A Tangled Web by Ken Lussey (15 November 2023). (Amazon paid link.)
A fast-paced thriller set in northern Scotland. Callum Anderson returns to Sutherland to help local GP Jenny Mackay investigate the death
of her husband. The authorities say it was suicide but she’s convinced he was murdered. It soon becomes clear that Iain Mackay lied to
everyone who thought he loved them: especially his wife and his daughters. But that becomes the least of their problems when they come up
against people who have already killed and would have no qualms about killing again.
Read our full review.
Bubbleheads, SEALs and Wizards: America's Scottish Bastion in the Cold War by D.G. Mackay (30 June 2023). (Amazon paid link.)
The American military presence in Scotland during the Cold War was greater than in either of the World Wars, bringing with it the largest
peace-time number of foreign military personnel in Scotland’s history. This military power was delivered by individuals, most ofw whom had
no true concept of the danger they faced from the Soviet threat. These were exciting times for the young Americans who crossed the ocean to
serve their country and this is their Cold War story.
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Kayaking the Sea Roads: Exploring the Scottish Highlands by Ed Ley-Wilson (29 September 2023). (Amazon paid link.)
Kayaking the Sea Roads is a personal journey by sea kayak into the heart of the sea roads that make up our Scottish Highlands and islands.
Blending the intensity of the journey with a careful observation of the natural world and first-hand knowledge of the challenges of
living and working in this place, the author reminds us that mother nature, vast and resilient, is still out there beyond our mobile
phones and urban lives.
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The Final Frontier: Scotland's Early Roman Landscape by Andrew Tibbs (15 February 2024). (Amazon paid link.)
In this revealing book, Roman historian and archaeologist Andrew Tibbs uncovers the earliest Roman fortifications in Scotland and
examines the landscape and context in which they were built. Although the most visible high-water marks of the Roman Empire in Britain
are Hadrian’s Wall and the Antonine Wall, less is known about the fortifications which marked the early Roman forays into Scotland
before the Romans decided that the land was ungovernable.
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Under the Radiant Hill: Life and the Land in the Remotest Highlands by Robin Noble (7 September 2023). (Amazon paid link.)
The northern parish of Assynt boasts some of the most spectacular scenery in Britain. The mountains of Quinag and Suilven dominate a very
varied landscape with wild, white hills inland and a complex, intricate moorland to the west. In this book, Robin Noble, who has been
intimately involved with this corner of the north-west Highlands of Scotland his whole life, celebrates its rugged beauty and shares many
intimate encounters with the resident wildlife.
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The High Road by Ken Lussey (15 September 2023). (Amazon paid link.)
A fast-paced thriller set mainly in central Scotland and the far north-west. Callum Anderson is in Scotland to scatter
his father’s ashes when he’s asked by a cousin to look for her missing sister, Alexandra. With his life in London in tatters
and suspended from duty by the Metropolitan Police, why not? It soon becomes clear that Alex is on the run from someone who sees
Callum as a means of finding her and adding to a trail of bodies across two countries. Can Callum find Alex before his
own hunter finds him?
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Landscape Change in the Scottish Highlands: Imagination and Reality by James Fenton (29 September 2023). (Amazon paid link.)
The Scottish Highlands are now symbolic of Scotland as a whole: a land of mountains, glens and lochs, of golden eagles and red deer; a
land with a rich cultural history of clans and clanship, of kilts and castles, of crofts, crofting, Highland cows and sheep, of music and
dance. But does this imagined landscape relate to the actuality? Is it in fact a wild landscape or does such untrammelled wildness only
reside in the mind?
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Salt: Scotland’s Newest Oldest Industry by Christopher Whatley & Joanna Hambly (14 September 2023). (Amazon paid link.)
Sea-salt manufacturing is one of Scotland’s oldest industries, dating to the eleventh century if not earlier. Panhouses were once a common sight
along our coastline and are reflected in many placenames. This book celebrates both the history and the rebirth of the salt industry in Scotland.
Although salt manufacturing declined in the nineteenth century, in the second decade of the twenty-first century the
trade was revived.
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The Eagle and the Bear: A New History of Roman Scotland by John Reid (6 April 2023). (Amazon paid link.)
For over three centuries, the inhabitants of North Britain faced the might of Rome, resulting in some of the most extraordinary archaeology
of the ancient world. This book explores the interaction between the world’s first superpower and the peoples who would ultimately form the
country we now call Scotland and shows what it was like to be at the dark heart of imperialism and slavery, and to be on the receiving end
of Rome’s merciless killing machine.
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The Bone Cave: A Journey through Myth and Memory by Dougie Strang (5 October 2023). (Amazon paid link.)
A vivid account of a month-long journey in the Scottish Highlands. Walking and occasionally hitching, Dougie Strang follows a series of folktales
to the locations in which they’re set, encountering along the way a depth of meaning to them that allows him to engage with the landscape from
a different perspective – one where the distinction between history and legend is supple, and where his own narrative becomes entangled with figures both real and mythic.
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Hide and Seek by Ken Lussey (26 May 2023). (Amazon paid link.)
A fast-paced thriller set in Stirling Castle and more widely across Scotland during World War Two. It’s April 1943. Medical student
Helen Erickson is followed from London to her aunt’s farm in Perthshire. What do her pursuers want? Meanwhile Monique Dubois is
attending a secret meeting at Stirling Castle when an old adversary is murdered in a chilling echo of a dark episode in the castle’s
history. Bob Sutherland and the MI11 team are called in and discover that almost everyone who knew the victim had a motive.
Then Helen disappears.
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The Wisest Fool: The Lavish Life of James VI and I by Steven Veerapen (7 September 2023). (Amazon paid link.)
James VI and I has long endured a mixed reputation. Here James’s story is laid bare, and a welter of scurrilous,
outrageous assumptions penned by his political opponents put to rest. What emerges is a portrait of James VI and I as his contemporaries
knew him: a gregarious, idealistic man whose personal and political goals could never match up to reality. It casts fresh light on the
his personal, domestic, international, and sexual politics.
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Seafood Journey: Tastes and Tales From Scotland by Ghillie Basan (2 November 2023). (Amazon paid link.)
Scotland has some of the best seafood in the world, so we why don’t we eat more of it? Acclaimed cooker writer Ghillie Basan
embarks on a journey around Scotland’s coastline and islands to capture the essence of our nation’s seafood through the stories
of fisherman, farmers, artisan smokers and curers, boat builders and age-old traditions. In addition, she offers 90 original
recipes showcasing the wonderful produce she encounters on her journeys to all parts of the country.
Read our full review.
Mousa to Mackintosh: The Scottishness of Scottish Architecture by Frank Arneil Walker (29 June 2023). (Amazon paid link.)
In Mousa to Mackintosh, Frank Arneil Walker examines the recognisable and recurring features
evident in Scotland’s buildings across the centuries to build a picture of ‘Scottishness’ in architecture. This chronological history presents
an expansive view of architecture in Scotland, from neolithic brochs and classical country houses to baronial tower-houses and modernist New
Towns, including the work of renowned architects.
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Dark Encounters: A Collection of Ghost Stories by William Croft Dickinson (5 October 2023). (Amazon paid link.)
Dark Encounters is a collection of classic and elegantly unsettling ghost stories first published in 1963. A spine-tingling collection,
these tales are set in the brooding landscape of Scotland, with an air of historic authenticity – often referring to real events, objects
and people. From a demonic text that leaves its readers strangled to the murderous spectre of a feudal baron, this is a crucial addition
to the long and distinguished cannon of Scottish ghost stories.
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Northern Lights: The Arctic Scots by Edward J. Cowan (7 September 2023). (Amazon paid link.)
Surprisingly, the remarkable story of the Scottish role in the discovery of the Northwest Passage connecting the Atlantic and Pacific has not received a
great deal of attention. This book charts the extensive contribution to Arctic exploration made by the Scots, including names such as John Ross from Stranraer;
his nephew, James Clark Ross; John Richardson of Dumfries; and Orcadian John Rae. The book also pays tribute to many others too: the Scotch Irish, the whalers
and not least the Inuit.
Read our full review.