Category: Elliott & Thompson

Cauld Blasts and Clishmaclavers: A treasury of 1,000 Scottish Words by Robin A. Crawford

Cauld Blasts and Clishmaclavers: A treasury of 1,000 Scottish Words by Robin A. Crawford

Summary:

The Scots language is an ancient and lyrical tongue, inherently linked to the country’s history and identity, its land and culture. In Cauld Blasts and Clishmaclavers, Robin Crawford has gathered 1,000 words from his native land – old and new, classical and colloquial, rural and urban – in a joyful and witty celebration of their continuing usage and unique character.

airt o’ the clicky – bawheid – carnaptious – dreich – eejit – forefochen – Glasgow kiss – haver – inkie-pinkie – jags – kelpie – loch-lubbertie – meevin’ – neuk – oxter – pawky – quaich – ramstam – simmer dim – tattie bogle – usquebaugh – vratch watergaw – yowe trummle

My Review:

What a book to celebrate my 500th blog post, a book to celebrate words after all this is why I started a blog about books. Those of us who talk and write blogs about literature love to celebrate words and now released is a book about Scottish Words old and new. Cauld Blasts and Clishmaclavers: A Treasury of 1,000 Scottish Words (Elliott & Thompson) by Robin A. Crawford.

Across our lands and through history we have used words to as culture and identity and this is as true in Scotland as anywhere and in this wonderful book by Robin A. Crawford he delves deep into a joyful celebration of its usage. Set out in alphabetical format so it is very easy to use and also some delightful line drawings by Liz Myhill that just add to the book.

From Robert Burns to Billy Connolly and even Monty Python and even Twitter they are all here a living testament to Scottish words old and new. It is clear that Robin put in a lot of time and research into this project and deserves praise. Scottish language is part of their cultural history and should be celebrated. Just a few words that I have picked out

Ailsa Cock or Parrot: Puffin

Blaws Snell: A biting, chastening wind.

Inkie-pinkie: Weak beer.

Clootie Dumpling: Suet and dried-fruit pudding wrapped tightly in a cloth, or cloot and cooked by being boiled in a pan.

Haver/Haiver: Ramble, talk nonsense. As in the Proclaimers were happy to haver for 500 miles.

Silver Darlings: Herrings

Ailsa Cock or Puffin

These words hark back through Scottish history and Robbie Burns is at the very core of this book and rightly so as it speaks to the people of Scotland in everything they do no matter where they are around the world today.

Cauld Blasts and Clishmaclvers is a celebration of the richness of Scottish words, but in all of this we must remind ourselves that these words are now disappearing. Scotland’s favourite word as voted in a poll is Dreich (grey and miserable; usually applied to the weather.

As a lover of words I can only hope these words are not fading away confined to history. A beautiful book celebrating the best Scottish words many I have never before come across. There is so much to celebrate about Scotland the mountains and its islands and who can forget the Compton Mackenzie film Whisky Galore (1947) so let us celebrate the great Scottish words.

208 Pages.

#CauldBlasts @RobinACrawford2 @eandtbooks

Thank you to Alison Menzies and Elliott & Thompson for the review copy of Cauld Blasts and Clishmaclavers by Robin A. Crawford.

Cauld Blasts and Clishmaclavers by Robin A. Crawford was published by Elliott & Thompson and was published on 20th August 2020 and is now available through Waterstones, Amazon and through your local independent bookshop.

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The Seafarers: A Journey Among Birds by Stephen Rutt

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The Seafarers: A Journey Among Birds by Stephen Rutt

Summary:

The British Isles are remarkable for their extraordinary seabird life: spectacular gatherings of charismatic Arctic terns, elegant fulmars and stoic eiders, to name just a few. Often found in the most remote and dramatic reaches of our shores, these colonies are landscapes shaped not by us but by the birds.

In 2015, Stephen Rutt escaped his hectic, anxiety-inducing life in London for the bird observatory on North Ronaldsay, the most northerly of the Orkney Islands. In thrall to these windswept havens and the people and birds that inhabit them, he began a journey to the edges of Britain. From Shetland, to the Farnes of Northumberland, down to the Welsh islands off the Pembrokeshire coast, he explores the part seabirds have played in our history and what they continue to mean to Britain today.

The Seafarers is the story of those travels: a love letter, written from the rocks and the edges, for the salt-stained, isolated and ever-changing lives of seabirds. This beguiling book reveals what it feels like to be immersed in a completely wild landscape, examining the allure of the remote in an over-crowded world.

 My Review:

Watching birds has been a passion of mine since childhood but there is something rather special about sitting on a windswept headland looking out to sea and watching seabirds. Whether it is on the South West coastline or along the Scottish coast or taking a boat trip across the Minch to the Outer Hebrides watching seabirds has given me some of my best birdwatching days I can remember. I was so grateful to have received a copy of The Seafarers: A Journey Among Birds (Elliott & Thompson) by Stephen Rutt that has just recently been published in paperback. It has won the Saltire First Book of the Year for 2019.

Author

It was 2015 and Stephen Rutt was packing up and moving to the remote Scottish island of Ronaldsay, one of the furthest of the Orkney Islands, Stephen was struggling and he needed to get away from the fast pace of London. He had decided to volunteer at the bird observatory for seven months. During this time, he would monitor the movements of seabirds. A pivotal moment as this seemed to just what he needed. Nature is calming on the soul.

There is something really soothing about Stephen’s writing, it is calm and relaxed and yet there is something more here, facts. He talks of oil spills and the disastrous effect this had on wildlife, and would the seabird numbers recover in the years to come. I recall seeing pictures of scores of dead seabirds covered in oil. These pictures still haunt.

From here Stephen takes us on a journey around the jagged coastline of Britain to watch seabirds. From Puffins to Skuas, Storm Petrels and Gannets galore and Manx Shearwaters and we cannot leave out the Terns on the Farne Islands.

We are an island in fact the UK is an archipelago with over 1000 islands, and around 790 of them off the Scottish coastline which makes this one of the most incredible and diverse places to study seabirds. Stephen Rutt really has written a love letter to seabirds, and their incredible lives. When Stephen is not watching these wanderers of the seas he is at home reading books from some of the great writers on birds. A beautifully written memoir and that I am delighted to add to my natural history library.

288 Pages.

Thank you to Alison Menzies for the review copy of The Seafarers: A Journey Among Birds by Stephen Rutt

The Seafarers: A Journey Among Birds by Stephen Rutt was published by Elliott & Thompson and was published in PB on 4th June 2020 and is available through Waterstones, Amazon and through your local independent bookshop.

Just Another Mountain: A memoir of hope by Sarah Jane Douglas

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Just Another Mountain: A memoir of hope by Sarah Jane Douglas

Summary:

At the age of twenty-four, Sarah Jane Douglas lost her mother to breast cancer. She was alone and adrift in the world, but had promised her mother that she would keep going, no matter what. So she turned to the beautiful, forbidding mountains of her native Scotland – and then beyond.

By walking in her mother’s footsteps, Sarah found the strength to face her grief, to accept her troubled past and, ultimately, to confront her own cancer diagnosis twenty years later.

Sometimes all you can do is put one foot in front of the other and keep walking…<

 My Review:

A memoir with so much honesty and inspiring at the same time. Just Another Mountain: A Memoir of Hope by Sarah Jane Douglas (Elliott & Thompson) is now out in paperback and I am very grateful to Alison Menzies and the publisher for sending me a copy.

Author

Sarah Jane Douglas lost her mother to breast cancer and now she was alone in the world but as a promise to her mother she would put one foot in front of another and carry on. So mountains became her solace. She climbed Kilimanjaro but if that was not enough she had got the bug of climbing mountains and then wanted to climb all of 282 of Scotland’s munros. She achieved this as well and then to the Himalayas. Sometimes we just do not know what is around the corner of life but the mountain adventures were going to be preparation for what was to follow for Sarah Jane Douglas.

But Sarah Jane Douglas also had her own personal mountain to climb. Losing her mother to cancer is horrific but she also was diagnosed with cancer twenty years later. There is so much honest, warmth and with on every page. You want to laugh and you will want to cry. Sarah Jane Douglas has written a memoir full of hope but is very much life-affirming. Highly Recommended.

304 Pages.

Thank you to Alison Menzies and Elliott & Thompson Publishers for the review copy of Just Another Mountain: A memoir of hope by Sarah Jane Douglas

Just Another Mountain: A memoir of hope by Sarah Jane Douglas was published by Elliott & Thompson and was published on 26th March 2020 in Paperback and is available through Waterstones, Amazon and through your local independent bookshop.

 

 

The Light in the Dark: A Winter Journal by Horatio Clare – Paperback release

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The Light in the Dark: A Winter Journal by Horatio Clare

Paperback release

Summary:

As November stubs out the glow of autumn and the days tighten into shorter hours, winter’s occupation begins. Preparing for winter has its own rhythms, as old as our exchanges with the land. Of all the seasons, it draws us together. But winter can be tough.

It is a time of introspection, of looking inwards. Seasonal sadness; winter blues; depression – such feelings are widespread in the darker months. But by looking outwards, by being in and observing nature, we can appreciate its rhythms. Mountains make sense in any weather. The voices of a wood always speak consolation. A brush of frost; subtle colours; days as bright as a magpie’s cackle. We can learn to see and celebrate winter in all its shadows and lights.

In this moving and lyrical evocation of a British winter and the feelings it inspires, Horatio Clare raises a torch against the darkness, illuminating the blackest corners of the season, and delving into memory and myth to explore the powerful hold that winter has on us. By learning to see, we can find the magic, the light that burns bright at the heart of winter: spring will come again.

My Review:

Released on 3rd October is The Light in the Dark: A Winter Journal (Elliott & Thompson) in Paperback. Written in the form of a diary that starts in October and works its way through from autumn through the winter months. This is a repost of my review for the hardback edition which was released in November 2018.

Horatio Clare Author Picture

I am someone who loves the outdoors and all things nature, the dark winter months trapped in an office has often left me feeling tired and exhausted and then come the weekend I cherish every moment of the hours of daylight.

Here in Horatio Clare’s excellent diary, he talks openly of how he to suffers as we move from kicking our way through the autumn leaves and then as the days grow shorter and then into November one of the darkest months of the year. I really found Horatio’s open and honest account to be very reassuring. Many of us suffer in silence especially in the workplace.

The excitement of Christmas comes to Horatio Clare and his family, with memories of childhood and now with his own family. But silently he suffers knowing that there is a tax bill and other debts to be paid and how he is going to find the money to pay all this. It is during the winter months he becomes more or less withdrawn to save money. At times there is a little tension in the household.

Seasonal depression is not something anyone should suffer in silence with (all except me apparently). Nature too shuts down but there is joy to be found in nature during the darkest months. The joy of chilly frosty morning walks at the weekend. There is so much we can enjoy about winter but we have to appreciate its beauty. The Light in the Dark is a moving and poetic look at this time of year and one book I rejoice in. This is a torch to guide us through the dark winter days until Spring’s first rays of light warm us. I am delighted to highly recommend The Light in the Dark: A Winter Journal.

#TheLightInTheDark @HoratioClare @eandtbooks

224 Pages.

Under the Rock – Benjamin Myers

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Under the Rock – Benjamin Myers

Under the Rock is about badgers, balsam, history, nettles, mythology, moorlands, mosses, poetry, bats, wild swimming, slugs, recession, floods, logging, peacocks, community, apples, asbestos, quarries, geology, industrial music, owls, stone walls, farming, anxiety, relocation, the North, woodpiles, folklore, landslides, ruins, terriers, woodlands, ravens, dales, valleys, walking, animal skulls, trespassing, crows, factories, maps, rain – lots of rain – and a great big rock.

From the author of the awarding winning The Gallows Pole, Benjamin Myers now turns to non-fiction with his stunning Under the Rock. (Elliott & Thompson).

Culture-mag-Books-260716

I was so looking forward to reading Under the Rock, the thought of the astonishing writing of Benjamin Myers now turning to the landscape and in particular a step craggy rock called Scout Rock, which overlooks Mytholmroyd near The Upper Calder Valley in West Yorkshire.

It is here that Myers spent a decade exploring the ten acres of woodland that has inspired this beautiful book. And oh that cover design. It is a thin g of real beauty.

This is a book of such incredible prose. In four parts: Wood, Earth, Water and Rock. The writer conjures up words that have been ‘Stories carved from the land’. Each of the four parts are very much in the form of poetry. After all this the part of the country were the poet Ted Hughes grew up.

This is a place that Ben and his wife have now made their home after leaving the noise of the big city behind them. This place is a land that was left and forgotten, scarred by the past and described as once being a toxic dump after asbestos was buried here. Now a place that wants to be explored and in a series of field notes that is poetry and also there are photographs through the book. I love this style of nature writing, maybe for someone like me who loves the writing by Helen Mcdonald, Amy Liptrot and Robert Mcfarlane to name a few and that this will also appeal to those who will really enjoy Under the Rock. This is an exceptional book, both compelling and elegant and one of my highlights of the year. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

384 Pages.

Thank you to Elliott & Thompson for the review copy of Under the Rock by Benjamin Myers

Under the Rock by Benjamin Myers was published by Elliott & Thompson and was published on 25th April 2019 in paperback and is available through Waterstones, Amazon and through your local independent bookshops.

The Blog Tour – Under the Rock by Benjamin Myers

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The Pull of the River by Matt Gaw

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The Pull of the River by Matt Gaw

What an absolute gem The Pull of the River by Matt Gaw (Elliott & Thompson) really is. Imagine two friends Matt and James decide to paddle their way through the waterways of the heart of Britain. This is exactly what they both do. Not only that but they build the canoe themselves.

Author

The red canoe is christened ‘Pipe’ for reasons that become clear early in the book and after putting the canoe through some trials off they both set to explore the rivers and not only that but explore and discover nature.

The real beauty is that you can imagine the two in their red canoe silently paddling the waterways of Britain which gives them both the perfect way to get back to nature and to pause real life in their year long quest to examine our rivers and the wildlife that makes this their home.

Not in any way was this an easy relaxed year long quest there was at times real life drama and peril. Examining the rivers from The Waveney and The Stour and Alde, through to the Upper and Lower Thames to the River Severn.

At times you can almost hear the birdsong as they paddle gently through the rivers but at times you sense their real fear. The beauty of knowing that both become at one with our watery arteries of Britain but also at one with nature even glimpse of wild Beavers. There are Kingfishers, Otters and Damselflies to name a few that the reader discovers on the journey with Matt Gaw and James Treadaway.

I for one would not even dream of paddling some the extreme rivers and Lochs this is not for the faint hearted but the message that comes across to anyone reading this is simple. Life is for living and live in the now. Beautifully written and told but I would have loved a few photos as this would have made this book. Definitely one I would really recommend reading sat by a river when the sun shines listening to the birdsong.

288 Pages.

Thank you to Alison Menzies for the review copy of The Pull of the River by Matt Gaw.

The Pull of the River by Matt Gaw was published by Elliott & Thompson and was published in Paperback on 21st February 2018 and is available through Waterstones, Amazon and through your local independent bookshop.

The Light in the Dark: A Winter Journal – Horatio Clare

Light in the Dark Cover

The Light in the Dark: A Winter Journal – Horatio Clare

I am becoming quite a fan of Horatio Clare’s writing this is my second book in a matter of a few weeks. Released on 1st November is The Light in the Dark: A Winter Journal (Elliott & Thompson) is a book written in the form of a diary that starts in October and works its way through from autumn through the winter months.

Horatio Clare Author Picture

I am someone who loves the outdoors and all things nature, the dark winter months trapped in an office has often left me feeling tired and exhausted and then come the weekend I cherish every moment of the hours of daylight.

Here in Horatio Clare’s excellent diary, he talks openly of how he to suffers as we move from kicking our way through the autumn leaves and then as the days grow shorter and then into November one of the darkest months of the year. I really found Horatio’s open and honest account to be very reassuring. Many of us suffer in silence especially in the workplace.

The excitement of Christmas comes to Horatio Clare and his family, with memories of childhood and now with his own family. But silently he suffers knowing that there is a tax bill and other debts to be paid and how he is going to find the money to pay all this. It is during the winter months he becomes more or less withdrawn to save money. At times there is a little tension in the household.

Seasonal depression is not something anyone should suffer in silence with (all except me apparently). Nature too shuts down but there is joy to be found in nature during the darkest months. The joy of chilly frosty morning walks at the weekend. There is so much we can enjoy about winter but we have to appreciate its beauty. The Light in the Dark is a moving and poetic look at this time of year and one book I rejoice in. This is a torch to guide us through the dark winter days until Spring’s first rays of light warm us. I am delighted to highly recommend The Light in the Dark: A Winter Journal.

208 Pages.

#TheLightInTheDark   @HoratioClare

@annecater #RandomThingsTours

Thank you to Elliott & Thompson for the review copy of The Light in the Dark: A Winter Journal by Horatio Clare. Also my thanks to Anne Cater for arranging the Blog Tour via Random Things Tours.

The Light in the Dark: A Winter Journal by Horatio Clare was published by Elliott & Thompson and was published on 1st November 2018 and is available through Waterstones, Amazon and through your local independent bookshop.

The Light in the Dark: A Winter Journal – Blog Tour

Final Light in the Dark Blog Tour Poster

Travellers in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd

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Travellers in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd

I am incredibly honoured to be a blogging partner to the 2018 Jewish Book Week that takes place between 3-11th March 2018. I will be there in person for two events and can honestly say that it is going to be an incredible week of great talks and discussions.

I will also be talking about some of the books and author interviews that will be coming up during the week and to start I am going to introduce Julia Boyd and her latest book that was released in August 2017. Travellers in the Third Reich – The Rise of Fascism Through the Eyes of Everyday People. (Elliott & Thompson) Julia Boyd will be in discussion Anna Sebba on Thursday 8th March at 7pm and tickets are still available.

AUTHOR

Travellers in the Third Reich is a look through the eyes of those who visited what is in a sense Hitler’s Germany between the 1920’s and 1930’s. With Germany on her knees after the First World War and then the rise of fascism and the then rise of Adolf Hitler those who visited Germany got a real first-hand look and a real glimpse of what was coming. Through this outstanding and well researched book Julia Boyd takes British, French and a few Americans and even a Chinese scholar notes and diary entries to give a real outsiders view to a Germany that was rebuilding and also rebuilding its armed forces. Subdued but now strong under Hitler these notes and diary entries make powerful reading.

Some of these notes and accounts comes from well-known sources such as Neville Chamberlain Unity Mitford and even the poet W.H. Auden. These accounts as seen by these and just the ordinary traveller give a real insight to the day to day life of Nazi Germany.

During the 1930’s it is easy to try and figure out what people in Britain thought about the Nazi regime and especially Hitler but what Boyd has done with this book is give a real insight to what people really thought their inside Germany especially when they came face to face. Sometimes honest and sometimes really quite shocking. But life was carrying as normal in Germany cultural visits to the country were common and even children were sent their as part of cultural educational visits. Then even as Europe was just moments away from WWII Thomas Cook was still advertising German holidays.

It is important to note that without these travellers who visited and even stayed in Germany for a while and those who kept diaries and wrote letters and journals these historical notes would never come to light. These are an important and also fascinating to read. This book covers just about everything that went on in Germany whether that is how popular Germany was with American tourists to fascists burning books and also concentration camps. This is well written and also an easy to read book that really does give a very real look at what Germany was like through those that went to visit Germany.

Reading Travellers in the Third Reich has given me a new look at how people viewed Germany between the wars which is somewhat different to how I was always told or read in other books. Boyd has written what I think in time will become a valuable research tool for those wishing to learn more of Nazi Germany. Virginia Wolf herself thought German was “pretentious” while author of Tarka the Otter Henry Williamson spoke on Desert Island Discs about nature loving Germans. There is so much to learn through these pages and even now I am going through and finding fascinating accounts. These notes, letters and accounts are voices from the past recounting visits that are historically important now as they were when they were first written. Future generations will read this outstanding book and learn. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

464 Pages

My thanks to Rebecca Fincham and also Elliott & Thompson for the review copy of Travellers in the Third Reich.

Travellers in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd is published by Elliott & Thompson and was published on 10th August 2017 and is available through Waterstones, Amazon and all good bookshops.

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To learn more of the 2018 Jewish Book Week and view the ‘What’s On’ pages and even book tickets to the events taking place at Kings Place visit the website.

Jewish Book Week you can also book tickets by telephone on 020 7520 1490

You can also keep up to date with the Jewish Book Week on their Twitter page: Join the discussion @jewishbookweek I hope to see you there.