Stevenson's Scotland (Mercat Press) [signed]

Robert Louis Stevenson travelled the world from Silverado to Samoa, where he died aged only 44. Wherever he went his love of his native land stayed with him, and he dreamed of resting from his travels at last in a Scottish churchyard. Some of his best writing is about Scotland, and he described it with warmth and intensity, from rugged offshore-lighthouses and bleak Highland moors to his beloved Pentlands and teeming Edinburgh streets. For the first time, the best of his writings about Scotland, in prose and verse, including the entire text of Edinburgh Picturesque Notes, extracts from his letters, and two previously unpublished items, are collected in one entertaining and evocative anthology. His words are presented in the form of a journey, starting in Edinburgh, crossing over the Forth to Fife, then heading via Kirriemuir, Pitlochry and Blair Atholl as far as the Orkney Islands and Shetland. From here the route returns through the Highlands to the west coast, Oban and the Islands; down to Dumfries and Galloway, cutting across Border country and back again, inevitably, to Edinburgh and home. The editors, Tom Hubbard and Duncan Glen, set the selection in context with an informative introduction and a generous helping of notes. The reader is taken on a magical tour and sees the familiar land of Scotland through a poet's fresh and penetrating eye.