Hebridean Odyssey

Hebridean Odyssey

Author: Marion Sinclair

Publisher:

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13:

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This volume celebrates the uniqueness of the Hebrides by gathering together oral history, folktales, songs and poetry of love, exile and war, childhood and schooldays, stories of crofting and seafaring, and travellers' accounts.


The Other British Isles

The Other British Isles

Author: David W. Moore

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2015-06-08

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 0786489243

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Their names bespeak a rich past. From the Norse Hjaltland comes the modern Shetland: islands nominally Scottish, steeped in Nordic culture, closer to the Arctic Circle than to London. Important Neolithic sites are at Skara Brae and Maes Howe in the Orkneys. Holy Iona, island center of Celtic Christianity, the Isle of Man, former seat of rule over the Irish Sea, and Anglesey and Islay, homes of medieval courts at Aberffraw and Loch Finlaggan, are just a few of the more than 6,000 islands that form the archipelago known as the British Isles. The offshore isles are home to half a million people. Focusing on the eight islands or chains that have long supported substantial populations, this history tells the stories of Shetland, Orkney, the Hebrides, Anglesey, the Channel Islands, the Scilly Isles, and the Isles of Man and Wight, from their Neolithic settlement, to Roman, Norse and Norman occupation, to the struggle to maintain their uniqueness in today's world. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.


Stealth's Odyssey

Stealth's Odyssey

Author: Robert Aird

Publisher: Trafford Publishing

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 295

ISBN-13: 1412054923

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Robert Aird's first novel is a thriller for the whole family with fast exciting action set in the scenic Scottish River Clyde and the beautiful Irish loughs. International terrorism is being carried out and it would appear that no one can stop the nuclear destruction of half the modern world. High level intrigue, greed and revenge with the resurrection of an ailing nation the ultimate goal. A top IRA commander with a passion for justice; A beautiful but enigmatic American spy; A wily Russian General; A group of Russian submariners and some Palestinian terrorists join together to pull off the biggest heist in history and to change the world forever. From the Knesset in Israel to the Oval office in Washington then on to Moscow and London the tale gathers pace. If the reader really wants a book that they can enjoy and empathise with, then Stealth's Odyssey is for them. It's so believable it could just be true.


The Britannias: An Archipelago's Tale

The Britannias: An Archipelago's Tale

Author: Alice Albinia

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2024-02-27

Total Pages: 409

ISBN-13: 0393608565

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A revelatory portrait of Britain through its islands, The Britannias weaves history, myth, and travelogue to rewrite the story of this “island nation.” From Neolithic Orkney, Viking Shetland, and Druidical Anglesey to the joys and strangeness of modern Thanet, The Britannias explores the farthest reaches of Britain’s island topography, once known by the collective term “Britanniae” (the Britains). This expansive journey demonstrates how the smaller islands have wielded disproportionate influence on the mainland, becoming the fertile ground of political, cultural, and technological innovations that shaped history throughout the archipelago. In an act of feminist inquiry, personal adventure, and literary quest, Alice Albinia embarks on a series of journeys that traverse Britain and reach beyond its contemporary borders—from Europe to the Caribbean, Ireland to Scandinavia. She walks the coastlines of Lindisfarne, sails through the Hebrides archipelago, and bikes into Westminster at dawn. As she takes us across extravagantly varied island topographies and surveys centuries of history, Albinia ranges between languages and genres, and through disparate island cultures. She talks to stubbornly independent islanders and searches for archaeological and linguistic traces of island identities, discovering distinct traditions and resistance to mainland control. Trespassing into the past to understand the present, The Britannias uncovers an enduring and subversive mythology of islands ruled by women. Albinia finds female independence woven through Roman colonial reports and Welsh medieval poetry, Restoration utopias and island folk songs. These neglected epics offer fierce feminist countercurrents to mainstream narratives of British identity and shed new light on women’s status in the body politic today. Vivid, perceptive, and disruptive, The Britannias boldly upturns established truths about Britain while revealing its suppressed and forgotten beauty.


Desire Lines

Desire Lines

Author: David R Ross

Publisher: Luath Press Ltd

Published: 2020-05-15

Total Pages: 608

ISBN-13: 1913025802

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David R. Ross not only shows us his Scotland but he teaches us it too. You feel as though you are on the back of his motorcycle listening to the stories of his land as you fly with him up and down the smaller roads, the 'desire lines', of Scotland. Ross takes us off the beaten track and away from the main routes chosen for us by modern road builders. He starts our journey in England and criss-crosses the border telling the bloody tales of the towns and villages. His recounting of Scottish history, its myths and its legends is unapologetically and unashamedly pro-Scots.


Great British Journeys

Great British Journeys

Author: Nicholas Crane

Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Published: 2010-12-16

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 0297865404

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Intrepid presenter Nicholas Crane investigates eight epic journeys, following in the footsteps of our greatest indigenous explorers. Nick presents eight of the most interesting traveller-chroniclers to have explored and reported on the state of the nation. From Gerald of Wales who embarked on a seven week journey around the wild perimeter of Wales in March 1188, to HV Morton, the journalist and travel writer who crossed the length and breadth of England by car in the 1920s. Others include Celia Fiennes who started her many journeys around Britain on horseback in the late 1600s at the age of 20, Tudor antiquarian John Leland, Daniel Defoe, William Cobbett, Thomas Pennant, and William Gilpin, who travelled through the north of England by boat in 1770.


Scottish Customs

Scottish Customs

Author: Margaret Bennett

Publisher: Birlinn

Published: 2012-12-10

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 0857905449

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A highly readable and absorbing anthology of traditional Scottish customs and rites of passage, Scottish Customs from the Cradle to the Grave draws upon a broad range of literary and oral sources. Scotland has been fortunate to have written accounts of intrepid early travellers such as Martin Martin, Edward Burt and John Lane Buchanan, and extracts from their writing are found alongside modern interviews made by Margaret Bennett and researchers from the School of Scottish Studies at Edinburgh University. This expanded edition includes a large amount of new material. The result is a detailed and comprehensive picture of social behaviour in Scotland over the last 400 years. The book is divided into three sections, each covering a stage in the cycle of life: Childbirth and infancy; Love, courtship and marriage; Death The first edition was originally published by Polygon and was joint runner-up of the 1993 Katharine Briggs Folklore Award.


Highland Homecomings

Highland Homecomings

Author: Paul Basu

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2007-03-12

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 1135391955

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The first full-length ethnographic study of its kind, Highland Homecomings examines the role of place, ancestry and territorial attachment in the context of a modern age characterized by mobility and rootlessness. With an interdisciplinary approach, speaking to current themes in anthropology, archaeology, history, historical geography, cultural studies, migration studies, tourism studies, Scottish studies, Paul Basu explores the journeys made to the Scottish Highlands and Islands to undertake genealogical research and seek out ancestral sites. Using an innovative methodological approach, Basu tracks journeys between imagined homelands and physical landscapes and argues that through these genealogical journeys, individuals are able to construct meaningful self-narratives from the ambiguities of their diasporic migrant histories, and recover their sense of home and self-identity. This is a significant contribution to popular and academic Scottish studies literature, particularly appealing to popular and academic audiences in USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Scotland


Island Voices

Island Voices

Author: Ann Mackenzie

Publisher: Birlinn Ltd

Published: 2017-07-05

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13: 0857909622

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Focusing on North Mull - north of Glen More, but excluding Craignure, Torosay and Brolas - this book is an anthology of the tales and traditions of Mull in the words of those who tell them. The writing covers belief and superstitions, pastimes, work, health and cures, tales and proverbs. The subjects are taken from a wide range of sources and periods, from Martin Martin in the 17th century to writing which dates from the end of World War II, a time which saw much change in Gaelic society as a whole. The material covers traditions and accounts of a very practical and often harsh existence, variations on tales which are more obscure as well as those that are well known. The book is a celebration of a people that are often excluded from the standard historical accounts of the clans and Highlands, but who have endured much and safeguarded an important heritage.