Campbell Aaronson, one of the scientists who worked on the American bomb at Los Alamos, is now a pacifist composer living in a remote community on the west coast of Scotland. He is replanting ancient woodland and his artist friend is creating a vast site-specific artwork in a cave, but a magnate has other plans for their sacred hill. He wishes to blow it apart and turn it into aggregate for building motorways. How is the community to react? Jon Armour, a Glasgow arts journalist, is enticed into their plot and, following his own professional and personal interests, he blunders into a conflict he is incapable of understanding, with disastrous results for all involved. The main plot is mirrored in the plot of a parallel story that projects the localism of the Calltain community onto a global and historical plane. Les Wilson's novel tells not just of rivalries, jealousies and murder, but also of an inherent incompatibility between the ecology of our planet and the logic of Western capitalism, which is played out over and over again - relentlessly. None of the characters are saints or demons. This is human tragedy that is beyond solution or even understanding. The fate of the Calltain community is perhaps a premonition of our own, resulting as it does from an inability to search out rational compromise - and throughout, the story is dominated by the reflective Aaronson and his intransigent daughter.

Fire in the Head (Vagabond (Paperback))

Literature & Fiction

Wilson, Les

Literary

Vagabond Voices

Many travellers have had their imaginations captured by the beautiful Hebridean island of Islay and have been moved to write about it, among them the renowned Thomas Pennant and Martin Martin. But Ileachs - the natives of Islay - have also been inspired to record their experience. These have included Gaelic bards, the folklorist John Francis Campbell and the crusader for crofters' right, John Murdoch.Then, there were the business writers of Islay - the estate factors, distillery managers, and public servants with their revealing memos, legal documents and accounts of their endeavours. And there were the 'non-professional' writers - the diary and letter writers whose intensely personal musings give us startling insights into the lives of the ordinary Ileachs that historians all too often ignore.The written records of Islay are varied, rich and rewarding. This anthology distils the essence of Islay through a very personal selection of writing. Some of the writing is profound, some of it quirky, but all reveals a fascinating aspect of Islay that together presents a revealing and moving 'people's history' of Islay.

Islay Voices

History

Minto, Jenni

Americas

Birlinn

WINNER OF THE SALTIRE SOCIETY HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018 Next morning at about 6 o’clock my mother wakened us to say there had been a shipwreck and bodies were being washed ashore. My father had gone with others to look for survivors ... I don’t think any survivors came in at Port Ellen but bodies did. The loss of two British ships crammed with American soldiers bound for the trenches of the First World War brought the devastation of war directly to the shores of the Scottish island of Islay. The sinking of the troopship Tuscania by a German U-Boat on 5 February 1918 was the first major loss of US troops in in the war. Eight months after the people of Islay had buried more than 200 Tuscania dead, the armed merchant cruiser Otranto collided with another troopship during a terrible storm. Despite a valiant rescue attempt by HMS Mounsay, the Otranto drifted towards Islay, hit a reef, throwing 600 men into the water. Just 19 survived; the rest were drowned or crushed by the wreckage. Based on the harrowing personal recollection of survivors and rescuers, newspaper reports and original research, Les Wilson tells the story of these terrible events, painting a vivid picture which also pays tribute to the astonishing bravery of the islanders, who risked their lives pulling men from the sea, caring for survivors and burying the dead.

The Drowned and the Saved: When War Came to the Hebrides

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

Many travelers have had their imaginations captured by the beautiful Hebridean island of Islay and have been moved to write about it, among them the renowned Thomas Pennant and Martin Martin. But Ileachs - the natives of Islay - have also been inspired to record their experience. These have included Gaelic bards, the folklorist John Francis Campbell and the crusader for crofters' right, John Murdoch. Then, there were the business writers of Islay - the estate factors, distillery managers, and public servants with their revealing memos, legal documents and accounts of their endeavors. And there were the 'non-professional' writers - the diary and letter writers whose intensely personal musings give us startling insights into the lives of the ordinary Ileachs that historians all too often ignore. The written records of Islay are varied, rich and rewarding. This anthology distills the essence of Islay through a very personal selection of writing. Some of the writing is profound, some of it quirky, but all reveals a fascinating aspect of Islay that together presents a revealing and moving 'people's history' of Islay.

Deserves to sell like hot cakes' - Allan Massie,&nbsp;The ScotsmanFrom the Indian Mutiny to the London Blitz, offering a 'nice cup of tea' has been a stock British response to a crisis.&nbsp; But tea itself has a dramatic, and often violent, history. That history is inextricably interwoven with the story of Scotland.&nbsp;Scots were overwhelmingly responsible for the introduction and development of the UK's national drink, and were the foremost pioneers in the development of tea as an international commodity.&nbsp;This book reveals how Darjeeling, Assam, Ceylon and Africa all owe their thriving tea industries to pioneering work by Scottish adventurers and entrepreneurs. It's a dramatic tale.&nbsp; Many of these men jeopardised their lives to lay the foundation of the tea industry.&nbsp; Many Scots made fortunes - but it is a story with a dark side in which racism, the exploitation of native peoples and environmental devastation was the price paid for 'a nice cup of tea'.&nbsp;Les Wilson brings the story right up to date, with a look at the recent development of tea plantations in Scottish hills and glens.

Putting the Tea in Britain: The Scots Who Made Our National Drink

Business & Money

Economics

WINNER OF THE SALTIRE SOCIETY HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEARNext morning at about 6 o'clock my mother wakened us to say there had been a shipwreck and bodies were being washed ashore. My father&nbsp;had gone with others to look for survivors ... I don't think any survivors came in at Port Ellen but bodies did.The loss of two British ships crammed with American soldiers bound for the trenches of the First World War brought the devastation of war directly to the shores of the Scottish island of Islay.The sinking of the troopship Tuscania by a German U-Boat on 5 February 1918 was the first major loss of US troops in in the war. Eight months after the people of Islay had buried more than 200 Tuscania dead, the armed merchant cruiser Otranto collided with another troopship during a terrible storm. Despite a valiant rescue attempt by HMS Mounsay, the Otranto drifted towards Islay, hit a reef, throwing 600 men into the water. Just 19 survived; the rest were drowned or crushed by the wreckage.Based on the harrowing personal recollection of survivors and rescuers, newspaper reports and original research, Les Wilson tells the story of these terrible events, painting a vivid picture which also pays tribute to the astonishing bravery of the islanders, who risked their lives pulling men from the sea, caring for survivors and burying the dead.

Origin

Orwell's Island

Arts & Literature

Saraband

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Wilson, Les. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Wilson, Les

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Wilson, Les. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Fire in the Head (Vagabond (Paperback))

Islay Voices

The Drowned and the Saved: When War Came to the Hebrides

Islay Voices

Putting the Tea in Britain: The Scots Who Made Our National Drink

The Drowned and the Saved: When War Came to the Hebrides

Orwell's Island