James Leslie Mitchell

Divided between her love of the land and the brutal harshness of farming life, young Chris Guthrie finally chooses to stay in the rural community of her childhood. Yet the First World War and the economic and social changes that follow make her a widow and mock the efforts of her youth. But although the days of the small crofter are over, Chris symbolises and intuitive strength which, like the land itself, endures despite everything. Sunset Song is the first and most celebrated book of Grassic Gibbon's great trilogy, A Scot's Quair. It provides a powerful description of the first two decades of the century through the evocation of change and the lyrical intensity of its prose. It is hard to think of any other Scottish novel this century which has received wider acclaim and better epitomises the feeling of a nation.

Spartacus, a fictionalization of a slave revolt in ancient Rome in 71 B.C., is well known today partly because of the 1960 movie starring Kirk Douglas and Laurence Olivier. It was originally published in 1951 by the author himself, after being turned down by every mainstream publisher of the day because of Fast's blacklisting for his Communist Party sympathies. The story of Spartacus, born a slave, trained as a gladiator, who led a slave revolt that was eventually put down by Crassus, was immensely popular, has sold millions of copies, and has gone through nearly a hundred editions. The appearance of this title in the North Castle series brings back into print a book that many regard as a classic, and is enhanced with a new Introduction by the author.

"James Leslie Mitchell's 'Lewis Grassic Gibbon' fiction of Scotland has made him famous, but there is another side to his writing (which he published in his own name) - his passion for writing about the world of history, archaeology and myth." "In this novel, published for the first time since 1932, the characters are all drawn to the deserts of Egypt by the legendary Lost Trumpet, which was believed to have blown down the walls of Jericho. They are entranced by its beauty and its dangers, and the thrill of finding some relic of a past which could still blow through the political struggles of the 1930s and bring some clarity to a world they find puzzling and sometimes repellent." "The Lost Trumpet is an amazing evocation of Egypt, heavily characteristic of Gibbon's early stories, steeped in the memory of his days in the armed forces served in the East, on the Nile, exploring the sounds and sights and smells of Egypt. It reminds us that Grassic Gibbon was a major author with a wide range of talent, which re-publication is making available after many years of neglect."--BOOK JACKET.

Contains studies of Lief Ericsson, Marco Polo, Columbus, Cabeza de Vaca, Magellan, Vitus Bering, Mungo Park, Richard Burton and Fridtjof Nansen.