Books
The story of philanthropist A. K. Bell and the Gannochy Trust
There have always been people who are in successful in life, who feel a moral duty of care to help those less well off. In A Roof Over One’s Head, writer Jeremy Duncan narrates the history of the work of A.K. Bell and the Gannochy Trust. The Trust was founded in 1937 by Scottish businessman…
Read MoreMedieval Scotland was a melting pot of ideas
A new book, Crucible of Nations: Scotland from Viking Age to Medieval Kingdom, reveals that Scotland was a melting pot of diverse ideas from as early as the medieval era. The book presents a new understanding of the archaeology of Scotland from the 9th to 12th centuries AD, covering the Viking Age to the formation of the kingdom of Scotland. The extensive study of…
Read MoreA fascinating look at faith with carefully chosen words
If you’re judging a book by its cover, then, on first glance, Olives and Obligations would apoear to be some kind of cook book. Hwever, upone reading the text, Olives and Obligations has a subtitle of Biblical stories, scripts and reflections: Genesis to Nehemiah. This book is a collection of writings from Iona Community members,…
Read MoreThe perfect read if you want to have pigs at home
For the majority of people, pigs are something that live on farms, where they are bred for eating purposes. However, that’s not been the case over the past decade – how often have we seen pictures of celebrities out and about, whilst carrying a micro-pig in their arms? Keeping Pigs is an introductory guide is…
Read MoreThe rise and dramatic fall of the Bay City Rollers
Boybands are ten-a-penny these days. Over the years, there’s been many groups which have had huge success – The Beatles, Take That, Blue, Westlife, Boyzone, etc – but Scotland had its very own answer in the 1970s. The Bay City Rollers were one of the brightest things to happen in those ten years, illuminating a…
Read MoreOur wildlife writer heads for the TV screen
Scottish Field’s wildlife writer Cal Flynn takes to the small screen this week on the Big Scottish Book Club. Host Damian Barr goes travelling this week with his guests at Troon Concert Hall. One of the guests is our very own Cal, who writes our wildlife features each month, as she introduces us to some…
Read MoreA detailed look about women in war and science
Many extraordinary female scientists, doctors, and engineers tasted independence and responsibility for the first time during the First World War. How did this happen? Patricia Fara reveals how suffragists, such as Virginia Woolf’s sister, Ray Strachey, had already aligned themselves with scientific and technological progress, and that during the dark years of war they mobilized…
Read MoreBeneath the ocean waves – excitement and danger
Into the Abyss, the first volume in The Diving Trilogy, is a fascinating collection of true life diving adventures from author Rod MacDonald’s long diving career. We learn how his love of hitting the depths began, and we follow his progression from novice diver in the 1980s through the dangers of the deep air diving…
Read MoreA life-long love of music in a charming autobiography
Scots and music are a combination that’s as old as the hills. Whether singers and groups in the charts today, heading back to the eighties with Simple Minds, the sixties with Lulu, and before that with traditional verse, there is definitely something in our water that makes us musical. The GG and Me is the…
Read MoreStepping back in time to the groovy sixties
There’s something rather appealing about the sixties, especially to those who weren’t there. It’s an era which marked an explosion of colour, fashion, music, television, new attitudes and revolution, which were a radical departure from the monotonous austerity of Post-War Britain. Beatniks and Beehive is the follow-up to Bob Dewar’s best-selling Soor Plooms and Sair…
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