Scotland The Land and The Whisky
by Roddy Martine and photographs by Patrick Douglas - Hamilton

Scotch whisky has a unique quality which nobody outside the Highlands (and to a lesser extent the Lowlands) has ever been able to reproduce. It reflects climate, water, people - in fact the whole environment of Scotland, and above all it is imbued with its history. It has achieved an extraordinary place in people's lives all over the world.

This book describes in colour photographs and text Scotland in all its moods, and how whisky has emerged from this environment over the last five hundred years. From the drowned lands of Speyside and the heather clad Highlands to the seascapes of Islay and the Western Isles there are stories to tell. By visiting the distilleries the reader is transported through anecdote and visual image on a revealing journey through Scotland's history and landscape.

After the Jacobite defeat at Culloden Moor in 1746, the distilling of whisky became the means by which the Highland communities could pay their rents. Spreading to the lowlands, the illicit distilling, smuggling and evasion of excisemen became a national pastime. In 1823 legislation encouraged legal stills and from this period evolved the majority of the well known whisky names familiar to us today.

Scotland: The Land and the Whisky is a visual feast blending the land and the spirit in a way has never been done before. An absolutely beautiful book.

Life/Nonfiction * 230 pp * ISBN 7195 5351 2

Price $55.00