Start reading Great Balls of Fire: A Year of Scottish Festivals on your Kindle in under a minute. Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here.

Deliver to your Kindle or other device

 
 
 

Try it free

Sample the beginning of this book for free

Deliver to your Kindle or other device

Read books on your computer or other mobile devices with our FREE Kindle Reading Apps.
Great Balls of Fire: A Year of Scottish Festivals
 
 

Great Balls of Fire: A Year of Scottish Festivals [Kindle Edition]

Gary Sutherland
2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

Digital List Price: £6.43 What's this?
Print List Price: £9.99
Kindle Price: £5.14 includes VAT* & free wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet
You Save: £4.85 (49%)
Unlike print books, digital books are subject to VAT.

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition £5.14  
Paperback £7.59  

Product Description

Review

This is a fun frolic through the strangeness of Scottish traditional festivals. --The Herald

A very funny and surprisingly touching sideways look at modern Scotland and its people. --The Press & Journal

Insightful and humorous. --Evening Times

Product Description

Old habits die hard in Scotland. During the year, communities in every corner of the country get up to all sorts of capers in the name of tradition: you'll find the strangest activities if you search hard enough and discover there's more to Scotland than Burns' Night. This is a custom-made guide to Scotland's annual festivals in all their wonder and eccentricity by a man who decided to spend his year living ceremoniously. From Up-Helly-Aa in Shetland to the Burning of the Clavie in Burghead, from the Stonehaven Fireballs to South Queensferry's Burry Man, "Great Balls of Fire" is a hilarious and insightful journey around the nation that should not be missed.

Product details

  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 562 KB
  • Print Length: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Birlinn (4 Oct 2011)
  • Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
  • Language English
  • ASIN: B006WC6YSC
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #371,447 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  •  Would you like to give feedback on images?


More About the Author

Gary Sutherland
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.

Visit Amazon's Gary Sutherland Page

Tag this product

 (What's this?)
Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items.
Your tags: Add your first tag
 

Customer Reviews

5 star
0
4 star
0
3 star
0
1 star
0
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Gary Sutherland spent a year touring around Scotland visiting all the towns with their own peculiar festivals. He wrote a book about his year. Sadly for him, and also for the readers, his father died just before the year started, an event which casts a long shadow over the book. So we start off finding out about Scottish festivals through the eyes of a recently bereaved storyteller. And given that one of the first festivals takes place in more-or-less his hometown, what we get is a very personal view of the festival. Great if you want to read an autobiography, but not so great if you want to read about Scottish festivals. Later on in the year, the author's wife gives birth to a daughter. Guess what? That overshadows the storytelling about the festivals.

Fundamentally, this book is about 50% too long, as half of it is personal and is not about Scottish festivals. The personal stuff gets in the way to the extent that for one of the festivals (I forget which now) the author completely forgets to tell the reader when the festival takes place. Which is one of the things we really want to know.

Having said all that, some of the festivals themselves are fascinating, and some of the accounts actually do bring the events to life, but I can't help feeling that a simple list of places, dates and links to Wikipedia would be better and more informative.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 

Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   


Look for similar items by category


Look for similar items by subject


Amazon Media EU S.à r.l. GB Privacy Statement Amazon Media EU S.à r.l. GB Delivery Information Amazon Media EU S.à r.l. GB Returns & Exchanges