In An Island Odyssey Hamish Haswell-Smith casts off in his forty-one-foot sloop Jandara, armed with his sketch pad and a route map of a journey first taken by Martin Martin in 1703. Haswell-Smith sets sail on a voyage that will take him to fifty-two different islands around the Scottish Coast, from Ailsa Craig in the Firth of Clyde to St. Kilda, Fair Isle and Bass Rock. Filled with natural history, local legend and landscapes and accomp ...
'Glorious' Guardian 'Revelatory' New Yorker 'Evocative' Los Angeles Times In 1971, as her groundbreaking album Blue emerged as a singular commercial and critical success around the world, Joni Mitchell puzzled over what gift to give her friends that Christmas. The result was a handmade book, with only one hundred copies produced, filled with Joni’s hand-written lyrics and reproductions of many of ...
What is it that separates Sherlock Holmes from his long-suffering friend and side-kick Dr John Watson? What makes Holmes such a superior detective, able to piece together clues and solve problems that seem elementary to Watson only in hindsight? And can we – most of us Watsons ourselves – ever harness a bit of Holmes's extraordinary powers of mind, not to solve crimes, but simply to improve our lives at work and home? The answer is ...
1314. On a marsh-fringed plain south of Stirling Castle, King Robert the Bruce led the Scottish army in a singularly devastating victory over the English. Bannockburn was Scotland's greatest battlefield triumph, achieved against the odds by a combination of brilliant tactical leadership and the fatal overconfidence of the English King, Edward II. On the 700th anniversary of the battle, Peter Reese's definitive history s ...
The untimely death of Dougal Haston in 1977 robbed climbing of one of its most charismatic, controversial and enigmatic figures. A man of extremes, who managed to combine a rock star's lifestyle with a career at the cutting edge of world mountaineering, Haston remains a cult figure whose deeds have inspired generations of climbers world-wide. Connor traces the career of a great climber from his native Scottish hills to his startling ...
I am glad I am alive to witness these things; giving words to this life of sensations is a relief. Smell the flowers while you can. Close to the Knives is the artist, writer and activist David Wojnarowicz's extraordinary memoir. Filthy, beautiful, and sharp to the point of piercing, it is both an exploration of the world seen through the eyes of an artist, and a moving portrait of a generation living, grieving, and dying through the ...
