A joyful, cheeky and big-hearted book set in the year 825 AD that is immediately relevant to now. Highly recommend this unconventional novel about the lives of Vikings and Irish settlers on a remote Scottish island.
Tag Archives: Scottish history
Book Review: The Ghost Cat by Alex Howard
The Ghost Cat a curious little novel about a spectral cat haunting an Edinburgh townhouse over several generations β is sometimes enchanting, sometimes discombobulating. #Cats #Fiction #AlexHoward #BookReview #Edinburgh #Fantasy #Books #Book #Review #History
Book Review: The Way of the Hermit by Ken Smith
In The Way of the #Hermit, Ken Smith offers a profoundly #human portrait of #solitudeβnot the performative kind, but the hard-earned, bone-deep kind that comes from living off-grid in the #Scottish #Highlands for over 40 years. #BookReview #Books #introvert #introversion #nature #Scotland #Biography #Autobiography #Philosophy
The far-flung pillars of imagination
Share a story about the furthest youβve ever traveled from home. When I was in my 20’s I became very ill and almost died. Luckily for me I overcame it. However, it involved a step-change in everything I held dear. Suddenly freedom to experience the world because I survived became the focus. So I traveledContinue reading “The far-flung pillars of imagination”
Book Review: Island of Wings by Karin Altenberg
This is a book about the raw majesty of St Kilda as a place, and about the spirit, community bonds and resilience of its people. But itβs also a tragic tale about the devastation of colonialism and 19th century morality.
Ancient Word of the Day: Stravaig
StravaigΒ derives from eighteenth-century ScotsΒ extravage, meaning βwander about; digress, ramble in speechβ, in turn derived from Medieval LatinΒ extravagariΒ βwander, stray beyond limitsβ.Β Stravaig, in various forms, is found in a wide range of Scottish texts from the late eighteenth-century onwards. Read more
Book Review: The Wolf Border by Sarah Hall
An engaging and big novel that’s less about wolves, and more about instinct, wildness, independence and sexual connection coupled with big themes like Scottish political independence, class privilege and the UK’s national identity – 4 stars.
Book Review: Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet
Rating: ππππ Publisher: Text publishing. Genre: Fiction, psychological thriller. Review in one word: Perky Scottish writer Graeme Macrae Burnet is the author of one of the best Scottish crime novels ever written His Bloody Project, which I have reviewed on this blog before. Burnet’s new book is yet another step back in time and anotherContinue reading “Book Review: Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet”
Poignant Thought: The Wild Cows on the Island of Swona
In the mid-20th Century, on the remote island of Swona in Scotland, the Rosie family kept animals including a herd of cows. As the decades wore on, their children moved away and the elderly stalwarts of the family stayed on and eventually died there. Moving of the cattle from the island would have been tooContinue reading “Poignant Thought: The Wild Cows on the Island of Swona”
Book Review: All that Remains: A Life in Death by Sue Black
* No Spoilers Rating: ππππ Scottish Forensic Anthropologist and Professor Sue Black’s memoir about her life confronting death won the Saltire Book of the Year in 2018. Forensic anthropology (in case you are wondering) is the study of human remains in order to solve criminal cases. I was very excited to read this book. YetContinue reading “Book Review: All that Remains: A Life in Death by Sue Black”
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