Lanark - A Life in Four Books

Lanark, subtitled A Life in Four Books, is the first novel of Scottish writer Alasdair Gray. Written over a period of almost thirty years, it combines realist and dystopian fantasy depictions of his home city of Glasgow.
Its publication in 1981 prompted Anthony Burgess to call Gray "the best Scottish novelist since Walter Scott". The book, still his best known, has since won the Saltire Society Book of the Year and David Niven awards, and has become a cult classic. In 2008, The Guardian heralded Lanark as "one of the landmarks of 20th-century fiction."

Scottish Soldiers in France in the Reign of the Sun King - Nursery for Men of Honour

This volume examines the role and significance of Scottish soldiers in France in the age of the Sun King, Louis XIV. The study examines the complex relationship of expatriate Scottish soldiers to their homeland and native sovereign, within the context of a changing environment for military employment. The amity of the so-called 'auld' alliance meant little in an age of rapid development in the relationship between armies and the states they served. Caught in the middle were a number of Scots, attempting to perpetuate traditional modes of employment abroad. They found themselves the target of increasing pressures to commit wholeheartedly to one employer or another.

An Uncounselled King: Charles I and the Scottish Troubles, 1637-1641

The concept of kingship as Charles I understood it was challenged by the Covenanters in a struggle of protest over the government of Scotland. Although many aspects of this episode have received historical attention, Charles's own role has not hitherto been investigated in detail. Using a large body of newly available evidence, Dr Donald here attempts to redress the balance, and in doing so offers a substantially new perspective on the Scottish troubles in the crisis years of 1637-41. This study sheds light on the processes whereby Charles, with counsel and yet often in spite of it, tried to uphold his case.

Death of a Dustman

M.C. Beaton - Death of a Dustman

With his neat new uniform, big new truck and important new job as head of Lochdubh's state-of-the-art recycling center, dustman Fergus Macleod is a force to be reckoned with-issuing harsh fines and enforcing petty rules, much to the dismay of the businesspeople in town. But when the unpopular trash collector is found dead, stuffed in his own recycling bin, Scottish detective Hamish Macbeth is called to the scene to make a clean sweep of the murder and dig up a dirty killer with ties to Lochdubh's new oceanfront hotel.

Kailyard and Scottish Literature (Scottish Cultural Review of Language and Literature)

For more than a century, the word 'Kailyard' has been a focal point of Scottish literary and cultural debate. Originally a term of literary criticism, it has come to be used, often pejoratively, across a whole range of academic and popular discourse. Historians, politicians and critics of Scottish film and media have joined literary scholars in using the term to set out a diagnosis of Scottish culture. This is the first comprehensive study of the subject. Andrew Nash traces the origins of the Kailyard diagnosis in the nineteenth century and considers the critical concerns that gave rise to it.