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.

Includes List of members.

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'?

The popular image of Scotland is dominated by widely recognized elements of Celtic culture. But a significant non-Celtic influence on Scotland's history has been largely ignored for centuries? This book argues that much of Scotland's history and culture from 1100 forward is Jewish. The authors provide evidence that many of the national heroes, villains, rulers, nobles, traders, merchants, bishops, guild members, burgesses, and ministers of Scotland were of Jewish descent, their ancestors originating in France and Spain. Much of the traditional historical account of Scotland, it is proposed, rests on fundamental interpretive errors, perpetuated in order to affirm Scotland's identity as a Celtic, Christian society. A more accurate and profound understanding of Scottish history has thus been buried. The authors' wide-ranging research includes examination of census records, archaeological artifacts, castle carvings, cemetery inscriptions, religious seals, coinage, burgess and guild member rolls, noble genealogies, family crests, portraiture, and geographic place names.

This book places early modern Scottish maritime warfare in its European context. Its formidably broad range of sources sheds light on many previously little known, or unknown, aspects of naval history. It also provides many valuable new perspectives on the importance of the sea to the Scots, and of the Scots to the naval history of Great Britain.