All Right, I'm a good way through Magnusson's book, Scotland: The Story of a Nation.

As I've been reading, I've been thinking of the best way to describe this book; it's very good. Basically, this is a condensed encyclopedia of Scottish history. It's laid out in chronological order, with each chapter giving an over view of a time period or era along with information on locations of sites in relation to modern areas etc.

Say you come across a MacMillan of Rathdown and Jock Scot discussion on the forum about "John Balliol"; it's very easy to look him up in the book and read an overview of his life, and the further chapters where he is brought up are mentioned. There is also a chronology, list of kings and queens, and an index of topics in the back of the book. It's about 730 pages, so not a pocket sized book.


I haven't read James Buchan's, "Crowded With Genius...," yet, but hopefully with all these history books, I will no longer be an ignoramus of Scottish history...

That's my review.