The author recalls her time living and working as a nurse on a remote island in the Scottish Hebrides.

The author recalls her time living and working as a nurse on a remote island in the Scottish Hebrides.

The daughter of a titled Scottish father recounts the horrors of her childhood in spite of popular beliefs about her fairy-tale lifestyle, describing her father's struggles with alcoholism that resulted in numerous brushes with death and the loss of his family's legacy. Reprint. 15,000 first printing.

When John McPhee returned to the island of his ancestors—Colonsay, twenty-five miles west of the Scottish mainland—a hundred and thirty-eight people were living there. About eighty of these, crofters and farmers, had familial histories of unbroken residence on the island for two or three hundred years; the rest, including the English laird who owned Colonsay, were “incomers.” Donald McNeill, the crofter of the title, was working out his existence in this last domain of the feudal system; the laird, the fourth Baron Strathcona, lived in Bath, appeared on Colonsay mainly in the summer, and accepted with nonchalance the fact that he was the least popular man on the island he owned. While comparing crofter and laird, McPhee gives readers a deep and rich portrait of the terrain, the history, the legends, and the people of this fragment of the Hebrides. When John McPhee returned to the island of his ancestors—Colonsay, twenty-five miles west of the Scottish mainland—a hundred and thirty-eight people were living there. About eighty of these, crofters and farmers, had familial histories of unbroken residence on the island for two or three hundred years; the rest, including the English laird who owned Colonsay, were “incomers.” Donald McNeill, the crofter of the title, was working out his existence in this last domain of the feudal system; the laird, the fourth Baron Strathcona, lived in Bath, appeared on Colonsay mainly in the summer, and accepted with nonchalance the fact that he was the least popular man on the island he owned. While comparing crofter and laird, McPhee gives readers a deep and rich portrait of the terrain, the history, the legends, and the people of this fragment of the Hebrides.

In 1997, Hugh Hardie needs a ghost for his Tours of Old Edinburgh, and Andrew Carlin is the perfect candidate. So with cape, stick, and plastic rat, Carlin is paid to scare the tourists, pretending to be the spirit of Colonel Weir, a religious extremist burned at the stake in 1670. But who was Weir? Carlin’s research draws him into the past, and in particular to James Mitchel, imprisoned in 1674 for the attempted assassination of the Archbishop of St Andrews. Through the story of Carlin and Mitchel, The Fanatic reveals an extraordinary history of Scotland—a tale of betrayals, witch hunts, Puritan exiles, smuggled journeys, and disguised identities.

“A brisk and accessible guide to a thousand years of reiving and rivalry in the Highlands.

The extraordinary two hundred-and fifty-year tale of the British Army's most celebrated and iconic regiment.

A distinguished historian explores the seminal contributions of Scotland to the development of modern Western civilization, discussing the impact of such ideals as democracy, freedom of speech, equal opportunity, and a commitment to education and exploring Scottish accomplishments in the fields of philosophy, science, medicine, engineering, political thought, and more. Reprint. 75,000 first printing.

At the turn of the fourteenth century in Scotland, young Archie Forbes becomes involved with both William Wallace and Robert the Bruce in the struggle for Scottish independence from English rule.

Presents the journals of Samuel Johnson and James Boswell describing their travels through Scotland.