaries shows that hundreds of whaling vessels, sailing variously from sixteen east-coast Scottish ports, harvested more than 20,000 bowhead whales at East Greenland, Davis Strait and Baffin Bay during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. And they did so under almost unimaginably demanding and hazardous conditions. More than 110 ships were lost, while others were often detained within the pack-ice, causing the whale men to suffer starvation, disease, scurvy, frostbite and death.
ISBN: 9781906566777 Price: £25.00 Format: 234 x 156mm pbk Rights: World All Languages May 2016 272pp 8pp b/w plates
John Donald R. Andrew MacDonald Outlaws of Medieval Scotland
Challenges to the Canmore Kings 1058-1266 R. ANDREW MCDONALD is Professor of History at Brock University, Canada, where he was the founding director of the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. He is the author of many books, book chapters, and articles on medieval Scottish, Hebridean, and Manx history, including The Kingdom of the Isles: Scotland’s Western Seaboard, c.1100–c.1336, co-editor of The Viking Age: A Reader and co-editor of Alba: Celtic Scotland in the Middle Ages.
9781904607793 £20.00 pbk
9781906566579 £20.00 pbk
The history of the so-called Canmore kings in Scotland, from the reign of Malcolm lll (1058–1093) down to that of Alexander lll (1249–1286), is marked by an array of insurrections led by discontented dynasts and native warlords with grievances against these kings. Although none of the challenges ultimately proved successful, they nevertheless form a much-neglected theme across a formative era of Scottish history, which they in part define. This book demonstrates that the Canmore kings maintained their grip on power in large measure through crushing rivals and quashing numerous insurrections; their claim to be the founders of the medieval kingdom is valid, but the roles of violence and military confrontations in the consolidation of their power and the formation of the medieval kingdom are given new emphasis here. From well-known events like the invasion of Somerled of Argyll in 1164 to lesser-known challenges like that from Donald MacWillliam in the 1180s, the book offers a systematic exploration of the leaders of insurrection, their aims and motivations, their military capabilities, and the reasons behind their failure as well as the overall impact of insurrection upon the Scottish kingdom.
ISBN: 9781910900000 Price: £20.00 Format: 234 x 156mm pbk Rights: World All Languages April 2016 202pp
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John Donald John Lorne Campbell (Editor) Hebridean Folk Songs Volumes 1 - 3
VOLUME 1: A COLLECTION OF WAULKING SONGS BY DONALD MACCORMICK VOLUME 2: WAULKING SONGS FROM BARRA, SOUTH UIST, ERISKAY, AND BENBECULA VOLUME 3: WAULKING SONGS FROM VATERSAY, BARRA, ERISKAY, SOUTH UIST AND BENBECULA JOHN LORNE CAMPBELL FRSE LLD OBE (1906–1996) was a Scottish historian, farmer, environmentalist and folklore scholar. He recorded a disappearing Gaelic heritage, and wrote and published extensively about Gaelic and Highland culture and life. His biography, The Man Who Gave Away His Island is also published by Birlinn.
9781780274119 £8.99 pbk
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The classic three volumes of Hebridean folk songs, reissued simultaneously for the first time since their original publication (1969, 1977, 1981), contain 135 songs connected with the waulking of homespun tweed cloth in the Hebridean isles. Volume 1 is based on waulking songs collected by Donald MacCormick in South Uist in 1893. Volumes 2 and 3 are based on John Lorne Campbell’s recordings of songs made between 1938 and 1965 in Barra, South Uist, Eriskay and Benbecula. The translations for all the songs in Volumes 2 and 3 and many of those in Volume 1 are by John Lorne Campbell, who also wrote detailed notes discussing the songs. Multiple versions of the same song are compared with each other and with versions drawn from unpublished manuscript sources. Francis Collinson’s meticulous musical transcriptions of the songs, and musicological analyses, are invaluable. The songs are from the repertoires of some well-known singers of their generation, including Miss Annie Johnson, her brother Calum and Miss Mary Morrison, all of Barra, Mrs Neil Campbell of South Uist, and Miss Nan MacKinnon of Vatersay.
Cover not yet available
ISBN: Volume 1 - 9781910900017 ISBN: Volume 2 - 9781910900024 ISBN: Volume 3 - 9781910900031 Price: £25.00 Format: 234 x 156mm pbk Rights: World All Languages May 2016
John Donald Peter C.O. Jupp, Douglas J. Davies, Hilary J. Grainger, Gordon D. Raeburn and Stephen R.G. White Cremation in Modern Scotland History, Architecture and the Law PETER JUPP is an Honorary Fellow of the University of Edinburgh DOUGLAS DAVIES is a Professor of Theology and Religion at Durham University HILARY GRAINGER is a Dean and Professor of Architectural History at the University of the Arts, London, and Chair of the Victorian Society GORDON RAEBURN is a lecturer in Historical and Philosophical Studies at Melbourne University STEPHEN WHITE is a retired Senior Lecturer from Cardiff Law School.
Changes in funeral practice provide a lens through which to inspect changes in wider social identity, values and religious beliefs. This book reveals how, in Scotland, as in other societies, death ways and funeral arrangements are closely related to other aspects of life, from religious beliefs to political convictions, from family relationships to class structure, from poverty to prosperity. The book adopts an interdisciplinary approach, analysing particularly the part played by Scottish law and architecture. Until recently, Scotland’s 28 crematoria have been the ‘invisible buildings’ of the twentieth century, absent from architectural histories. The book analyses the challenge this new building type provided for architects: a building with no architectural precedent, at once secular and religious, functional and symbolic. From archives previously unstudied and from primary and secondary legal materials, it traces the development of Scottish law on burial and cremation. It will be an invaluable aid to those wishing to know the historical background to the Burial and Cremation Bill currently going through the Scottish Parliament.
ISBN: 9781906566791 Price: £30.00 Format: 234 x 156mm hbk Rights: World All Languages May 2016 608pp b/w throughout, 32pp col plates
In just forty years the people of Scotland made a striking change to their age-old custom of burying their dead. In 1939, 97 per cent of Scots funerals ended with burial; by 1977 over 50 per cent ended with cremation. This book tells the story of this change. It interprets the crises in burial practice in nineteenth-century urban Scotland and constructs the very first account of how Scottish cremationists pioneered a radical alternative to burial.
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Non-Fiction Mairi Hedderwick Hebridean Calendar 2017 Hebridean Pocket Diary 2017 Hebridean Desk Diary 2017 This beautiful stationery collection features distinctive full-colour paintings by one of Scotland’s best-loved authors and artists, Mairi Hedderwick, in a wonderful celebration of the extraordinary natural beauty of the Hebrides throughout the seasons. MAIRI HEDDERWICK was born in Gourock, Scotland. As a student she took a job as a mother’s help on the Isle of Coll in the Hebrides, beginning a life-long love affair with islands and their small communities. Her children were brought up there and now some of her grandchildren. Mairi’s island world is delightfully reflected in the imaginary island of Struay where her perennially popular Katie Morag stories are set. As well as creating children’s books Mairi writes and illustrates travel books for adults. She also illustrated the acclaimed Janet Reachfar books, which are published by Birlinn. She continues to live on Coll.
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The paintings have been collected over the past forty years and show the changing faces of the landscapes. Mairi’s sketches range across many of the isles from Arran to Tiree, expertly capturing the essence of these beautiful and diverse islands, from wind-swept machair and dramatic cliffs to rolling hills and secluded woods.
ISBN: 9781780273396 Price: £9.99 Format: 300 x 300mm calendar Rights: World All Languages May 2016 24pp
Following the huge success of the previous diaries and calendars, this new 2017 collection is set to enjoy continued success.
ISBN 9781780273419 Price: £7.99 Format: 156 x 110mm hbk Rights: World All Languages May 2016 128pp
ISBN 9781780273402 Price: £12.99 Format: 230 x 170mm hbk Rights: World All Languages May 2016 128pp
Non-Fiction National Library of Scotland David Hawson Scottish Maps Calendar 2017 In association with the National Library of Scotland The National Library of Scotland has the most comprehensive range of Scottish maps in existence, from medieval times to the present day. This stunning calendar features 12 of the most beautiful and historically significant maps from the library’s collection, covering all parts of the country and spanning a period of half a millennium. This is a wonderful companion to Birlinn’s bestselling Scotland: Mapping the Nation; Edinburgh: Mapping the City and Glasgow: Mapping the City and a brilliant addition to their successful stationery range which includes works featuring Mairi Hedderwick and the Great Tapestry of Scotland.
ISBN: 9781780273280 Price: £9.99 Format: 300 x 300mm calendar Rights: World All Languages May 2016 24pp
The Puffer Calendar 2017
DAVID HAWSON is a retired GP from Monymusk in rural Aberdeenshire, an accomplished photographer and a painter who has exhibited with the Royal Scottish Watercolour Society. He has sailed extensively throughout the west coast waters of Scotland and sketches and paints wherever he goes. His Puffer Cookbook, co-authored with Mandy Hamilton, was first published in 2013.
This beautiful calendar celebrates Vic 32, the last surviving Clyde Puffer, which was found derelict in Whitby harbour and lovingly restored by Nick and Rachel Walker. It is now a familiar sight along the west coast of Scotland as it steams up the Clyde estuary and round the islands of the Hebrides. The wonderful photographs in this calendar show it under its plume of smoke as it sails through some of the loveliest scenery on earth, and David Hawson’s vibrant paintings and line drawings adorn each month. Sales of the calendar support the Puffer Preservation Trust, the registered charity set up to maintain the Puffer and save this iconic vessel for future generations to enjoy.
ISBN: 9781780273426 Price: £9.99 Format: 300 x 300mm calendar Rights: World All Languages May 2016 24pp
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Non-Fiction Key Titles From 2015 Set Adrift Upon the World
The Railway Atlas of Scotland
JAMES HUNTER
DAVID SPAVEN
The Sutherland Clearances
Two Hundred Years of History in Maps
ISBN: 9781780272382 Price: £30.00 Format: 305 x 270mm hbk Rights: World English Language September 2015 224pp colour & b/w throughout
ISBN: 9781780272689 Price: £25.00 Format: 234 x 156mm pbk Rights: World All Languages October 2015 416pp 16pp b/w plates
In this book James Hunter tells the story of the Sutherland Clearances. His researches took him to archives in Scotland, England and Canada, to the now deserted straths of Sutherland, to the frozen shores of Hudson Bay. The result is a gripping, moving, definitive account of a people’s struggle for survival in the face of tragedy and disaster which includes experiences which have not featured in any previous such account.
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
Edinburgh
Glasgow
CHRIS FLEET AND DANIEL MacCANNELL
JOHN MOORE
Mapping the City
Mapping the City
ISBN: 9781780272450 Price: £30.00 Format: 250 x 256mm hbk Rights: World All Languages October 2014 272pp b/w maps/diagrams throughout
Maps can tell much about the story of a place that traditional histories fail to communicate. This is particularly true of Edinburgh, one of the most visually stunning cities in Europe and a place rich in historical and cultural associations. This lavishly illustrated book features 80 maps of Edinburgh which have been selected for the particular stories they reveal.
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ISBN: 9781780273198 Price: £30.00 Format: 250 x 256mm hbk Rights: World All Languages November 2015 400pp b/w maps/diagrams throughout
Maps can tell much about a place that traditional histories fail to communicate. This lavishly illustrated book features 80 maps which have been selected for the particular stories they reveal about different political, commercial and social aspects of Scotland’s largest city.
Non-Fiction Key Titles From 2015 Scotland
101 Gins
ALISTAIR MOFFAT
IAN BUXTON
To Try Before You Die
A History From Earliest Times
ISBN: 9781780272801 Price: £25 Format: 234 x 156mm hbk Rights: World All Languages September 2015 576pp 8pp 4x4
ISBN: 9781780272993 Price: £12.99 Format: 178 x 114mm hbk Rights: World English Language August 2015 224pp colour throughout
From the Ice Age to the recent Scottish Referendum, historian and author Alistair Moffat explores the history of the Scottish nation. 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.
We’re in the middle of a new Gin Craze. Scarcely a day goes by without an established brand offering a fresh take on their styles or, more likely, a new boutique distillery opening its doors – where gin is de rigueur. From Adnams to Zuidam; Beefeater to Bombay and London to Plymouth (and beyond), this new book from a best-selling drinks writer is the authoritative guide to the world of gin.
Also Available: The Great Tapestry of Scotland
9781780271606 £30.00 hbk
9781780271330 £9.99 pbk
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 Scottish history and achievement from the end of the last Ice Age to the 21st century. More than 1,000 volunteer stitchers, led by stitch coordinator Dorie Wilkie, worked for 55,000 hours using 300 miles of wool to create the 160 panels of this extraordinary work of art.
‘[T]he most ambitious attempt to capture the past in needle and thread since the Bayeux Tapestry . . . The result is not just visually stunning but intensely moving and occasionally very funny’ – The Times
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