In Search of Scotland
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€17.50
Seeking to close a travel-writing gap of over a hundred years, H. V. Morton goes In Search of Scotland, a land to which he is a complete stranger. The result is a characteristically engaging adventure in a landscape at turns 'enchanting' and 'without mercy'. Amongst many entertaining encounters, he describes a 'sincere Scottish breakfast' served beneath a portrait of Queen Victoria, sings Jacobite rebel songs late into the night at a hotel in Fort Augustus and comes across 'the most grotesque signpost in the British Isles': 'The Village of Glencoe, Scene of The Famous Massacre, Teas and Refreshments, Tobacco and Cigarettes'. Anecdotal, leisurely, full of character and event, insight and opinion, this is travel writing of the very highest order. In 1933 H. V. Morton re-visited Scotland and wrote a companion book called In Scotland Again.
Witty, elegant and engaging, H. V. Morton (1892-1979) was one of the most popular travel writers of his time. After a brief period of military service he established a career as a journalist and became a reporter for both the Daily Express and the Daily Herald. H. V. Morton's debut, In Search of England, became a best seller. His genial writing style endeared him to the countless readers of the books he wrote about his travels around the British Isles, Spain, Italy and the Middle East between 1927 and 1950. In 1941 H. V. Morton attended the Atlantic Treaty meeting between President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill which established the Allied policy for post Second World War Europe and he was famously present at the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb by archaeologist Howard Carter and his team in 1922. After the Second World War, H. V. Morton emigrated to South Africa where he lived until his death.