The Road North – 300 Years of Classic Scottish Travel Writing –

“Arranged geographically, The Road North features some of the best travel writing ever on Scotland. It includes those historic accounts from the early visitors – Martin Martin, Thomas Pennant, Samuel Johnson and James Boswell – musings by 19th-century writers such as Dorothy Wordsworth, Washington Irving, Henry James and Robert Southey as well as reports from modern masters of the genre who include Seton Gordon, Edwin Muir, James Campbell, Derek Cooper, Gavin Maxwell, John McPhee, Margaret Fay Shaw, Bettina Selby and Jan Morris.

This stable of authors results in content which ranges from Jan Morris’ ‘new’ Glasgow to Alastair Scott’s loquacious caddy on the fairways of the Old Course at St Andrews; from Edwin Muir’s pensive and thoughtful rumination on Highland life to David McFaden’s innocent flirtation with a young bank teller in Tongue and from Margaret Fay Shaw’s warm remembrances of winters and summers spent in a tiny thatched cottage in South Uist to Alison Johnson’s often hilarious account of working as a harried teacher on Harris. This collection offers a wildly diverse look at old and new Scotland.

For anyone who loves Scotland or wishes to know more about this most enigmatic of countries, The Road North is a worthy travel companion.”