James Crawford

We are thrilled to welcome beloved writer and BBC broadcaster James Crawford back to the bookshop for his latest, Wild History: Journeys into Lost Scotland.

Join us for a glass of something, and let James introduce you to some of the many forgotten haunts which populate the Scottish landscape; from the ruins of prehistoric forts and ancient, arcane burial sites, to abandoned bothies and boathouses, and the derelict traces of old, faded industry.

You scramble up over the dunes of an isolated beach. You climb to the summit of a lonely hill. You pick your way through the eerie hush of a forest. And then you find them. The traces of the past. Perhaps they are marked by a tiny symbol on your map, perhaps not. There are no plaques to explain their fading presence before you, nothing to account for what they once were - who made them, lived in them or abandoned them. Now they are merged with the landscape. They are being reclaimed by nature. They are wild history...

James Crawford is a writer and broadcaster. His first major book, Fallen Glory: The Lives and Deaths of History's Greatest Buildings was shortlisted for the Saltire Literary Award for best non-fiction. His other books include Who Built Scotland: 25 Journeys in Search of a Nation, Scotland's Landscapes and Aerofilms: A History of Britain from Above. His most recent book is The Edge of the Plain: How Borders Make and Break Our World. In 2019 he was named as the Archive and Records Association's first-ever 'Explore Your Archives' Ambassador. He lives in Edinburgh.