MacCloud falls is an absorbing and pleasant read

Scottish antiquarian Gilbert travels to British Columbia to research an early settler he believes may have been his runaway grandfather. Here, he strikes up an unexpected connection with a woman he meets on the plane. Beautifully descriptive and almost lyrical in parts, I was transfixed by the vibrant scenery. If you like short, punchy chapters…

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The man behind ‘think global, act local’ in focus

Author Patrick Stephen is incredibly well versed on the life of Patrick Geddes, the biologist, sociologist and town planner behind the ‘think global, act local’ concept. The author’s contention is that there’s much to learn from the sage, particularly with reference to the current climate emergency. Geddes, who would ‘see the problem and throw himself…

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A look at life on St Kilda without its people

Home to a small population until 1930, Alex Boyd offers a window onto how St Kilda has remained relatively untouched since its last inhabitants left. It gives a sense of how people would have lived and what’s being done to protect the site. Isle of Rust is a visual response to Jonathan Meades’ essay (included…

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Detective solving a murder crime back in time

Seventeenth-century detective duo MacKenzie and Scougall are asked by a Highland clan to solve a case, after a young lawyer’s body is found near Edinburgh. Their investigations are set against the political turmoil of the time, with Jacobite rebels and Bonnie Dundee, as they try to fi nd out just who wanted Aeneas MacLeod dead.…

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The hilarious exploits of life on a college campus

The Dean’s Diaries follows the activities, on and off campus, of the Dean of the ancient and illustrious St Andrew’s College. Curious errors in the press coverage of both the the Giant Squid incident and the antimatter explosion are corrected, and the Dean muses on subjects ranging from physics to Anglo American relations, via the…

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Celebrating 12 parks in Scotland’s dear green place

John Cairney, a native Weegie, pays a personal tribute to 12 of Glasgow’s dear green spaces in A Walk in the Park. It’s a reminder that there’s much more to the city than its tenements and skyscrapers. Cairney concludes his survey of these parks with an exhortation to those people who are fixated by social…

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Twelve real life stories of Scots in the Great War

Historian Walter Stephen reflects on the centenary of the end of World War I in A Dirty Swindle. This is a collection of 12 stories of Scottish soldiers from the Great War. A World War II veteran himself, Stephen tells the often neglected accounts of Scotland’s involvement in the conflict. Stephen provides a level of…

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Wee Folk Tales In Scots will charm and scare

Storyteller, novelist and playwright Donald Smith and artist Annalisa Salis team up to bring you a collection for all lovers of storytelling in Wee Folk Tales In Scots. This is a timeless piece to add to your library. Paired with simple, gorgeous illustrations comes the retelling in Scots of classical folk tales inhabited by magical…

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