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Scotland: A History from Earliest Times

Scotland: A History from Earliest Times

by Alistair Moffat

Imprint: Birlinn

5.1 x 7.7 in, 32pp color plates

Paperback
9781780274386
November 2017
In Stock

$21.95

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In this book, Alistair Moffat brings vividly to life the story of this great nation, from the dawn of prehistory through to the twenty-first century.

Ambitious, richly detailed and highly readable, Scotland: A History From Earliest Times skilfully weaves together a dazzling array of fact and anecdote from a vast range of sources. The result is an imaginative, informative, balanced and varied portrait of Scotland, seen not just through the experience of the kings, saints, warriors, aristocrats and politicians who populate the pages of conventional history books, but also through that of ordinary people who have lived Scotland's history and have played their own important part in shaping its destiny.

Alistair Moffat was born and bred in the Scottish Borders. A former Director of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Director of Programmes at Scottish Television, he now runs the burgeoning Borders Book Festival as well as a production company based near Selkirk. He has written twelve books, including Kelsae, The Reivers, The Sea Kingdoms, The Borders and The Wall, all of which are published by Birlinn.

[T]his is a very readable, well-researched and fluent account' ~Scotland on Sunday

For Alistair Moffat, history is rooted in the personal. Now ... he has produced what is undoubtedly his most ambitious work. Scotland: A History From Earliest Times encompasses 500 million years, from when the tectonic plates were shifting to form the land mass we recognize today to the referendum and its aftermath' ~Alan Taylor, The Herald

Moffat plunders the facts and fables to create a richly-detailed and comprehensive analysis of a nation's past and references a huge number of sources' ~Scotland Magazine

The great thing about Moffat's account is that, for all its emphasis on uncertainty, it rattles along with complete narrative certainty, to the extent that great events consistently take even a historically literate reader unawares' ~Scottish Review of Books