Search results for ""Luath Press Ltd""

The Gaelic Literature Awards 2020 Best Unpublished Manuscript for Adults – Linne Dhomhainn, Alistair Paul Ordinary people. Everyday situations. Extraordinary outcomes. One small twist of fate and the normal turns to the fantastic. And so, the book's characters are propelled into the world of the marvellous, the supernatural and the surreal; not to mention the ridiculous; where they wrestle with their demons, their desires and their failings. Sometimes they triumph. Sometimes life triumphs. Their stories take us from the familiar shores of the Gàidhealtachd through the smoky streets of Glasgow and the industrial heartlands of the North of England to the sun scorched African Savannah. Taking inspiration from local folklore on the Island of Arran, traditional Gaelic story telling themes and techniques are weaved into modern topics such as relationships, drug use and mental illness. Take a walk up the glen and dive into the deep pool.

Read more less

In The Tycoon and the Bard, well-known Scots actor and Burns expert John Cairney tells the story of how the richest man in the world was inspired by Scotland’s greatest poet.Cairney concentrates on the life of Scottish American industrialist Andrew Carnegie, arguing that the ideas of the romantic Scottish poet Robert Burns formed a strong influence on Carnegie from his early education to the end of his life.The Tycoon and the Bard shows the connections between these two great Scots, revealing unexpected aspects of each man’s life and drawing out the chain of influence that Burns’ poetry had on Carnegie’s social beliefs about fortune, fate and fairness.

Read more less

Scotland’s ancient and fascinating history is interspersed with practical information for the Japanese visitor to the country in the only Scottish guidebook in Japanese by professional STGA guides.

Read more less

Providing a recent history of the Scottish Government’s Constitutional Policy since 2011, Bulmer asks what exactly is the ‘common good’ and what type of constitution would serve it, while also addressing questions of poverty, wealth, inequality and democracy. In this revised edition Bulmer proposes an intermediate position between devolution and independence following the No vote in September 2014.

Read more less

there’ll be nae cries omiseryjist the creakin souno openin doorsRead these poems and be inspired.In the wake of the 1979 Devolution Referendum, followed by the impact of Thatcherite policies on Scottish society, many Scottish writers and intellectuals began articulating the distinctiveness of Scottish literary, cultural, social and political traditions and outlooks. Some joined popular political campaigns, from opposing the Poll-Tax and Trident to the Campaign for a Scottish Assembly, which led to a Scottish Parliament. Many now look forward to new possibilities for the future with more confidence in the value and importance of our country’s culture and politics, as these poems reveal.Whatever the outcome of Scotland’s Independence Referendum on 18 September 2014, a better Scotland is possible. Across every aspect of life in Scotland – housing, inequality, life expectancy, health, education, crime, sectarianism, localism and more – we all know that a better Scotland is possible. And then there’s Trident. And the Bedroom Tax. And the Democratic Deficit. And on it goes.

Read more less

David Cameron was Prime Minister throughout the campaign for Scottish Independence. People thought if the Scots voted YES for Independence that he may lose his job. But Scotland voted NO, so where does that leave him?As leader of the Unionist campaign, it is sensible to ask ourselves how he won the victory. One method might be to write and ask Mr Cameron how he did it. But, as Prime Minister, he may be too busy to reply, so Owen Dudley Edwards has helpfully written to inform Mr Cameron how he did it, sometimes telling him things he may not know or has only dimly guessed.The book explains to Mr Cameron what the wilder psychiatric shores of Premiership involve, whether he knows it or not, what sort of people he recruited to gain his victory and whether they knew they were recruits, what his opponents were like and why they opposed him, how Scotland reversed the UK fall in voter interest and involvement, and why. It works out how far the victory was won on the playing fields of Eton, and how the generalissimo’s lieutenants in all three major Unionist parties did what he wanted. We hope the book leaves him purring.

Read more less

If a majority of us decide to vote YES on 18 September 2014, then that divorce from the rest of the UK is easy to do. No expensive lawyers. No cost except the travel to the polling station… No need to lift a finger. Just a cross on a ballot paper. But before you say, that’s great, think on… This is a decision we will live with for the rest of our lives, and our children’s and grandchildren’s, for maybe centuries to come. - MARIA FYFEIt’s been noted over and over again that women are more likely to vote NO in Scotland’s Referendum 2014. There has been endless speculation as to why this may be, but until now little expression of their views has been heard.In a series of essays arguing for a NO vote at the forthcoming Scottish independence referendum, 14 women varying in age, ethnicity, political views and life experience – including Maria Fyfe, Johann Lamont MSP, Sarah Boyack MSP and Fiona O’Donnell MP – come together to make a positive case against independence.With contributions from leading current and former politicians and citizens, Women Saying No presents the arguments against independence, from a female perspective, in an attempt to widen the debate.

Read more less

In Generation Scot Y, Kate Higgins explores questions of Scottish identity, culture, society and politics and they way they are viewed by twenty-somethings. A whole generation has grown up with the Scottish Parliament as a reality. Do they view Britain in a different light to those of us who still find it new? Has this impacted their personal, cultural and geographic identity? In this book Higgins explores what it means to be Scottish to the youth of today, and examines what impact this could have on the future of Scotland.

Read more less

Swim Until You Can’t See Land charts the relationship between two women born sixty years apart, whose chance encounter marks a watershed for the younger woman. In her early twenties, Hannah Wright is forced to give up a promising career as a professional swimmer, and is adjusting with difficulty to her narrowed horizons. She is in danger of becoming embittered, haunted by a lost future. Mariele may now be frail and old, but as her exploits during WW2 unfold, she is revealed as a woman of extraordinary spirit, unbroken by capture and interrogation as an agent in occupied France. Hannah’s delight in the medium of water and the rhythms of swimming are set in dramatic counterpoint to Mariele’s of torture by water, an ordeal that puts her in touch with her core strength – something Hannah starts to discover in herself.

Read more less

Maybe it had just been a matter of time: had we had more time, what we would or could have achieved, together. Had we actually met that first time round, how different things might have been. The world we would have painted. Had we really loved each other, we would never have separated. It was a long hot summer… A chance encounter on a ferry leads to a lifetime of regret for misplaced opportunities. Beautifully written and vividly evoked, The Girl on the Ferryboat is a mirage of recollections looking back to the haze of one final prelapsarian summer on the Isle of Mull.

Read more less

Questions the integrity of a society that accepts nuclear deterrents as valid forms of defence. Focuses on a lack of respect for international humanitarian law and the integrity of a society able to act compassionately in the wider public interest.Awakens UK to a need for a government that will work on a global ban for nuclear weapons.

Read more less

This unique reflection on the world of Robert Burns places a range of photographic artworks by celebrated Scottish artist Calum Colvin alongside poems written in response to each work by 'weel-kent' Scots poet Rab Wilson. Colvin's multi-referential artworks are concerned with the very process of looking, perceiving and interpreting. The potential meaning of any individual piece is intrinsically linked to the viewer’s personal deconstruction of the image. Utilising the unique fixed-point perspective of the camera, Colvin creates and records manipulated and constructed images in order to create elaborate narratives which meditate on numerous aspects of Scottish culture, identity and the human condition in the early 21st century. At times witty, controversial and tender, the images are presented alongside poems in response by Rab Wilson which equally reflect on the life and aspects of Burns to dwell on who we are, and where we have been, toward what we may become. As Burns reflected through his art the world he inhabited, these works and words strive to reflect on a myriad of contemporary concerns.

Read more less

While working for the BBC on a feature programme on Irish folk singer Dolores Keane, Mike Harding found himself in Clifden and in an estate agent’s window found what would become his Irish home, a traditional cottage that had lain empty for almost twenty years with a rotted corrugated iron roof and neither doors nor windows. The view out over Cleggan Bay however was stunning.Two years of hard work turned it back into a home and it was in that home, while looking out over Clegan Bay that much of his latest book of poems, The Connemara Cantos, was written. Not all of these poems are about Connemara, they are also about Irish immigrants on building sites in Manchester, pubs in London and the beauty of Irish traditional music; but all the poems in this book were either written in or inspired by the very special place that is Connemara – not a county, not a political entity but perhaps something much wider – a state of the soul.

Read more less

This unique reflection on the world of Robert Burns places a range of photographic artworks by celebrated Scottish artist Calum Colvin alongside poems written in response to each work by 'weel-kent' Scots poet Rab Wilson. Colvin's multi-referential artworks are concerned with the very process of looking, perceiving and interpreting. The potential meaning of any individual piece is intrinsically linked to the viewer’s personal deconstruction of the image. Utilising the unique fixed-point perspective of the camera, Colvin creates and records manipulated and constructed images in order to create elaborate narratives which meditate on numerous aspects of Scottish culture, identity and the human condition in the early 21st century. At times witty, controversial and tender, the images are presented alongside poems in response by Rab Wilson which equally reflect on the life and aspects of Burns to dwell on who we are, and where we have been, toward what we may become. As Burns reflected through his art the world he inhabited, these works and words strive to reflect on a myriad of contemporary concerns.

Read more less

Spanning four politically and socially tumultuous decades, Stephen Maxwell’s writings explore the origins and development of the modern Scottish Nationalist movement. As an instrumental member of the SNP and a life-long socialist, Maxwell’s work provides an engaging contemporary insight into the debate over Scottish independence, setting out a clear ideological and practical arguments for a socially just Scotland.The Case for Left Wing Nationalism – Maxwell’s seminal 1981 pamphlet – considers the historical and cultural roots of Scottish national identity and stresses the importance of a realistic understanding of the past as the basis of a more prosperous, independent future. It concludes with Hugh MacDiarmid’s prescription for a Scottish renaissance: Not Traditions – Precedents.

Read more less

There is only one argument for Scottish independence: the cultural argument. It was there long before North Sea oil was discovered, and it will be here long after the oil has run out… We believe, as teachers, artists, a painter and a poet, both of us travellers in other lands, both of us residents in Scotland, that Scotland should be an independent nation. ALEXANDER MOFFAT AND ALAN RIACHArts of Independence takes a hard look at the most neglected aspect of the argument for Scotland’s distinctive national identity: the arts. The proposition is that music, painting, architecture, and, pre-eminently, literature are the fuel and fire of political change.Following the success of Arts of Resistance, this new work by the same authors takes the argument over Scottish independence out of the hands of politicians and economists and beyond the petty squabbles of party politics.

Read more less

From bold heroines to clan battles, standing stones to castles, there is hardly any aspect of Scotland’s heritage that does not feature in our storytelling traditions. This collection of stories from all parts of Scotland, and from all periods of our dramatic – and often truly heroic – history is both an introduction to and a journey into Scotland’s rich cultural heritage. Covering the same themes as Disney-Pixar’s new fairytale film, Brave, this book provides the next step for those wishing to delve deeper into Scotland’s culture and traditions.

Read more less

John Hudson’s Earth is a beautiful exploration of our dependence on our planet. Through a variety of different poetic techniques, Hudson skilfully blends form and content in order to create a work of poetic genius. In Earth, Hudson asks the perennial question: What does it mean to be human?

Read more less

What happens when a Rangers fan and Celtic fan are locked in a prison cell together on the day of an Old Firm Match?It is through Billy and Tim that Des Dillon explores sectarianism, bigotry, how it becomes part of one's identity and is inculcated by family and society. However, the book is not limited to Scotland but refers to every peace process in the world, where common ground and a shared humanity is found through responding to the needs of others. Now it is up to these two fans to start their personal peace process to find some common ground to slowly let go of their bigotry.

Read more less

A collection of thoughts and ideas in Haiku on subjects including Science, Ecology, Nature, Family, Scotland, the Arts, Politics, Psychology, Philosophy, Spirituality and Love. Prepare to laugh, cry and wonder at this wonderful wee book of Haiku with a large slice of Scottish life.

Read more less

For centuries, people have been travelling to St. Andrews. Whether they were on a holy pilgrimage to see the magnificent Cathedral and the preserved bones of St. Andrew, or devout golfers putting their skills to the test on the Old Course - that holy grail of golf courses - or just students and scholars jostling for a place at one of Scotland’s most esteemed centres of learning, St. Andrews has always attracted pilgrims.Michael Tobert leads his readers through St. Andrews’ historic highs and lows with a potent combination of the anecdotal and the informative. His writing is both astute and downright funny, and he proves that sometimes, truth really is stranger than fiction.

Read more less

Join Alistair Findlay on an off-beat tour of Scotland, from museum artefacts to public pieces of art, where he captures the humorous, passionate, and sometimes biting voices of some of our national treasures.

Read more less

This collcetion of poems eloquently captures the contradictions and multiple identities of modern China. Liz Niven has a keen eye for detail and a light touch that delivers an unexpected intensity. Taking on ancient traditions and contemporary issues, this selection is in turn humorous and poignant and illustrates China as it is rarely seen. From the intimacy of the tea ceremony to the lives of the migrant workers in Beijing, nothing is as you would expect.

Read more less

France has Montmartre, Prague has Mala Strana and England has St Ives, an enclave where artists can create freely and showcase their works to the world. Costa winner award Ann Kelley (Koh Tabu, OUP Oxford, 9780192756046) has already proved to be an excellent photographer with her previous books Sea Front: A Cornish Souvenir and Paper Whites: Photographs and Poems. Ann Kelley expresses herself in photographs as if they were words. Her style is simple but special, careful and delicate and her photographs genuinely capture the atmosphere of this beautiful Cornish town.

Read more less

While their role has been all too often overlooked by historians, cattle played an integral part in the economy, ecology and culture of Highland life. Although many of these animals and their keepers have been abandoned in favour of sheep walks and deer forests, their legacy has remained through stories, paintings and songs. Infused by the author's own experiences of small holding at the end of the crofting era, this book offers an excellent insight into the social history and colourful customs assosiated with tending cattle on crofts, on shielings and on the drove roads of old, in an account that is populated by legendary figures, mighty beasts and characters larger than life. Perhaps most importantly of all, however, this is a history that looks to the future - a recent revival in cattle and traditional practices could pave the way for the truly sustainable agriculture practices so crucial to the fate of the planet at large.

Read more less

Challenging the legality of UK nuclear policy as a further generation of nuclear-armed submarines is developed, Trident and International Law asks who is really accountable for Coulport and Faslane. The UK government in Westminster controls nuclear policy decisions even though Britain's nuclear submarines and warheads are all based in Scotland, at Faslane and Coulport. The Scottish Government therefore has responsibilities under domestic and international law relating to the deployment of nuclear weapons in Scotland. Public concern about nuclear deployments, and particularly the security and proliferation implications of modernising Trident, led the Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy, the Edinburgh Peace and Justice Centre and Trident Ploughshares to organise an international conference on 'Trident and International Law: Scotland's Obligations' in Edinburgh in 2009. This book presents the key papers and documents, with additional arguments from renowned legal scholars. The findings should be of interest to lawyers, policymakers and citizens with interest or responsibilities in legal and nuclear issues, public safety and human security. Whilst focusing on Scotland, this book raises serious questions for nuclear weapon deployments worldwide.

Read more less

In May 1999 the Scottish Parliament opened with high expectations. The decade since has seen a transformation in Scottish politics. As the Parliament's 10th anniversary approaches, now is the perfect time to reflect on its role in the Scottish and wider UK political process. What have been the challenges and its achievements? Have expectations been met? The Scottish Parliament's four Founding Principles - access and participation, equal opportunities, accountability and power sharing - aimed to establish a body answerable to the people of Scotland. This project, run by the Hansard Society, will bring together a group of varied and distinguished commentators to discuss some of the key issues in the development of the Scottish Parliament over the past decade. They will explore whether initial expectations have been met and analyse how the Parliament has evolved at the core of a new Scottish political process.

Read more less

Arts of Resistance is an original exploration that extends beyond the arts into the context of politics and political change. In three wide-ranging exchanges prompted by American blues singer Linda MacDonald-Lewis, artist Alexander Moffat and poet Alan Riach discuss cultural, political and artistic movements, the role of the artist in society and the effect of environment on artists from all disciplines. Arts of Resistance examines the lives and work of leading figures from Scotland's arts world in the twentieth century, concentrating on poets and artists but also including writers, musicians and architectural visionaries such as Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Patrick Geddes. Poets studied include Hugh MacDiarmid, Sorley MacLean, Iain Crichton Smith, Edwin Morgan and Liz Lochhead; artists include William McTaggart, William Johnstone and the Scottish Colourists. The investigation into the connection between the arts and political culture includes historical issues, from British imperialism to a devolved Scotland. Finally, the contribution to poetry and art of each major Scottish city is discussed: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee. Highly illustrated with paintings and poems, Arts of Resistance is a beautifully produced book providing facts and controversial opinions.

Read more less

Winner of the 2007 Costa award, this title continues the story of Gussie, a precocious young girl diagnosed with a rare heart condition. Despite her health problems, she is determined to live life to the fullest, experiencing typical adolescent woes such as love and strained relations with her parents. Never complaining, she offers a direct and honest insight about herself and the world around her, bringing this poignant, charming and oddly optimistic tale to life.

Read more less

Whisky - the water of life, perhaps Scotland's best known contribution to the world.Muse - goddess of creative endeavour.The Whisky Muse - the spark of inspiration to many of Scotland's great poets and songwriters.Brought together by Robin Laing, a highly respected Scottish folk singer and songwriter, and based on his one-man show The Angel's Share, it combines two of his passions - folk song and whisky. Each poem and song is accompanied by fascinating additional information, and the book is full of interesting tit-bits on the process of whisky making. Reflected in these poems and songs are the pleasures (and medicinal benefits) of imbibing this most beloved of spirits as well as the unfortunate consequences of over-indulgence, the centuries of religious disapproval, the temperance movement and the exciseman. The stories told here are lubricated by warmth and companionshop, best enjoyed with dram in hand. Slainte.

Read more less

This is a book about Glasgow, but not your everyday history book. Glasgow By the Way But is a contemporary series of essays examining different aspects of Glasgow in a historical and cultural context, revealing a unique, amusing and sometimes critical, perspective of Cairney's beloved city. Those who remember John Cairney's performances and have read his other books will enjoy the insightful anecdotes from Cairney's career.

Read more less

Natives know them. Visitors soon get to know them. Some, like the Golf Club Captain, the Last Publican and the Nippy Sweetie, are endangered species; others, like the Whisky Bore and the Munrobagger, are enduring figures on the Scottish landscape. Every generation produces its own variations on the Scottish character and it doesn't take long for the newcomers to become familiar social types like the MSP, the Yooni Yah, the Rural Commuter and the Celebrity Chieftain. Most Scots, if they're honest, will recognise a little bit of themselves in one or other of thes mischievous and frighteningly accurate portraits. Julie Davidson's wickedly observed profiles are complemented by Bob Dewar's witty drawings in this roguish gallery of 'Scots We Ken'.

Read more less

"Brainheart" is a collection of fifty eulogies celebrating great innovators; from politicians and inventors to architects and musicians, all of Scottish heritage. Composed in a style that Paraig calls 'metrical mirror,' the verses emulate heroic verse in a new voice that combines English with Scots in an authentic and engaging manner.

Read more less

Meet Gussie. Twelve years old and settling into her new ramshackle home on a cliff top above St Ives, she has an irrepressible zest for life. She also has a life-threatening heart condition. But it's not in her nature to give up. Perhaps because she knows her time might be short, she values every passing moment, experiencing each day with humour and extraordinary courage. Spirited and imaginative, Gussie has a passionate interest in everything around her and her vivid stream of thoughts and observations will draw you into a renewed sense of wonder. Gussie's story of inspiration and hope is both heartwarming and heartrending. Once you've met her, you'll not forget her. And you'll never take life for granted again.

Read more less

Alistair Findlay, author of the acclaimed Shale Voices, takes a measured look at those three most important facets of life - sex, death, and of course football.Football has never been a science so much as a heartbeat away from a sclaf, an unlucky bobble, catastrophe - a bit like Sex and Death - and thus a suitable case for poetry. - ALISTAIR FINDLAY Showing great individuality, energy and wit, Findlay creates 'elegies - with edge' in this accessible and uncompromising collection. With his ear for natural human expression and appetite for life, he succeeds in crafting poetry teeming with both humanity and humour. His poems bridge the gap between perceptions of 'high' and popular culture, and tackle with rare insight the breadth of human experience, both sacred and profane.

Read more less

Fadeke Kokumo Rocks' poetry is alive with love, passion, humour, wisdom and brutal honesty. It is sharply observed, potent and insightful capturing beautifully the sixth dimension of the creative eye. It has a rich diversity of time and content which embraces the globe and its conflicts, domestic and urban. You can hear the monsoon rains of Africa, taste the mangoes of India, touch the compassion and spirit of the child and feel the pain of burning flesh as race riots rage in Scotland. What would happen if a raindrop took acid? What are the identifying characteristics of a "gaggle" in their natural environment? And have you noticed that there are no black babies on "New Baby" cards?

Read more less

This innovative book provides a new perspective on Basic Income - a regular, unconditional payment to every citizen of the country. This comprehensive book has been rigorously researched and thus will appeal to academics, policy-makers, and the general reader concerned about the current state of social security in the UK. Basic Income in practice, A Basic Income includes details of real Basic Income Schemes.

Read more less

A collection of proverbs in the original Gaelic, and translated into English covering family, work, money, self-Improvement and food and drink amongst other topics. Gaelic proverbs tell it like it is, and provide advice for a myriad of situations. This pocketsize volume will make an excellent souvenir or a gift for any occasion.

Read more less

We inhabit everything that comes our way: people, places, nature. Writing itself is our habitat. It is this space that Bashabi Fraser that explores in her new collection Habitat.These poems challenge our understanding of rules and form when it comes to poetry. Bashabi plays with the duality that her life has instructed her with – through having lived in two different countries, experiencing two different cultures – yet allowing the parallels to still come through. At its core, this collection is about our journeys – where we have been, where we are going, and what we are moving through. It is all about our habitats and our connection to them.

Read more less

Electricity brings us back to an upbringing we may not have experienced but can certainly relate to.Taking a step back into her Hebridean childhood, Granny writes to her granddaughter in Australia, decorating her notebooks with hand-drawn scribbles and doodles. Though she may now live in Edinburgh, she relives her memories with a sense of warmth and protection.Yet, it is more than simple nostalgia for a time she cannot return to. At its core, Electricity is about community, and what it is to involve it in your life fully. Electricity itself sparked across the Hebrides and changed the lives of its people forever. You become more than your family, friends, or even neighbours. The landscape itself floods into your DNA. It is something that you will never separate from.This latest novel from award-winning writer Angus Peter Campbell has already garnered attention across the board. It will be not only popular with rural Scots but those who long for the simpler times they grew up in - times when we were more physically connected.

Read more less

AW ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MAIR EQUAL THAN ITHERSIt didnae seem unco when Napoleon wis seen daunderin aboot the fairmhoose gairden wi a pipe in his mooth...Frae the instant o its first publication ower seeventy year syne, Animal Fairm, in mony weys, has come tae be oor socio-political urtext – oor wan-singer-wan-sang, oor collective pairty piece, the script we’re doomed tae keep repeatin...George Orwell’s faur-kent novel Animal Fairm, yin o Time magazine’s 100 brawest English-leid novels o aw time, has been translatit intae Scots for the verra first time by Thomas Clark. When the animals o Manor Fairm cast aff thirldom an tak control frae Mr Jones, they hae howps for a life o freedom an equality. But when the pigs Napoleon and Snawbaw rise tae pouer, the ither animals find oot that they’re mebbe no aw as equal as they’d aince thocht. A tragic political allegory described by Orwell as bein ‘the history o a revolution that went wrang’, this buik is as relevant noo – if no mair sae – as when it wis first set oot.

Read more less

The postman and the primary teacher, the midwife and the musician. Workers in shops, workers at sea. Solidarity with the Columbian farmer and the Palestinian fireman… Modern trade unionists in Scotland perform roles in every imaginable location and are drawn from all backgrounds. They campaign to win on issues facing the colleague next to them or a comrade thousands of miles away. ’Mon the Workers tells their stories in their own words. It is a celebration of 125 years of the STUC, and a clarion call for the next generation to agitate, organise and win. This book demonstrates past achievements, explores the ideas trade unionists have fought for and rouses the movement towards future victories. 75 trade union members, reps and officials share experiences of union life from the anti-apartheid movement to Wick Wants Work. Alan McCredie’s charismatic portraits of 50 other activists from the trade union movement provide a complementary visual narrative. This very human book pulses with the energy of Scotland’s trade union movement, which has achieved so much and still has more to do.

Read more less

Commissioned especially for Scotland’s Year of Stories, Storm and Shore connects the west coast of Scotland’s rich mythological past with the present day. When artist Lucy Salter comes to a remote Argyll coastline she aims to connect with nature in its wild state. Aid worker Dave McArthur is fleeing traumatic conflict. But they have both ventured into a borderland, layered by history, migration and repressed violence. Itis a liminal place, storied by centuries of settlement and travel.Yet local tradition bearers, bard and seannachaidh, can channel the past. From these hauntings, a storytelling tapestry is woven from the sea, nature myth and weather. The long roots of our global crisis are laid bare in landfalls, wherein the crucible of Gaelic tradition, creatures of the sea meet the shore.

Read more less

In his latest book, Bill Hare offers a comprehensive view of Scottish art from 1945 to the present day.

Read more less

Whisky - the water of life, perhaps Scotland's best known contribution to the world. Muse - goddess of creative endeavour. The Whisky Muse - the spark of inspiration to many of Scotland's great poets and songwriters. This is a collection of the best poems and songs, both old and new, on the subject of that great Scottish love, whisky. Brought together by Robin Laing, a highly respected Scottish folk-singer and songwriter, and based on his one-man show - "The Angel's Share", it combines two of his passions - folk song and whisky. Each poem and song is accompanied by fascinating additional information, and the book is full of sundry other interesting tit-bits on the process of whisky-making. Various themes emerge from Scottish whisky poems and songs that reflect the pleasures (and medicinal benefits) of imbibing this most beloved of spirits as well as the unfortunate consequences of overindulgence, the centuries of religious disapproval, the temperance movement and the exciseman. The Scots are a musical nation renowned for the warmth of their hospitality and the tendency to assert the superiority of their whisky over any other in the world. The stories told here are lubricated by warmth and companionship as well as a dram. Slainte.

Read more less

Come and meet some wild men and tame beasts. Explore the fleeting moment and capture the passing of time in these portrait studies which document a year's journey. Travel across Scotland with poet Valerie Gillies and photographer Rebecca Marr: share their passion for a land where wild men can sometimes be tamed and tame beasts can get really wild. Among the wild men they find are a gunner in Edinburgh Castle, a Highland shepherd, a ferryman on the River Almond, an eel fisher on Loch Ness, a Borders fencer, and a beekeeper on a Lowland estate. The beasts portrayed in their own settings include Clydesdale foals, Scottish deerhounds, Highland cattle, blackface sheep, falcons, lurchers, bees, pigs, cashmere goats, hens, cockerels, tame swans and transgenic lambs.

Read more less

This work depicts the nine year quest of an American couple (an agricultural advisor and a writer/webmaster) living on a farm in Michigan, USA, to own and live in a remote Scottish lighthouse keepers home. In the form of e-mails, the book gives an intimate view of the gleefully-reported successes, and the less happily reported tragedies along the way, and describes the joys and difficulties of running and living in such a home in a remote, but beautiful, part of the Shetlands.

Read more less

This guide follows a trail of places associated with Robert Louis Stevenson. John Cairney, perhaps best known for writing and starring in "The Robert Burns Story", is one of the few people to have visited all the places on the RLS trail.

Read more less