This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) open access license. Discusses the transition from a largely oral to a fundamentally literate society in the early modern period. During this period the spoken word remained of the utmost importance but development of printing and the spread of popular literacy combined to transform the nature of communication. Examines English, Scottish and Welsh Oral culture to provide the first pan-British study of the subject. Covers several aspects of oral culture ranging from tradition, to memories of the civil war, to changing mechanics for the settling of debts. The time-span concentrates on the period 1500-1800 but includes material from outside this time frame, covering a longer chronolgical span than most other studies to show the link between early modern and modern oral and literate cultures.

This is the definitive history of Canna, one of the most beautiful of all the Scottish islands. Fertile and with a sheltered harbour, Canna has played an important part in the story of the Hebrides. After the Reformation the island was of considerable importance to the Irish Franciscan mission of the 1620s and also the Jacobite risings before it was swept up in the tragedies of depopulation and clearances of the nineteenth century. Gifted to the National Trust in 1981, the island is currently undergoing something of a revival, with the creation of the St Edward Centre on Sanday, and the proposed developments of Canna House. Recent archaeological surveys and historical research has uncovered much new evidence about the island. Hugh Cheape of the Royal Museum of Scotland, who has been intimately involved in the Canna project, has fully edited the book. New contributions both update and fill out the account of the island.