The Highlands and Islands of Scotland: A New History [Hardcover]

... one of those rare books that takes a fairly specialised subject and makes it available and accessible to a very wide audience: in Scotland and far beyond.  Ken Lussey in Undiscovered ScotlandAlistair Moffat tells the extraordinary story of the Highlands in the most detailed book ever written about this remarkable part of Scotland.This is the story of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland as it has never been told before. From the formation of the landscape millions of years ago to the twenty-first century, it brings to life the events and the people who have shaped Highland history, from saints, sinners and outlaws to monarchs, clan chiefs and warriors.Highly readable and informative, it mines a wide range of sources including medieval manuscripts and sagas, poetry and popular culture. Picts, Romans, Irish missionaries, Vikings, Jacobites and the flood of emigrants who left to forge new lives abroad are just some of the important players in the drama. As he paints the bigger picture, Alistair Moffat also introduces many key aspects of Highland culture and explores the experience of ordinary Highlanders and Islanders over thousands of years.In rich and telling detail, Alistair Moffat relates the remarkable story of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. The north is being renewed, the land is coming alive once more and this unique story ends on an upbeat note as the Highlands and Islands of Scotland look forward to a future of possibilities. ... one of those rare books that takes a fairly specialised subject and makes it available and accessible to a very wide audience: in Scotland and far beyond. Moffat brings to vibrant and palpable life the Highlands and Islands from the primeval and prehistoric to the present. Arranged like a mosaic, the glue is the people who populated the region, and its pages peppered with the lines of great poets and songsters from Sorley Maclean and Norman MacCaig to Runrig. This is a splendid and thoroughly enjoyable book, one from