Jim Hewitson's Scotland is a gey strange place. And this broth of off-cuts from the past, contemporary attitudes, outlandish lists, absurd tables, historical and hysterical trivia and off-the-wall observations is certainly one of the most curious Scottish books of the new millennium. In it, facts and figures collide with couthy anecdotes and unlikely yarns, all of which are shot through with that mystical ingredient which Jim has been trying to drag to the surface for thirty years: Scottishness. - What are the ten most obscure clan mottoes? - Which is the wettest place in Scotland? - What are the most frequently used reponses to Scotland's beggers? - And is the Glasgow Underground haunted? By the time you've got to the end of this miscellany, you'll be no nearer finding out who you are but you will be able to answer a thousand questions which no one has ever thought to ask before.

Ever wondered what some of the weirdest productions of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe have been? Has it crossed your mind that you don't actually know which Scottish city has the honour of being twinned with the Russian town of Piskov (mind you don't drop that , now)? If so, then this is the book for you. Crammed fuller than a haggis, Jim Hewiston's Scottish Miscellany is jam-packed with lists, tables, top tens, recipes and bizarre phenomena relating to oor braw wee country. But there's more! Did you know, for example, that our ludicrous saying 'A midge is as big as a mountain, amaist' is possibly outdone in terms of ridiculousness by Bulgaria's 'Dry pants catch no fish'?

Seize this opportunity to look more deeply into the narrative themes, symbols and mythic elements encountered in the Harry Potter books. Drawing from diverse spiritual and scholarly sources, The Seeker's Guide to Harry Potter offers seekers of all kinds an open-minded guide to the rich layers of meaning and symbolism we encounter in all seven of the novels.

Humorous, informative and oddly intriguing Scottish questions are answered. After the success of the internationally bestselling "Does Anything Eat Wasps?", here are all the particularly Scottish questions people never knew they wanted answered, like: Is it true that most Scottish fishermen can't swim? How do you go about proving your claim to the throne of Scotland? Where in Scotland is the wettest place in Europe? Are Aberdonians really the dourest of the dour and meanest of the mean? Was Scotland really named after a bunch of Irish pirates? Was high-rise housing such a bad idea? Are half the children in Scotland now born to unmarried parents? What makes Scots angry? And has anyone ever been killed by Highland midges? A wheen of queries about Scotland and the Scots, this is a miscellany of the unlikely but true in one of the strangest wee countries in the world. With one hundred questions handily arranged by category, "Does Anyone Like Midges?" is a compendium of the most perplexing and timeless Scottish questions, big and not-so-big, that have somehow escaped answer until now, each one authoritatively dealt with in a manner sure to illuminate and flabbergast in equal measure.

Pirates! The word is enough to send a shiver through your timbers. A nation such as the Scots, with its seafaring tradition, inevitably has a history of lawlessness at sea. From the earliest times, shrewd sailors realised that, by branching out as government agents, privateers or freelance plunderers, they could make more than just a living. Nautical Scots played a part in the Golden Age of Piracy, in the seventeenth century, most notably in the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean. But the story of Scottish piracy probably stretches back to Roman times and reaches up to the present day. In this exploration of a little-known aspect of Scottish seafaring, Jim Hewitson hauls up the anchor, hoists the Jolly Roger and takes us into some unexpected waters to meet characters such as: Kirkcudbright-born John Paul Jones, founder of the US navy, hero to the Americans, rogue pirate to the British; Sweyn Asleifsson, an Orkney-based pirate who spent half the year as a peaceful farmer and the other as a wild sea raider; and Greenock?s Captain Kidd, the notorious piratical stereotype, who turns out to be more of a naive fall guy than a swashbuckling adventurer.