Search results for ""nmse - publishing ltd""

History and science collide in the fascinating history of anatomy, from artistic explorations by Leonardo da Vinci and the full-body papier-mâché model produced by Louis Auzoux to the crimes of William Burke and William Hare in 19th-century Edinburgh. This history of how anatomy was studied focuses on Edinburgh and the West Port murders in 1828 and acknowledges the science’s reliance on dead bodies taken without consent. Edinburgh was an important centre for medical teaching at this time but the sixteen murders exposed the darker side of the practice and study of medicine – the bodies were sold by Burke and Hare to the Edinburgh University anatomist Dr Robert Knox. The book accompanies a major exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland beginning 2 July 2022 which charts five hundred years of medical exploration.

Read more less

This account shows the full range of Hugh Miller's interests - the lyrical description of the scenery and accounts of beautiful fossils show a deep affection for the Scottish landscape, while his role as a serious religious journalist and social crusader is highlighted in his discussions on the Disruption and the Highland Clearances.

Read more less

In telling the story of Bonnie Prince Charlie, this book, unusually, places his ancestry, birth and life against the Scoto-Polish and pan-European backgrounds of his parents’ families. With over one hundred and fifty illustrations, including seventy portraits, the selection shows those rarely or never-before included in other works, while the captions are extensive and detailed. The cover shows a portrait of Bonnie Prince Charlie that was in a private collection and unknown to the general public until 2018. The third distinguishing factor is that the book presents the full story of the prince’s only child, Charlotte, Duchess of Albany (Robert Burns’ ‘Bonnie Lass of Albany’); her mother, the tragic Scottish Jacobite Clementina Walkinshaw; and Charlotte Stuart’s children, describing their fates during and after the French Revolution. First published by Amberley in 2010, this edition of Bonnie Prince Charlie has been rewritten and updated. It features on the cover a portrait of Bonnie Prince Charlie that was in a private collection and unknown to the general public until 2018 when it was purchased by the Pininski Foundation.

Read more less

Excavated from Traprain Law, East Lothian, Scotland, in May 1919, was one of the most spectacular discoveries of Roman silver ever made in Europe - and the biggest hoard of `hacksilver': 23kg, battered, crushed and chopped up. Blame for the destruction has hitherto been laid at the door of `barbarians' but this study changes that view. An international team of scholars has reviewed the hoard's origins and manufacture, its use as elite tableware, its hacking and later reuse. A century of new discoveries and ideas allow fresh conclusions, especially about the hacking. With wide-ranging parallels from across Europe, the authors argue that hacking was a deliberate Roman policy to create bullion at times of economic crisis, turning valued vessels into weights of silver to be used in frontier politics, to pay off groups from beyond the empire, or hire them as mercenaries.

Read more less

Set in the months before the outbreak of the Great War and in print for almost 100 years The Thirty-Nine Steps is John Buchan's most popular novel. This timely look at the book - what inspired it, its themes and metaphors - and at its author - how much of John Buchan's own self and experiences are in it - will greatly enhance the reader's enjoyment.

Read more less

When Charles-I came to the throne in 1625 he began to make changes in the way Scotland was run, including the introduction of a new prayer book. He believed that a king was given his position by God and that no one had the right to question his actions, so when protests were made and a document known as 'The National Covenant' was drawn up, cruel punishments were inflicted on the protesters who became known as the 'Covenanters'. This brand-new title in the "Scotties Series" explains the complex topic of the Covenanters to children - it will also be a useful introduction to the subject for adults. "Scotties Books" contain a wealth of interesting facts, stimulating activities, websites and suggestions for places to visit.

Read more less

"Scotties" are exciting, full colour information books for young readers. Each title contains a wealth of interesting facts, stimulating activities, websites and suggestions for places to visit. An 8pp pull-out black and white section with games, puzzles and drawings for colouring-in can be used at home or photocopied for classroom use. In this brand new title find out about: Ghosts and Graveyards - including the Undead Sailor, and the Weeping Tombstone; Haunted Houses - such as Haddington House with its ghostly horse; Witches - good spells and bad spells; Hallowe'en - guising, and Mischief Night; Fairies - fallen angels, household helpers, changelings, and more; Glaistigs and Brownies - a glaistig is a thin woman with a face like 'a grey stone overgrown with lichen'; and, Merfolk - from golden-haired mermaids to the Blue Men of the Minch.

Read more less

"Robert Burns in Time and Place" is a brand new title in the "Scotties Books" series which contain a wealth of interesting facts, stimulating activities, web sites and suggestions for places to visit. The year 2009 is the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns but studying the life and work of the poet is no longer just a celebration around his birthday, but can be embedded across the school curriculum. The book looks at Ayrshire, Scotland and the wider world as they were in his time and which shaped his experiences and his work.

Read more less

An introduction about 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. It is co-published by NMS Enterprises Limited - Publishing and the European Ethnological Research Centre (EERC) an independent unit within Celtic & Scottish Studies at the University of Edinburgh.

Read more less

In this book on the history of flight in Scotland you can: find out about the man who tried to fly off the wall at Stirling Castle and about Percy Pilcher and his fragile 'Bat' glider; be amazed at the story of Vincenzo Lunardi, and his balloon flight in 1785 from Edinburgh to Fife; see how aircraft are used in war, from the airships, and planes with open cock-pits, in World War I, to the Cold War V-bombers; read about UFOs in the 'Falkirk Triangle', the short-lived Rocket Post and much more; and check out how you can visit Concorde Alpha Alpha at the National Museum of Flight in East Lothian, and the other flying machines there.

Read more less

Queen Margaret died in 1093 and was canonised in 1250. Until a generation ago, every Scots child was taught a pallid and uncontentious version of her life, drawn from the hagiography written not long after her death. Even twentieth-century biographies have been uncritical and pious in tone. Eileen Dunlop has produced a book, which aims at a more balanced, psychologically probing account of a remarkable life.

Read more less

The elaborately carved Hilton of Cadboll stone, the house-shaped Monymusk Reliquary and the sumptuously decorated Hunterston brooch (all on view in the National Museum of Scotland) are evidence of the sophistication of Scottish craftsmen in the time AD 300-900. A pioneering partnership between National Museums Scotland and The Glenmorangie Company has supported a major programme of research into the archaeology of Scotland during the Early Medieval period. This is the paperback edition of the book first published in 2012.

Read more less

In nineteenth century Japan, woodblock prints were a cultural phenomenon, with thousands of designs issued annually. Prints were a cheap and colourful medium of entertainment, much like magazines and posters today. Kabuki is a unique combination of drama, dance, music, and acrobatics, still enthusiastically followed today. It is distinctive for its stylisation, lavish visual appearance, and intense kinetic energy. The plots concern tragic romances, feats of derring-do, and conflicts of loyalty, involving larger-than-life heroes, heroines, and villains. Whatever the story of the play, however, it was the actor above all that the audience came to see. Most of National Museums Scotland's magnificent collection of around 4,000 prints was acquired in the 1880s at the peak of the craze for Japanese art and design in Europe, and features the major artists of the time. This book features the highlights of the exhibition opening at the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, October 2013.

Read more less

This new edition is a co-publication between NMS Enterprises - Publishing and the Edinburgh Geological Society. It has been expanded and redesigned and has a practical flexi-binding. The book describes the varied rocks and structures that occur within the largely metasediments of the Moine Supergroup of the northern and central highlands of Scotland. The excursions are, for the most part, along major roads, allowing easy access to some of the finest outcrops of deformed and metamorphosed sandstones in Scotland. Professional geologists will find the book invaluable as will the enthusiastic amateur and the undergraduate student.

Read more less

Scottish Furniture offers a narrative account of furniture-making in Scotland, from the sixteenth century to the twentieth century. Written to scholarly standards, it disseminates a wealth of new research and specialist knowledge to a wide audience.The book is written primarily for readers with an existing knowledge of, and passion for, furniture history. It offers a broad-ranging perspective and covers an unusually long period. In addition to identifying key makers and diagnostic features, the text discusses the nature of national characteristics in material culture through time and across a range of contrasting socio-economic settings, as well as the interaction between design and making in material culture.It is thus of interest to a secondary set of academic readers, unfamiliar with furniture yet engaged with Scottish cultural history.

Read more less

Pickers came from near and far year after year – and from a variety of backgrounds – for the berry-picking season. For local people, adults and children, it was an opportunity to supplement the family income; Glasgow folk combined it with a holiday. For the Scottish Traveller community it was an annual opportunity to meet up with friends and family, and forge new relationships. Roger Leitch encouraged many of those local berry pickers to share their recollections for this book – which is published at a time of political change with challenges for the soft fruit cultivation business. He also interviewed workers in other seasonal employments such as potato picking and ghillieing.

Read more less

The Tomb in question was built for a Chief of Police and his wife in the city of Thebes (modern Luxor) at the height of the ancient Egyptian empire. It was reused by numerous people over the next few hundred years before being sealed and lying undisturbed until it was excavated in 1857. Many of the objects found were among the first to be acquired by what is now called the National Museum of Scotland.This is the souvenir guide to the exhibition The Tomb: Ancient Egyptian Burial which was shown at the National Museum of Scotland in 2017.

Read more less

Showcases over a hundred treasures from the collections of the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, from the departments of Scottish History and Archaeology/Art and Design/Science and Technology/Natural Sciences/World Cultures.

Read more less

In the middle of the nineteenth century a sympathetic relationship between art, science and technology laid the groundwork for photography to flourish, including camera obscura and the panorama. This is a lavishly produced book on the eventful first thirty years of photography in Scotland - around 1840 - 70. The photographers whose work is discussed include David Octavius Hill, Robert Adamson, James Valentine, Thomas Annan and George Washington Wilson plus practitioners not previously mentioned in any publication. Julia Margaret Cameron's encounter with Scotland is also described as is the work of Scottish photographers abroad.

Read more less

Professor Matthew Heddle (1828-97) was a larger-than-life character, a renowned academic and one of Scotland's most famous mineralogists. His rich legacy includes: Encyclopaedia Britannica 9th edition (section on Mineralogy) A fossil fish Heddleichthys A mineral named after him (Mattheddleite) A summary of the Mineralogy of Scotland (published posthumously) 55 scientific papers 5,700 specimens from his collection now housed in the National Museum of Scotland and the National Museums Collection Centre. 10 children This book, by Heddle's great-great-grandson, is not an account of his scientific work but is about Heddle the man; it provides a much fuller picture of him than anything that has appeared before.

Read more less

Scotties are exciting, full-colour, Scottish information books for young readers, with a photocopiable black/white 8pp section for home or classroom use. The book looks at the landscape of Scotland before people, and at the islands, coasts, moorlands, machair, lochs, rivers and flora and fauna that we know now. It also discusses topics such as climate change, renewable energy and carbon footprint and at how the countryside can be enjoyed and protected.

Read more less

Co-published with the European Ethnological Research Centre in the Flashbacks series. Andrew Ramage was the son of a farm servant and he himself worked on the land in the Lothians and Berwickshire, in Scotland. Subsequently he became a dock worker, lorry driver and railwayman. Of the diary he kept over many years only three notebooks remain. The first covers Andrew's early life from 1884 until the mid 1870s and the period from November 1888 until April 1889. The last two cover July 1914 to June 1917. In his account the uncertain realities of rural employment and dwelling are revealed and they dispel the bucolic image often attached to descriptions of 19th-century country life. We learn of the travails of a young man making his way in the world at a time of great social and economic change and, later, of the concerns of parenthood and aging at a time of war-time strife.

Read more less

Travelling showfolk have been entertaining Scots for centuries and a visit to 'the shows' was a highlight of the year until recent memory. The Codonas are one of the longest and most established show families, having arrived from the continent in the late eighteenth century. The book is based almost entirely on original research and draws on interviews with three generations to give a vivid and richly anecdotal account of this ever-changing world. Illustrations, mostly previously unpublished, enhance the text. The interviews have been kept intact as much as possible, to keep the flow of overlapping individual life stories but are organised chronologically from the 1890s, when it enters living memory, up to the present. The hundred years from 1790 are described in a lively introduction including many first-hand accounts and following the family fortunes in the United Kingdom, the United States where members reached the top of the circus profession and as far afield as Hawaii.

Read more less

Devils, witches and evil - the insubstantial but terrifying world of the supernatural as it was seen by Robert Burns and his contemporaries is examined in this new book, brought out for the 250th anniversary of the poet's birth. Several of Burns' poems dealt with the supernatural, the most famous of which, "Tam o Shanter", is examined in detail. It is from this poem that the book's title comes: 'And roars out, "Weel done, Cutty-sark!" And in an instant all was dark And scarcely had he Maggie rallied When out the hellish legion sallied.' In contrast with the 'other world' was the everyday lives of the country people and the nature of the material world in which they lived; the book also examines this and the changes that were taking place in Burns' time.

Read more less

This memoir is by and about George Taylor: the manuscript was handed down through generations of his family. It recalls the varied and interesting life of a man who, at the age of 50, moved his family from Kelso in the Scottish Borders to Kalamazoo, Michigan, in the mid-nineteenth century. George Taylor was a gardener and nurseryman and, when settled in Kalamazoo, he soon established a successful business supplying plants and hedging. He was an award-winning horticulturalist and was responsible for the introduction of the cultivation of celery to the USA. In the course of hearing about George Taylor's life - including the death of three of his four wives in childbirth - we encounter people such as the widow of the man who supposedly served as the inspiration for Robert Burns' "Tam o' Shanter", and events such as the Great Fire of Chicago. From Kelso to Kalamazoo is all too rare a primary source testament to the realities of emigration from the lowlands of Scotland to the USA.

Read more less

National Museums Scotland is home to a world-class collection of ancient Egyptian artefacts. Though a public collection for 150 years, its breadth and depth remains largely unknown. This book aims to bring to public attention the many exceptional funerary items which include the royal burial group from Qurna, the coffin of the priest Iufenaumun, and the unusual double-coffin and mummies of the young half-brothers, Petamun and Penhorpabik. In bringing the collection to light, this book provides a wider understanding of its history, including the numerous figures who were responsible for acquiring, researching and preserving it over the years - egyptologists, curators and historians.

Read more less

Hallmarks, guaranteeing the honesty of the metal and maker alike, have been used in Scotland since the sixteenth century. The 550th anniversary of Scottish hallmarking in 2008 is being celebrated with an exhibition in Nation Museums Scotland (25 January - 27 April 08)which gathers together for the first time all the most important examples of marked Scottish silver and gold, most from NMS' unrivalled collections. The exhibition and the accompanying book are concerned not only with silver and gold vessels, from earliest surviving marked examples right up to pieces made today, but also with the people who made them and the people for whom they were made. Objects, historic records, paintings, illustrations and contemporary accounts will be combined to present a dazzling display. The book distils the exhibition, making it a must for silver enthusiasts and collectors everywhere.

Read more less

This the first book to describe the system of weights and measures used in medieval Scotland and to explain its evolution into modern times, and also the first to provide secure and accurate figures for the sizes of the units. The book's radical approach includes an emphasis on the physical evidence from surviving measurement standards, and it demonstrates that Scotland's meteorology was sophisticated and was closely involved with those of her trading partners. The book will appeal to a specialist market that includes social, economic and science historians; Scottish historians; weight and scale collectors; museums; and science and technology libraries.

Read more less

This pocket-sized, flexi-back guide gives an overview of the geological evolution of the island of Rum and provides a comprehensive selection of excursions illustrating Rum's Paleocene igneous rocks. It gives advice on travelling to the island, accommodation, weather conditions - and midges.

Read more less

This book features exceptionally important tapestries from major European collections showing the world-class research - scientific, artistic and historical - applied to their preservation. The collections, mostly of Renaissance Flemish tapestries, belong to the UK's Royal Collection at Hampton Court Palace (for example, a piece from a set depicting 'The Story of Tobias' first noted in Henry VIII's inventory of 1547); the Spanish Royal Collections tapestries at the Palacio Real, Madrid; and tapestries from several sites in Belgium. The information is presented in an understandable and practical way.

Read more less

Scotland's unique geography and topography provided a useful base for Allied military preparations during the Cold War, a 40-year nuclear stand-off between the USA and the Soviet Union ending with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.This book accompanies an exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland (13 July-26 January 24) which explores Scotland's critical position on the front line.Scots played active roles as soldiers, within intelligence services and as part of voluntary civil defences. Also drawn on is Scotland's rich history of Cold War-era protest.The physical legacy of the Cold War is revealed too the ruined bases, forgotten bunkers and decommissioned nuclear power stations still evident across the Scottish landscape.

Read more less

Ideas about the Scottish Highlands which took hold around the turn of the 19th century remain to the present day – for many people across the world Highland dress, bagpipes and Highland landscapes are the images of Scotland that first spring to mind. National Museums Scotland holds a significant collection of Highland dress and tartan clothing. The aims of Dr Rosie Waine's two-year research project include a survey of the collection and an exploration of how such outfits became an integral part of Scottish identity on a global stage.

Read more less

Hugh Miller was born in 1802 in Cromarty, North East Scotland. He started his working life as a stonemason's apprentice. A keen interest in fossil collecting followed and he was successful in arousing public interest in geological history. He later became a social commentator and crusader (he was one of the first writers to condemn the Highland Clearances) while his role as a serious religious journalist is highlighted in his discussions on the Disruption of the Church of Scotland and its consequences. As Hugh Miller, a tall man with a shepherd's plaid over his rough tweed suit, walked about Edinburgh he was pointed out with pride. His was a household name in his lifetime, not only in Scotland but also across the English-speaking world. After his death, by his own hand in 1856, his work was mined by historians and anthologists for its acute observations, and geologists continued to love the spirit which imbued his writings, as did the Free Church - but in the 20th century his thoughts on evolutionary biology were sorely obsolete. However, a recent revival in Scots history and culture, and a reassessment of the 19th century debates in science, geology and religion, have all led to a fuller appreciation of the rich and complex stories in which Hugh Miller played a part, and of the man himself. This biography follows the 2003 facsimile edition of Hugh Miller's "The Cruise of the Betsey and Rambles of a Geologist", which Michael Taylor edited. With the benefit of recent research for the 2002 centenary conferences, the book does full justice to a neglected figure whose work and writings continue to give enjoyment and inspiration.

Read more less

Between the 1930s and 1980s, folk singer Jock Duncan interviewed around 60 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, published here, 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 more less

Dramatic Highland landscapes, heroic histories, tartan and bagpipes are among the defining images of Scotland for many people around the world. From the Romantic movement of the 18th and early 19th centuries to Queen Victoria’s Highland idyll at Balmoral, Wild and Majestic considers the origins of these ideas and explores how romantic interpretations of the cultural traditions of the Scottish Highlands and Islands became enduring symbols of wider Scottish identity. This book accompanied a landmark exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland in 2019. It charts Scotland’s journey into the global imagination and invites you to think again about the meaning and relevance of ideas that continue to define Scotland today.

Read more less

WINNER OF THE RESEARCH CATEGORY IN SCOTLAND'S NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS 2023 This edition of The Old Red Sandstone is the first truly new one for a century. It comes in two volumes: Volume 2 reprints the original, and now rare, first edition in facsimile with notes and glossary. Volume 1 explores how Miller wrote his book and why it was so important. Ross-shire born polymath Hugh Miller (1802-56), self-taught stonemason, geologist and writer, was famous in his lifetime across the English-speaking world. On one level, The Old Red Sandstone is a description of the geology of Cromarty, Ross-shire, with diversions into its scenery, history and folklore, but it is also an autobiographical memoir and work of literature. It was enormously popular on its first publication in 1841. The editors have combined their expertise – in history, English literature, Celtic languages and culture (Ralph O’ Connor) and palaeontology, museums, history of geology (Michael A Taylor) – to annotate the text of this most idiosyncratic book for a new generation of readers, and to provide a critical study. In a pre-Darwinian era, Hugh Miller reconciled his geological knowledge with his religious beliefs and his reader-friendly writings encouraged in others an interest in fossils. His writings are, as novelist James Robertson says in the Foreword, still very readable and relevant today.

Read more less

Miss Kate Cranston opened four Glasgow Tea Rooms at the end of the 19th century/beginning of the 20th, including the famous Willow Tea Rooms. Ahead of her time, Miss Cranston ensured that her Rea Rooms were designed and furnished by talented young artists like Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Miss Cranston: Patron of Charles Rennie Mackintosh was first published in 1999 and is long out of print. It is being reissued to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. This new edition has some rewriting and updating; it is in a larger format; it now has around 60 colour+black&white photographs and illustrations.

Read more less

Topics discussed in these recorded oral interviews with residents of Stranraer and district, in south-west Scotland, include tattie howking, war, the capsizing of the Larne-Stranraer ferry and the stormy winter of 1947. The interviews took place over a period of time, the first being with Helen Davies who was 87 when recorded in 1997.This is the first book based on research carried out by the European Ethnological Research Centre (EERC) as part of their current research programme: Dumfries and Galloway: A Regional Ethnology - part of a wider research programme, The Regional Ethnology of Scotland Project.Co-published by NMS Enterprises Ltd - Publishing and the EERC.

Read more less

In 2015 portraits by Dr John Adamson were displayed at the National Museum of Scotland exhibition Photography: A Victorian Sensation. The audience response to these powerful works was such that this book has been produced, the first devoted to placing his work in its historical context and to acquainting a new audience with his work which, for conservation reasons, cannot be displayed all the time. Dr Adamson (1809-70) was the older brother of the better known Robert Adamson (1821-48), famous for his pioneering photography work with D. O. Hill. John Adamson remained an amateur; his photography had to be fitted in around his busy medical practice in St Andrews. The photographs are drawn mainly from two extremely early and significant albums, presented to the Museum in the 1940s. An Appendix has technical information on, for example: camera obscura, lenses, daguerreotype, calotype, the albumen process, and the collodian negative process.

Read more less

Tales of pirates, whether in fact or fiction, have long excited young imaginations. The pirate stories here all have a Scottish connection. The title is part of the Scotties series of activity books for young readers and includes an 8pp black and white section of activities which are photocopiable for home or classroom use.

Read more less

The story of the Dundee mill girl who, inspired by David Livingstone, became a missionary herself in Calabar, a part of Africa known as 'the White Man's Grave'. There she adopted many children who would otherwise have been left to die; when her mediating skills were recognised she became the British Empire's first woman magistrate. Her name lives on in the Mary Slessor Foundation, a charity working in Africa to improve health, skills training and facilitate agricultural projects. Mary Slessor was one of the most remarkable Scotswomen of any generation and the first to be depicted on a Scottish banknote. First published in 2001; this edition has had some material updated and two replacement photographs.

Read more less

Dan Klein and Alan J. Poole began collecting in the late 1970s and over the subsequent thirty years assembled on the most comprehensive collections of modern British and Irish glass. The book includes work by over one hundred makers at the very cutting edge of their art. This dazzling collection was gifted to National Museums Scotland in 2009.

Read more less

Sven T Kjellberg, Director of Goteborgs Historiska Museum (now called the Goteborgs Stadsmuseum), and his assistant Olof Hasslof travelled through the islands of the Outer Hebrides in 1934 for research into the maritime culture of the area, with the emphasis on material culture - the boats, the tools of the trade. Renowned ethnologist Professor Emeritus Alexander Fenton presents the research with additional material of his own. A key feature of the book are the 80 sepia photographs and 35 line drawings published here for the first time.

Read more less

Historic reconstructions have become a decisive tool in the history of science and technology over the last few decades. This book is based on a workshop held at national Museums Scotland and brings together key studies of 15 recent reconstruction projects, covering areas as diverse as physics, computing, horology, communication, transport and military. The reconstructions include Leonardo's Flight, the Babbage Calculating Machine, the Sea Stallion of Glenalough Viking Ship, Roman Dyeing and Vermeer's Camera.

Read more less

Scots have explored planet Earth since at least the very beginning of the 17th century. Here are incredible stories of bravery, triumph and tragedy, and scientific discovery, often under near-impossible conditions. A unique index lists dates and places of birth of over 120 Scottish explorers, 41 of whom were scientists.

Read more less

This rewritten and redesigned edition of a popular title in the Scotties series, gives a fascinating glimpse into life at the most northern edge of the Roman Empire. Find out: about life in a Roman fort; how and where Roman soldiers lived in Scotland; what the Romans ate; which gods and goddesses they worshipped; how they enjoyed themselves; about Roman technology and medicine; how trade developed; and much more. Scotties are exciting,Scottish information books for young readers with four-colour photographs and illustrations. Each title contains a wealth of interesting facts, stimulating activities for home or classroom use, a list of useful websites and suggestions for places to visit.

Read more less

The story of the Skye terrier who refused to leave his master's grave in Greyfriar's Kirkyard, Edinburgh, has been popular from Victorian times. This book tells the well-loved story and also gives the historical background with such sections as: The Lord Provost, William Chambers (who declared that 'no one's dog is everyone's dog' and gave Bobby the Freedom of the City of Edinburgh); William Brodie, the sculptor of the famous statue; Edinburgh's shocking health record; Bobby's Edinburgh; Bobby's breed - why the name? The book is illustrated with drawings and photographs and relevant objects from the collections of National Museums Scotland and its Scottish Life Archive. An eight-page activity section includes: Dog issues - true or false? How well do you know your dog? Wordsearch. Follow in Bobby's pawprints. Greyfriars Bobby is the latest title in the Scotties series of activity books for young readers. Each contains a wealth of interesting facts, stimulating activities, a list of websites and suggestions for places to visit.

Read more less

This book gives a glimpse into the trials and tribulations of inventing, developing and perfecting the art of pedal-powered transport over the years from the the original 'hobby-horse' velocipede to the the notorious bone-shaker, and from the grand but tricky penny-farthing to Graeme Obree's world-beating home-made suprbike. This second edition has been updated to take in Chris Hoy's amazing three gold medals in the 2008 Olympics.

Read more less