Wild Scots: Four Hundred Years of Highland History - Hardcover

Fry, Michael

3.4

20 ratings by Goodreads

9780719561030: Wild Scots: Four Hundred Years of Highland History

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0719561035 ISBN 13: 9780719561030

Publisher: John Murray, 2005

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One bleak night in March 1603, a lone horseman galloped to Holyrood castle in Edinburgh, home of James VI of Scotland. There he knelt on bended knee and saluted him as King of England. The accession marked a union of the kingdoms and seemed to presage a Scottish renaissance. But while the lowlands were integrated with England, the outlying highlands became marginalized. Highlanders responded by consolidating their distinct identity, built around the unique feudal clan system, a Gaelic cultural heritage and a history of fierce resistance.

From the heroic blood feuds of clan chiefs to the dour asceticism of Presbyterian ministers, Michael Fry’s encyclopaedic social history of the Scottish highlands focuses squarely on the people. He traces the ironies of their fate as emigration, forced clearances and the breakdown of feudal relations undermined traditional customs. But this is no eulogy for a dying era. Michael Fry shows that the highlands simply had to modernise and traces the inventive ways in which Gaelic culture has adapted through to the present day.

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Review:

Fry is a gentleman and a scholar, and a formidable writer ... a first -class narrative of the Gaidhealtachd. (Scotland On Sunday)

'Formidable...superb...spectacularly audacious.' (The Times)

Outstanding...closely argued, cleverly constructed and, best of all, deliciously written. (Literary Review)

'Sparkles with gripping details...a first-class narrative.' (Scotland on Sunday)

'Attacks and defends the personalities of the past with ferocious and infectious pleasure...Excellent.' (Glasgow Herald)

'Delicious' (Daily Mail)

'Alive and colourful.' (Times Literary Supplement)

'A celebration of an ever-adapting Gaelic society.' (Good Book Guide)

'An excellent new book' (Max Hastings, Daily Mail)

'This is a stimulating account from a journalist-historian covering four centuries, and it certainly shakes a few perceptions.' (Scottish Life)

Book Description:

Michael Fry's controversial highland history captures a truely distinctive culture and its volatile politics

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