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: #235262 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.

Big Let Down
I was looking forward to reading this, however I feel sadly let down.

It is no more than a collection of short paragraphs on different events cobbled together, rather like a book of press cuttings. There is no depth to any of the subjects covered.

Bannockburn for example gets a brief couple of paragraphs from a Scottish and English perspective. There is nothing about the build up, the aftermath or indeed why it even took place.

I suppose setting out to cover a nations history over a 2000 year span is quite an ambitious project to take on, but all the "editor" of this book has done, is gather up articles over the timescale, cut them down to a couple of lines each then file them chronologically.

I was hoping to find out more about the Highland clearings, Culloden and the part Scotland has played in shaping history through our inventors and engineers, I put down this book feeling none the wiser.

A great disapointment, and a waste of £25 that could of been spent on a better book.