Gradually she settled into the comfortable familiarity of village life -- shopkeepers knowing her tastes, neighbors calling her by name -- still she finds herself lonely.Oscar Blundell gave up his life as a musician in order to marry Gloria. They have a beautiful daughter, Francesca, and it is only because of their little girl that Oscar views his sacrificed career as worthwhile.Carrie returns from Australia at the end of an ill-fated affair with a married man to find her mother and aunt sharing a home and squabbling endlessly. With Christmas approaching, Carrie agrees to look after her aunt's awkward and quiet teenage daughter, Lucy, so that her mother might enjoy a romantic fling in America.Sam Howard is trying to pull his life back together after his wife has left him for another. He is without home and without roots, all he has is his job. Business takes him to northern Scotland, where he falls in love with the lush, craggy landscape and set his sights on a house.It is the strange rippling effects of a tragedy that will bring these five characters together in a large, neglected estate house near the Scottish fishing town of Creagan.It is in this house, on the shortest day of the year, that the lives of five people will come together and be forever changed. Rosamunde Pilcher's long-awaited return to the page will warm the hearts of readers both old and new. Winter Solstice is a novel of love, loyalty and rebirth.

    He charts the long struggle toward nationhood, explores the roots of the original Scots, and examines the extent to which Scotland was shaped by the Romans, the Picts, the Vikings, and the English. Encompassing everything from the first Mesolithic settlers in 7000 B.C. to the present movements for independence, Scotland: The Story of a Nation is history on an epic level, essential reading for anyone interested in the rich past of this captivating land.

    A haven for wildlife - he named his home Camusfearna and settled there with the otters Mij, Edal and Teko.Ring of Bright Water chronicles Gavin Maxwell's first ten years with the otters and touched the hearts of readers the world over, brilliantly evoking life with these playful animals in this natural paradise. Two further volumes followed bringing the story full circle telling of the difficult last years and the final abandonment of the settlement.For the first time the entire trilogy is available in a single narrative in this beautifully presented book.

    Many historians have ignored female participation in the ’45: this book aims to redress the balance. Drawn from many original documents and letters, the stories that emerge of the women – and their men – are often touching, occasionally light-hearted and always engrossing.

    This collection contains most of the work from Selected Poems from 1985, together with later material, such as the complete sequence of Sonnets from Scotland, and Planet Wave, a suite of ten poems covering the history of the earth from the Big Bang to the time of Copernicus.

    From walking along the deserted beaches in South Harris to whale-watching in Mull - inspired by dozens of photos - the 24-page, full-colour introduction highlights all the ''things-not-to-miss''. In addition, there are two, brand-new, 4-page, full-colour inserts: ''Wildlife'' and ''Food & Drink''. The guide includes listings of all the top hotels, guesthouses and the best places to eat and sample the local whiskies. There is plenty of practical advice for exploring the great ''Scottish'' outdoors, from bagging munros to skiing on The Cairngorm mountains. The guide comes complete with maps and plans for the entire region.

    Scotland in the 1930s and during World War II brings an enormously touching story of life, love and death.

    Up at Hilltop House, home of the wealthy Cartwright family, Virginia Watson is a kitchen maid whose life below stairs is an endless round of hardship and drudgery. Back in the Gorbals, her family are fighting a losing battle against unemployment, hunger and disease, while her father and brothers dream of the revolution that John Maclean and the 'Red Clydesiders' promise will be their salvation. Everything changes for Virginia after a chance meeting with Nicholas Cartwright, a dashing young army officer and heir to the Cartwright fortune. Defying all the conventions of the time, their illicit romance has hardly begun when war breaks out, and Nicholas leaves to face the horrors of the Western Front. A powerful tale of love and loss, The Clydesiders is a brilliant portrayal of Glasgow during the First World War and the revolutionary turmoil of Red Clydeside.

    This herbal guide to Blackberry Cove has organised herbal lore and wisdom on the area into months and seasons with brief essays on the wild and common herbs a wanderer might discover on a walk during that time of year. Each month is introduced by an essay evoking the weather and nature with a legend or two woven into the reality of life in the Eastern mountains of America. The description of the herbs also includes their natural habits and healing qualities, sometimes a recipe for a traditional remedy, lotion or ointment and often a sauce, jelly, vinegar or tea.

    This book traces the issue's roots to the Middle Ages, when English power and control came to extend to the whole of the British Isles. By 1300 it looked as if Edward I was in control of virtually the whole of the British Isles. Ireland, Scotland, and Wales had, in different degrees, been subjugated to his authority; contemporaries were even comparing him to King Arthur. This was the culmination of a remarkable English advance into the outer zones of the British Isles in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The advance was not only a matter of military power, political control, and governmental and legal institutions; it also involved extensive colonization and the absorption of these outer zones into the economic and cultural orbit of an England-dominated world. What remained to be seen was how stable (especially in Scotland and Ireland) this English 'empire' would be; how far the northern and western parts of the British Isles could be absorbed in an English-centered polity and society; and to what extent the early and self-confident development of English identity would determine the relationships between England and the rest of the British Isles. The answers to those questions would be shaped by the past of the country that was England; the answers would also cast their shadow over the future of the British Isles for centuries to come.

    Whether shanghaied on a ship to the Arctic Circle, hunting for gold in the mountains, sinking a docked barge, shooting the breeze with ghosts at a pub, or bedazzling friends with druid magic, Watkins keeps readers on their toes as he dances us through his days and nights as a young man finding his way through the world. From the roaring seas to the verdant Scottish countryside, Watkins tackles his rugged environs with good humor and smarts on this ultimate journey of maturation and self-discovery. Bill Watkins is the author of the Book Sense best-seller "A Celtic Childhood." Watkins was born in Birminghamin 1950 into a Welsh/Irish family. Both of his parents were traditional singers. He learned to play the tin whistle, guitar, banjo, mandolin, and fiddle as a youth, and has been performing ever since. As a young man he made his living on frieght and fishing ships. Watkins has won several awards for his poetry, and has contributed numerous articles to "Private Eye," a satirical magazine in the U.K., and the "Glasgow Herald."

    The final quarter of the classic volume written by Scott, Tales of a Grandfather, covering the history of Scotland up to Scott's time.

    This presentation of materials allows the reader to appreciate Gaelic culture from its own point of view in its proper cultural context.Gaeldom is the heir to the deeply rooted Celtic societies of Scotland. During the early medieval period, an elite culture common to Scotland and Ireland flourished and developed political and intellectual institutions. After the disruption of the Viking Age, the MacDonald Lords of the Isles cultivated a renaissance of Gaelic culture in a stable principality. Yet, in the last several centuries, Gaelic culture and language have been suppressed and stigmatized as primitive and doomed for extinction.The premises of these stereotypes are re-examined with a post-colonial outlook that places Gaeldom in a wider cross-cultural context. This book investigates the general features of Gaelic clan society in the latter medieval period as well as its responses to institutionalized Anglicization since the mid-eighteenth century. Poetry, songs, and tales, supplemented by the accounts of insiders and travellers, illuminate the traditional way of life. The oral tradition, social organization, morality, sense of place, ecology, cosmology, music, and the role of language are examined. This is an essential and accessible source-book for scholars, students, and all enthusiasts of Scottish culture.

    An ideal pocket guide to over 350 plant species found throughout Scotland. Each species is illustrated in full colour with a comprehensive description, plus the plant's English, Latin and Gaelic names. For ease of use, the plants are grouped together by the type of habitat in which they can be found, including Highlands, Lowlands and Coasts. A places to visit section details over 35 of the best sites for finding some of the most attractive and special species of wild flowers in Scotland.

    This book transports armchair travelers or active explorers of all ages back in time to a Scotland most visitors never see. In this friendly, lively book, the authors guide readers to more than 200 ancient monuments to uncover unsual features, legends and history. A descriptive timeline differentiates various eras from the Stone Age to the Renaissance. An index of sites facilitates finding them quickly. A glossary defines common historical, archaeological and Scottish terminology, and references suggest further reading. Sixteen color pages and numerous B&W photos supplement the text. Written by North Americans from their own experiences, In Search of Ancient Scotland addresses independent travelers' questions and fears--driving on the left, roundabouts and one-lane roads, trespass and courtesy, language differences and money matters. Using a star system, they recommend their favorite places and provide clear directions. Accompany these authors on their personal quest for Scotland's antiquity as they reveal their tips for planning and share their insights and adventures.

    It is this recognition which has led its author to his proposal of Somerled’s wider historical importance as the personality who most represents the first fully-fledged emergence of the medieval Celtic-Scandinavian cultural province from which is directly descended the Gaelic Scotland of today.

    It provides hitherto unpublished and inaccessible material from the legal documentation of the trials in a way that makes the material fully comprehensible, as well as full texts of the pamphlet News from Scotland and James' Demonology, all in a readable, modernised, scholarly form. Full introductory sections and supporting notes provide information about the contexts needed to understand the texts: court politics, social history and culture, religious changes, law and the workings of the court, and the history of witchcraft prosecutions in Scotland before 1590. The book also brings to bear on this material current scholarship on the history of European witchcraft.

    Scott marshals all his narrative power for the sake of love - love of family, place and legacy.

    Enjoy communal or family-oriented events, involving historical, religious, or folk traditions such as reenactments, preparation of foods or natural medicines, the performing arts, and games and crafts. Some of the origins are known; others remain shrouded in mystery, surviving only as habit or superstition. Don't miss out on a single festival; they're all annotated with dates, starting times, directions, and a description of what goes on. Revive old customs yourself, cooking customary meals and playing time-honored games. For easy reference, symbols appear beside each event, explaining whether it's a sing-along or a commemoration, a pagan or harvest ritual, a contest or sport, a fair or carnival. It's the only complete guide to Celtic folk customs that still go on today.

    Hamilton Palace, her home, was the most splendid of Scottish houses. This book concerns the texture of her life: what she did, read and wore, how much she paid the servants, and where she educated her children; her breakfast at home and her formal feasting.

    Grant, Edvard Grieg, Martha Graham, Jackson Pollock, and Thomas Edison, whose achievements have won national freedom, built empires, reformed religion, defined justice, become presidents, composed music, revolutionized dance, redefined art, made pictures move, and built engines run by steam -- along with ninety more Scots worldwide who have altered the way all of us live our lives.

    At least now she was free of her dissolute brother and his efforts to force her into a wealthy marriage. But when Leith drew close to her on his steed, she began to tremble. The sensations Campbell, the darkly handsome laird, aroused in her went well beyond anything she'd dreamed of during her sheltered years at the convent, and she was afraid she liked them...very much. How could she pretend purity when she yearned to sample the pleasures of sin?As Laird Leith Campbell galloped away with Adrianna, he cursed himself for a fool. Surely this golden-haired Sassenach lass had bewitched him! She was, after all, his enemy's daughter, and yet he could not slay her. Instead he took her to his Highlands castle, where he vowed to add seduction to his revenge—ravishing her innocent flesh until her blue eyes darkened with passion and her sweet lips cried out his name. But he had not reckoned on tender feelings for his beautiful captive, or that he would strive, body and soul, to win the greatest prize of all...a lifetime of loving Adrianna.

    Step away from the city's hustle and bustle and into the country, where old castles and abbeys stand, where small villages maintain their charm, where the spirit of long ago still burns bright, unextinguished by the modern age. Striking photographs bring forth all the magic and romance of rural areas throughout Britain and France -- the highlands and islands; the gardens with fountains, topiary, cottage flowers, and fragrant herbs; the canals and country railways; the small pubs where one can still quaff a pint among friends. What wonderful places to be.

    People the world over eagerly trace their ancestry to claim they are descended from ancient clans, and new tartans are regularly designed and approved. Clans and Tartans looks at the origins, both geographical and historical, of tartans from Scottish clans. Lavishly illustrated with over 300 color photographs, this is an indispensable guide to Celtic ancestry.

    

    The names say it all: haggis; neeps and tatties; cullen skink; partan bree; Forfar bridies; apple frushie; and - no translation needed - whisky and honey ice cream.Sue Lawrence has collected together over 200 of the best regional recipes, using only fresh local ingredients such as the fish, beef, lamb and venison for which Scotland is famous. Interspersed with fascinating stories about the origins of the dishes, this is a mine of time-honoured recipes, which are still as fresh and delicious as when they were first devised.

    The tales are wide-ranging: heros, ghosts and solway smugglers; witches, martyrs, mermaids and fairies; reivers, monsters and colourful rogues. Here are Billy Marshall, King of the tinklers; Sawney Bean, the murderous cannibal; young Robert the Brube on the run in the heather; Trost, last of the Picts, who kept the secret of heather ale; the legend of Mons Meg; Claverhouse and Lagg, persecutors of the Covenanters; the famous poterguist of Rerrick; and many more.Simply told and unadorned, the stories bear the flavour of the region – mountain and forest, silver rivers and lochs, the wild Solway Firth, and some of the most beautiful rolling countryside in Britain. Originally these traditional tales – ranging from rustic comedy to horrific murder – were told in crofts and rural cottages. They grew naturally out of the rich past and the land and the lives of the people – wonderful stories. And they are still as alive today as when they were first told.

    Accessible introduction to the most 'dangerous' and subversive figure of the French revolution and a popular, radical journalist.

    This is a voyage that spans the Borders, the Highlands and the Isles, drawing upon a rich store of social history, anecdote, folklore and literature.

    Standouts include the restored Liberton House, shown in dappled sunlight from its garden, as well as fishermen's cottages with boat-shaped "sterns" that defy the gales.

    It offers an upland, pastoral paradigm of land use, the management of common land, and the transition from medieval to early-modern farming systems to balance the extensive literature on the agrarian history of the lowlands. The geographical scope of the book includes the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales, the Border hills, the North Pennines and the Forest of Bowland.

    But he faces his greatest test when he is sent to England to forge a formal treaty of peace.

    It analyses the hardships of her life up to the end of secondary school, also interweaving the culture, characters and events of the various islands during the era of her story.