AS PROMISED - SAMPLE CHAPTER FROM SCOTTISH MILITARY DISASTERS - > Book Extract
* He was an Eighteenth Century Scottish Forrest Gump - Stobo
** Here's one that combines Canadian and Scottish themes - Tunnelling for Victory
*** Those who enjoyed reading about the Royal Scots’ Armistice Day battle with the Bolsheviks in 1918might be interested in the same fight as seen from a Canadian viewpoint - Canada’s Winter War
***** Read about the blunder that made Canada an easy target for invasion from the United States - Undefended Border
****** Read about the Second World War's Lord McHaw Haw
******* Serious questionmarks over the official version of one the British Army's most dearly held legends - The Real Mackay?
********** It's been a while since I posted a new article. This one's called Temptation
********** Read about how the most Highland of the Highland regiments during the Second World War fared in the Canadian Rockies - Drug Store Commandos.
************* We now have a Guide to Scottish military museums on this site.
************** Just weeks before the outbreak of the First World War one of Britain's most bitter enemies walked free from a Canadian jail - Dynamite Dillon
*************** Click to read - - Victoria's Royal Canadians - about one of the more unusual of the British regiments.
*************** Read an article about the Royal Scots and their desperate fight against the Bolsheviks on Armistice Day 1918 - Forgotten War A second article, looks at the same battle but through a Canadian lens .
***************No-one has got back to me with a German source for the claim that the kilties during the First World War were known as The Ladies from Hell . See My Challenge to You
***************** A map showing the old Scottish regimental recruiting districts can now be seen by clicking Recruiting Area Map .
****************** The Fighting Men 1746 article now includes the estimated strengths of the Jacobite clan regiments which marched into England in 1745 See Clan Strengths
****************** **I've posted a fresh article - Scotland’s Forgotten Regiments. Guess what it's about.
******************** The High Court Hearing in London in May 2012 attracted a lot of visitors to this site. See Batang Kali Revisited
********************* Why not have a look at Book of the Year
Tunes of Glory
I hadn't realised that the bonnet badge of the Royal Regiment of Scotland had been designed for the 1960 film Tunes of Glory. Well almost. The makers of Tunes of Glory had to come up with a fictional Highland regiment for the film of the book, both written by former Gordon Highlander James Kennaway. That involved a costume designer coming up with a bonnet badge. A lion rampant imposed on a saltire surrounded a wreath of, what looks to me like, thistles was decided on. The RRoS in real life opted for the lion and saltire without the surrounding spray but a crown above the lion. I'm afraid I can't be sure of the fictional regiment's somewhat busy tartan. But it may have worked better than the bastardised Government tartan, with its outsize gaudy green squares, adopted by the RRoS. The Tunes of Glory kilts, trews and thistle collar badges reappeared in Carry on Up The Khyber in 1968.
No To Council House Press
I think I'm in danger of hoisting myself by mine own petard. Getting a book published is not easy. But it seems to be easier if a would-be author comes from a Home Counties, or London, Pony Club background. The number of Pony Clubbers among the published seems disproportionate. I recall some dyslexic woman proclaiming in a posh voice that not only had she been published but her book had barely required any editing or correction. I took this to be evidence of how uneven the playing field is. The dice are loaded from the start. I thought a publisher who specialised in books by folk who had spent at least seven years of their life living in a council house might help even things up. But I've often argued that all discrimination is wrong. Two Wrongs cannot make a Right. So, my proposed Council House Press, which would favour those from less privileged backgrounds, must be a bad idea.
Shameless Plug #9 - With Wellington was among the books recommended as an excellent Christmas present by the prestigious The Society for Army Historical Research. There was another mysterious surge in sales of With Wellington last summer. At the end of May it was the third best selling book about the Peninsular War on the website of one of Britain's biggest booksellers and Number Eighteen in the table for all Napoleonic books. Last December's sales surge turned out to be a combination of the venerable Scots Magazine declaring it Book of the Month in its January 2015 edition and a highly favourable review in the Napoleonic Association's newsletter. Scots Magazine's reviewer, nature writer and author, Jim Crumley, declared "I don't much care for military memoirs, but I could not put this one down". Other reviewers have been equally enthusiastic - "If you are interested in the memoirs of British soldiers in the Napoleonic Wars this book is a MUST!... You don't get many Napoleonic memoirs as good as this" and "It is the most candid memoir of the British Army I have ever read... does not pull any punches ... highly entertaining, but also thought provoking..." To have a look at the full reviews check out more about With Wellington
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