Elisabeth Gifford weaves together two strands of ‘lost’ Scottish history – the last days of the inhabitants of Hirta (St Kilda) and the men of the 51st Highland Division who were left behind in France after Dunkirk – into a richly-textured story of lost love and hope, The Lost Lights of St Kilda. She tells […]
Review: Outlaw King
Netflix’s latest foray into original drama shines a spotlight on three crucial years (1304-1307) in the life of Robert the Bruce, the king who would eventually win independence for Scotland at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. We first meet Bruce two years before his 1306 coronation as he surrenders to King Edward I at […]
Damn’ Rebel Bitches: Research Then and Now
On the 20th anniversary of her first book about the 1745 Jacobite Rising, Maggie Craig reflects on the research process, then and now. Twenty years ago this month I published my first book, Damn’ Rebel Bitches: The Women of the ’45. It’s never been out of print since and has been described as a modern classic. […]
Romance or Realism?
As we await the announcement of this year’s Walter Scott prize for historical fiction, Liz Macrae Shaw reflects on Scott’s Scottish legacy and the writers that have followed in his wake. The books we read when we are young mark us like tree rings and become part of our DNA. While I was at primary […]