Chrissie Gillies comes from the last ever community to live on the beautiful, isolated Scottish island of St Kilda. Evacuated in 1930, she will never forget her life there, nor the man she loved and lost who visited one fateful summer a few years before. Fred Lawson has been captured, beaten and imprisoned in Nazi-controlled […]
Broken Times by Ethyl Smith
Scotland, 1683. As James Renwick returns to Scotland, accompanied by the young Jonas Hawthorne, in search of adventure, an undeterred John Steel is still living the life of a fugitive, hunted day and night by Claverhouse’s men. When John and Jonas reunite, Jonas soon finds himself caught up in the intrigues of 17th century Scotland: […]
The Last Blast of the Trumpet by Marie Macpherson
Scotland 1559. Fiery reformer John Knox returns to a Scotland on the brink of civil war. Victorious, he feels confident of his place leading the reform until the charismatic young widow, Mary Queen of Scots returns to claim her throne. She challenges his position and initiates a ferocious battle of wills as they strive to […]
Ten things you may not know about the Declaration of Arbroath
“The Declaration of Arbroath was and has been unequalled in its eloquent plea for the liberty of man. From the darkness of mediaeval minds it shone a torch upon future struggles which its signatories could not have foreseen or understood. “Firstly it set the will and the wishes of the people above the King… Secondly, […]
The Forbidden Promise by Lorna Cook
Scotland, 1940. War rages across Europe, but Invermoray House is at peace – until the night of Constance’s 21st birthday, when she’s the only person to see a Spitfire crash into the loch. Rescuing the pilot and vowing to keep him hidden, Constance finds herself torn between duty to her family and keeping a promise […]
Two strands of lost history from Scotland
Elisabeth Gifford weaves together two strands of ‘lost’ Scottish history – the last days of the inhabitants of Hirta (St Kilda) and the men of the 51st Highland Division who were left behind in France after Dunkirk – into a richly-textured story of lost love and hope, The Lost Lights of St Kilda. She tells […]
Review: Outlaw King
Netflix’s latest foray into original drama shines a spotlight on three crucial years (1304-1307) in the life of Robert the Bruce, the king who would eventually win independence for Scotland at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. We first meet Bruce two years before his 1306 coronation as he surrenders to King Edward I at […]
Damn’ Rebel Bitches: Research Then and Now
On the 20th anniversary of her first book about the Jacobite Rebellion, Maggie Craig reflects on the research process, then and now. Twenty years ago this month I published my first book, Damn’ Rebel Bitches: The Women of the ’45. It’s never been out of print since and has been described as a modern classic. A […]