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This title in other formats:Curious Scotland: Tales from a Hidden Historyby George Rosie
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:“The history may be hidden, but it’s there if you look --- and it’s well worth finding.” ---Daily Mail (Scotland) Scottish history isn’t just about Robert Burns and Braveheart. In fact, it’s far more complex than some might think. In Curious Scotland, journalist George Rosie digs deeper into Scotland’s past, unearthing some of the lesser known but more surprising details, including:
· Who was behind the military’s “Operation Vegetarian”? · What became of the Glasgow Frankenstein? · Why do Scots always spit on a certain Edinburgh street? · And how did John Ross become the greatest Cherokee chieftain?
Rosie answers these and other questions, illuminating corners of Scottish lore that have never been explored before. With a dry wit and unflagging curiosity, he shows us that Scotland’s history is full of far stranger stuff than your average plate of haggis. Review:Essays plucked from Scotlands colorful, combative past. Journalist, documentary filmmaker and playwright Rosie has roamed his native lands highlands and lowlands to fashion this odd but intriguing book. Some of the characters are familiar. One essay concerns Robert the Bruce and his response to a failed coup planned against his early reign. Another defends fiery Calvinist preacher John Knox, unfairly remembered, the author claims, as a "reactionary, ecclesiastical bully." We meet Daniel Defoe in 1706 (13 years before he published Robinson Crusoe), when he was a British secret agent living in Edinburgh and covertly reporting on Scottish opposition to unification with England. Rosie provides an intimate, dishy portrait of the exiled Bonnie Prince Charlie, unhappily isolated in Italy with wayward wife Louise de Stolberg. Their domestic battles, eagerly reported to England by watchful envoy Horace Mann, would have made perfect(Kirkus, Kirkus, Jun 15 2006 ) Review:This fun book makes no claim to scholarly rigor, but is instead "an autodidacts anthology of neglected episodes in Scottish history." The stories were chosen, Rosie says, according to just one principle: "Really- How interesting! I never knew." And so Rosie, a Scottish journalist, playwright and television documentary maker, takes us on a diverting tour, down the short cuts, bypasses and cul-de-sacs of history rather than its highways, from the time of King Arthur to the present. A flavor of what Rosie offers is hinted at in his chapter titles, which include "The Glasgow Frankenstein" (about an 1818 medical experiment to resurrect a hanged man); "The Blasphemer" (about Thomas Aikenhead, the last man to be executed in Scotland, in 1697, for that crime); and "Operation Vegetarian" (Britains wartime plan to poison German cattle with anthrax). Rosie even makes a few stops in America, where he tracks down John Ross, the Highland Scot and Cherokee w(PW, Publishers Weekly, May 1 2006 ) Synopsis:"A must-read for all those who want to find out what this country is really made of."
---"Scotland"" on Sunday" What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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