Born at a clifftop lighthouse in 1910, Archie’s life was spent in the world of Scottish lighthouses – he was one of the third generation of his family in the service of the Northern Lighthouse Board.

Archie’s stories have gr... more...

This is a very British story from more than 50 years ago. It is a story of remarkable technological ambition from a different country than is seen today. It was an era in which the country adjusted to decolonisation and a dangerous nuclear arms race cl... more...

This wonderful book describes the fascinating lives of the two most ubiquitous shorebirds in the world. Between them the Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos) and Spotted Sandpiper (Actitis macularia) make use of a large part of the w... more...

In Deeper into the Darkness Rod takes the reader diving to explore many more famous wrecks around the UK from the Great War. These include HMS Pathfinder and HMS Audacious – the first British battleship... more...

Whilst living in Liverpool, Britain’s second most heavily bombed city during World War II, the author experienced at first-hand the terrible effects of the war on the civilian population and when studying at Cambridge he witnessed the American he... more...

As a barefoot lad in the Outer Hebrides, Bill Innes dreamed the impossible dream of becoming a pilot and this book tells how that dream came to pass.

The author’s career of over forty years spanned a period of incredible advances in the... more...

Hard Down! Hard Down! describes the eventful life of a Shetland man in pursuit of his ambitions – to reach the top in his profession, to find a wife, to cherish a family, to do his job well and to be respected by his peers. The account i... more...

Into the Abyss, the first volume in The Diving Trilogy, is a fascinating collection of true life diving adventures from Rod’s long and varied diving career. It follows his progression from novice diver in the 1980s through the dangers of... more...

Mongooses are a remarkable and fascinating group of small carnivores, with 25 species occurring in Africa and nine in Asia. They live within a wide variety of habitats, from open savannah to dense rainforest, and display an amazing diversity in social ... more...

Farmland wildlife has been decimated by intensive crop growing using pesticides, grubbing up hedges, ploughing heathland and draining marshes, etc. With too many sheep grazing our moors, hills and mountains, a range of upland plants, invertebrates and ... more...

Born in 1887, George Leonard Noake joined the nautical training establishment, HMS Conway, in 1903. He then served an apprenticeship at sea until 1908 when his detailed memoirs commence, sailing as a second officer in the European/West African... more...

During the long winter nights and before the advent of television, people in Caithness used to hold informal gatherings in each other's houses, and spend the night in general conversation around the firesides. These gatherings were known as ceilidh... more...

This stunningly beautiful and informative book celebrates the Arctic, one of the last great wildernesses on the planet; a place where animals have survived for thousands of years protected only by fur and feathers. Humans also survive in the Arctic, bu... more...

This book provides a concise and up to date review of current knowledge on the biological processes affecting animal welfare, and the implications emerging from our improved understanding of those biological principles in terms of options available to ... more...

This compelling story is the result of many hours spent recording the memories of Fred Henley. His life at sea is at the centre of his being and his own words are at the heart of the book. At the age of 14 Fred worked on a Thames sailing barge, then af... more...

This accessible introduction to animal behaviour provides an authoritative yet reader-friendly guide for the interested naturalist. It presents current knowledge about the way animals behave and will enable the reader to derive more pleasure from their... more...

Scotland still has hundreds of miles of ‘dismantled railways’, the term used by Ordnance Survey, and the track beds give scope for many walks. Some track beds have been ‘saved’ as Tarmacadam walkway/cycleway routes while others ... more...

Thomas Telford was arguably the greatest civil engineer Britain has ever produced. This book reveals his humble beginnings and then  describes his self-propelled rise from journeyman stonemason to famous canal engineer.

In 1793 Telford w... more...

A core component of the natural world is the geology, in the rocks and the landforms that have been created by their erosion. The plants that cover so much of the world’s land areas, ant the myriad animals that inhabit each environment, form the ... more...