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A History of Scotland by Neil Oliver

Published May 15, 2015

A History of Scotland by Neil Oliver

Book info

  • Title
  • Author Neil Oliver
  • Year
  • Genres

Thoughts

As soon as I started reading this, I realised I didn’t know much about Scotland’s history. A vague awareness of Skara Brae, and of course the infamous Hadrian’s Wall, but other than that not a lot. This book filled in all the details, and thankfully did it in an approachable and friendly way. Although a lot of time is spent on the lineage of kings and queens through the years, it’s not too hard to track each and figure out the permutations of who was in line to the throne.

I did think there was a bit too much time spent on some of the earlier periods, particularly as you could feel the history speeding up quicker and quicker as it got nearer to the modern period. Of course the more recent events may not count as history quite so much as the others, but they may have been more interesting - particularly with current political events.

That’s a small complaint though, as it’s a good book written with a clear passion for the subject that comes across. I like the style of starting with the rock, and revisiting the geological aspects from time to time, with us wandering humans just flitting about over the top until our own period is over.

Rating: Unrated

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