Glencoe: The Story of the Massacre
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Glencoe: The Story of the Massacre for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
'You are hereby ordered to fall upon the rebels, the MacDonalds of Glencoe, and to put all to the sword under seventy.'
This was the treacherous and cold-blooded order ruthlessly carried out on 13 February 1692, when the Campbells slaughtered their hosts the MacDonalds at the Massacre of Glencoe. It was a bloody incident which had deep repercussions and was the beginning of the destruction of the Highlanders.
John Prebble’s masterly description of the terrible events at Glencoe was praised as ‘Evocative and powerful’ in the Sunday Telegraph.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
On my way to the Highlands for the first time, 20 years ago, I read GLENCOE on the train journey up, through a misty evening over Rannoch Moor. Next day I headed straight for Glencoe, also misty, and was not disappointed. Prebble had brought that night in 1692 to life in my mind's eye and I was so impressed that when I read other books by Prebble (then a new author for me) it was anti-climax. I gather one or two historians have picked a few holes in Prebble's research but his empathetic portraits of the elderly commandant at Fort William, the young Campbell officer who led his companies out to the glen, and of course the grizzled old McIain are superb.
Format:Paperback
Prebble's work is a perfect example of history told as narrative: that is, it is so engaging that the reader is drawn in and feels part of the story, as if reading a well-researched historical novel. If all history were presented in this manner then many more people would read history. This period in Scotland's past is important for both English and Scots alike to understand, and by illuminating one brief episode this book helps enrich the bigger picture.
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Another excellent book well worth purchasing with the customary novel style one associates with Prebble's historic texts which include the equally enjoyable 'Culloden' and 'The Lion in The North'.
The colour and imagination Prebble uses in his descriptions bring characters such as the giant chief of the Glencoe MacDonalds, 'Macian' to life for the reader as well as his descriptions of the settings which match the language used by Prebble for beauty. On the darker side, the savagery of inter-clan wars of the 17th century may be an eye-opener to some and the idea held by some that this was a Campbell atrocity is put to bed.
As with other books by Prebble, this is the 'common-mans' viewpoint of events seen through an impartial eye although he does understandably show sympathy for the massacre victims. Sympathy is also deservedly shown to the Campbells who had suffered through the depredations of some of the Clan Donald and Prebble ably points out that the massacre may well have been worse had it been assigned to a Lowland regiment such as the fanatical Cameronians. All is not sorrow and sympathy however and Prebbles excellent wit and descriptions of characters such as the slippery Earl of Breadalbane and the proud MacIan with his tail of prickly clansmen are done with an ironic,dry humour which lightens the sometimes inevitable gloom.
The colour and imagination Prebble uses in his descriptions bring characters such as the giant chief of the Glencoe MacDonalds, 'Macian' to life for the reader as well as his descriptions of the settings which match the language used by Prebble for beauty. On the darker side, the savagery of inter-clan wars of the 17th century may be an eye-opener to some and the idea held by some that this was a Campbell atrocity is put to bed.
As with other books by Prebble, this is the 'common-mans' viewpoint of events seen through an impartial eye although he does understandably show sympathy for the massacre victims. Sympathy is also deservedly shown to the Campbells who had suffered through the depredations of some of the Clan Donald and Prebble ably points out that the massacre may well have been worse had it been assigned to a Lowland regiment such as the fanatical Cameronians. All is not sorrow and sympathy however and Prebbles excellent wit and descriptions of characters such as the slippery Earl of Breadalbane and the proud MacIan with his tail of prickly clansmen are done with an ironic,dry humour which lightens the sometimes inevitable gloom.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
book
delivery was very speedy and the book was a better quailty than described many thanks
Published on 15 May 2009 by Ms. Vtm Pugh
A well detailed and tragic story
An example of the brutality meted out to the Scottish people down the ages. Obviously some saw the tiny highland village as an example to be made, particularly after the clan... Read more
Published on 5 Oct 2000
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > History > Britain & Ireland > Early Modern 1501-1700 (Tudors, Stuarts, Commonwealth, Restoration, Glorious Revolution)
- Books > History > Britain & Ireland > Ireland
- Books > History > Britain & Ireland > Scotland
- Books > History > Military History > Wars, Battles & Campaigns
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Warfare & Defence > War & Defence Operations
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
