Search results for ""Luath Press Ltd""

Following an introductory chapter exploring why political argument deals in probability and plausibility across interdependent areas of social activity not certainty in individual areas, this book offers a case for independence under six main headings – the democratic case, the economic case, the social case, the international case, the cultural case and the environmental case. Under each heading, the case is assessed against both the supportive evidence and the hostile evidence, from a variety of sources, concluding with a judgement of where the balance of the evidence points. The book concludes with a selection of populist objections to independence answered by summary rebuttals from the independence file.

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This work tells the story of explorations and ascents in the Scottish Highlands in the days before mountaineering became a popular sport - when Jacobites, bandits, poachers and illicit distillers traditionally used the mountains as sanctuary.

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Before us in the bright spring sunshine lay the entire Clyde valley, dominated by the vast sprawling mass of Glasgow, the dear green place. There was a time no too long ago when the old heavy industries would have made this view much less clear. But today we could see the Cowal Hills and Greenock in the west to the Pentlands in the East.From the time he bagged his first Munro, Peter Kemp has remained an enthusiastic hillawalker and this book is a testament to his passion for Scotland's outdoors and hillwalking culture.

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A Rug of a Thousand Colours is an exploratory project between a Palestinian poet who is now a resident in Scotland and an established Scottish poet. The poems explore Tessa and Iyad’s personal responses to the Five Pillars of Islam. Although from different backgrounds the two poets form a dialogue which is interwoven throughout the poems and creates a vivid tapestry of ideas surrounding the Five Pillars of Islam. Each poet translates the other’s work so that each poem is presented in English and in Arabic.

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At the Venice Biennale, NVA art agency along with great minds from many different disciplines gathered together to discuss the fate of Scotland's iconic modernist building, St Peter's Seminary. Rather than providing a structured blue print for St Peter's, this collection of essays aims to open all possibilities, focusing not merely on preserving the building, but imagining it as a landscape within which new narratives can be woven.

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What was the crime of the last wich burnt in the Highlands? Which Jacobite lady led men to war while her Hanoverian husband stayed at home? Who were the first Highland women to be recorded in history? And how have wome's lives changed since medieval times? Katharine Stewart takes us to the heart of the Highlands in her history of the women who shaped this land and handed down the legends which have provided a rich vein of material for generations. From the women of the shielings to ladies at court, from bards to conservationists, authors to folk-singers, Women of the Highlands examines how the culture of the Highlands was created and passed down through the centuries, and how the tradition is continuing today.

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As the Scotland electorate wakes up in the day after the referendum, everything has changed and nothing has changed. Scottish and UK politics is broken, it desperately needs fixed. The future of Scotland will be centre stage, but so will our democracy and the future of a Union in decline.Our politics once again needs to inspire, enthuse, educate and be relevant to the needs and aspirations of the public and reconnect with the values that underpin our society. There are urgent issues that we need to deal with now – the most important of which being rampant inequality. We have to move away from the mindless tribalism and partisanship that too often dominates much of what passes as political debate.Over the past year it has become clear that regardless of their stance on the referendum debate, the Scottish people are united on one front, the yearning for change for the betterment of their nation, their institutions and their politics. For McLeish, the referendum debate is merely the beginning. It is a symptom of the need for a more fundamental shift in the way we engage with politics in the UK and Scotland today.Former First Minister of Scotland, Henry McLeish is well placed to diagnose the crisis at the heart of Scotland and UK politics. In Rethinking Our Politics McLeish looks critically at the conditions which have created an increasingly divided and alienated public and forged Scotland’s yearning for radical change. He rails against the stagnation of the union and makes a rousing and persuasive case for a complete overhaul of our political thinking, demanding that instead of making decisions on the basis of fear and insecurity, we rediscover the founding moral purpose of government.This is a must read for those who care about the future of our nation.

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An experimental novel on a grand scale, beautifully carried through. A Perth minister takes in a traumatised stranger who calls himself 'the son and heir to being lost'. When the stranger disappears, the events leading up to and following on from this are revealed. Shifting perspectives from a contemporary mystery to a history of Shetland and emigration, it extends the idea of Scottish empire and diaspora imaginatively, while addressing notions of being and belonging in 21st century Scotland.

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This publication compiles actor John Cairney's theatrical interpretations of the poet Robert Burns and his life. Since 1959, he has been involved with Burns as actor, director and writer. Over the years, Cairney has taken the opportunity to investigate different aspects of Burns as they relate to performance in the theatre. For the first time he has brought all these working playscripts, which have already been tested before a live audience, together in book form. Others interested in the prismatic attraction that is Scotland's Bard can now see how one Scottish actor-writer has dealt with a national icon theatrically. The scripts, written by Cairney, look at Burns' creative work, his everyday life, and his relationships, to build a full picture of the man so important to Scotland's cultural heritage. The plays are followed by an appendix which features a selection of plays written about Burns' life since his death at the age of 37.

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Fatigued by bloated big-game football and bored of samey big cities, Daniel Gray went in search of small town Scotland and its teams. At the time when the Scottish club game is drifting towards its lowest ebb once more, Stramash singularly fails to wring its hands and address the state of the game, preferring instead to focus on Bobby Mann's waistline. Part travelogue, part history and part mistakenly spilling ketchup on the face of a small child, Stramash takes an uplifting look at the country's nether regions. Using the excuse of a match to visit places from Dumfries to Dingwall, Gray surveys Scotland's towns and teams in their present state. Stramash accomplishes the feats of visiting Dumfries without mentioning Robert Burns, being positive about Cumbernauld and linking Elgin City to Lenin. It is a fond look at Scotland as you've never seen it before.

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Volume 3 of The Ultimate Guide to the Munros explores the dramatic landscape of the Northern Central Highlands. The Central Highlands area is the smallest of the six regions covered in the series, but is packed with more Munros than any other - so many that this area has been split into two books, Central Highlands South including Glen Coe and Central Highlands North including the Nevis Range. Volume 3 covers routes around Fort William, Inverness and Perth among many others, travelling along great changing landscape, from Loch Linnhe to the Great Ben Nevis. With all the features which made Volume 1 and 2 so popular, full colour maps and photographs throughout, details of all the practicable ascents up all the Munros and a comprehensive grading system, this is a must for hillwalkers.

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Volume 2 of The Ultimate Guide to the Munros series takes a tour of all the Munros of the rugged scenery of the southern Central Highlands. The Central Highlands area is the smallest of the six regions covered in the series, but is packed with more Munros than any other - so many that this area has been split into two books, Central Highlands South including Glen Coe and Central Highlands North including the Nevis Range. Volume 2 covers routes from the startling arrowhead peak of Buachaille Etive Mor, to the thrilling Aonach Eagach ridge. With all the features which made Volume 1 so popular, full colour maps and photographs throughout, details of all the practicable ascents up all the Munros and a comprehensive grading system, this is a must for hillwalkers.

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At home, incipient spring had been in evidence. Late January was mild and in London the trees showed buds. But after he began to travel East, it became colder. By the time the Elbe was crossed, the ground was fast with snow in all directions, and the river moved under grinding floes of ice. As the train stopped, the cook announced with an ironic smile he would grow used to, that Mitroba smile, 'Berlin Haupstadt der DDR. Wilkommen!'. Two decades after the Wall tumbled down, Winter in Berlin evokes everyday life in the shadowy world of the Soviet-controlled German Democratic Republic. Throughout this atmospheric novella 'the scholar' remains anonymous. Who is he and what is his motivation for being in the GDR, a police state where freedom means something different to everyone and trust is the scarcest commodity?Fearing that intimacy may be no more than a trap, he nevertheless slides into a relationship with a young Bulgarian woman. Behind the Wall many eyes are watching, but can he see himself clearly any more? Forced to interrogate the usefulness of his own idealism, the scholar finally comes up against the walls that limit an individual's influence on history.

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Cliches are the fossils of wisdom. That's why we ignore them. Particularly those with warnings ('the value of your investments may go down as well as up') and especially in the happy days of a financial boom. Shock! Horror! The cliche was true and we are left staring into a crater once known as the financial markets. This has happened before - this bust is a whopper but it shares the symptoms of the crash in which your parents lost money, and their parents and theirs before them. So don't believe this is the last credit crunch - there are teenage optimists alive now who will reach maturity and guide our children into the next boom and its collapse. Collective Amnesia ensures that the long view is smothered as we watch the pendulum swing from greed to fear and back again. This isn't just a disease of a shadowy group of bankers but is a communal blunder in which we all share - financiers, regulators, politicians, even ordinary savers or buyers of houses, cars and consumer goods, we all chased the market up the hill and over the cliff and we all end up out of pocket. Written by a senior banker with many years' experience, this book takes the long view. It shows how simple the basics of banking are and tells the stories of how we lost money in similar ways over the centuries. Read it and you might just lose less money next time!

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The Ganges and the Tay, the largest water courses in their two countries, are sources of life, conflict and industrial and historical change. The Ganga and the Tay is an epic concrete poem in which the River Ganges and the River Tay relate the historical importance of the ties between India and Scotland and their contemporary relevance as a natural symbol of continuity and peace. The poem is illustrated with beautiful photographs of both great rivers, which explore their shared, but unique, personalities through their histories, geographies, mythologies and environments.

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Samuel Smiles' groundbreaking work "Self-Help" published in 1859 encouraged people to believe that they could do anything that they determined to do. But living in the modern world is sometimes not that easy. "Self-Help for the 21st Century" updates the concepts revealed in "Self-Help" making them relevant for our lives today. Aware of the cliche of self-improvement guides "Self-Help for the 21st Century" avoids doctrine or arbitrary rules. Instead editor Malcolm Good has garnered the opinions of leading figures, particularly Scots or those with a strong Scottish association, from all walks of life. From racing driver Jackie Stewart, artist Calum Colvin and maverick yachtsman Chay Blyth to lawyers, politicians, mathematicians, engineers, historians and philosophers their contributions describe what worked for them and provide their insight. Topics discussed include nature and nurture, ambition, knowledge and values. More than a self-help book "Self-Help for the 21st Century" offers opinion, social commentary and biography.

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Manny Riley is a recovering alcoholic and struggling scriptwriter with a serious anger management problem. Lately, though, things have started to change for the better. A happy marriage, a move away from Glasgow to an idyllic seaside village and the adoption of Bailey, a lurcher with epilepsy. He'll soon find that these things only open up a whole new world of problems he'll have to face up to. And he has to do it all without losing his temper.

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North Atlantic Drift - the warm ocean current that runs past Shetland, keeping the climate mellower than equivalent latitudes anywhere else in the world. For centuries Shetland's artistic tradition has been nurtured by the rhythms of the sea and the lyrical cadences of a unique dialect. Set halfway between Scotland and Norway, these North Atlantic isles have produced a distinct and vibrant culture. Robert Alan Jamieson mixes mythology, autobiography and history with photographs in a beautiful book not only for Shetlanders, but everyone who has visited, or dreams of visiting.

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This collection of poems for children aged 8-14 are beautifully illustrated and have been hailed by teachers as a great introduction to poetry for children. From Mr Nobody, an unhappy spook who just wants to join the class, to the bizarre dress sense of the new teacher, or the spying and piracy that can occur in the playground in between sherbet dabs, this original collection of verse enlivens both teaching and learning poetry.

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Glen is as dead as a dodo's doornail, and what's more he has just lost his job. How he became a differently-alive ex-employee is a mystery and extremely inconvenient, in fact it's a bit of a downer. But one thing is certain - he'll stop at nothing to find out how he became a morbid member of the ungrateful undead. This unique new novel from best-selling author Nick Smith is as compelling as it is original.

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With obvious affection, Wallace Lockhart connects the rich history of Linlithgow with the warmth and vitality that presently illuminates it. A deep and unforced knowledge borne of living as an adopted son of the town for almost forty years and thorough research, including conversations with many of those who make up the spirit of what Linlithgow is today, shines through in this heartfelt homage to "a town with a soul".

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This new edition of The Green Ray brings the rarely available title by the famous French author Jules Verne to a new generation. The mysterious scientific phenomenon of the green ray is unpredictable and elusive. When Helena hears of its apparent mystical effects on the mind and soul she enlists her uncles and two very different suitors, one artist and one amateur scientist, to find it. They travel to Scotland to seek to catch a glimpse of green rays which shoot out from the sunset. Their numerous attempts are always unsuccessful, thwarted by clouds or boats blocking the sun, until finally the phenomenon is visible, but they are no longer watching the horizon.

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Kenny MacAskill makes the case for a distinctive Scottish version of social democracy that can balance a vibrant economy with quality public services. He argues that Post Devolution Nationalism is about building a nation to be proud of and explores the significance of Scotland's newfound independence.

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The fourth most translated author in the world, Jules Verne is best known for his adventure novels Around the World in 80 Days and Journey to the Centre of the Earth. Verne also set stories in Scotland, however, including The Underground City. In this all-new translation, Verne uses the mist-shrouded shores of Loch Katrine and the Trossachs as sinister scenery against which an enthralling tale of adventure, love and the supernatural unfolds. Ten years after manager James Starr left the Aberfoyle mine underneath Loch Katrine exhausted of coal, he receives an intriguing missive that suggests the pit isn’t barren after all. When Starr returns and discovers that there is indeed more coal to quarry, he and his workers are beset by strange events, hinting at a presence that does not wish to see them excavate the cavern further. Could there be someone out to sabotage their work? Or is something more menacing afoot, something unnatural they can neither see nor understand? When one of his miners falls in love with a young girl found abandoned down a mineshaft, their unknown assailant makes it clear that nothing will stop its efforts to shut down the mine and prevent the wedding, even if that means draining Loch Katrine itself!

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From the author of The Quest for the Original Horse Whisperers (1 84282 020 6) Russell Lyon has written his memoirs as a country vet. From his first day in the job, practising lassoing animals on an oil drum, to his thoughts on current veterinary trends, animal rights and farming this is an entertaining and absorbing read. Full of anecdotes, incidents and characterful patients and customers.

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"I'm not Nebuchadnezzar, and I'm not MacBeth." So who am I? Chicago, Nairobi, Jerusalem, Cambridge, Edinburgh: the geography of Jenni Calder's life is as diverse as the ethnic, intellectual and emotional components.Jenni Calder has spent a lifetime in search of her identity, first as a daughter and sister, then as a writer, wife and mother. Not Nebuchadnezzar is a biography of sorts, a chronicle of the consuming search for that elusive concept known as 'identity'.Highly respected biographer of Robert Louis Stevenson, poet and historian, Calder has chosen an intriguingly elliptical, thematic approach to writing her own vividly presented life story. Keenly observed cameos of people and places abound but although this moving book is infused with a sense of mischief and fun, at heart it is a wise contemplation of life. Jenni Calder's retrospect describes a life well-lived, full of event and achievement, love and loss, aspiration and frustration. If you know who you are not, do you then know who you are?Jenni Calder was born Jennifer Rachel Daiches to a Scottish-born mother and English-born Jewish father in Chicago, one of America's great melting-pot cities. Not Nebuchadnezzar traces her journey from then to now. Through this book, Calder discovers that her true sense of identity can only develop from finding out who she is not. Here she balances her multiple identities to throw kaleidoscopic prisms from a single source - herself.

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In the style of Raymond Chandler, this is hard-boiled detective fiction set in the city of Nub; where cats are king, killer and killed. Tiger Straight, PI, is past his prime, homeless and unemployed until the dame Connie Hant shows up. The PI is back, pawing the mean streets of Nub that he knows so well. Straight has a new mission - to catch the killers of the broad's brothers. It leads him to the murky, tatty underbelly of Nub, throwing up more kitty deaths and a love for a certain make-up artiste. What are the links between these murders and will Straight and his bug loving side-kick Natasha survive to discover the answers before the edible Inspector Bix Mortis? For those who know and love Smith's first novel, Milk Treading, this is the book feline crime hack Julius Kyle started to write.

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Madame Fi Fi's Farewell opens with some lively, affecting poems of love and relationships in a variety of voices: an old man wistfully regrets lost opportunities; Madame Fi Fi decides it is time, somewhat ruefully, to hang up her whip; a lovelorn woman speaks of her unsatisfactory night with a youth from Aruba; and, 'In the Supermarket', a man and a woman encounter one another after a gap of twenty years. The book also includes poems rooted in the specific soils of Ayrshire and Orkney, where old country characters, primary schoolchildren, and exasperated bus drivers make their voices heard. This is a book of poems to read and re-read, quietly to yourself or - as good poetry of any age deserves - out loud.

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From the winner of the Best Unpublished Manuscript for Children/Young People at the Gaelic Literature Awards 2023.Fae na Slighe follows the haunting case of Joni Dawson's tragic demise. When Joni's death is revisited in a new true crime' series on YouTube, it sparks an unexpected chain of events for Amy and Ciara. The couple's lives take an eerie turn as they recognize a familiar bracelet worn by Joni in the series, a relic Amy stumbled upon two decades earlier on the very same coastal path.Haunted by the possibility that they possess a crucial piece of evidence linked to Joni's untimely end, Amy and Ciara grapple with what to do with the bracelet. As they cautiously navigate the decision to rid themselves of the item, an ominous presence looms in the shadows, threatening their every move. With someone desperate to prevent the truth from surfacing, the couple finds themselves embroiled in a dangerous game of cat and mouse.This book weaves a suspenseful narrative

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Ken Currie: Paintings and Writings provides a unique insight into the thought-world of Ken Currie’s challenging and enigmatic art. For over four decades Currie has created some of the most confrontational and intriguing paintings in the contemporary art world. Throughout this period, he has been acclaimed for the artistry of his technique and the cryptic quality of his imagery. This book explores his writings, both public and private, to open-out the discourse on his visceral creativity. For the first time Currie has made available his studio journals. These intimate writings, coupled with personal letters and published statements, are juxtaposed to his esteemed artworks. The result is a fascinating dialogue that explores the motives and aspirations of his inscrutable paintings.Within the field of ‘artist’s writings’ this book offers an inspirational presentation. Compiled and edited by the art historian Tom Normand, it penetrates the creative imagination of a truly visionary artist. Fundamentally, it reveals the intense passions of a primordial human heart.

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Following the publication of The Edinburgh Festival, Doing the Festival, by arts and culture writer David Pollock, is a deep dive into the history of the festivals and how they shaped modern Edinburgh, with a behind-the-scenes look at the events and their impact on the arts.Produced through extensive research, with participation from those involved with shaping the festivals of past and present, Doing the Festivalexplores the history of the city’s festival season.Featuring the International Festival, the Festival Fringe, the Book and Film Festivals, and more, it looks at the role these have played in the careers of stars and artists, as well as the city’s venues, attractions and evolution.Doing the Festival will appeal to anyone with an interest in Edinburgh’s festival culture. It will also be of interest to anyone who wants to learn more about the modern history of Edinburgh or the world of the arts, given the central role the festivals hold in the culture of both.

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In post-war Glasgow a primary school class was set a composition topic: a memorable family event. Each child completed the assignment – all, that is, but one. Why didn’t you write about your family?Please, miss. I didn’t, I didn’t know what to write.But now, he does.In Already, Too Late, Carl MacDougall, one of Scotland’s most accomplished and celebrated literary writers, presents a memoir of extraordinary authenticity and honesty.This memoir takes us through MacDougall’s upbringing, both in and out of care on the west coast of Scotland, Fife, and industrial Glasgow, during the first decade of his life.Within this world, now teetering on the brink of our collective memory, sits a single-parent household of German descent; money is tight, trauma roams free and tragedy comes calling again and again.Through a powerful mosaic of stories, MacDougall strips away all rose-tinted sentimentality to create a vivid account of heart-break, dissociation and loss.Already, Too Late is the early life of an outsider looking in, a changeling child, displaced, alone, and – in his own grandmother’s words – ‘no right’. Because for some, even the very beginning is already too late.

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How did Aberdeen revolutionise modern midwifery and mother and baby care? Whether you were born in – or gave birth in – Aberdeen or elsewhere, you will probably have benefitted from the pioneering work of some of the people mentioned in this book.Bringing life to Aberdeen highlights many of the individuals who have made major contributions to the advancement of midwifery and neonatal services, and describes their influence and impact. Foremost amongst these are the lasting and defining accomplishments of Professor Sir Dugald Baird and Lady May Baird who give their name to a new hospital dedicated to the care of women and their babies in North East Scotland, known as the Baird Family Hospital.From Margaret Bane, an Aberdeenshire ‘howdie’ (midwife) accused of witchcraft in 1597 and put to death, to Margaret Myles, born in Aberdeen in 1892 and responsible for Myles Textbook for Midwives which – now in its 17th edition – remains the definitive resource on practical midwifery, through to the present day, the story of the people who have brought life to Aberdeen is truly remarkable.

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'Welcome to a journey of remarkablebuildings and remarkable thoughts aboutthese buildings, shaped as they are by deep time, modern ideas and Scottish culture. Readers are sure to see new vistas in the land of stone open before them' From the Foreword by PROFESSOR ANDREW PATRIZIOWhat makes Scottish architecture Scottish?What ideas drive Scottish architecture?What has modern architecture in Scotlandmeant to the Scots?Ever since the ‘granny-tops’, rattling and clanking in the wind to draw smoke up the tenemental flues from open coal fires, caught my attention as a three-year-old, architecture and its many parts, purposes, processes and procedures has fascinated me. For me, architecture has always had profound significance. 'Land of Stone' seeks to disengage widely-held conceptions of what a Scottish architecture superficially looks like and to focus on the ideas and events – philosophical, political, practical and personal – that inspired architects and their clients to create the cities, towns, villages and buildings we cherish today.

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There it is again, hope. The defeat and the despair I can stand, but it’s the hope that kills me, as if the Cause wasn’t lost, as if Father hadn’t died in vain. As if any one of us could possibly come out of this alive…Following the death of his father, 13-year-old Archie MacDonald has lost faith in the Jacobite Cause. Having witnessed their clan’s terrible defeat at the Battle of Culloden, Archie and his feisty cousin Meg flee back to Lochaber to lie low.Or so they think.Until the fugitive Prince’s life depends on them.When Prince Charles Edward Stuart looks to the people of Borrodale for help, will the young stable boy support the rebellion that has cost him so dearly?With enemies closing in, the Prince’s fate now rests in the hands of a stable boy and a maid with a white cockade.Who will survive this deadly game of hide-and-seek?

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The Old Town of Edinburgh has everything. At the highest point is a huge castle. At the foot of the hill there's a palace. Between them are secret gardens, a museum full of toys, a statue of the world famous Greyfriars Bobby, and much more besides. There were murders here too (think of Burke and Hare). There's mystery - is preacher John Knox really buried under parking space 44? And then there are the ghosts of Mary King's Close. You can find out about all this and more in this guide. Read the tales of the Old Town, check out the short quizzes and the Twenty Questions page (all the answers are given), and you'll have plenty to see and do.

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This poetry collection includes verse ranging from the tear-jerking "Green Eye of the Yellow God" to the rarely-printed, bawdy "Eskimo Nell". Much borrowed and rarely returned, this is a very popular book for reading aloud in very good company, preferably after a dram or twa. You are guaranteed a warm welcome if you arrive at a gathering with this little volume in your pocket.

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Using a ‘battered medium format camera’ once belonging to Fay Godwin, Alex Boyd captures the archipelago of St Kilda in a new light, from a 21st century perspective. From the crumbling Cold War military base to the wild beauty of the natural landscape, this collection of photographs is both an ode to the history of the islands and an insight into the modern day lives of those who live and work on St Kilda today.

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Robin Laing – songwriter, poet, performer – takes the reader on a lyrical tour of the history and lore surrounding Scotland’s national drink. His writing depicts whisky in its many guises; be it a warm comfort on a winter’s night, the perfect accompaniment to beans on toast, or even a perilous substance inciting mayhem and ‘super velocity.’ The Whisky Muse II is an ode to both whisky and the country where its stories began. Laing’s poems are steeped in legend and inspired by a wealth of anecdote; from sea dragons to warring rabbits, culinary finesse to the elusive female haggis. His songs are reminiscent of the foot-stamping and rowdy camaraderie of folk songs performed in a cosy tavern, possibly following a wee dram (or two). So settle down, crack out the Usquebaugh Baul, and join Laing for many a tale of legend, adventure, chaos and love, all in tribute to Scotland’s favourite tipple.

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The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo is one of the greatest shows on earth. Around 220,000 people attend each year. It is seen on TV by a further 100 million. Alasdair Hutton is the Voice of the Tattoo. This book is the story of the Tattoo, told by the Narrator and prefaced by a short history of tattoos pre-Edinburgh and a history of the Tattoo pre-Alasdair. With an ever-changing cast of over 1,000 performers, each year’s show is unique. Some elements remain unchanged – the spine-tingling Lone Piper playing on the Castle ramparts, the cacophony of sound that is the closing massed pipes and drums, the welcoming voice of Alasdair Hutton as you arrive. Ladies and gentlemen, take your seats, the Greatest Show on Earth is about to begin. For the last 25 years, Alasdair Hutton has told our story to each of our audiences since he started in 1992 – a total live audience of over 5 million people. Not only has he been behind the microphone without fail, in Edinburgh and when we have taken the show abroad, but he has also researched and written the script. Alasdair’s most precious talents are his voice, his sense of timing and his feel for occasion. Alasdair Hutton is above all one of life’s great gentlemen. Not only is he impeccably polite but he has great charisma, values and a wonderful sense of purpose. This book, which is Alasdair’s own story – only a small part of it! – gives a sense of the huge contribution he has made to the remarkable institution of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. From the foreword by brigadier David Allfrey

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15-minute city, noun: ‘a city that is designed so that everyone who lives there can reach everything they need within 15 minutes on foot or by bike’ Cities define the lives of all those who call them home: where they go, how they get there, how they spend their time. But what if we structured the way we live in our cities differently? What if we travelled differently? What if we could get back the time we would have spent commuting and make it our own? In this carefully researched and readily accessible book, Natalie Whittle interrogates the notion of the 15-minute city: its pros, its cons and its potential to revolutionise modern living. With global warming at crisis point and Covid-19 responses bringing a previously unimaginable decline in commuting, Whittle’s timely book serves as a call to reflect on the ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ of how we live our lives. Building her study around consideration of space and time, Whittle traverses both to collect models from ancient Athens to modern Paris and demonstrate how one idea could change our daily lives – and the world – for good.

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The mountains provide the spiritual nourishment so essential to a truer understanding of the hills and, ultimately, ourselves. Munro bagging is a headily addictive pursuit, with the holy-grail of ‘compleation’ the ultimate aim, currently achieved by around 7,000 Munroists. It all began in 1891 when Sir Hugh Munro’s Tables of 3,000-foot Scottish mountains appeared in The Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal. Since then, this innocent compilation of hills has become a hallowed hit-list. Andrew Dempster traces the meandering course of this cult activity, which has gone from trickle to torrent in the space of a century. From early map-makers to current record-breakers, from the why and the wry to wildness and well-being, The Munros: A History explores the compulsions and philosophies underpinning the Munro phenomenon.

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Edinburgh. 1898. on the cusp of the modern age. Caleb George Cash mountaineer, geographer, antiquarian and teacher stands at the rocky summit of Arthur’s Seat. His reason for standing there was to chart which mountains were visible from his point on the summit – The Arthurs. He came up with a list of twenty mountains (all over 100ft/300m high), including Schiehallion and Ben Lomond. Caleb’s list was first published in 1899, eight years after Munro published his list of mountains over 3000ft, and since then it has been all but forgotten. This book tells the story of how Caleb’s list came about and provides directions and route descriptions for those wishing to climb the mountains on the list. More than just a climbing book, this is also the story of a survivor. The author was diagnosed with AIDS at the age of 33, and becoming an ‘Arthurist’ has helped him carry on with life.

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The Davie McCall series returns in Devil's Knock.

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From the pen of a dedicated Munro bagger comes The Ultimate Guide to everything you've wished the other books had told you before you set off. The lowdown on the state of the path, advice on avoiding bogs and tricky situations, tips on how to determine which bump is actually the summit in misty weather... this is the only guide to the Munros you'll ever need. The comprehensive rucksack guide features: - Detailed description of all practicable ascent routes up all 46 Southern Highland Munros and 21 Tops. - Easy to follow quality and difficulty ratings, enabling you to choose a munro for any level of experience. - Annotated colour photographs and OS maps. - The history of each Munro and Top from the development of the Munro's Tables from 1891 onwards. - Notes on technical difficulties, foul weather concerns, winter conditions and scenery.A brilliant book for any hillwalker - as indispensable as your boots.

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Acknowledged as a classic of mountain writing, this book takes you into the bothies, howffs and dosses on the Scottish hills as Fishgut Mac, Desperate Dan and Stumpy the Big Yin stalk hill and public house, evading gamekeepers and Royalty.

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Witchcraft holds a continued fascination for readers around the world, and the Scottish witch hunts have recently received renewed media attention, especially with the BBC 2 show Lucy Worsley Investigates, bringing attention to Edinburgh’s witches.Expert Mary Craig explores the unusual story of Agnes Finnie, a middle class shopkeeper who lived in the tenements of Edinburgh. After arrest, most witches were tried within a matter of days but not Agnes. Her unusual case took months with weeks of deliberation of the jury. Mary explains why and gives her expert insight into the political and religious tensions that led to her burning.The book will interest a variety of readers, academics and non-academics alike – those interested in witchcraft, British and Scottish history, religious studies and women’s studies.Mary Craig works as a historian with museums, archives and schools and hosts regular, well-attended events on the subject of witchcraft in the Scottish Borders. We expect strong media coverage. The Witches of Scotland campaign has recently gained traction and the attention of first minister Nicola Sturgeon, calling for a pardon and apology to those accused during the witch hunts.

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