Two recent books from the Hachette Scotland imprint make it to my Christmas and New Year book list.
101 Whiskies to Try Before You Die1 by Ian Buxton is a very neat little hardback for the whisky connoisseur or budding aficionado.
Pocket and health would dictate that tasting your way through this selection is an occupation for some years rather than any unwise attempt to blot out the snowstorms and race through the lot over the holiday period.
And some are very, very expensive including the Japanese blend Hibiki 30 years old reportedly costing £500-£600 a bottle. The World Whiskies Award voted it best blended whisky in the world, 2 years running. The bottle does rather look like a giant perfume bottle – with matching price tag.
The picture is about as near to this ‘outsider’ that this reviewer is ever likely to get.
For anyone lucky enough to get a taste of this exotic whisky, or its more affordable younger sibling the 17 years old, raise your glass to The Scottish Samurai, Thomas Blake Glover, an early and significant influence in a Japan of the nineteenth century emerging from isolation.
Glover was the driving force behind the giant Mitsubishi Corporation and many of the trading and cultural links fostered with Scotland in that period are still in evidence today
We should not be surprised that whiskies from other lands are included. The influence of Scots around the world (and our Irish cousins) has resulted in some significant whiskies worthy of inclusion.
For anyone deciding to concentrate on tasting Scotland’s production there is no lack of opportunity from choice Argyll whiskies to worthy Speysides and the odd Lowland interloper.
Caledonian Dreaming2 is the second title selected from the Hachette Scotland stable. 100 Scots who changed the world is the topic of this very readable book entertainingly written by John K V Eunson.
In order to keep the list to 100 the author has excluded anyone not born in Scotland. So Tony Blair makes the list despite virtually ignoring his Edinburgh birth and Fettes education whilst David Cameron, son of a Huntly loon who did well down south is excluded.
The chosen ones, for which Shetlander, John Eunson, takes complete responsibility for his subjective selection, is arranged thematically: Iconic; Powerful; Numerate; Literary; International; Practical; Healthy (sic); Scientific; Entertaining and Innovative.
The entry for John Law born into an Edinburgh banking family in 1671 is particularly relevant given the recent turmoil in the banking industry. Eunson refers to the carefully cultivated reputation for prudence and canniness in Scottish financial institutions but the real record is a great deal more colourful.
I attended a talk at the Edinburgh International Book Festival by historian Tom Devine, author of Scotland’s Empire 1600-18153. Devine after a lengthy and systematic rubbishing of fellow historian Hugh Trevor Roper, that’s academia for you, got down to the real business of Scotland’s choices at the time of the Unions (Crowns and Parliaments).
In Scotland’s Empire, Devine sets out the options Scotland might have followed rather than the Union route but those choices narrowed with Jamie VI going south for a better job.
Foreign policy lay with the monarchy at that time and Scotland’s foreign policy objectives diverged from those of England. No surprise there or whose interests prevailed.
Devine raised, as does Eunson, the truth behind the Scots canny banking reputation. They might be canny with us as customers but Fred the Shred belongs to a long line of Scottish bankers playing high risk games.
John Law also headed south. Like some others in the world of banking today he was a gambler as well as a banker. He fled England for France when he was wanted for murder following a duel. In France he rose to considerable political height and influence and introduced innovative banking procedures.
Caledonia Dreaming is a great book to give or read over the holidays.
If I have some criticisms these do not detract from the value of this book. First would be the title. Dreaming is different from realisation and these were Scots who having dreamed got on and did things.
Because of the thematic arrangement and mention of others in the text I would have liked a full index but in fairness this is a read and not a reference work.
Finally as John Eunson embarrassedly acknowledges this is a list of male achievers. He is too embarrassed to actually tell us how few women make the list. I count four out of 100 and one of those is Dolly the Sheep!
To quote John Eunson’s comment on this state of affairs -
‘ You will (become) downright black-affronted at the inadequate level of women represented… It is a sad, but true, fact that for a country which since the Reformation has put so much importance on education, that in the 18th century was at the very epicentre of the Enlightenment and in the early 20th century was the midwife at the birth of the gender-equal Labour Party, that while Scottish men have been changing the world, Scottish women have been stuck at home bringing up the bairns and making the tea.’
This is indeed a damming indictment of our society. I do not however agree with John’s conclusion.
Besides dealing with the bairns and making the tea, scores of Scottish women have made their mark on the world and continue to do so. Whilst not comfortable with a ‘separate development agenda’ there is certainly another book in 100 Scots Women Who Have Changed the World as Well as The Nappies.
Russell Bruce, Books Editor
- Ian Buxton, 101 Whiskies to Try Before You Die, Hachette Scotland. 224pp, colour illustrations, Hardback £12.99.
- John K V Eunson, Caledonian Dreaming, Hachette Scotland. 448pp Hardback £14.99.
- T M Devine, Scotland’s Empire 1600-1815, Penguin Books. 474pp Paperback £12.99
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