Financial consultant, Malcolm Jaggard, begins a desperate investigation when flourishing industrialist and former Russian scientist, George Ashton, the father of Jaggard's fiancie, mysteriously disappears following a vicious acid attack on his daughter. Ashton is traced from his home in Buckinghamshire to the wintry forests of Sweden, in a compelling tale about rivalries between intelligence groups and shocking experiments in genetic engineering.
An Unofficial Alliance - Scotland and Sweden 1569 - 1654
This work reveals the hitherto unrepresented relationship that developed between Scotland and Sweden during the second half of the sixteenth and first half of the seventeenth centuries. Sweden's emergence as an independent Nordic, and indeed European, power required continual military and economic growth, which in turn necessitated a constant supply of manpower. The initially piecemeal migration of private individuals from Scotland bringing both martial and mercantile skills to Sweden gradually grew into an informal alliance, albeit officially sanctioned by the Swedes, based on personal networks.
The Burghs and Parliament in Scotland, c. 1550-1651
Existing studies of early modern Scotland tend to focus on the crown, the nobility and the church. Yet, from the sixteenth century, a unique national representative assembly of the towns, the Convention of Burghs, provides an insight into the activities of another key group in society. Meeting at least once a year, the Convention consisted of representatives from every parliamentary burgh, and was responsible for apportioning taxation, settling disputes between members, regulating weights and measures, negotiating with the crown on issues of concern to the merchant community.
This book, published under the auspices of the Swedish Traffic Association with the economic assistance ot the Government, aims at making Sweden better known to the English-speaking world. Conditions in present-day Sweden are shown against a background of centuries of development, the account being supplemented by a sketch of the country's scenic beauties. The book is written in popular style, but the attempt to make it easy to read has not precluded the incorporation of a great deal of exact information that will help the reader to form a true and clear conception of the land and the people.
For centuries Sweden was a rather backward, relatively unknown country. It burst onto the world scene during the Viking Age, and then under the warrior kings Gustavus Adolphus and Charles XII in the 17th and 18th centuries, only to withdraw into isolation again. In this century, however, the country has been transformed and hailed as a model welfare state. The over 240 entries in this volume range from the Viking Age to the present day, but the emphasis is on personalities and events of the 20th century and Sweden's rapid social and economic evolution.
