Books
Charity farming books raise over £100,000
A series of three light-hearted books have raised over £100,000 for RSABI, the charity supporting people in Scottish agriculture. The books, which are the perfect Christmas stocking fillers, were compiled by farming journalist Andrew Arbuckle with his late brother John also working on the first two titles. With all profits from the books going to…
Read MoreAn insightful look at ravens – in art and legend
Crows, ravens, rooks and magpies – all birds that tend to get a hard time in myths and stories over the years. They usually tend to be associated as harbingers of doom and oncoming death – there’s no denying that these birds, corvids, play a large role in the human imagination. We keep ravens in…
Read MoreA fascinating look around the Scottish coastline
One of the benefits of lockdown was that people who normally struggled to find time to write were finally able to do so. Kevin Scott, from Newton Mearns near Glasgow, took full advantage of this, to write a fascinating insight into Scotland’s many harbours. Volume two runs to 518 pages, covering the area from the…
Read MoreAn insight into Scotland’s lost love of pewter
Pewter was in everyday use in most households, churches and places of commerce in Europe for hundreds of years. But it fell out of favour in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as new materials and manufacturing methods became available. The pewter wares of Scotland have for a long time interested collectors, who have been attracted…
Read MoreAn amusing look at 50 of the ‘worst’ Scots
Acclaimed writer Allan Brown has amassed a hilarious collection of portraits of 50 of the most prominent offending villains and numpties. He cast a sharp over those who he considers have hindered rather than helped Scotland throughout its history. The list includes historic ambassadors such as Robert Burns to popular personalities such as Billy Connolly.…
Read MoreA cool read as writer goes on the search for snow
Like a pirate in search of treasure, Iain Cameron scours Britain’s mountains for patches of surviving robust snow. From the opening story of Cameron battling a ferocious snowstorm in the Highlands to seek out an elusive patch of snow, I was enthralled. Yet, what I didn’t expect to feel was moved. Cameron’s childlike wonder and…
Read MorePast and present collide in a thrilling murder mystery
Set against the backdrop of the Scottish Highlands, A Rattle of Bones is a tale of injustice and mystery, and the echo of the past in the present. This cleverly spun story follows Skelton’s protagonist, journalist Rebecca Connelly, as she investigates a tale of injustice which has eeire parallels with that of a man wrongly…
Read MoreStirling’s picture past is a joy to behold
One of the joys of visiting cities and towns around Scotland is seeing how much they have changed over the years. I’ve always had an interest in finding pictures of places as they used to be, and then comparing with them in the 21st century, to see how things have evolved and changed. Stirling –…
Read MoreThe amazing real life story of the Shetland ‘Bus’
Sometimes, real life events are so incredible that you’d think they were an elaborate plot from a spy novel. The Shetland ‘Bus’ tells the tale of the clandestine Special Operations Executive plan which from 1942 transported secret agents across the North Sea between Shetland and Norway during World War Two. With Norway under Nazi occupation,…
Read MoreGranite Noir appeals for locals to join the festival
Aberdeen’s award-winning international crime writing festival, Granite Noir, is looking for local writers to share the spotlight with some of the genre’s biggest stars as part of the 2022 festival in February. Locals in the Limelight has been an integral part of the festival since 2018, offering the chance for some of the region’s most…
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