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Tranter admits that he is not a historian, and that he could never cover all of Scottish history in 200 pages. What he does, however, is make the reader interested, inquisitive, and thoughtful about the events that have molded Scotland.
Here Nigel Tranter tells his story - his strict religious upbringing in Edinburgh, his father's financial ruin and premature death, early writing success, his happy marriage, the tragedy of his son Philip's death, and his crucial part in the return of the Stone of Destiny after its disappearance from Westminster Abbey in the 1950s.1873631766
This 4th edition of The Geology of Scotland is greatly expanded from the previous edition with 34 authors contributing to 20 chapters. A new format has been adopted to provide a different perspective on the geology of Scotland. A brief introduction is followed by a chapter outlining some of the important historical aspects that in the 19th century placed Scottish geologists in the forefront of a new science. Scotland is constructed from a number of terranes that finally combined in roughly their present positions prior to about 410 million years ago. Thus the geology of each terrane is described up the time of amalgamation, providing chapters on the Southern Uplands, Midland Valley, Highland...
Scotland boasts some of the most famous fossil localities in the world, and, for a small country, has a remarkable fossil record with almost every period of geological time represented by Scottish localities. These localities provide snapshots of the plants and animals that have inhabited Scotland through deep time. They range from the superb fossil fish of Caithness and Angus that inspired early paleontologists - such as Hugh Miller, almost two centuries ago during the birth of the science - to modern discoveries such as the dinosaurs of the Isle of Skye, as well as ancient amphibians and scorpions from central Scotland. This book will appeal to all those with an interest in fossils and the...
This trilogy tells the story of Robert the Bruce and how, tutored and encouraged by the heroic William Wallace, he determined to continue the fight for an independent Scotland, sustained by a passionate love for his land.
In 1725 an extensive military road and bridge-building programme was implemented by the British crown that would transform 18th-century Scotland. Aimed at pacifying some of her more inaccessible regions and containing the Jacobite threat, General Wade's new roads were designed to replace 'the old ways' and 'tedious passages' through the mountains. Over the next few decades, the laying out of these routes opened up the country to visitors from all backgrounds. After the 1760s, soldiers, surveyors and commercial travellers were joined by leisure tourists and artists, eager to explore Scotland's antiquities, natural history and scenic landscapes, and to describe their findings in words and images. In this book a number of acclaimed experts explore how the Scottish landscape was variously documented, evaluated, planned and imagined in words and images. As well as a fascinating insight into the experience of travellers and tourists, it also considers how they impacted on the experience of the Scottish people themselves.
Stepping Westward is the first book dedicated to the literature of the Scottish Highland tour of 1720-1830, a major cultural phenomenon that attracted writers and artists like Pennant, Johnson and Boswell, William and Dorothy Wordsworth, Coleridge, Scott, Hogg, Keats, Daniell, and Turner, as well as numerous less celebrated travellers and tourists. Addressing more than a century's worth of literary and visual representations of the Highlands, the book casts new light on how the tour developed a modern literature of place, acting as a catalyst for thinking about improvement, landscape, and the shaping of British, Scottish, and Gaelic identities. It pays attention to the relationship between t...
Half-Celt and half-Saxon, King David determined to take hold of his backward, patriarchal, strife-ridden country and, against all the odds, pushed and dragged it into the forefront of Christendom's advancing nations. This is a story of independence, single-mindedness and hard-headed leadership. But also, through the turbulent years of his reign, it is a story of devotion: to the woman he admired and loved, Queen Matilda. Set in the 12th century, this is the incredible story of one of Scotland's greatest kings: David, the monarch who made Scotland a power for the first time, told by master of Scottish historical fiction Nigel Tranter.
The Scottish nationalists seek to end the United Kingdom after 300 years of a successful union. Their drive for an independent Scotland is now nearer to success than it has ever been. Success would mean a diminished Britain and a perilously insecure Scotland. The nationalists have represented the three centuries of union with England as a malign and damaging association for Scotland. The European Union is held out as an alternative and a safeguard for Scotland's future. But the siren call of secession would lure Scotland into a state of radical instability, disrupting ties of work, commerce and kinship and impoverishing the economy. All this with no guarantee of growth in an EU now strugglin...