The reputation of Mary, Queen of Scots, has swung wildly over the centuries, from adulteress and murderer to romantic tragic royalty, from manipulator to puppet. Little survives in the historical record of what she had to say for herself. Anna Legat, author of The Queen’s Avenger, argues that she was a ‘smart’ politician, diplomat and […]
Return to Shiaba by Willie Orr
Willie Orr’s second Shiaba novel follows the lives of two crofters struggling to come to terms with the Highland Clearances. While Catherine spreads her wings to find new talents for survival within herself, her husband, Callum, uses his stubborn loyalty to the land of his fathers to face down the increasing wrath of a political […]
10 Scotland Street by Leslie Hills
10 Scotland Street – the story of an Edinburgh home and its cast of booksellers, silk merchants, sailors, preachers, politicians, cholera and coincidence and its widespread connections over two centuries across the globe. 10 Scotland Street by Leslie Hills is published on 1 December, 2023. With a foreword by Val McDermid, this is her first […]
The Honours of Scotland
On 5 July, 2023, King Charles and Queen Camilla will be in Scotland for a series of events to mark his coronation. At the high point he will be presented with the Honours of Scotland at a National Service of Thanksgiving and Dedication at St Giles’ Cathedral. The historian Maggie Craig looks back at the […]
Five memorable coronations
To put the coronation of Charles III in a historical context, I’m listing five coronations which are memorable for being the first, or the last, of their kind, or which took place in unusually difficult times. Some were also (unintentionally) amusing. And there are echoes, or perhaps foreshadowings, of the rituals followed in 2023. Edgar: […]
Review: The Bookseller of Inverness by SG MacLean
Having spent the best part of a decade in London with her brilliant CWA dagger-winning creation, Damian Seeker, SG MacLean is very firmly back in her Scottish wheelhouse with The Bookseller of Inverness, says Alis Hawkins. This is a book about the power of an idea. It’s about the revival of a man left hollowed […]
George IV’s visit to Edinburgh in 1822
Exactly 200 years ago, on Thursday 15 August, 2022, George IV landed at Leith, near Edinburgh, for a three-week ‘jaunt’. Arriving, he was dressed in naval uniform, but displayed himself to the Scottish capital dressed in tartan, and it’s that image of his visit that has remained in popular imagination. To mark the bicentenary, Maggie […]
Damn’ Rebel Bitches by Maggie Craig
Too many historians have ignored the role of women in the Jacobite Rising of 1745. This book aims to redress the balance. Damn’ Rebel Bitches takes a totally fresh approach to the history of the Jacobite Rising by telling the fascinating stories of the many women caught up in the turbulent events of 1745-46. Drawn […]