Marianne seems to have everything. She is married to a handsome naval officer, Neil Sheridan, commander of a corvette. They have a daughter, Libby, and a beautiful home near Prince's Park in Liverpool. When war comes, Marianne takes war work and moves into Crocus Street with her mother, Mrs Wainwright, and younger sister. Neil disapproves because the Wainwrights live so near the docks, which are bound to be a bombing target, but Marianne is firm. Meanwhile, Libby is evacuated to the country to stay with Miss Williams, who lives in an ancient house, Tregarth, at the head of a valley in North Wales and Libby, the wheelchair-bound Matthew and Miss Williams assume they can settle down to see out the war in comparative safety. But, Libby is forced to return to the city when her mother suffers an accident and her gran finds herself unable to cope...

    Settling herself in the shadow of Slains Castle, she creates a heroine named for one of her own ancestors and starts to write.But when she discovers her novel is more fact than fiction, Carrie wonders if she might be dealing with ancestral memory, making her the only living person who knows the truth-the ultimate betrayal-that happened all those years ago, and that knowledge comes very close to destroying her...Please note: This novel has also been published under a different title: Sophia's Secret.Please note, this title is the original recording, which is now known as Sophia's Secret©2010 Susanna Kearsley (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

    Her mother hadn’t expected or wanted another child and Galloway wasn’t allowed to forget that she was a burden. Her much older sister Cora, with her steady stream of boyfriends, her showy fashions, and erratic temperament, never failed to remind her of her insignificance.Galloway’s Scottish childhood is defined by the intimate details of her environment, where every family member looms close.  With startling precision she remembers scenes of domestic life: her mother’s weekly round of washing, the sodden tweed dripping on the line; Cora putting on layers of make up for the Ayrshire night life; learning to write—and control the often rebellious letters; the living quality of her mother’s mangy old fur coat.  In these cramped conditions, ignored by her elders, Galloway is a silent observer, carefully and keenly watching the people around her. As her rage grows, she begins to think for herself. Slowly, unexpectedly, she finds her voice. Out of the silent child emerges the girl who will be a writer.

    Marianne's passionate nature finds solace and expression in music, a love she finds she shares with Keir, a man she encounters on her doorstep one winter's night. Whilst Marianne has had her share of men attracted to her because they want to rescue her, Keir makes no concession to her condition. He is abrupt to the point of rudeness, and yet oddly kind. But can Marianne trust her feelings for this reclusive stranger who wants to take a blind woman to his island home on Skye, to 'show' her the stars?

    Biography

    Romantic castles, magnificent sea-scapes, the alpine peaks of the Cuillin Ridge, marching pipe bands, scattered white crofters' cottages and a bloody history; the island has all these and more. This book features 40 moderate walks that take in much of this celebrated landscape, but reveal hidden gems too. In spite of its popularity Skye is still rich in undiscovered treasures, from coastal caves and arches, ruined villages cruelly cleared of their inhabitants, to fossilised dinosaur footprints and a rich array of wildlife. Written by Skye residents Paul and Helen Webster, these walks will reveal both the wild and gentler sides of this dramatic landscape.

    Over the centuries they have been a vital staging post for Vikings, Hanseatic traders and merchant sailors from faraway lands. Yet somehow, the same islands remain off the map' of British consciousness. Ron McMillan spent weeks on the unbeaten Shetland tourist path, braving the weathers to explore scenic landmarks, archaeological treasure troves and remote islands so under populated that for centuries they have lived with the threat of abandonment. A travel writer for more than twenty years, McMillan cast an inquisitive and witty eye over present-day Shetland to interweave the Islands' history, archaeology and 400-million-year-old geology with observations of a remarkably hospitable society that remains intricately connected to the outside world. His warm and generous narrative is the first original Shetland travelogue since 1869. Set amidst fascinating locations and soaked in history, filled with stories skillfully told, this is a book for lovers of lyrical travel writing delivered with informed authority and irresistible humor.

    You may want to learn Gaelic because of a general interest in Celtic or Scottish history and culture, or because it was the everyday language of your ancestors. The cynical observer may wonder if the exercise is worthwhile, when only one and a half per cent of Scotland's population speak the language. However, Gaelic is far from dead; in some parts of the Highlands and Western Isles it is the everyday language, and it represents an important part of the United Kingdom's cultural mix. There are Gaelic-learning classes in almost every area of Scotland. Each lesson in the book contains some essential points of grammar explained and illustrated, exercises, a list of new vocabulary (with a guide to pronunciation, in International Phonetics notation), and an item of conversation.

    It will be a huge event around the world, not least across Canada. And we have the book! Robert Burns (1759-1796) is part of your life. If you’ve ever given or received a romantic red rose, or talked about a "do or die" situation, or if you’ve sung "Auld Lang Syne," you’re included.Others celebrate this ploughman poet with an eye for "the lasses" more directly. Every year, literally hundreds of thousands of Canadians, from coast to coast, go to Burns Suppers in January to celebrate his life. This year —2009 — will be the biggest ever, since it’s a 250th celebration of his birth.CBC TV is joining with the BBC to produce three one-hour programmes on his life, all written and hosted by Andrew O’Hagan, who is now the authority on Burns. This is because this book, published by Canongate in 2008, has already become a classic, bringing Burns to ordinary readers. Because Burns was on the right side of history, against privilege and rank and for everyone getting a fair chance, he is beloved around the world — in Andrew O’Hagan’s words, he is "the world’s greatest and most loveable poet." From the Hardcover edition.

    David R. Ross brings history alive as he tells the story of Sir James' life.

    In Glasgow the dirty old Victorian slums have been razed to the ground, replaced with brand new slums twenty stories high. Chips are a health food and the very mention of filet mignon would spark a riot on the Govan Road. As its citizens struggle to adapt to their changing world, they wonder what will replace the steel mills and the shipyards, whether they look stupid in flares and what the lyrics of the Bay City Rollers' 'Shang-A-Lang' actually mean? Ten-year-old Steve Duff longs to be poor and neglected like his friend Wally, whose parents are incapable drunks. Frustratingly for Steve, he's saddled with a conventional, stable and middle-class family. Then, over the course of a year, his father has a fling with a barmaid and leaves home, his mother's response is to start a psychology degree, his sister is arrested for demanding money with menaces and his brother gets a girl pregnant. As if the normal indignities of growing up weren't bad enough . . . A funny touching and heart-warming debut novel that will strike a chord with anyone who has been an awkward kid at least once in their life.

    I shared a home with parents, seven sisters and a shaggy dog. It could be said that I lived a different sort of life from most other children, because 'home' was an old blue bus. We were known as tinkers or travellers, descendants of those who have wandered the highways and by ways of Scotland for two thousand years." Acclaimed for her autobiographical trilogy, Jessie's Journey, Jess is on a mission to pass on the stories she heard as a girl to the young readers of today. "If you are aged from around 10 going on 100, then you're a fine age to read, enjoy and hopefully remember forever these ancient oral tales of Scotland's travelling people. What I'd like you to do in this book is to come with me on the road; back to those days when it was time to pack up and get going, and to take the way of our ancestors. I want you to imagine that, as my friend, you are by the campfire listening to the magical Scottish stories that have been handed down through generations of travellers."

    This book captures the beauty and magnificence of the country's best - and least-known landscapes, from places as diverse as the Isle of Lewis to Kelso Abbey in the Borders.

    Witty and dark, Owens’ spare prose shocks and delights. Her talent for pithy, unsettling tales is as sharp as ever, confirming her place as one of Scotland’s finest contemporary writers.’A terrific collection,’ - The Times ’Her black humour and piercing observation bear comparison with the work of Muriel Spark,’ - Guardian’It’s almost impossible to pick up this substantial collection and find anything more worthwhile to do for the rest of the day than read it cover to cover,’- Rosemary Goring, The Herald’The woman is a genius,’ - Daily Mail'Essential reading. It is Agnes Owens at her subtle, concise best - truthful, humane and quite brilliant' - Times Literary Supplement’Her stories...carry the emotional clout of a knockout punch,’ - Observer’Owens is a rare treasure,’ - Allan Massie, The Scotsman’Acerbic, wicked, utterly honest, sly, gothic, brilliantly black deadpan funny,’ - Liz Lochead, Sunday Herald

    The prehistoric inhabitants created monuments which are unmatched anywhere in Europe, and the medieval period saw the magnificent earldom that expressed itself through the Orkneyinga Saga and the building of St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall. Like Shetland, Orkney was heavily influenced by Viking traders and raiders from Scandinavia, and for a long period it formed an outlying part of the kingdom of Norway. Over 500 years ago, however, the islands lost their Scandinavian links and since then have had a sometimes difficult association with mainland Scotland. More recent times have seen the use of Orkney as a strategic stronghold during two world wars, and the far-reaching impact of oil and gas exploitation in the North Sea. This classic book covers the whole fascinating story and will be of interest to readers far beyond the rocky shores of Orkney itself.

    It appeals to a wide readership while conforming to the highest standards of scholarship and no other volume considers the entire 300-year experience of Union - from its origins in the early 18th century to the historic parliamentary victory of the SNP in May 2007.All the key themes and questions are covered here: why the Union took place its growing acceptance in the eighteenth century the central role of the Scots in the British Empire and the impact on Scotland the politics of unionism the challenge of nationalism Thatcherism and the Union Devolution and prospects for the future.Contributions come from Christopher A. Whatley, Allan I. Macinnes, Karen Bowie, Alexander J. Murdoch, Ewen A. Cameron, William L. Miller, Richard Findlay, Brian Ashcroft, Charlie Jeffrey, John Curtice and Neal Ascherson.This is the essential text for understanding one of the most burning issues in British public life today.

    Her future will involve heartache, but also hope.

     Victoria and Andrew Pringle are now happily married and working hard to make a success of Langmune Farm but in 1939 war is declared casting a long shadow over the people and the peaceful glens. Libby shares her parents love of the land and Billy Lennox, the laird’s illegitimate grandson, becomes a close friend when they cycle to school together. Then tragedy strikes and Billy is made to feel responsible. He is filled with doubts and dark moods and moves to Yorkshire to get away. But can he ever be happy away from the glens and friends of his childhood?

    For him, language is not simply the essence of what is to be human - it is a "gift from history" or part of an entity built up over centuries that governs our thinking and is implanted in our brains by society. He calls this entity the "social mind."

    Professor Alexander Fenton provides a vivid picture of the way in which the countryside has changed over the past 300 years and the people who changed with it; their ways of working, their tools and equipment, their homes and way of life, and their food. It is a treasurehouse of factual material on rural life as it was lived in the Lowlands and in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland's past.

    Twelve leading Scottish poets were asked to supply a selection of new work appropriate to Robert Burns's title Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. Here are the many responses from John Burnside, Robert Crawford, Douglas Dunn, Alasdair Gray, W N Herbert, Kathleen Jamie, Jackie Kay, David Kinloch, Tom Leonard, Liz Lochhead, Don Paterson and Robin Robertson. With titles from "Own Goal" to "Maw Broon Goes for Colonic Irrigation", the poems are in turn daft, uproarious and tenderly lyrical, rejoicing in the canny and uncanny possibilities of the Scots and English tongues.

    The first book to explore the Scottish taste for Impressionism and Post-Impressionism c.1865-1930 and the impact of this art on two generations of Scottish artists.

    

    The protesters challenged the capitalist social order and, on occasion, the state itself, thus earning the tag "Red Clydeside." However, the role of women in this movement has been marginalised. In this original and meticulously researched study, Neil Rafeek addresses this gap in the literature, critically examining the experience of women in the Communist Party in Scotland, from the formation of the Party in 1920 to the end of a century of tumultuous upheaval and social and political change. Rakeek engages critically with many of the key issues of debate, traversing gender relations within the Party, the importance of the Socialist Sunday School and other formative influences on political consciousness as well as the involvement of communist women in the world wars, the developing struggle for women's rights, the 1960s, the revolutions and anti-Vietnam war/nuclear weapons campaigns. This book privileges the memories and voices of participants, and relies upon new oral interview evidence, accumulated by the author, from those women who lived through and were directly involved in these events. Rafeek describes women's experiences of meeting leading international personalities of the era: Khrushchev, Gagarin, Tereshkova, Castro and Ceauescus. Using rich and evocative personal testimony blended with sensitive analysis, Rafeek shows the idealistic socialist motivation behind the establishment of "Red Clydeside" and the subsequent growing strains and discord in Communism and the labor movement generally, internationally and in Scotland.

    Contributors apply tools from across a range of disciplines including art history, literature, music, gender studies, anthropology, history and religious studies to assess creatively the broad range of sources which inform our understanding of the pre-modern Scottish family. A central purpose of this volume is to encourage further studies in this area by highlighting the types of sources available, as well as actively engaging in broader historiographical debates to demonstrate how important and effective family studies are to advancing our understanding of the past.Full contents list:

    'The Wee Mad Road' is a warm and witty account of two years in the Highlands. It's a how-to book for anyone who dreams of escaping the doldrums of surburban midlife and starting over.