Never to Return: Convoys to Russia in the Second World War by Roderick G MacLean (11 February 2025). (Amazon paid link.)
The story of the Russian convoys with particular focus on HMS Achates. The book tells of the commodores who came out of retirement;
the doctors who diced with death, jumping from one ship to another in rough seas; the astonishing behaviour of Adolf Hitler in belittling
his Kriegsmarine admirals and captains; the rescue ships which pulled freezing survivors from waters. Never to Return shares the story
of those who, despite their fears, sailed in these convoys.
Read our full review.
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.
Read our full review.
The Eye of Horus by Ken Lussey (18 June 2024).
An atmospheric World War Two thriller with settings that move from the Highlands of Scotland via Gibraltar to Malta. It's June
1943. Bob and Monique Sutherland are on honeymoon in Kyle of Lochalsh when an unexpected visitor arrives to spoil their idyll.
They agree to travel to Malta to search for two missing men, a young naval lieutenant and an MI6 officer who has disappeared
while looking for him. The aerial siege of the island is over and the tide of war has turned but, after three years of bombing,
Malta remains a shattered place.
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.
Read our full review.
Scottish Military Aerodromes of the 1920s and 1930s by Malcolm Fife (15 October 2020). (Amazon paid link.)
The end of WWI brought with it the closure most military aerodromes in Scotland. It, however, retained its links with naval aviation. In the latter part of the 1920s
Auxiliary Air Force squadrons were formed at Edinburgh and Glasgow manned by civilians. In the 1930s the RAF built new airfields and re-opened First World War sites.
RAF flying boats were also active. The development of airline services, air ambulance and private flying and gliding are also covered. As are aerodromes that were
planned but never built.
Read our full review.
A Short Guide to Hadrian's Wall by Andrew Tibbs (15 April 2022). (Amazon paid link.)
An overview of the history and archaeology of the wall, along with a guide to the key Roman sites to visit. The history of the wall
starts with the earliest Roman invasion and the construction of the Stanegate, a chain of forts built before the wall. Thirty key
sites are examined and Tibbs provides maps, illustrations and details of each. This is the perfect book for anybody interested in the
history of the wall and the rich variety of interesting sites that can be found along it.
Read our full review.
Hide and Seek by Ken Lussey (26 May 2023).
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.
Read our full review.
The Great Scuttle: The End of the German High Seas Fleet: Witnessing History by David Meara (15 May 2019). (Amazon paid link.)
After the German surrender in November 1918, the German High Seas Fleet was interned at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands. The German commander,
Admiral Von Reuter, ordered that his fleet be scuttled on 21 June 1919. Most ships began to sink within hours, witnessed by a visiting group of
school children. This book follows the events of that day, drawing on the eyewitness accounts of those who were there.
Read our full review.
War Paths: Walking in the Shadows of the Clans by Alistair Moffat (3 August 2023). (Amazon paid link.)
Acclaimed historian Alistair Moffat sets off in the footsteps of the Highland clans. In thirteen journeys he explores places of
conflict, recreating as he walks the tumult of battle. As he recounts the military prowess of the clans he also speaks of their
lives, their language and culture before it was all swept away. The disaster at Culloden in 1746 represented not just the defeat
of the Jacobite dream but also the unleashing of merciless retribution from the British government.
Read our full review.
Lemonade Tonight: Notes from a POW and a Present-Day Journey of Discovery by Fiona Cameron & Carole Grant (26 June 2021). (Amazon paid link.)
On 30 January 1940, aged just twenty-one, Private Allan Cameron of the 51st Highland Division set sail for Le Havre to help defend France against
a German invasion. He was subsequently captured and held as a prisoner of war. Diary notes he made during this time lay hidden until long after his
death. When they found his notebooks in 2011, his daughters embarked on a quest to find out more. Their book brings history vividly to life and draws
together the past and the present.
Read our full review.
The Stockholm Run by Ken Lussey (26 May 2022).
A fast-paced thriller set largely in Edinburgh and Stockholm during World War Two. It's March 1943. The death of an intruder in a
hidden bunker leads to a much larger secret buried beneath Edinburgh Castle. As the mystery unravels, Bob Sutherland and Monique Dubois
are sent to Stockholm, a city supposedly at peace in a world at war, to take delivery of a message of critical national importance. Or is
it a trap? Can their relationship survive what they uncover? Will they live long enough for that to matter?
Read our full review.
The Night Before Morning by Alistair Moffat (1 July 2021). (Amazon paid link.)
June 1945. Hitler has triumphed, Britain is under German occupation and America cowers under the threat of nuclear attack. In the dead of night,
a figure flits through the ruins of Dryburgh Abbey, searching for a hidden document he knows could change the course of history. The journal he
discovers, by a young soldier, David Erskine, records an extraordinary story. When Allied victory seems imminent, Erskine is in Antwerp, where he
witnesses a world-changing reversal of fortune as a huge mushroom cloud rises over London.
Read our full review.
Afore the Highlands: The Jacobites in Perth, 1715-16 by Kathleen Lyle (26 August 2019). (Amazon paid link.)
For a few months in 1715/16, when it was occupied by Jacobite forces, Perth was at a focal point of British and European history.
Perth, which then had a population of around 5,000, became the headquarters for an army of perhaps 10,000 men. Where were they all
accommodated? How were they fed? What did the townspeople think of the occupation? Did they all support the Jacobite cause? Questions
like this are not often addressed by existing histories of the 1715 rising
Read our full review.
Bloody Orkney by Ken Lussey (29 June 2021).
Bloody Orkney is a fast-paced thriller set in Scotland during World War Two. It’s November 1942. Bob Sutherland, Monique
Dubois and the Military Intelligence 11 team fly in to review security in Orkney, home to one of the most important and most
heavily defended naval anchorages in the world. But an unidentified body has been found. It becomes clear that powerful men
have things they’d rather keep hidden and MI11’s arrival threatens the status quo. Then Bob stumbles over a ghost from his
past and things get far too personal.
Read our full review.
The Danger of Life by Ken Lussey (12 August 2024). (Amazon paid link.)
It’s October 1942. Group Captain Robert Sutherland's first week in charge of Military Intelligence 11's operations in Scotland is not going smoothly.
An investigation into a murder at the Commando Basic Training Centre in the Highlands take an even darker turn that draws Bob in personally. He is also trying
to discover who was behind an attempt to steal an advanced reconnaissance aircraft; and then Monique Dubois in MI5 asks for his help with an operation
of hers in Glasgow that has gone badly wrong.
Read our full review.
Eyes Turned Skywards by Ken Lussey (12 August 2024). (Amazon paid link.)
Wing Commander Robert Sutherland has left his days as a pre-war detective far behind him. Or so he thinks. On 25 August 1942 the Duke of Kent, brother
of King George VI, is killed in northern Scotland in an unexplained air crash; a second crash soon after suggests a shared, possibly sinister, cause.
Bob Sutherland is tasked with visiting the aircraft's base in Oban and the first crash site in Caithness to gather clues as to who might have had reason
to sabotage one, or both, of the aircraft.
Read our full review.
Scotland's Wings: Triumph and Tragedy in the Skies by Robert Jeffrey (15 September 2022). (Amazon paid link.)
Scotland has a worldwide reputation for launching some of the greatest ships ever built, but far less is known about our pioneering
work on aviation. Including the first flight over Everest, the construction of the most northerly airship station in mainland Britain
and the experience of civilians and pilots during the Clydebank Blitz of 1941, Scotland's Wings is a glimpse into the dramatic and
sometimes controversial adventures in Scottish aeronautics.
Read our full review.
Roman Camps in Britain by Rebecca H. Jones (3 February 2012). (Amazon paid link.)
Roman camps are the bridesmaids of Roman fortifications. This study begins with
a general overview of the Roman conquest and an explanation of what Roman camps
were used for and looked like. It then explores the archaeology of Roman camps,
including how we know what we know and looking at the re-use and survival of
these structures.
Read our full review.
The Grey Wolves of Eriboll by David M. Hird (April 2018). (Amazon paid link.)
The surrender of the German U-boat fleet at the end of World War II helped demonstrate
to the British people that peace really had arrived. This revised, updated and expanded new edition gives career details of not only the
submarines and the commanders who sailed them to Loch Eriboll in northern Scotland. The book also looks at
the Allied naval operation under which the surrendering U-boats were assembled in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and the later operation
to destroy them.
Read our full review.
A Taste for Treason: The Letter That Smashed a Nazi Spy Ring by Andrew Jeffrey (6 October 2022). (Amazon paid link.)
Dundee, 1937. When housewife Mary Curran became suspicious of hairdresser Jessie Jordan's frequent trips to Nazi Germany, she was drawn into
an international web of espionage as MI5 and the FBI launched major spy hunts. This is the true story of a decade-long series of Nazi espionage
plots in Britain, Europe and the United States. It shows how a Nazi spy's letter, posted in New York and intercepted in Scotland, broke spy
rings across Europe and North America.
Read our full review.
Jock's Jocks: Voices of Scottish Soldiers from the First World War by Jock Duncan (28 March 2019). (Amazon paid link.)
Between the 1930s and 1980s, folk singer Jock Duncan interviewed 59 veterans of the First World War, mainly in his native North-East of Scotland.
He then spent many years transcribing his interviews in the rich variations of Scots in which they were spoken. The
result is a unique and illuminating collection of first-hand witness testimony to the horror, and humour, of the Great War. Co-published
with the European Ethnological Research Centre.
Read our full review.
Tartan Airforce: Scotland and a Century of Military Aviation
1907-2007 by Deborah Lake (31 October 2009). (Amazon paid link.) Britain's first flying machine
was trailled in Perthshire in 1907 and ever since, whether at war or in
peacetime, Scotland has been in the frontline of British military aviation.
This book investigates Scotland's contribution to military flying over the last
hundred years.
Read our full review.
Airman Abroad by Hamish Brown (31 March 2023). (Amazon paid link.)
A revealing picture of a time when Britain was losing its empire. It draws on letters, vivid memories and experiences from the Canal Zone,
Kenya during Mau Mau times, Cyprus and Jerusalem. The Canal Zone was no easy life and 50 years later a medal was awarded when the government
was forced to confess its own political chicanery in the events. There is much to find in this story including background histories to
events and the politics of the time.
Read our full review.
A History of RAF Drem at War by Malcolm Fife (21 January 2016). (Amazon paid link.)
A comprehensive history of the Second World War Fighter Command airfield at RAF Drem located near Edinburgh.
It was one of Scotland's most important airfields during the war. Its predecessor, the Royal Flying Corps
Gullane air station is included in the account. A wonderfully researched, well written and nicely illustrated book
that will be of lasting value and interest.
Read our full review.
Rosy Wemyss, Admiral of the Fleet: the Man who created Armistice Day by John Johnson-Allen (9 June 2021). (Amazon paid link.)
Rosslyn Wemyss' life and career was both fascinating and brilliant - a most distinguished admiral who is very little
known. As the Allied Naval Representative at the Armistice negotiations on 11th November, 1918, he was responsible,
with Marshal Foch, for the creation of Armistice Day. One of the most illustrious of Scottish admirals, he was a
member of the Clan Wemyss, whose ancestral seat is Wemyss Castle in Fife, overlooking the Firth of Forth.
Read our full review.
Orkney's Italian Chapel: The True Story of an Icon by Philip Paris
(27 May 2010). (Amazon paid link.) Orkney's Italian Chapel was built by Italian POWs held on
the island during the Second World War. The story of who built the chapel and
how it came into existence has never before been researched in such detail, and
the result is a fascinating insight into a truly remarkable building and the
truly remarkable people who built it and have looked after it over the 65 years
since the war.
Read our full review.
Loch Ewe During World War II by Steve Chadwick (7 November
2014). (Amazon paid link.) This account of the life and times of the Loch Ewe area during World
War II covers not only the major naval activities of wartime Wester Ross, but
also provides a fascinating glimpse into the everyday lives of the local people
and how their remote crofting communities were touched by the war years in this
very remote part of the Highlands.
Read our full review.
Camp 165 Watten by Valerie Campbell (30 September 2010). (Amazon paid link.) This is
a new and expanded second edition of the best-selling first edition about Camp
165 Watten, Scotland's most secretive prisoner of war camp, hidden away in the
centre of Caithness. The author has provided an in-depth historical account
with new information on a number of prisoners.
Read our full review.
The
Italian Chapel by Philip Paris (6 March 2014). (Amazon paid link.) The Italian Chapel is a
story of forbidden love, lifelong friendships torn apart, despair and hope, set
against the backdrop of the creation of a symbol that is known around the
world. Amidst conflict and hardship, the Italian prisoners of war sent to a
tiny Orkney island during World War Two create a monument to the human spirit's
ability to lift itself above great adversity.
Read our full review.
Scotland's Land Girls: Breeches, Bombers and Backaches (Paperback)
by Elaine Edwards (31 May 2010). (Amazon paid link.) An introduction covering the Women's Land
Army in the First and Second World Wars is followed by reminiscences, recorded
recently by the editor, of ten ex-Land Girls. The end result opens a
fascinating window on a little appreicated area.
Read our full review.
Supreme Sacrifice: A Small Village and the Great War by Walter Reid (18 August 2016). (Amazon paid link.)
The war memorial in the Scottish village of Bridge of Weir lists 72 men who died during the First World War.
Their deaths occurred in almost every theatre of the war. They were awarded very few medals and their military careers were not remarkable,
except that they, like countless other peaceful civilians, answered their country's call in its time of need.
Read our full review.
The
Ships of Scapa Flow by Campbell McCutcheon (16 December 2013). (Amazon paid link.) This is the
story of the ships of Scapa Flow in Orkney, including the World War One German
Fleet. It covers their sinking and their salvage, using many previously unseen
images of the recovery and subsequent removal of many of the German battleships
and cruisers to Rosyth dockyard in Fife for breaking up.
Read our full review.
Last Train to Waverley by Malcolm Archibald (4 August 2014). (Amazon paid link.)
March 1918. The Germans launch their final major offensive of the war and push
the British back thirty miles. One unit of the 20th Royal Scots are cut off.
This book follows the personal dilemmas of Douglas Ramsay, the officer in
charge as he leads the survivors back through the German lines to try and reach
the always moving British positions.
Read our full review.
Bannockburn: Scotland's Greatest Battle for Independence by Angus
Konstam (15 May 2014). (Amazon paid link.) The Battle of Bannockburn on the 23 June 1314 is one
of the most important events in Scottish history, and one of the least
understood. Seven centuries later, debates on national identity are heavily
influenced by the events of 1314. This book is published to mark the 700th
anniversary of the battle.
Read our full review.
Bannockburn: The Battle for a Nation by Alistair Moffat (19 May 2016). (Amazon paid link.)
As 8,000 Scottish soldiers, most of them spearmen, faced 18,000 English infantrymen, archers and mounted knights in
June 1314 near the Bannock Burn, many would have thought that the result a foregone conclusion. But two days later,
the English were routed, Edward II fled to the coast and took ship for home, and few English and Welsh soldiers escaped
from Scotland unhurt.
Read our full review.
The
Companion to Castles by Stephen Friar (2011 Edition). (Amazon paid link.) Stephen Friar has a
encyclopedic knowledge of all aspects of castles as well as the ability to
place issues within a historical context and explain them succinctly and
clearly for the non-specialist. This nicely illustrated and detailed A to Z
reference book with its index of castles is essential reading for anyone
interested in medieval castles.
Read our full review.
Raise the Clans: The Wargamer's Guide to Jacobite Britain by Martin
Hackett (30 June 2014). (Amazon paid link.) In this book, Martin Hackett brings his extensive
wargaming experience and historical knowledge to the Jacobite Wars of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, taking us from the Glorious Rebellion of
1685 until 1746, a period of history with much less coverage in wargaming
terms.
Read our full review.
Luftwaffe Over Scotland, A History of German Air Attacks on
Scotland, 1939-45 by Les Taylor (27 April 2010). (Amazon paid link.) The first complete history
of the air attacks mounted against Scotland by Germany during World War Two
undertakes a detailed examination of the strategy, tactics and politics
involved on both sides, together with a technical critique of the weaponry
employed by both attackers and defenders.
Read our full review.
The
Sinking of HMS Royal Oak In the Words of the Survivors by Dilip Sarkar (14
September 2012). (Amazon paid link.)HMS Royal Oak was torpedoed at anchor in Scapa Flow by the
German submarine U-47 on 14 October 1939. The loss of life was heavy: of Royal
Oak's complement of 1,234 men and boys, 833 were killed that night or died
later of their wounds. This is the story of her sinking in the words of the
survivors of both the Royal Oak and U-47.
Read our full review.
Tornado F3: 25 Years of Air Defence by Justin Reuter, Mark McEwan,
Gill Howie, Berry Vissers & Geoffrey Lee (22 March 2011). (Amazon paid link.) This
magnificently illustrated book marks the departureof the F3 from service and
brings a flavour of the equipment, the places, the organisations and most
importantly the people, with personal accounts from those involved with the
Tornado F3 in a quarter of a century of service.
Read our full review.
Glencoe by John Sadler (15 October 2009). (Amazon paid link.) A fresh look at one
the most emotive episodes in Scottish history. In the early hours of 13
February 1692, government troops who for the previous week had been peacefully
quartered on the inhabitants of Glencoe, fell upon their MacDonald hosts. In
the ensuing hours 38 defenceless men, women, and children were murdered in cold
blood.
Read our full review.
Camp 21 Comrie: POWs and Post-War Stories from Cultybraggan by Valerie Campbell (30 June 2017). (Amazon paid link.)
Camp 21 Comrie, also known as Cultybraggan Camp, is the UK's best preserved prisoner of war camp. Lying in the heart of rural Perthshire
in Scotland, the camp's history is a fascinating one. Built two miles south of the village of Comrie as a camp for detainees, and in the
following years it housed thousands of prisoners of war captured in North Africa and Europe. The book also features the camp's history
during the Cold War.
Read our full review.
Soldier's Game by James Killgore (21 July 2011). (Amazon paid link.) After football
practice each week, Ross goes to visit his grandmother, and this week she has a
special present for him. Pat digs out a pair of old football boots and strip
which belonged to her father, who once played for Heart of Midlothian Football
Club, and who was part of a battalion of footballers and fans who fought in the
First World War at the Battle of the Somme.
Read our full review.
Mons Graupius AD 83 by Duncan B Campbell and Sean O'Brogain (10 July
2010). (Amazon paid link.) In AD 77, Roman forces under Agricola marched into the northern
reaches of Britain. Finally, in AD 83, they fought the final battle at Mons
Graupius where 10,000 Caledonians were slaughtered with only 360 Roman dead. It
proved the high-water mark of Roman power in Britain.
Read our full review.
Border Reiver
1513-1603 by Keith Durham and Gerry Embleton (10 March 2011). (Amazon paid link.) Stretching
from the North Sea to the Solway Firth, the Border region has a sharply diverse
landscape and was a battleground for over 300 years as the English and Scottish
monarchs did little to discourage their subjects to conduct raids across their
respective borders.
Read our full review.
Killing Fields of Scotland: AD83 to 1746 by R. J. M. Pugh (31 March
2013). (Amazon paid link.) Battles fought on Scottish soil include those of the Scottish Wars
of Independence, the English Civil Wars and the Jacobite Rebellions. This book
tells the stories of these battles and many others fought in Scotland from the
Roman victory at Mons Graupius in AD 83 to the defeat of Bonnie Prince Charlie
at Culloden Moor in 1746.
Read our full review.
Portobello and the Great War by Archie Foley and Margaret Munro (6
September 2013). (Amazon paid link.) The story of wartime Portobello makes for fascinating
reading. This book documents the impact of the First World War on day-to-day
life in Portobello, including old photographs to show how the conflict left its
mark on the people and places around the area, and personal diary entries from
the era.
Read our full review.
Crown Covenant and Cromwell: The Civil Wars in Scotland 1639 - 1651
by Stuart Reid (15 November 2012). (Amazon paid link.) Th is is a groundbreaking military
history of the Great Civil War or rather the last Anglo-Scottish War as it was
fought in Scotland and by Scottish armies in England between 1639 and 1651.
While the politics of the time are covered, it is above all the story of those
armies and the men who marched in them.
Read our full review.
