Books
Book review: Cycling Climbs Of Scotland by Simon Warren
This collection of cycling climbs is perfect for any cyclists who wish to challenge themselves against the steepest slopes that Scotland can throw at them. Home to steep mountains, remote hills and windswept landscape, Scotland is a great place for some of the most challenging cycling climbs in the whole of the UK. With the…
Read MoreBook review: The Hebrides by Paul Murton
Paul Murton has been exploring since he was a teenager. Inspired by his copy of WH Murray’s Mountaineering in Scotland, the boy from Argyll, before even reaching the age of 16, set out hitchhiking to Glen Coe and Skye, ascending Cuilin’s famous Cioch, and hitched to Switzerland to attempt to scale the infamous Eiger’s North…
Read MoreBook review: The White Stag Adventure
Youngsters who grew up in the 1980s, or indeed their parents, may fondly remember the Clan series. Set in central Scotland, a group of children, Gavin, Clare, Michael and Mot, who have created their own outdoor adventures and become involved in stopping adult criminals. It’s a refreshing reminder of times when children had freedom to…
Read MoreBook review: A Shetland Childhood
Growing up in the 1950s seems a long time ago – and growing up in 1950s Shetland was another world entirely. Catherine Emslie presents a fascinating insight to life away from mainland Scotland, from going to school, doing the errands and hunting for treasure, capture a snapshot of life on an island, all brought together…
Read MoreBook review – Bloody Scotland, by 12 of Scotland’s best crime writers
Scotland is currently dripping with talented crime writers, and this novel brings together 12 of them under the one roof. The writing team includes Chris Brookmyre, Lin Anderson, Gordon Brown, Ann Cleeves, Doug Johnstone, Stuart MacBride, Val McDermid, Craig Robertson, Sara Sheridan, ES Thomson, Louise Welsh and Denise Mina. They have contributed 12 short stories,…
Read MoreBook review: Whiskies Galore – A Tour of Scotland’s Island Distilleries
With nearly 30 years of experience in and around the whisky industry, Ian Buxton is well-placed when it comes to going on a tour of Scotland’s island distilleries. From Arran to Orkney, he brings together his expert knowledge with entertaining travelogues, to make for a read that should appeal to more than just the connoisseurs of…
Read MoreBook review: Charles Rennie Mackintosh and The Art of the Four by Roger Billcliffe
Wherever you go in the world, there’s absolutely no mistaking the work, style and influence of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Although Mackintosh is the name most remembered today, he was one of a quartet whose work is known today as the Glasgow Style, with Margaret Macdonald – Mackintosh’s future wife – alongside Herbert MacNair and Frances…
Read MoreBook review – The Great Horizon: 50 Tales of Exploration
Show a cat an empty box and the chances are, they’ll jump into it. Show a human a mountain and it’s quite probably they’ll feel the urge to climb it. That’s what’s at the heart of Jo Woolf’s excellent The Great Horizon – the need for mankind to get out there and explore. Over the…
Read MoreBook review: A Sea Monster’s Tale
Colin Speedie’s new book A Sea Monster’s Tale: In Search of the Basking Shark takes us from swashbuckling hunts of giant sharks by reckless individuals with makeshift harpoons, through an age of mass slaughter, to the author’s personal shark-tracking adventures. At up to eleven metres in length and seven tonnes in weight, this plankton-feeding fish…
Read MoreBook review: An Enormous Reckless Blunder
An Enormous Reckless Blunder tells the little-known story of the Lewis Chemical Works. In 1844, James Matheson purchased the Isle of Lewis with the fortune had had made from trading in the far east. He hoped to exploit peat deposits, which led to him creating the Lewis Chemical Works, to produce lighting oil and paraffin…
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