Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
talking to locals and incomers, siding with the former,
caricaturing the latter, and, with a fair bit of justification,
laying into the likes of the RSPB and SNH. Isles of the
North gives Orkney and Shetland the same treatment,
before heading off to Norway to find out how it can be
done differently.
Edwin Muir Scottish Journey . A classic travelogue written
in 1935 by the troubled Orcadian writer on his return to
Scotland from London.
Sir Walter Scott The Voyage of the Pharos . In 1814 Scott
accompanied Stevenson senior on a tour of the northern
lighthouses, visiting Shetland, Orkney, the Hebrides and even
nipping across to Ireland; he wrote a lively diary of their
adventures, which included dodging American privateers.
FICTION
George Mackay Brown Beside the Ocean of Time . A
child's journey through the history of an Orkney island,
and an adult's effort to make sense of the place's secrets in
the late twentieth century. Magnus is his retelling of the
death of St Magnus, with parallels for modern times.
Ì Lewis Grassic Gibbon Sunset Song , Cloud Howe and Grey
Granite . This trilogy, known as A Scots Quair and set in northeast
Scotland, has become a classic, telling the story of the conflict in
one man's life between Scottish and English culture.
Ì Neil M. Gunn The Silver Darlings . Probably Gunn's
most representative and best-known book, evocatively set
on the northeast coast and telling the story of the herring
fishermen during the great years of the industry. Other
examples of his romantic, symbolic works include The Lost
Glen , The Silver Bough and Wild Geese Overhead .
Eric Linklater The Dark of Summer . Set on the Faroes,
Shetland, Orkney (where the author was born), and in
theatres of war, this novel exhibits the best of Linklater's
compelling narrative style, although his comic Private
Angelo is better known.
Compton MacKenzie Whisky Galore . Comic novel based
on a true story of the wartime wreck of a cargo of whisky
off Eriskay. Full of predictable stereotypes, but still funny.
Peter May The Blackhouse, The Lewis Man and The Chess-
men . A trilogy of dark detective stories set on the Isle of
Lewis featuring a policeman from Edinburgh who grew up
on the island. Good on atmosphere.
Sir Walter Scott The Pirate . Inspired by stories of Viking
raids and set in Orkney and Shetland, this novel was very
popular in Victorian times.
Ì Iain Crichton Smith Consider the Lilies . Poetic
lament about the Highland Clearances by Scotland's finest
bilingual (English and Gaelic) writer.
Robert Louis Stevenson Kidnapped . A thrilling histori-
cal adventure set in the eighteenth century, every bit as
exciting as the better-known Treasure Island .
POETRY
Ì George Mackay Brown Selected Poems 1954-1992 .
Brown's work is as haunting, beautiful and gritty as the
Orkney islands which inspire it. Travellers - compiled after
his death - features work either previously unpublished or
appearing only in newspapers and periodicals.
Robert Burns Selected Poems . Scotland's most famous
bard. Immensely popular all over the world, his best-
known works are his earlier ones, including Auld Lang Syne
and My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose .
Ì Norman MacCaig Selected Poems . This selection
includes some of the best work from this important
Scottish poet, whose deep love of nature and of the
Highland landscape is always evident. Norman MacCaig:
A Celebration , an anthology written for his 85th birthday,
includes work by more than ninety writers, including
Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney.
Ì Sorley Maclean (Somhairle Macgill-Eain) From
Wood to Ridge: Collected Poems . Written in Gaelic, his
poems have been translated into bilingual editions all over
the world, dealing as they do with the sorrows of poverty,
war and love.
Edwin Morgan New Selected Poems . A love of words and
their sounds is evident in Morgan's poems, which are
refreshingly varied and often experimental. He comments
on the Scottish scene with shrewdness and humour.
Edwin Muir Collected Poems . Muir's childhood on Orkney
at the turn of the twentieth century remained with him
as a dream of paradise from which he was banished to
Glasgow. His poems are passionately concerned with
Scotland.
Iain Crichton Smith Collected Poems . Born on the Isle of
Lewis, Iain Crichton Smith wrote with feeling, and some-
times bitterness, in both Gaelic and English, of the life of
the rural communities, the iniquities of the Free Church,
the need to revive Gaelic culture and the glory of the
Scottish landscape.
 
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