Posts Tagged ‘review’
Your chance to add some colour to Scottish icons
Exploding onto the hobby and leisure scene recently, the popularity of adult colouring shows no sign of abating. Here, illustrator Laura Henderson, a graduate of the Glasgow School of Art, takes us on a colouring journey across Scotland. Covering the country’s most iconic subjects, from castles and stately homes to feats of engineering, myths and…
Read MoreLook to the skies in a striking art collection
Scott Naismith believes that the primary purpose of an artist is to encourage others to look at the world differently. This is something he certainly achieves with Scottish Skies, a striking collection of work which depicts the colourful, atmospheric and ever-changing skies over Scotland’s coastlines, lowlands, highlands and islands. With notes divulging the thought process…
Read MoreAn entertaining read to put spring in your step
The Nature of Spring, by Jim Crumley, one of Scotland’s foremost wildlife writers, sees him continue his seasonal writing series with the addition of spring. This thought-inducing paean to nature brings the issues of the natural world to the forefront, reminding us of global warming and the threat it brings to Scottish species such as…
Read MorePutting the fun back into foraging for food
The Forager’s Calendar is a marvelous tome, as John Wright wears his learning lightly as his detailed account of foraging reveals not only his vast knowledge of wild food. There’s also a wry humour and huge array of endearing anecdotes which combine to make this a compelling read. Month by month, the former forager at…
Read MoreScots history is reimagined to celebrate women
Where are the Women? by Sara Sheridan reimagines a Scottish history as one in which men are no longer disproportionately commemorated and women’s triumphs are lauded. In Sheridan’s world, Arthur’s Seat is renamed in honour of early Christian St Triduana, while the cave at Staff a references Malvina, not Fingal. The author asks readers to imagine…
Read MoreThe historic links between the Scots and the Flemish
Alexander Fleming has produced a fascinating and informative yet academic account of the key role that Flemish immigrants have played in Scottish history. The incomers who arrived from Flanders in the centuries after the Norman Invasion were soldiers, settlers, traders, tradesmen, diplomats and dynasts who all shared a creative outlook which helped them to adapt…
Read MoreForget Scandi Noir fiction – try this Scandi Blanc
Alexander McCall Smith, who is well-known for his prodigious writing speeds, having now penned over 100 novels, has established a new genre, Scandi Blanc. This contrasts with the oppressively heavy and relentlessly dark Scandi Noir. McCall Smith’s latest page-turner makes for an easy and light-hearted read, even if it is still full of crime. We…
Read MoreSocial issues at the heart of new mystery novel
Runaway is the third installment of MacLeary’s Harcus and Laird series, and is a unique read for enthusiasts of crime fiction. Two ordinary middle-aged women attempt to run their own private investigative agency while balancing part-time jobs and family life, with their latest intriguing case revolving around a missing housewife who mysteriously disappears without a…
Read MoreAnother hit from Scotland’s romantic comedy queen
Jenny Colgan is Scotland’s queen of romantic comedy novels – after all, you don’t become a multiple best-selling author without a degree of talent. What she possesses is a skill to create real people, and place them in situations which we all know and recognise. For The Bookshop on the Shore, we meet London-based single…
Read MoreA fascinating story of love, affairs and royalty
This gripping tale of love, exile and conflict tells the story of sisters Isabella and Catherine de Valois. Isabella was married to Richard II, until his mysterious death forced her back to a fatally divided France, while her beautiful sister, Catherine, the bride of Henry V, had a passionate love affair with Owain Tudor, with…
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