Ask a cross-section of the public about the ancient peoples that lived in early Scotland and many will settle on the Gaels as true Scots. However, as Rosie points out, the Gaels were 5th Century, Irish, Johnny-come-latelys in the history of the land mass that would eventually become Scotland. Before the Gaels the southern part of Scotland was inhabited by a people who spoke a language that evolved into Welsh. These were the Celts, who predated the Angles as well as the Gaels, peoples from central Europe who settled in southern Scotland and northern England.

Rosie recounts the evidence for placing the mythical King Arthur and his Camelot court in Din Eidyn, now Edinburgh, the capital of the Celtic Gododdin people. Did Camelot sit proudly atop the dormant volcano on which Edinburgh Castle is now located? Rosie's research puts forward an interesting case.

Rosie also argues the case for John Knox, often portrayed as a kind of manic street preacher rather than the intelligent reformer concerned with democracy, debate and education that Rosie finds. That Knox loathed Roman Catholicism is not in doubt and his opinions on women, immortalised in ‘The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women’ earned him the enmity of Elizabeth I, even though the work was aimed at a trio of Catholic Marys - Mary of Guise, Regent of Scotland, Mary Tudor, Henry VIII's oldest daughter, and Mary of Medici in France. Rosie does much to show Knox as an important part of Scotland's development rather than a bitter, twisted old man snapping at the heels of Mary, Queen of Scots, and spreading dour Calvinism throughout the land.

One of Scotland's less edifying exports to the USA was the Ku Klux Klan which grew out of the Scots-Irish immigrant communities in the South. Steeped in Scots Protestantism, pro-white and anti just about any other religious or racial group you might care to mention, the Klan is still alive and kicking today and proud of its Celtic roots. Not one of Scotland's more glorious legacies to the world.

Rosie also looks at Scotland's more recent past detailing the shenanigans that surrounded the 1950 theft and repatriation of the Stone of Destiny from its resting place at Westminster Abbey to Scotland. After a police investigation and the anonymous surrender of the Stone in 1951, it did not return to Scotland again until Tory Minister Michael Forsyth decided that giving the Stone back to Scotland had political mileage. The Stone was ceremoniously taken to Edinburgh Castle on St Andrew's Day in 1996. As a fitting ending to this farce, Michael Forsyth was voted out of office by the ungrateful Scottish public in 1997.

Rosie's other essays are equally informative and no less entertaining. From the witch trials to the fate of Robert Burns' children, he uncovers fascinating and little known aspects of Scotland's past. This is a fantastic read, full of careful research and written with a great deal of wit and affection. Volume two, please, Mr Rosie.

Shirley Whiteside is a Glasgow-based freelance writer who has contributed to The Herald, Herald Magazine, The List and the Scottish Daily Mail. She has also worked as a film/tv publicist on a variety of projects including Orphans, Mrs Brown, The Crow Road, Cardiac Arrest, Takin' Over The Asylum, Small Faces, Ex-S and Bookmark. She is currently working on short screenplays and short stories.

© 2005 Laura Hird All rights reserved.