LOCAL BOOKS

"Hidden Biggar" Photos and Essay from a Small Town.  Published by Hannah Currie, 2009.  £5 all to Macmillan Cancer Support.  Hidden Biggar delves into the lives of a handful of citizens - heart-warming tales, quirky talents, successful businesses and remarkable jobs.  

 "The Carrifran Wildwood Story" by  Myrtle and Philip Ashmole.  Published by Borders Tweed Trust, £15.    Ecological restoration from grass roots.  This is the story of Carrifran, from early beginnings and the vision of a few dedicated to folk, to the forest re-born.

"Biggar and the House of Fleming"  This book is now available as a print on demand title.  First published in 1867, it was for many years out of print.  We do occasionally see a first edition, but  they are in demand and never make it as far as a shelf.   This tome is an in-depth history of Biggar and its environs and indispensible to anyone who is interested in tracing the story of Biggar and surrounding area.

Stenlake photographic books.  We regularly stock the titles with local interest: eg Tinto Old Villages, Old Biggar, Biggar Since the War, Old Lanark, Old Carnwath, Old Forth.  Interesting record of original black and white photographs of people and place.

"Upper Clydesdale" by Daniel Martin.  Tuckwell, 1999. Paperback £9.99.  

A local history and guide from the source of the Clyde through to Carluke.  New copies are becoming harder to obtain as it is technically out of print.

"Andrew Lorimer's Life and Times in the Upper Tweed Valley" compiled by Margaret Railton.  Published by Tuckwell Press, 2001.  Hardback  £16.99   Wonderful collation of the memoirs of Andrew Lorimer who grew up in the Upper Tween Valley.  A glimpse into a vanished way of life in the area.

"Little Sparta: The Garden of Ian Hamilton Finlay"  by Jessie Sheeler and Andrew Lawson.  Published by Frances Lincoln 2003.  Hardback £30.  A beautiful book of photographs and text about this amazing garden, up in the hills not far from Biggar:  "The only really original garden made in Britain since 1945" (Sir Roy Strong).

"At the Crossing of Scotland: the Story of Culter and its Kirk 1170-1970"  J W Stevenson D.D. £2.  

Well-produced, interesting pamphlet with black and white photographs.

A History of the Parish and its Peoples series: Pettinain, Carchmichael, Covington and Thankerton.  Self published, price varies.  Brain-child of local man William Fleming collating history, statistical accounts, maps and photographs of the parishes mentioned.  A work in progress, there are more to come.