Books
Weaving fact and fiction to create a thrilling read
Delving more into historical fiction, The King’s Beast: A Mystery of the American Revolution weaves facts and fiction seamlessly. We journey across the Atlantic with Duncan McCallum as he is tasked with retrieving and protecting ancient bones unearthed in America, while mystery and murder ensue all round him. Beautifully immersive, Eliot Pattison has a way…
Read MoreCelebrating love and friendship in poetic verse
Alexander McCall devoted a recent column in Scottish Field to to the joys of poetry (especially Auden, who he reveres). This collection, which examines the themes of friendship and love, is a joyous affirmation of his infatuation with the form. Delivered in his trademark genial, conversational style, this accessible and highly enjoyable collection is divided…
Read MoreThe martyrs who brought Christianity to the Scots
The latest offering from national treasure Alistair Moffat is a deeply lovely account of the ‘white martyrs’, the Irish priests who, at huge risk to themselves, brought Christianity to the pagan Scots. A beautifully written comfort blanket of a book, it is part travelogue, part rumination on life, part history lesson. Moffat spent a summer…
Read MoreBoswell Book Festival announces online guests for 2021
This year’s Boswell Book Festival will be a virtual event with some of the most talked about biographers, diarists and writers of memoir appearing at the world’s only festival dedicated to biography and memoir. Named in honour of Ayrshire’s James Boswell, the inventor of modern biography, the festival has attracted some of the greatest biographers…
Read MoreA third celebration of powerful Scottish women
Mairi Kidd dedicates a third of her book to powerful Scottish women (the remainder to Irish and Welsh equivalents) whose tales have been overlooked or banished to the footnotes of historic literature. It is hard to look beyond the underlying politics of the narrative – with a strong focus on the fight for gender equality…
Read MoreA celebration and history of Scottish art and artists
Have you ever wondered about the backstory of James Guthrie’s ‘To Pastures New’ painting? Or indeed the tale of Henry Raeburn? Here to fill the art history void in our lives is Lachlan Goudie with this wonderful snapshot of Scottish art through the centuries – a comprehensive account of the nation’s creative history that caters…
Read MoreA collection of the supernatural in Scotland
Assorted strange phenomena abound in Scotland – witches, wizards, fairies, sea monsters, yeti-type creatures, UFOs and a plethora of female spirits called glastigs and caoineags who appear in various forms. A collection of ghostly hauntings, blood-chilling tales and strange phenomena abound in Scotland are gathered together in a new book, Paranormal Scotland, by Gilly Pickup.…
Read MoreCasting a spell to protect the world from the Fae
Seeking to protect the world from the Fae, Scottish sigil agent Aloysius MacBharrais is eccentric, and as a sexagenarian he is a welcome change from the tormented teenage protagonists that dominate fantasy genres. However, Hearne admits in the author’s note that he struggled with Glaswegians’ accent in real life. The characters’ Scottish accents feel laboured…
Read MoreA study of the natural world’s fragility in photos
Colin Prior’s works are unfathomably beautiful, and while his fascination for landscape photography has earned him his stripes, his love for the resident wildlife has also intensified throughout a career which spans almost four decades. Having witnessed myriad species of bird suffer in the wake of human activity, Prior documents the natural world’s fragile equilibrium in…
Read MoreNo.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series is still on form
It is a rarity to find each book in a long series as enjoyable as the last, and yet McCall Smith’s 21st instalment of his much adored No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency has captured the imagination once more. Grabbing the attention from the get-go in a stifling Gaborone setting, McCall Smith’s intelligent yarn is woven with…
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