Scottish Biography Books

The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women: From Earliest Times to 2004 The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women is written for the general reading public and for students of Scottish history and society. It is scholarly in its approach to evidence and engaging in the manner of its presentation. Each entry makes sense of its subject in narrative terms, telling a story rather than simply offering information. The book is as enjoyable to read as it is easy and valuable to consult. It is a unique and important contribution to the history of women and Scotland.

The Revenge of Indian Peter: The Incredible Story of Peter Williamson Indian Peter is the true history of Peter Williamson, kidnapped as a young boy in Aberdeen towards the middle of the 18th century and sold into slavery in America, and of his quest for just revenge on those who robbed him of his childhood. The germ of the narrative is the court action, which Williamson brings against those responsible. Rosemary Linnell has carefully studied and sifted the available historical sources, among them the court cases preserved in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, and Williamson's own published pamphlets detailing his experiences. His story is told with authentic detail and a vibrancy that vividly brings to life the period after the Jacobite Rebellion with all its raw excitement and brutality.

Just Being There: With Bears and Tigers in the North Sea The North sea oil industry and the people who work in it have made a tremendous contribution to life in the UK during the past forty years. Yet, because their workplace is over the horizon, the adage 'out of sight, out of mind' too often applies. Andrew Wylie was appointed as the first Chaplain to the UK Offshore Industry in 1985. In this book he tells the story of his ministry as he sought to define and develop the role. He tells how he found his feet amongst the diverse people employed at all levels of work on, and in support of, the North Sea platforms. His time with the industry covered a period of major offshore disasters, in all of which he was deeply involved. It was just shortly after his induction to the Chaplaincy that a crowded Chinook helicopter crashed within sight of Sumburgh airport. In the years that followed, there were to be many individual tragedies, which never made the headlines, and also the disaster that was Piper Alpha. The core of this book is how Andrew Wylie developed his mission in the industry. It is coupled with a wry and very human observation of that industry. Andrew Wylie's innocence of technical engineering matters lends objectivity to his account that may be unique - very few are privileged to visit the oil platforms who do not have a pressing 'technical' purpose to their stay. This book will appeal to all those who work or have worked in the industry. It will also enlighten those of us who are all too unaware of the nature of the people and the operations that make possible our comfortable onshore lives..

Voices in the Street: Growing Up in Dundee Born in Dundee in 1938, Maureen Reynolds grew up in wartime Scotland, a young girl surrounded by adult concerns, the endless queuing for rations that never seemed to stretch quite far enough, the blackouts and air raids, and as she came of age, a whole generation seemed to suddenly do the same, with the rise of the Teddy Boy and rock and roll. A memoir written with the grace and lucidity of a novel, "Voices in the Street" chronicles a life of typical proportions with all the heartache and hope that entails, and reminds us that the most commonplace stories, properly told, can give a greater insight into a time and place than any of the more exceptional.

Golf Club Maker: Thomas Carruthers.... The story of an Edinburgh golf club maker, famous throughout the golfing world in his day, is told here for the first time. Thomas Carruthers lived most of his working life beside Bruntsfield Links, for long the playground of Scotland's ancient and national game, before the opening of the Braid Hills in 1889.

Ghosting: A Memoir. Totally original and difficult to classify, Ghosting is a remarkable account of one woman's life. Or to be more accurate lives. For about fifteen years Jennie Erdal had a double existence: officially she worked as a personal editor for one particular man - Tiger - but in reality she was his ghost-writer and in some mysterious sense his alter ego. During this time she wrote a great deal that appeared under his name - personal letters, novels, newspaper columns, full-length books, business correspondence. Ghosting moves from startlingly vivid evocations of an austere Scottish upbringing in Fife to superbly rendered portraits of the people with whom she worked at a London-based publishing house. None comes across more affectionately or intriguingly than that of Tiger, a larger than life character with whom the author had a deeply symbiotic relationship in spite of their personalities being almost polar opposites. This highly intelligent, extremely entertaining and beautifully written memoir is laced throughout with rich, quiet comedy and profound insights into what it means to be human and to live in language. It is a wonderful book that deserves the widest possible audience.

Gift of the Gallowgate: An Autobiography. This is the extraordinary story of a remarkable woman. Doris Davidson was born in Aberdeen in 1922, the daughter of a master butcher and country lass. Her idyllic childhood was shattered in 1934 with the death of her father, after which, in order to make ends meet, her mother was forced to take in lodgers. In part due to her father's sudden death, Doris left school at fifteen and went to work in an office, gradually rising through the ranks until she became book-keeper. Marriage to an officer in the Merchant Navy followed in 1942, then divorce, then her second marriage. Her life took the first of two major changes in direction at the age of 41, when she went back to college to study for O and A levels, followed by three years at Teacher Training College. In 1967 she became a primary school teacher, and subsequently taught in schools in Aberdeen until she retired in 1982. Not content with a quiet retirement Doris embarked on a new 'career' and became a writer, publishing her first work in 1990. Eight books later (and another one nearly finished), she is one of the country's best-loved romantic novelists and has sold well in excess of 200,000 copies of her books.

Television and Me: The Memoirs of John... Logie Baird. It is not generally known that John Logie Baird, the genius who not only invented television but went on to develop colour and 3D versions of it, wrote his own life story. Apart from publication in the 1980s as a Royal Television Society monograph it has been neglected, which is a pity since it is a highly readable account of the dramatic pioneering days of television. Baird writes with blunt candour and caustic wit about the wild escapades of his early business career and later troubled relationship with Lord Reith and the fledgling BBC. With much new material, including a recently discovered final chapter by his wife, this heavily illustrated edition of his autobiography gives us a very human portrait of one of the creators of the modern world.

A Strange and Wild Place. At the age of twenty-two the author cut short her nursing career in Edinburgh to marry, against enormous family pressure, the charismatic Euan Macpherson, her psychology tutor and twenty years her senior. Not long after, Euan inherited the family estate of Glentruim in Badenoch and Sandra Macpherson found herself the lady of a large and dilapidated manor. Despite an extraordinarily frosty reception by the staff of the house and other members of the Macpherson clan, who considered her too young to take on the role of lady of the house, Sandra rose to the challenge. This is her engaging and entertaining account of life at Glentruim, in an isolated and often harsh environment where the family were often snowed in for weeks at a time with no electricity or telephone. She describes the hardships of life - the struggle to keep human and animal inhabitants fed through the winter, and to meet the costs of maintaining the house and estate - but also the pleasure she and her two children took amid such natural beauty teeming with wildlife. With vivacity and humour she describes the various characters of the Glentruim community, teachers, doctors, ghillies and poachers, the events and drama.

Wheel of Fortune. Many talented Scots found an exit route from the slums of Glasgow through football, boxing or show business. Archie Morrison discovered another way, through his skills as a croupier. Starting in the Stakis casinos in Scotland, he was soon headhunted for the Nassau Grand in the Bahamas, and eventually was lured to the gambling mecca of Las Vegas. Here, in Caesar's Palace and the Flamingo, he dealt the cards, rolled the dice and spun the wheel for Dean Martin, Sinatra and Lee Marvin, and for legendary professional gamblers like Amarillo Slim and Fast Eddie Seremba. Amid the hustle and glamour, Archie is always aware of his Scottish roots tugging at him. In a bittersweet ending he gives up his work in the casinos and finds a new life caring for the sick and elderly in his home city of Glasgow.

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