Bizarre Scotland

by David Long

From the world's oldest indoor loo to a theatre where spectators fill their pockets with poo, the definitive guide to the stranger side of Scotland shows there's a lot more to the place than tartan, haggis and tossing the caber. Inside you'll The world's longest man-made echo A city where aliens are welcome What the Royals really think of it Britain's weirdest wig The worst Scottish accents ever Our tallest hedge and oldest tree Loch monsters nastier than Nessie A road you can roll up Scots in Space Whether it's Ruthven or Ruthven? Britain's loneliest bus stop (and its loveliest) A school for spies The cost of burning witches An aeroplane made from seaweed . . . and why the Queen needs rubber glovesPraise for Bizarre 'In a market niche that's now as crowded as the 18:22 to Reading, Bizarre London pummels its bantamweight rivals with knockout clouts of trivia that even this weary correspondent hadn't encountered before.' The Londonist

Genres: Scotland, Nonfiction, Travel, History

219 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2014

About the author

Winner of the Blue Peter Book of the Year 2017, writer and journalist David Long has regularly appeared in The Times and the London Evening Standard, as well as on television and radio. He has written more than 30 books for children and adults and lives in Suffolk.

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book as part of The Traveling Reader Book Club. I really enjoyed this book. The chapters cover numerous topics: Royalty, Nature, Sports, Ghosts, Crime, Food, Etc. The chapters are rather short but they provide enough information that if it piques your interest you can go on and research more to read. The author writes well and often with humor.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

While some parts of this were interesting there were other parts that as a Scot annoyed me. It is not called the Forth Rail Bridge it is just the Forth Bridge, and the words graverobbing and Burke and Hare should never appear in the same sentence unless you are making it clear that they were serial killers and not graverobbers. When Burke was arrested he confessed to murder, which was a crime but was adamant that they never robbed graves, and as long as you only took the body graverobbing wasn't actually a crime. Also Finty Williams is Judi Dench’s daughter not her niece.

[Dafne Flego · Rating 1 out of 5]

Having returned from a satisfying trip to Scotland, I had high expectations from this book. Although well-researched and written clearly, it didn't deliver for me.
Apparently, author's personal interests don't align with mine, and since I am not particularly intrigued by, say, the Royal Family, golf or abandoned WWII military complexes... I had to push myself through most chapters.

I'd say this book would better suit a Scottish reader interested in finding out curious details about their home country, rather than a random tourist. :)

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite as good as the other two I read on Bizarre London and Bizarre England.

3.5 star read, rounded up to 4 stars on the merit of the mention of the bloke convicted of sexually assaulting a drinks trolley on a train. You can't make this shit up!

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

The chapters about sports and transport weren't very interesting but most of this book is very entertaining. Scotland seems to have more than its share of ghosts!

[Louise · Rating 2 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed this but it lost points for some printing errors (repetition of words, occasional punctuation missing), referring to Dr Who instead of Doctor Who and saying that Finty Williams is Judi Dench's niece when she is in fact her daughter.

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting collection of facts and tidbits about Scotland. I liked how it was organized by subject - films, ghosts, criminals, etc. It’s worth a read whether you know a little or a lot about Scotland

[Judith Minguela · Rating 3 out of 5]

En general está muy chulo porque habla de mogollón (en plan: mogollón) de cosas de Escocia que igual de otra manera jamás habría conocido, pero, claro, son taaaantas cosas que algunas importan 10 y otras importan 0. Depende del lector y lo que busque. Pero bien, en general bien.

[Charles Chase · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book with a lot of “huh, that’s not something I would think about Scotland.” Nice concise manner of writing that gives enough information to lead one to other sources for getting more info.

[Rosanne Jacobs-Veltkamp · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gelezen zijn vakantie in Schotland. Vond het niet mega leuk. Zaten wel wat leuke feitjes maar alles was per zin omgeschreven. Meeste feitjes waren van heel lang gelezen. Ging nauwelijks over het huidige Schotland helaas.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it - cant get enough - whished it was longer with pictures.

[Ronald Koltnow · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book of lists of odd facts about the buildings, people, and customs of Scotland. Parts are better than others, with the witch-hunting section particularly grisly.

[Amanda Witt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A small book divided into sections like war, ghosts etc, and giving bite sizes facts about everything.

[Emma Dargue · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting slim book about some of the more strange aspects of Scottish life.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like to know as much as I can about a place before I visit and I must say, Bizarre Scotland gave me some information that I never would have discovered while on the trip. Quite interesting.

[Darren Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of unusual facts that I was not aware off so that is always good!

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

My second non-fiction read for the month of May was a short hardback book all about Scottish history and culture. I adore the cover and the layout of this book, it made for a great book to dip in and out of throughout the month. It's a enjoyable, fairly quick and easy read about a country that I love and need to visit more. I have so many Scottish ancestors on my mums side so I wanted to learn more about Scottish history and culture and this was a great entertaining introduction. I did skim read the sports and war sections (as they just don't interest me) but the last four sections which include witches, crime and ghosts were my favourites!

Review taken in part from my blog