Download or read book The Last Pearl Fisher of Scotland written by Julia Stuart and published by Random House. This book was released on 2016-08-25 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the bestselling author of Balthazar Jones and the Tower of London Zoo comes the story of one man's quest to find a pearl, save his marriage – and track down a missing rabbit named Frank 'The Last Pearl Fisher of Scotland is a gently comic, gently tragic novel, full of lyricism, humanity and the pearl that is love. Read it at once' A. L. Kennedy Brodie McBride is having a tough time. The last expert in the ancient art of pearl fishing, he’s on a quest to track down the pearl that will complete a necklace for his wife, Elspeth, convinced that the love token will save their marriage. But Scotland’s rivers are running out of mussels, Elspeth is running out of patience, and their daughter, Maggie, is running wild with her moustachioed pet rabbit. And when Maggie takes matters into her own hands, determined to keep the family together, the McBrides are soon at the centre of international commotion that will change everyone’s lives forever.
Download or read book The Last Pearl written by Leah Fleming and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-01-28 with total page 446 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: FROM THE ACCLAIMED AUTHOR OF THE CAPTAIN'S DAUGHTER AND DANCING AT THE VICTORY CAFE, this is a beautiful novel about one magnificent gem, and three lives bound together by fate ... 1879, York.Greta Costello must rely on her wits to survive. She finds refuge as a Saturday girl for an old jeweller, Saul Abrahams, and her eye for detail, her long fingers and appreciation of beauty persuade Saul to train her as a pearl stringer. This skill will lead her through hardship and pain towards a new life. 1879, Scotland. Jem Baillie knows the immense power of a perfect pearl. His father was a fisher on a tributary of the Tay river in Perthshire, Scotland, and together they found the rarest of pearls, a great white pearl they call Queenie. When this is stolen from them, Eben vows revenge. Spanning generations and continents, tracing the rivers of Scotland and the Mississippi, The Last Pearl is a sweeping novel of desire and revenge, of family and freedom, and of one woman's journey to open the shell she has built around herself to reveal the true beauty within. Praise for Leah Fleming 'I enjoyed it enormously.It's a moving and compelling story about a lifetime's journey in search of the truth' RACHEL HORE 'A born storyteller' KATE ATKINSON
Download or read book Pearl Fishers written by Robin Jenkins and published by Birlinn. This book was released on 2011-05-01 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Worthy of the greatest respect throughout the English-language world' - Paul Binding, Guardian 'Pared down to a sharp clarity, the prose of this novel cuts out all excess to show the cross-currents running through the heart of a community' - Times Literary Supplement 'Breathtaking in its simple beauty and honest heart' - Doug Johnstone, The Big Issue (Scotland) 'Jenkins is a remarkable writer whose gentlest touch induces the greatest of pleasures' - The Times When a family of travelling pearl-fishers arrives in a small Scottish town, the inhabitants react in their own different ways, from warmth to outright rejection. But how will they respond when love seems to blossom between local man Gavin Hamilton and the beautiful pearl-fisher Effie? The Pearl-fishers is a classic love story and the master storyteller's last novel.
Download or read book The Pigeon Pie Mystery written by Julia Stuart and published by Bond Street Books. This book was released on 2012-08-07 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Indian Princess Alexandrina is left penniless by the sudden death of her father, the Maharaja of Brindor, Queen Victoria grants her a grace-and-favor home in Hampton Court Palace. Though it is rumored to be haunted, Alexandrina and her lady's maid, Pooki, have no choice but to take the Queen up on her offer. Aside from the ghost sightings, Hampton Court doesn't seem so bad. The princess is soon befriended by three eccentric widows who invite her to a picnic with all the palace's inhabitants, for which Pooki bakes a pigeon pie. But when General-Major Bagshot dies after eating said pie, and the Coroner finds traces of arsenic in his body, Pooki becomes the #1 suspect in a murder investigation. Princess Alexandrina isn't about to let her faithful servant hang. She begins an investigation of her own, and discovers that Hampton Court isn't such a safe place to live after all. With her trademark wit and charm, Julia Stuart introduces us to an outstanding cast of lovable oddballs from the palace Maze Keeper to the unconventional Lady Beatrice (who likes to dress up as a toucan--don't ask) as she guides us through the many delightful twists and turns in this fun and quirky murder mystery. Everyone is hiding a secret of the heart, and even Alexandrina may not realize when she's caught in a maze of love.
Download or read book Summer Walkers written by Timothy Neat and published by Birlinn. This book was released on 2016-04-27 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Summer Walkers is the name the crofters of Scotland's North-west Highlands gave the Travelling People - the inerrant tinsmiths, horse-dealers, hawkers and pearl-fishers who made their living 'on the road'. These people are not gypsies - they are indigenous Gaelicspeaking Highlanders who are heirs to a vital and ancient culture. This book documents their way of life and explores their customs, superstitions, unique language, stories, poetry and songs rough photographs and remembrances. The result is a poignant and deeply moving record of a way of life now on the verges of living memory.
Download or read book The Captain s Daughter written by Leah Fleming and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-01-19 with total page 593 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: FROM THE ACCLAIMED AUTHOR OF THE LAST PEARL AND DANCING AT THE VICTORY CAFE, this is a beautiful novel about family secrets, betrayals and redemption. The secrets in a woman's heart are deeper than the ocean… For May Smith, travelling with her husband and baby girl Ellen, stepping foot on the Titanic marks the start of an incredible journey, one which is destined to take her from the back streets of Bolton to the land of opportunity: the United States. But when the 'unsinkable' Titanic hits an iceberg one cold dark night, May's dreams are instantly shattered. Jumping from the sinking ship at the last minute, May loses sight of Joe and Ellen. Distraught, she is pulled into a lifeboat. Minutes later, the real-life Captain Smith swims to the lifeboat and hands May a baby swaddled in blankets. This rescue is witnessed by fellow survivor, Celeste Parkes, married to an American industrialist who is on her way back to Ohio after her mother's funeral. In horror, they both watch the death throes of the mighty ship; May traumatised, knowing her husband has drowned, Celeste wishing her bully of a husband had been on board and out of her life. As the dawn comes up, and the two women are rescued by the Carpathia, a friendship is formed, one which is destined to transcend the Atlantic and social differences between them and last a lifetime. Then May makes a shocking discovery and a split-second decision which will change the lives of many. Praise for Leah Fleming 'I enjoyed it enormously.It's a moving and compelling story about a lifetime's journey in search of the truth' RACHEL HORE 'A born storyteller' KATE ATKINSON
Download or read book Jewels written by Victoria Finlay and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2006-08-15 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout history, precious stones have inspired passions and poetry, quests and curses, sacred writings and unsacred actions. In this scintillating book, journalist Victoria Finlay embarks on her own globe-circling search for the real stories behind some of the gems we prize most. Blending adventure travel, geology, exciting new research, and her own irresistible charm, Finlay has fashioned a treasure hunt for some of the most valuable, glamorous, and mysterious substances on earth. With the same intense curiosity and narrative flair she displayed in her widely-praised book Color, Finlay journeys from the underground opal churches of outback Australia to the once pearl-rich rivers of Scotland; from the peridot mines on an Apache reservation in Arizona to the remote ruby mines in the mountains of northern Burma. She risks confronting scorpions to crawl through Cleopatra’s long-deserted emerald mines, tries her hand at gem cutting in the dusty Sri Lankan city where Marco Polo bartered for sapphires, and investigates a rumor that fifty years ago most of the world’s amber was mined by prisoners in a Soviet gulag. Jewels is a unique and often exhilarating voyage through history, across cultures, deep into the earth’s mantle, and up to the glittering heights of fame, power, and wealth. From the fabled curse of the Hope Diamond, to the disturbing truths about how pearls are cultured, to the peasants who were once executed for carrying amber to the centuries-old quest by magicians and scientists to make a perfect diamond, Jewels tells dazzling stories with a wonderment and brilliance truly worthy of its subjects.
Download or read book The Book of Vanishing Species written by Beatrice Forshall and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-10-13 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: __________________ Our Earth is more beautiful and more diverse than we can possibly conceive of. The Book of Vanishing Species is a stunning homage to the planet's most mysterious, bizarre and wondrous creatures and plants. Their stories are captivating, from the eyeless and tiny dragonlike olm to the hawksbill turtle, whose gender will be determined by the temperature of the sand it is born in. These species may have survived for hundreds of thousands of years by cleverly adapting to their environments, but their future remains far from certain. The book brings to life red cranes as they dance and bow for the sheer joy of movement, trees that breathe out a haze of misty atmosphere for insects that only feast on one kind of flower, a deep-ocean snail quietly building its shell from iron... and each one of them is illuminated with an exquisite illustration. As you turn the pages, there emerges a network of life that stretches across and around the planet in a dazzling web of existence. This is both a love letter to life on Earth, and an urgent summons to protect what is precious and lovely in this world.
Download or read book Regeneration written by Andrew Painting and published by Birlinn. This book was released on 2021-05-26 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1995 the National Trust for Scotland acquired Mar Lodge Estate in the heart of the Cairngorms. Home to over 5,000 species, this vast expanse of Caledonian woodlands, subarctic mountains, bogs, moors, roaring burns and frozen lochs could be a place where environmental conservation and Highland field sports would exist in harmony. The only problem was that due to centuries of abuse by human hands, the ancient Caledonian pinewoods were dying, and it would take radical measures to save them. After 25 years of extremely hard work, the pinewoods, bogs, moors and mountains are returning to their former glory. Regeneration is the story of this success, featuring not only the people who are protecting the land and quietly working to undo the wrongs of the past, but also the myriad creatures which inspire them to do so. In addition, it also tackles current controversies such as raptor persecution, deer management and rewilding and asks bigger questions about the nature of conservation itself: what do we see when we look at our wild places? What should we see?
Download or read book Cocaine Blues written by Kerry Greenwood and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2011-05-24 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first of Phryne's adventures from Australia's most elegant and irrepressible sleuth.The London season is in full fling at the end of the 1920s, but the Honourable Phryne Fisher - she of the green-grey eyes, diamant garters and outfits that should not be sprung suddenly on those of nervous dispositions - is rapidly tiring of the tedium of arr...
Download or read book Dancing at the Victory Cafe written by Leah Fleming and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-11-03 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: FROM THE ACCLAIMED AUTHOR OF THE LAST PEARL AND THE CAPTAIN'S DAUGHTER, this is a beautiful and dramatic novel about family secrets, wartime betrayal and redemption. When Isobel Morton takes over the café in Lichfield’s market square, she has big plans. Soon renamed The Victory Café, with a menu that delights despite rations, the girls who work at the Vic are swept away by Belle’s lust for life. Among the regular customers is a trio of soldiers from the nearby American base and waitress Dorrie Goodman soon befriends them, learning about jazz and romance in the process. But the stifling morality of a Midlands town in the 40s cannot accommodate such a friendship; jealously, hatred and the weight of public disapproval combine to precipitate a tragedy. It is not until many years after the war that friendship and reconciliation can begin to heal the wounds of the past … Praise for Leah Fleming 'I enjoyed it enormously.It's a moving and compelling story about a lifetime's journey in search of the truth' RACHEL HORE 'A born storyteller' KATE ATKINSON
Download or read book Robert Louis Stevenson in Samoa written by Joseph Farrell and published by MacLehose Press. This book was released on 2017-09-01 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shortlised for the Saltire Society Non Fiction Book of the Year Award Almost every adult and child is familiar with his Treasure Island, but few know that Robert Louis Stevenson lived out his last years on an equally remote island, which was squabbled over by colonial powers much as Captain Flint's treasure was contested by the mongrel crew of the Hispaniola. In 1890 Stevenson settled in Upolu, an island in Samoa, after two years sailing round the South Pacific. He was given a Samoan name and became a fierce critic of the interference of Germany, Britain and the U.S.A. in Samoan affairs - a stance that earned him Oscar Wilde's sneers, and brought him into conflict with the Colonial Office, who regarded him as a menace and even threatened him with expulsion from the island. Joseph Farrell's pioneering study of Stevenson's twilight years stands apart from previous biographies by giving as much weight to the Samoa and the Samoans - their culture, their manners, their history - as to the life and work of the man himself. For it is only by examining the full complexity of Samoa and the political situation it faced as the nineteenth century gave way to the twentieth, that Stevenson's lasting and generous contribution to its cause can be appreciated.
Download or read book Life in Caithness and Sutherland written by Glyn Satterley and published by . This book was released on 1983 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea written by Jules Verne and published by . This book was released on 1887 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Influence of Man on Animal Life in Scotland written by James Ritchie and published by . This book was released on 1920 with total page 598 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book That Time of Year written by Garrison Keillor and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2020-12-01 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the warmth and humor we've come to know, the creator and host of A Prairie Home Companion shares his own remarkable story. In That Time of Year, Garrison Keillor looks back on his life and recounts how a Brethren boy with writerly ambitions grew up in a small town on the Mississippi in the 1950s and, seeing three good friends die young, turned to comedy and radio. Through a series of unreasonable lucky breaks, he founded A Prairie Home Companion and put himself in line for a good life, including mistakes, regrets, and a few medical adventures. PHC lasted forty-two years, 1,557 shows, and enjoyed the freedom to do as it pleased for three or four million listeners every Saturday at 5 p.m. Central. He got to sing with Emmylou Harris and Renée Fleming and once sang two songs to the U.S. Supreme Court. He played a private eye and a cowboy, gave the news from his hometown, Lake Wobegon, and met Somali cabdrivers who’d learned English from listening to the show. He wrote bestselling novels, won a Grammy and a National Humanities Medal, and made a movie with Robert Altman with an alarming amount of improvisation. He says, “I was unemployable and managed to invent work for myself that I loved all my life, and on top of that I married well. That’s the secret, work and love. And I chose the right ancestors, impoverished Scots and Yorkshire farmers, good workers. I’m heading for eighty, and I still get up to write before dawn every day.”
Download or read book The Traditional and National Music of Scotland written by Francis Collinson and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2021-10-12 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in 1966, this was the first book on this subject to be published for over a hundred years. It covers all facets including little-known types of Gaelic song, the bagpipes and their music, including the esoteric subject of pibroch, the Ceol Mor or ‘Great Music’ of the pipes. It gives a comprehensive review of the fiddle composers and their music, and of the Clarsach and its revival, with an example of all-but-extinct Scottish harp music. A chapter is devoted to the music of Orkney and Shetland and the book contains over 100 examples of music many of which were from the author’s own collection and published here for the first time.
