Books
Dame Judi Dench to headline Boswell Book Festival
Dame Judi Dench will headline Scotland’s biography and memoir festival. Running at Dumfries House, in East Ayrshire, the eighth Boswell Book Festival will host a series of events, running from 4-6 May, in the world’s only literary festival marking memoir and biography. It is named after James Boswell, whose family had settled in Auchinleck since…
Read MoreAn alternative take on Mary Queen of Scots
Book review: Mary Queen of Scots – A Study in Failure By Jenny Wormald What’s the story? Mary Queen of Scots is a highly detailed and occasionally damning account of the life of one of Scotland’s most famed monarchs. No stone is left unturned and no mistake of Mary’s left unpunished as Wormald truly immerses the…
Read MoreWhen business boomed for the Archangels
Book review: The Archangels Share By Kenny Kemp, Graham Lironi and Peter Shakeshaft What’s the story? The book tells the tale of Archangels, a business angel syndicate founded in Edinburgh in 1992 by Barry Sealey and Mike Rutterford. It follows their story of leading the way in terms of investing in new promising businesses and…
Read MoreScots writer returns from Oz but snow ends his World Book Day events
A Scottish writer who flew 10,000 miles to continue his world book tour found his plans thwarted by the Beast from the East. The snow storm which has struck Scotland meant that Stuart Reid, author of the Gorgeous George series of children’s books, flew 10,124 miles from Adelaide, Australia back home, to be stopped by…
Read MoreBook review – Minister of Money
The name of Henry Duncan is one you may recognise. He was a parish minister who played a role in the Disruption of the Church of Scotland in 1843, but most importantly, was the founder of the worldwide savings bank movement. He opened his first branch in Dumfriesshire in 1810 to encourage the poor…
Read MoreBook review – Dundee: A Short History
Think of Dundee and jute, comics and the RRS Discovery probably come to mind. But there’s far more to it than that, writer Norman Watson looks at the people and events that have shaped the city. As well as the Tay Bridge disaster, there are many more fascinating tales to be told, including the sisters…
Read MoreBook review – Who Built Scotland
You can tell a lot about a country by the quality of its buildings and the stories behind them. Historic Environment Scotland commissioned five popular writers to bring together Who Built Scotland, telling the story of the nation in an off-kilter way. Between them, the authors have picked 25 buildings from across the nation, but…
Read MoreThe hunt is on to find Scottish writers and poets for new publication
Scots writers with a story or poem in them are being urged to put finger to keyboard. The Scottish Writers’ Centre are looking for submissions as, in partnership with Red Squirrel Press, they are launching an anthology in 2018 to celebrate a decade of the Scottish Writers’ Centre. For 10 years, they have been supporting…
Read MoreBook review – Rosslyn Chapel
To many people, Rosslyn Chapel has become synonymous with Dan Brown’s novels, particularly The Da Vinci Code. However, this book explores a different side of the 15th-century building as one of Scotland’s most extraordinary architectural masterpieces. Founded by Sir William St Clair, third Prince of Orkney, and inspired by the great Gothic cathedrals he had…
Read MoreBook review – The Drowned and the Saved: When War Came to the Hebrides
A truly harrowing account, Les Wilson’s book sheds light on the untold Hebridean war experience. The Drowned and the Saved pays homage to the victims and survivors of two tragic incidents: the sinking of American troop ship Tuscania by a German U-Boat, and the collision of another troop ship with the merchant cruiser Otranto. Considering…
Read More