Birlinn

In this book, Alistair Moffat brings vividly to life the story of this great nation, from the dawn of prehistory through to the twenty-first century.
Ambitious, richly detailed and highly readable, Scotland: A History From Earliest Times skilfully weaves together a dazzling array of fact and anecdote from a vast range of sources. The result is an imaginative, informative, balanced and varied portrait of Scotland, seen not just through the experience of the kings, saints, warriors, aristocrats and politicians who populate the pages of conventional history books, but also through that of ordinary people who have lived Scotland's history and have played their own important part in shaping its destiny.

Winner of Saltire Scottish History Book of the Year 2016
They would be better dead, they said, than set adrift upon the world. But set adrift they were — thousands of them, their communities destroyed, their homes demolished and burned.
Such were the Sutherland Clearances, an extraordinary episode, involving the deliberate depopulation of much of a Scottish county. What was done in the course of that episode was planned and carried out by a small group of men and one woman. Most of those involved wrote a great deal about their actions, intentions and feelings, and much of it has been preserved. There are no equivalent collections of material from those whose communities ceased to exist. Their feelings and fears are harder to access, but they are by no means irrecoverable.
In this book James Hunter tells the story of the Sutherland Clearances. His researches took him to archives in Scotland, England and Canada, to the now deserted straths of Sutherland, to the frozen shores of Hudson Bay. The result is a gripping, moving, definitive account of a people's struggle for survival in the face of tragedy and disaster which includes experiences which have not featured in any previous such account.

The Great Wood of Caledon — the historic native forest of Highland Scotland — has a reputation as potent and misleading as the wolves that ruled it. The popular image is of an impassable, sun-snuffing shroud, a Highlandswide jungle infested by wolf, lynx, bear, beaver, wild white cattle, wild boar, and wilder painted men.
Jim Crumley shines a light into the darker corners of the Great Wood, to re-evaluate some of the questionable elements of its reputation, and to assess the possibilities of its partial resurrection into something like a national forest. The book threads a path among relict strongholds of native woodland, beginning with a soliloquy by the Fortingall Yew, the one tree in Scotland that can say of the hey-day of the Great Wood 5,000 years ago: 'I was there.' The journey is enriched by vivid wildlife encounters, a passionate and poetic account that binds the slow dereliction of the past to an optimistic future.

Every debate about the Scottish constitution should include the topic of Scottish Home Rule, and if there is to be another referendum in Scotland then Home Rule should definitely be one of the options on the ballot paper.
Home Rule is not widely understood being seen by many Unionists as the slippery slope to Independence and by Independence supporters as a Unionist proposal to retain sovereignty over Scotland. It is however a strong proposal in its own right with a separate history from Independence and a more likely stepping-stone to Federalism.
This book is a much-needed statement for the merits of Scottish Home as the best solution for Scotland. It covers the history and support for the Home Rule option from 1860s, a clear structure for what Home Rule is and how Home Rule could improve both Scotland as well be a framework for constitutional reform across the UK.

The peatlands of the Outer Hebrides are half land, half water. Their surface is a glorious tweed woven from tiny, living sphagnums rich in wildlife, but underneath is layer upon layer of dead mosses transforming into the peat. One can, with care, walk out onto them, but stop and you begin to sink into them. For time immemorial the peatlands have been places — for humans at least — of seasonal habitation but not of constant residence.
In this book Robin A. Crawford explores the peatlands over the course of the year, explaining how they have come to be and examining how peat has been used from the Bronze Age onwards. In describing the seasonal processes of cutting, drying, stacking, storing and burning he reveals one of the key rhythms of island life, but his study goes well beyond this to include many other aspects, including the wildlife and folklore associated with these lonely, watery places.
Widening his gaze to other peatlands in the country, he also reflects on the historical and cultural importance that peat has played, and continues to play — it is still used for fuel in many rural areas and plays an essential role in whisky-making — in the story of Scotland.

Walking To America follows and recreates the immense journey, in search of a new life and of a miracle doctor who could cure the blindness of one of their number. The journey was taken largely on foot by a small working-class family unit from England in the 1880s, to Liverpool, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New Orleans, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and back again.
Written as travelogue and as a history of one of the great neglected subjects — the New World immigrants who returned home to the Old, Walking to America is a personal tale, full of characterisation and human stories, based upon received lore, followed footsteps and careful historical research.An epic, covering thousands of miles and cultures and environments as diverse as the Victorian UK coalfields, the great imperial entrepot of Liverpool, the post-bellum American south, roaring 1880s New Orleans, the stew of the free-for-all Pittsburgh mines, Texas in the wake of the Alamo, the unclaimed Indian Territory of North America and the ultimate frontier of the Petrified Forest in Arizona — all seen through the eyes of a small group of identifiable and sympathetic, real and ordinary men, women and children from the north-east of England.
Walking to America is a great and gripping adventure of discovery, hope and loss. And it is all true.

Polly Pullar tells the fascinating tale of one of the Hebrides unique thriving small communities through the colourful anecdotes of Lawrence MacEwen, whose family have owned the island since 1896. A wonderfully benevolent, and eccentric character, his passion and love for the island and its continuing success, has always been of the utmost importance. He has kept diaries all his life and delves deep into them, unveiling a uniquely human story, punctuated with liberal amounts of humour, as well as heart-rending tragedy, always dominated by the vagaries of the sea.
Here are tales of coal puffers and livestock transportation on steamers and small boats, extraordinary chance meetings and adventures that eventually led him to finding his wife Jenny, on the island of Soay. It's a book about the small hard-grafting community of 30 souls on this fertile island of just 1500 acres.

In 1938 John Lorne Campbell bought the Hebridean isle of Canna. He wanted to prevent it becoming a rich man's playground (like so many other islands and Highland estates), to preserve a part of traditional Gaelic culture and show that efficient farming methods could be compatible with wildlife conservation and sustainability. But his determination to get the island left him burdened by debt, and even after he gave it to the National Trust for Scotland in 1981 he still had to fight to secure his legacy.
This acclaimed book is an insightful and human portrait of one of the twentieth century's most significant scholars of the Gaelic world, and of his 60-year partnership with Margaret Fay Shaw, who together created the world-famous library of Gaelic song and other material at Canna House.

Busy and deeply absorbed in all the complexity of life, Ruth Scott's packed diary suddenly had to be cleared when she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. She said, 'Discovering that life might be shorter than expected or hoped for concentrates the mind wonderfully. Whatever life is left to me, I do not want to waste it.'
In the final months of her life, in the shadows between living and dying, she learned to live with the extremes of treatments that were as aggressive as the disease — and with daily ups and downs that created constant uncertainty.
Throughout it all, Ruth creatively explored — through insight, literature, poetry and song — what life is about and how it should be lived. This book is the result. Here, she cuts through all the things in life that we waste our energies on. She explores the depth of life in ways that allow for doubt, absence and uncertainty while also making room for mystery and understanding beyond rational limitations. As she reflects on how we relate (or not) to each other, to the environment and to the 'more-than-me-ness' of life, she offers real inspiration for us all.

Rum, once the poor relation of the spirit world, has undergone a revival and is no longer seen just as the preferred tipple for tipsy pirates. The craft drinks movement has certainly stimulated the rum world, with high numbers of new artisan rum brands launching around the world in the last few years. The rise of the rum cocktails is another successful trend, with the popularity of mojitos and mai tai contributing greatly in the growth and development of the rum market.
Ian Buxton, the UK's No.1 bestselling author on spirits, takes us on a tour of the different colours, flavours, creation methods and characteristics, and makes his pick of the best rums in the world. Whether you like your rum in cocktails, or prefer to sip it neat, this is the only book on rum you will ever need.

Katharine Stewart, who died in 2013, was one of Scotland's best-loved writers on rural life in the Highlands. A Croft in the Hills, her first book, tells the story of how a couple and their young daughter, fresh from city life, took over a remote hill croft near Loch Ness and made a living from it. Full of warm personal insights, good humour and a love of living things, it has become a classic and has rarely been out of print since it was first published in 1960.
This omnibus gathers A Croft in the Hills together with some of Katharine's later books: A Garden in the Hills, describing a year in the life of her Highland garden; A School in the Hills, a vivid history of the school at Abriachan which eventually became the Stewarts' family home; and The Post in the Hills, which tells the dramatic story of the postal service in the Highlands, from the point of view of Katharine's later role as postmistress of the smallest post office in Scotland, run from the porch of her Abriachan schoolhouse.
Each of these books glows with what Neil Gunn described as 'its unusual quality, its brightness and its wisdom'. The omnibus will bring the grace, charm and wisdom of Katharine Stewart's writing to a new generation of readers.

Trevor Royle examines Scotland's role in the Second World War from a wide range of perspectives. The country's geographical position gave it great strategic importance for importing war materiel and reinforcements, for conducting naval and aerial operations against the enemy and for training regular and specialist SOE and commando forces. Scotland also became a social melting pot with the arrival of Polish and eastern European refugees, whose presence added to the communal mix and assisted post-war reconstruction. In addition to the important military aspects — the exploits of the Army's renowned 15th Scottish and 51st Highland Divisions in Europe and North Africa and the role played by the RAF and the Royal Navy from Scottish bases — Scotland was also hugely important as an industrial power house and the nation's larder. The war also had a huge impact on politics, with national centralization achieved through the creation of the Scottish Office and the Scottish Grand Committee. With the emergence of the post-war Labour government and the welfare state,nationalism went into decline and the dominance of socialism, especially in the west, paved the way for the command politics which dominated Scotland for the rest of the century. Based on previously unseen archives in the Scottish Record Office, A Time of Tyrants is the first comprehensive history of the unique part played by Scotland and the Scots in the global war to defeat Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.

In Four Ducks on a Pond, Nicholas the Cat, assisted by novelist Annabel Carothers, observed his family of humans and animals during one year on the Ross of Mull in the early 1950s. More than fifty years later, Annabel's daughter Fionna discovered the manuscript in a desk drawer and, while preparing it for publication, was inspired to expand on the theme.
A Grass Bank Beyond covers an extended period before mains services and frequent ferries brought about change to the Ross. Fionna remembers the freedom she enjoyed roaming the island on foot, bicycle, pony, or boat. On family outings she absorbed stories and legends about the island, attended agricultural shows and local concerts, and saw the Queen arrive for an official visit to Mull at the height of a great storm. With warmth and gentle humour she describes the solutions which overcame problems living in this beautiful but remote place.

They may have been angels of mercy. But they were also angels with attitude — real women, with real guts.
This is the little-known story of the gritty and free-spirited women who, in 1914, put aside their fight for the vote to set up a hospital in an abandoned French abbey to treat the appalling injuries sustained on the Western Front. Uniquely in that theatre, the hospital was staffed entirely by women — doctors, surgeons, nurses, bateriologists, radiographers, orderlies and ambulance drivers.
In the face of opposition from the military and medical establishments, and in the teeth of many hardships, they succeeded in establishing one of the most effective and longest-serving frontline military hospitals of the First World War.

From the author of the Highland classic A Croft in the Hills, this illustrated book celebrates one of mankind's oldest pleasures. Month by month we are taken through a year in the life of Katharine Stewart's garden. The circle of the seasons is luminously evoked as we are told of the practicalities of gardening, cooking, bee-keeping and wine-making. Peppered with warm, personal insights, good humour and a love of living things, the joy of nature has never sounded so rewarding.

'The most powerful representation yet of the race which has repeatedly changed history as we know it' — The Scotsman
Alistair Moffat's journey, from the Scottish islands and Scotland, to the English coast, Wales, Cornwall and Ireland, ignores national boundaries to reveal the rich fabric of culture and history of Celtic Britain which still survives today.
This is a vividly told, dramatic and enlightening account of the oral history, legends and battles of a people whose past stretches back many hundred of years.
The Sea Kingdoms is a story of great tragedies, ancient myths and spectacular beauty.

Hadrian's Wall is the largest, most spectacular and one of the most enigmatic historical monument in Britain. Nothing else approaches its vast scale: a land wall running 73 miles from east to west and a sea wall stretching at least 26 miles down the Cumbrian coast. Many of its forts are as large as Britain's most formidable medieval castles, and the wide ditch dug to the south of the Wall, the vallum, is larger than any surviving prehistoric earthwork. Built in a ten-year period by more than 30,000 soldiers and labourers at the behest of an extraordinary emperor, the Wall consisted of more than 24 million stones, giving it a mass greater than all the Egyptian pyramids put together. At least a million people visit Hadrian's Wall each year and it has been designated a World Heritage Site.
In this book, based on literary and historical sources as well as the latest archaeological research, Alistair Moffat considers who built the Wall, how it was built, why it was built and how it affected the native peoples who lived in its mighty shadow. The result is a unique and fascinating insight into one of the Wonders of the Ancient World.

From the early fourteenth century to the end of the sixteenth, the Anglo-Scottish borderlands suffered one of the most intense periods of warfare and disorder in modern Europe.
As a consequence of constant conflict, Borderers suffered horribly at the hands of marauding armies who ravaged their land, destroying crops, slaughtering cattle, burning settlements and killing indiscriminately. Forced by extreme circumstances, many took to reiving to ensure their survival. For the best part of 300 years, countless raiding parties made their way over the border, often returning under the cover of darkness, leading their prize of stolen livestock back through wild, empty country.
The story of the Reivers is one of survival, stealth, treachery, ingenuity and deceit.

In this modern age the regional and national boundaries which define Scotland seem fixed and permanent. But of course this has not always been so.
In this book Alistair Moffat looks at the shifting political shape of the land long before its modern borders were created. In doing so he brings to vivid life the half-forgotten kingdoms that came and went during Roman times, the Dark Ages and the early medieval period. This is a fascinating journey into a tantalisingly little-known period of our history, yet one which is crucial to our understanding of who we are and where we came from.
'Moffat's tireless reasearch … and commanding knowledge bring these forgotten peoples to life' – Scottish Field

As 8,000 Scottish soldiers, most of them spearmen, faced 18,000 English infantrymen, archers and mounted knights in June 1314 near the Bannock Burn, many would have thought that the result a foregone conclusion. But two days later, the English were routed, Edward II fled to the coast and took ship for home, and few English and Welsh soldiers escaped from Scotland unhurt. This emphatic victory was the moment that enabled Scotland to remain independent and pursue a different destiny.
In this book, best-selling author Alistair Moffat offers fresh insights into one of the most famous battles in history, yet one which is surprisingly little understood. Where exactly was it fought; and what happened at the Scottish council of war the night before the second day to persuade the Scots to attack at dawn?
This book follows in detail the events of those two days that changed history, and captures all the fear, heroism, confusion and desperation as he describes the tactics and manoeuvres that led to a stunning and unexpected Scottish victory.