Scotland, its people and its history have long been a source of considerable fascination and inspiration for filmmakers, film scholars and film audiences worldwide. A significant number of critically acclaimed films made in the last twenty-five years have ignited passionate conversations and debates about Scottish national cinema. Its historical, industrial and cultural complexities and contradictions have made it all the more a focus of attention and interest for both popular audiences and scholarly critics. Directory of World Cinema: Scotland provides an introduction to many of Scottish cinema’s most important and influential themes and issues, films and filmmakers, while adding to the ongoing discussion concerning how to make sense of Scotland’s cinematic traditions and contributions. Chapters on filmmakers range from Murray Grigor to Ken Loach, and Gaelic filmmaking, radical and engaged cinema, production, finance and documentary are just a few of the topics explored. Film reviews range from popular box office hits such as Braveheart, and Trainspotting to lesser known but equally engaging independent and lower budget productions, such as Shell and Orphans. This book is both a stimulating and accessible resource for a wide range of readers interested in Scottish film.

This beautifully illustrated guide reveals the cities, towns and windswept landscapes that have formed the backdrop to some of Scotland's most famous films. Colour photographs and detailed descriptions of each location allow you to follow in the footsteps of some of cinemas most famous characters. Among the films covered in the book are Gregory's Girl, the Harry Potter films, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, One Day, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Rob Roy, Shallow Grave, Trainspotting and The Wicker Man. TV series include Taggart, Outlander and Game of Thrones. Scotland Film Locations takes in some of the most popular and beautiful sites in Scotland, from the streets of Edinburgh and the famous train journey over Glenfinnan Viaduct that inspired Harry Potter to Doune Castle, which featured in Game of Thrones, and the Isle of Skye, which formed a backdrop to The BFG and Macbeth. With this indispensable guide you will be able to step into some of your favourite films and discover the locations that created movie magic.

From "Whisky Galore" and "Edge of the World" to "Local Hero" and "Highlander", Scotland has been presented on film in various degrees of reality by both Hollywood and British film-makers. This book gives an illustrated analysis of the myth and reality in Scottish films over the last 60 years. It surveys and summarizes each film in chronological order and places it in historical context. Production details of the more important films are discussed and the difficulties of funding in Britain are outlined. The book also examines the whole problem of presenting a realistic and recognizable picture of national life and achievement in Scotland.

What would it be like to become Idi Amin's personal physician? Giles Foden's bestselling thriller is the story of a young Scottish doctor drawn into the heart of the Ugandan dictator's surreal and brutal regime. Privy to Amin's thoughts and ambitions, he is both fascinated and appalled. As Uganda plunges into civil chaos he realises action is imperative - but which way should he jump?

The films "Brigadoon" and "Braveheart" have an enormous resonance both for Scots throughout the world and the wide audience of non-Scots for whom such films provide general impressions of "Scottishness". This provocative book discusses the films' representations of Scotland and the Scots, looking at that cluster of images and stories whereby Scotland is (mis)recognized and yet often comes to be "known". Colin McArthur explores "Brigadoon" and documents the contempt the film has elicited, particularly from the Scots intelligentsia. He succumbs to "Brigadoon's" charm, but finds no such mitigating features in "Braveheart". Tracing the film's appropriation by political, touristic and sporting figures, he argues that, far from being "about" Scottish history, it is primarily "about" Hollywood and its cinematic traditions. He looks at the way film distorts history and examines "Braveheart's" sinister appeal to the proto-fascist psyche.

In this evocative work of what the author in his afterword calls “a kindof novelistic memoir,” Jay Parini takes us back fifty years, when he fled the United States for Scotland—in flight from the Vietnam War and desperately in search of his adult life. There, through unlikely circumstances, he meets the famed Argentinian author Jorge Luis Borges. Borges—visiting his translator in Scotland—is in his seventies, blind and frail. When Borges hears that Parini owns a 1957 Morris Minor, he declares a long-held wish to visit the Highlands, where he hopes to meet a man in Inverness who is interested in Anglo-Saxon riddles. As they travel, stopping at various sites of historical interest, the charmingly garrulous Borges takes Parini on a grand tour of Western literature and ideas, while promising to teach him about love and poetry. As Borges’s idiosyncratic world of labyrinths, mirrors, and doubles shimmers into being, their escapades take a surreal turn. Borges and Me is a classic road novel, based on true events. It’s also a magical mystery tour of an era, like our own, in which uncertainties abound, and when—as ever—it’s the young and the old who hear voices and dream dreams.

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “Feeney lives up to her reputation as the “queen of the twist”...This page-turner will keep you guessing.” —Real Simple Think you know the person you married? Think again... Things have been wrong with Mr and Mrs Wright for a long time. When Adam and Amelia win a weekend away to Scotland, it might be just what their marriage needs. Self-confessed workaholic and screenwriter Adam Wright has lived with face blindness his whole life. He can’t recognize friends or family, or even his own wife. Every anniversary the couple exchange traditional gifts--paper, cotton, pottery, tin--and each year Adam’s wife writes him a letter that she never lets him read. Until now. They both know this weekend will make or break their marriage, but they didn’t randomly win this trip. One of them is lying, and someone doesn’t want them to live happily ever after. Ten years of marriage. Ten years of secrets. And an anniversary they will never forget. Rock Paper Scissors is the latest exciting domestic thriller from the queen of the killer twist, New York Times bestselling author Alice Feeney.