So... what are you reading?

[EagleJCS]

Finished Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland Vol 2 and Sir Walter Scott's The Heart of Midlothian. Trying to decide on continuing Edgar Rice Burrough's John Carter series (Synthetic Men of Mars is next), Wilson's Tales (Vol 3 - of 24 - is next), Sir Walter Scott's novels (Old Mortality is next), or move on to something else.

[Pegasys]

The Scotish Gaël: Or, Celtic Manners, as Preserved Among the Highlanders Volume 1

scotishgalorce01loga_0010.jpg

https://archive.org/details/scotishgalorce01loga

[Profane James]

The Scotish Gaël: Or, Celtic Manners, as Preserved Among the Highlanders Volume 1

scotishgalorce01loga_0010.jpg

https://archive.org/details/scotishgalorce01loga

Wonderful share! I'm barely through the memoir and already possessed.
The first I've heard Gaelic referred to as 'the mountain tongue' !

I've read what may be a similar work titled 'Manners, Customs, and History of the Highlanders of Scotland' by Sir Walter Scott.
Also in digital form, here:

http://www.electricscotland.com/webc...macgregor1.pdf

[Pegasys]

... here is volume 2 then ... I have found so many full color high definition books here that it would be impossible to find elsewhere...
https://archive.org/details/scotishgalorce02loga
scotishgalorce02loga_0008.jpg

Wonderful share! I'm barely through the memoir and already possessed.
The first I've heard Gaelic referred to as 'the mountain tongue' !

I've read what may be a similar work titled 'Manners, Customs, and History of the Highlanders of Scotland' by Sir Walter Scott.
Also in digital form, here:

http://www.electricscotland.com/webc...macgregor1.pdf

[The Q]

National Service by Colin Shindler
Or to be be more precise by many people, as this is a collection of stories of life under national Service From 1946 till its end in 1962.
For those of you in foreign parts, National service was the continuing Conscription of men from the age of 18 after WW2 till 1962.

This documents the bad ( much of it ) and the good of national service as post war Britain which was broke and in debt to the USA( till 2006), tried to wind down its empire. While stopping various unsavoury groups from taking over while we left.

My father was one of them joining up in1956, he well remembers the poor treatment and food although on one of the camp's he was at they did something about it... The meat was arriving, the officer in charge inspected it and left, half the meat went back on the lorry and the SNCO made a lot of money till he was arrested.

I joined up in 1976 just 15 years after the end of NS, and there certainly were still echo's of the NS during training, numerous bed boxes went flying across the room. Although not out of the windows as in NS time, as we had to have them closed so they could be inspected!!
Also the accommodation even in my time was poor, rain leaking through the rooves of the barrack blocks or beds in corridors when they ran out of room and my wife spent most of her service in temporary wartime huts that were still in use till 1993.

Overall this is a good read of tales from rich, poor and even the famous of their 3 years of National Service.

[The Q]

There was a Soldier.
First hand accounts of the Scottish Soldier. From 1707 to the present day.
Edited by Angus Konstam.
First i should say the present day was 2010 when it was published.

A collection of mostly diary extracts with the odd letter thrown in, covering just about every war the British Army was involved in. While most are from Scottish soldiers in Scottish regiments, there is the odd one from a Scottish Soldier in an English Regiment, or an English soldier in a Scottish Regiment.

A most interesting collection, each entry is prefaced by a short article, giving the background to that war or battle. The entries themselves mostly cover the action the man was involved in, but some bits of their personal lives come through as well, making this a very informative read. I'd recommend this book.

[GMan]

A Gathering Stormy Jameson Currier