Books
Book review – Savage Liberty by Elliot Pattison
The fifth book of the Bone Rattler series follows the adventures of exiled Scotsman Duncan McCallum in colonial America. This is a thrilling mystery novel placing fictional characters against a historical backdrop. In this new part of the saga, Duncan witnesses the explosion of a ship from London in Boston Harbour. Among conspiracies and threats,…
Read MoreBook review – I Am The Walker
Scotland’s open spaces are at the heart of the new novel by J M Robson. The life of the friendless 20-year-old geek Billy Donaldson, tormented by an abusive alcoholic father, a loveless mother and a deep lack of self-confidence, takes an unexpected twist when he decides to set off for the great Scottish outdoors for…
Read MoreThe facts of death come to Wigtown Book Festival
An agnostic bishop, a scientist and a ex-atheist with a fascination for a clerical killer will be exploring the many faces of death at Wigtown Book Festival. Former Bishop of Edinburgh Richard Holloway, forensic anthropologist Professor Dame Sue Black and literary critic Stuart Kelly will discuss various aspects of the one inescapable reality that unites…
Read MoreBook review – Great Angling Disasters
Funny stories, bizarre events and curious anecdotes come together in this rich collection of fishing tales edited by Tom Quinn. The product of research into more than a century of fishing writings, Great Angling Disasters highlights an amusing side of fishing that practitioners and non-fi shers alike can enjoy, although the latter group might find…
Read MoreBook review – The Walrus Mutterer
Green activist Mandy Haggith marks the beginning of her new Stone Stories trilogy with an adventurous novel taking the reader back to the Iron Age. Set in 320BC in Northern Britain, the book follows Rian, a young woman who is enslaved by a deceptive trader and forced on a perilous sea voyage in search of…
Read MoreCelebrating the volunteers at book festival’s heart
A special event has been held to thank the army of volunteers who make the Wigtown Book Festival possible. Ahead of the 20th annual event, around 150 adults and children, aged from under 10 to over 80, give time throughout the year carrying out an enormous range of tasks. Most are from Dumfries and Galloway,…
Read MoreBook review: The Battle of Killiecrankie 1689
While the Battle of Culloden is quite clearly ingrained in many minds, one of the first great battles in the quest for Scottish independence is not quite as well known, despite being the most dramatic episode of the Jacobite risings. Author Stuart Reid sheds light on the events of the violent Battle of Killiecrankie in…
Read MoreNew book marks a lost era in small Scottish town
A new book on a small town in the south of Scotland takes readers back into an almost forgotten era where people were far closer to the land and to each other. Whithorn: An Economy of People by Julia Muir Watt is one of many books about Dumfries and Galloway being celebrated as part of…
Read MoreBook review: Walk This Way
It’s difficult not to smile all the way through this banter-filled travel book, Walk This Way: Hills, Thrills and Headaches on Scotland’s Trails. Walk this Way is an entertaining journey through not just one, but three of the most renowned long-distance paths in Scotland, seen through the eyes of newly-converted walker Gary Sutherland. Fighting against his deepest…
Read MoreBook review – Septimius Severus in Scotland
Archeologist Simon Elliott’s romp through the history of Roman Scotland is a hugely enjoyable read. Elliott focuses on Emperor Septimius Severus, who in 208AD led his army of 40,000 men north of Hadrian’s Wall, marching north to take the Antonine Wall and then reoccupying many forts built by Agricola over 100 years earlier following the…
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