A Greenhorn Naturalist in Borneo is about natural history, travel in the tropics, life sciences, and adventure, with the environment always in mind. It chronicles the nine years the author spent with his family on that equator... more...

This is the story of lightkeepers’ contributions to the natural history of lighthouses in conjunction with the history and maintenance of the manned navigation beacons – their primary function of course – ‘for the safety of all&... more...

...This book is sure to engage the amateur enthusiast and the experienced galanthophile alike. We wish it all the success and appreciation it deserves. Extract from the Foreword by Professor more...

This is a fascinating combination of biographical material about the great Scottish engineer Thomas Telford (1757–1834), and a modern travelogue that revisits the ... more...

A Vulture Landscape is more than just a book about vultures, in the same way that these majestic flyers are more than just birds. Vultures are a crucial part of many of the world’s ecosystems, and without these specialist environmental c... more...

This is for anyone who believes there is something special about taking on a challenging task in a remote place where few, if any people have been before. It may be a mountain range where your team is the only human presence, or a mountain on which you... more...

As a ten-year-old, the author contracted TB and was sent to an isolated sanatorium, deep in the Cheshire countryside. There he was bedridden for six months. On fine days, nurses would push the young patients, in their beds, out onto a large veranda and... more...

At the very end of the road is a seven-bar metal gate. It is chained and padlocked and marks the exact line where the tarmac stops. Beyond that is a track, twelve pasture and hay fields, and an area of saltmarsh, bounded on one side by a river and on t... more...

This is a book about what it’s like being a birder in an age of natural decline. It is part autobiographical – tales of spell-binding birding encounters that left indelible memories – and it is part reflective. The travellers’ t... more...

Black Rood tells the fascinating story of one of Scotland’s oldest and most significant crown jewels. Once as famous as the Stone of Scone, the Black Rood was a gold and jewel-studded reliquary for a piece of the True Cr... more...

This is an in-depth appraisal of the 30-year post Second World War period that covered significant changes in the history of British Petroleum Shipping. These major changes were vital to the development of the company’s fleet from modest 12,000 s... more...

The British have always had a special affinity for their coastal resorts and piers are the epitome of the British seaside. This book takes the reader on a clockwise tour of our islands, stopping at every pier and walking through their histories. Yet th... more...

This new book reveals the part played by the eight Bustler Class Rescue Tugs built at the Henry Robb Shipyard during the Second World War and will shed more light on the almost-forgotten part played by this country’s mariners. The men and women w... more...

The borderers – people forged and hardened by endemic warfare over generations, whether by raids and skirmishes or set piece battles – are marked even today as a distinct group. For three savage centuries England and Scotland, both dynamic ... more...

Flight From Afghanistan is a harrowing account of what drives a man to flee his home country in fear of his life, the trauma of refugee camps and the dangers he faces even when he reaches the sanc... more...

Footsteps in the Snow recounts a life shaped and dominated by Antarctica, a multi-facetted account of a life dedicated to Antarctic science, policy and governance. It is also the story of growth from callow youth to Antarctic ... more...

The story of Leith–built ships continues in this third volume from just after the conclusion of World War Two to 1965. However, the world was different; the men came back from the front and those women who had been working in the shipyards lost t... more...

This book is a softback reprint of the popular hardback Horse Welfare: Use not Abuse and is dedicated to the protection of horses, ponies and donkeys and is based on first-hand international experience from a lifetime spent with horses – hunting,... more...

If anyone has ever wondered what happens in the engine room when the Captain on the bridge rings ‘Full Ahead’ on the telegraph, then this book will enlighten the reader. This is a story of one man’s life at sea, from his beginnings as... more...

Most birders keep lists of the species birds they have seen, but do any keep a list of pub birds, that is birds on pub signs and in pub names? This book is about these pub birds, their natural histories, folk-histories and those of the pubs that bear t... more...

Rock Lighthouses of Britain & Ireland is a new edition of the classic work on the subject but with some of the most famous Irish rock lighthouses included. The text has been updated to include the modern technology being u... more...

Seasonality is an uplifting look at British wildlife through the seasons of the year, but it is also about our relationship with that wildlife. The author, a keen and passionate naturalist, takes us on a journey through spring, summer, autumn and winte... more...

Have you ever wondered about the place-names that appear on Scotch whisky bottles? What language the names come from, what they mean or if they are even real places?  If you feel baffled about where to start looking for such information, then this... more...

For many, birds represent freedom and spirituality since they are created to be free. Although this may be true for people as well, we are of course not able to be as truly free as our winged friends.

Looking out of his office window and seei... more...

Changes in farmland management throughout the twentieth century, including agricultural intensification and increasing mechanisation, have resulted in the loss of habitat for many species. The Corncrake is one such species that has faced multiple chall... more...

The Dunbars of Ackergill and Hempriggs emerged in the late 1600s as one of the largest landowners in Caithness. As such they played a major part in the history of the county, a role revealed in the family papers with their wide variety of documents, in... more...

The Irrawaddy Flotilla Company, known in colonial Burma as the ‘Fabulous Flotilla’, was the largest privately-owned fleet of ships in the world. It was an entirely Scottish enterprise with nearly all its investors, management and ship&rsquo... more...

Italian history is not widely read but the period under Mussolini’s shadow is both interesting and relevant to understanding the wheeling and dealings of the 1930s and into WWII. Through sheer nepotism Galeazzo Ciano married Mussolini’s dau... more...

Towards the end of the 18th century the attention of mapmakers, explorers and travellers turned to the north of Scotland. The mountains that rise north of Stirling formed a formidable barrier for anyone wanting to visit the Highlands, and travellers to... more...

William Balfour Baikie was a surgeon, naturalist, linguist, writer, explorer, and government consul who played a key role in opening Africa to the Europeans. As an explorer he mapped and charted large sections of the Niger River system as ... more...

This is the first full biography of two of Scotland’s most eminent Architects, James Miller and John James Burnet. While born just three years apart into very different circumstances – Burnet was the son of a wealthy Glasgow architect and M... more...

This under-documented expedition was a pivotal moment in the annals of polar exploration and was the starting point, in historical terms, of revealing the great unknown continent of Antarctica. It was the first time in nearly 70 years since Captain Jam... more...

The Nearly Man is the true, yet almost unbelievable, story of one man’s incredible life, beginning in rural Scotland in the reign of Queen Victoria, and ending on the west coast of Canada in the 1970s. In one of the 20th... more...

This book opens up a wonderland of natural history for all ages to enjoy, and will spark interest in the intricate web of Africa’s natural history, one that is bursting with exuberance, a great variety of life. It covers a vast range of topics th... more...