Books
The amazing story of a Scottish piano
Mrs Findlay’s Broadwood Square Piano is the remarkable story of an 1804 Broadwood square piano, and two great Scottish families. Originally bought by a Mrs Dorothy Findlay from Glasgow in 1804, the piano appeared in an Irish auction in 1977 where the author’s mother, Hilda Hannon, nee Denny of the Dumbarton shipbuilding family, bought it…
Read MoreA masterclass on how to cook venison
Senior chef and lecturer in culinary arts at Westminster Kingsway College in London, Jose Souto is a game expert who gives master classes on game cookery to chefs worldwide. Alongside world-renowned photographer Steve Lee, Souto has created a book which not only teaches the reader how to cook venison, but celebrates it. As venison becomes…
Read MoreStars shine brightly in this Scots novel
Cameron Sparks’ life isn’t going to plan, in Bright Stars by Sophie Duffy. He and his wife have separated and he is being forced to move back in with his widowed dad, plus he’s awaiting a disciplinary at work following an incident in the underground vaults of Edinburgh where he works as a Ghost Tour…
Read MoreSpending a season with the wild geese
It is impossible not to be charmed by the poignant and lyrical way in which Wintering effortlessly sketches vivid portraits of these often underappreciated birds. The reader is invited to share in the solace which Stephen Rutt finds in nature through the book’s elegant and very readable prose, which although soothing, never loses its poetic…
Read MoreWhen Burns became the talk of the capital
Robert Burns arrived unknown in Edinburgh in 1786, but within days the ‘Ploughman Poet’ was the talk of the town. This colourful guide to Burns’ associations with the city chronicles the places he visited and people he met. With easy-to-follow routes through Edinburgh arranged by the people and places who influenced the Bard, this is…
Read MoreDark secrets in Highland Perthshire
Highland Perthshire’s rolling hills may now be the picture of tranquillity. But as Mark Bridgeman’s book reveals, its picturesque villages conceal a dark past of murderous crimes and unsolved mysteries. From whisky smuggling to gruesome murders, con men to psychics, each of the 19 spine-tingling true stories are retold in vivid and compelling detail which…
Read MoreA thrilling novel set in the Scottish oil industry
A Scots author has written a gripping thriller set around the Scottish oil industry. Jane Eddie is a contracts manager for a well abandonment company working in the oil industry in Aberdeen. She lives in a farmhouse in the rural hamlet of Netherley, Aberdeenshire with her partner, four horses and two working cocker spaniels. Jane…
Read MoreThe struggles of a community fighting to survive
Shrouded in negative stereotypes and widely misunderstood, the Scottish travelling community are at the forefront of this novel. Lorn Macintyre has created characters with real depth, who draw empathy from the reader throughout their journey and remind us to withhold hasty judgements. Set in the Scottish landscape, the book draws on the power of nature…
Read MoreA celebration of Edinburgh’s New Town architecture
I’m not normally an avid reader of architectural volumes. But this collection of essays which reflects on the intellectual, economic and political contexts which provided the impetus for the expansion of Edinburgh’s New Town can be appreciated for its depth, high-class imagery and superior finish. The writing is dense, but the book is far from…
Read MoreA book celebrating the Secret Life of Tartan
When we think of tartan, wedding finery and shortbread tins might first spring to mind. But in The Secret Life of Tartan, tailor and fashion designer Vixy Rae shows how our national cloth is worth so much more than a pastiche or parody of Scottishness. By exploring the origins of tartan and its deep connection…
Read More