Scotland, The Story of a Nation

[dellwak]

I have just finished reading “Scotland. The Story of a Nation” by Magnus Magnusson.
Now I have a very high regard for Mr. Magnusson. I think he is a very clever chappie and deserves the reputation he has.
However, I do feel that if a foreigner were to read this book, he could be forgiven for believing that Scotland only consists of the Border regions, the Lowlands and the east coast as far north as Aberdeen.
The entire west and north of Scotland are almost completely ignored. Caithness is only mentioned 3 times, and that in the first 85 pages. This means that after 1200 Caithness and its people played no further part in the building of the nation of Scotland.
The Highland Clearances are only mentioned in passing and the potato famine, that happened at the same time as the clearances, didn’t get a mention at all.
When Mr. Magnusson talks about the north east of Scotland, he means Aberdeen. Doesn’t he know that there is another third of the country north of there?
I think that there was a lot more went into the creation of the country of Scotland than the bloody feuds and stupid wars of the rich and powerful lowland landowners that Mr. Magnusson has written about in this book.
Or am I missing something?
Has anyone else read this, if so, what is your opinion?

[Kenn]

I too was surprised by this book, in fact I put it to one side as it seemed to gloss over so much and was failing to cover the whole story.Such a shame as it was a gift and I was looking forward to a good read.
Certainly it would be placed very low on my list of books to read about the history of Scotland.