Product Description

This is a vivid, wide-ranging and engrossing account of Scotland's history, composed of eye-witness accounts by those who experienced it first-hand. Contributors range from Tacitus, Mary Queen of Scots and Oliver Cromwell to Adam Smith, David Livingstone and Billy Connolly. These include not just key historic moments - from Bannockburn to the opening of the new parliament in 1999, but testimonies like that of the eight-year-old factory worker who was dangled by his ear out of a third-floor window for making a mistake; the survivors of Culloden, who wished perhaps that they had died on the field; the breakthrough moment for John Logie Baird, inventor of television; and, the genesis of great works of literature recorded by Conan Doyle, Stevenson and the editor of "Encyclopaedia Britannica".From the battlefield to the sports field, we have moments of glory or disaster, along with wonderfully readable insights into the everyday life of Scotland through the millennia. This is living, accessible history told by crofters, criminals, servants, house-wives, poets, journalists, nurses, politicians, prisoners, comedians, sportsmen and many more.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #266834 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-27
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 512 pages

About the Author
Rosemary Goring took a degree in Economics and Social History at St Andrews University. She started her career in publishing in the role of in-house editor for Chambers Biographical Dictionary and has since edited and written for many reference books, among them the Larousse Dictionaries of Writers and Literary Characters. She was Literary Editor of Scotland on Sunday for several years before becoming Literary Editor of the Herald.

Customer Reviews

A Magazine Format With the Same Sort of Depth
This book is an easily accessible introduction to some of Scotland's history. However, the reader could rapidly become frustrated at the lack of background to any of the particular events that are mentioned, e.g. the description of the Culloden massacre left me wanting to know more about why it happened and who the perpetrators were (for anyone reading this who doesn't know, it wasn't just the English who opposed the Jacobites, there were plenty of Scots too).
Ultimately, any single volume purporting to offer 2000 years of any sort of history is going to have to miss out some important events. My feeling is that the book is mainly going to appeal to Scots themselves. The redeeming feature of the book is that many of the narratives are first hand accounts of events. The Sutherland Clearances, 1816 and Sutherland After the Clearances, 1828(Donald MaCleod) are particularly poignant examples. That's why I've given 4 stars, if some of the accounts were not so dramatic it would have been 3 stars. Also, some of the writers have some damning things to say about the Scots so it is not all dewy-eyed. Basically, the book is well worth a read, but don't expect a lot of context.

Perfect Scottish History Book
This book brings the history of Scotland vividly alive through the eye-witness testimonies of people who were present at some of the key moments of the past two thousand years. It isn't dry or dull but has the immediacy of a newspaper and the impact of a television bulletin . Rosemary Goring has done a fantastic job in collating the items included here that range from politics to the arts, sport, great names and everyday folk. It is a fantastic book to dip into and a great present for anyone with a passion for Scotland or seeking to understand the heart and soul of the country.

Good stuff
This is a brilliant read even for the non Scots in the world. The author has managed to write a brilliant account of Scotlands history and did it with style. There are people and events in the book that will surprise the reader and leave them looking for more.