Item category 1: Read Past/Discover Future

Gathering environmental, ecological, historical, geological, and archaeological evidence, this text charts the environmental transformation of Scotland from the end of the Ice Age 10,000 years ago to the Viking invasions of an established society 9000 years later.

The destruction of Dresden by bombs and a fire storm was a catastrophe that Vonnegut himself witnessed as a prisoner of war and forms the basis of this modern classic.

Greenvoe, the community on the Orkney Island of Hellya, has existed unchanged for generations. George Mackay Brown has recreated a week in its life, mixing history with personality in a sparkling mixture of prose and poetry.

Whether Kathleen Jamie is following the call of a peregrine in the hills above her home in Fife, sailing into a dark winter solstice on the Orkney islands, or pacing around the carcass of a whale on a rain-swept Hebridean beach she creates a subtle and modern narrative. It's surprising what you c...

Set in the Ettrick Forest in the 23rd century, this is a tale of Border warfare. It tell of Wat Dryhope, son of the Ettrick chief, who is unhappy about his clan's violent and permissive lifestyle.

This is an extraordinary and moving collection of letters written to those left behind in the Second World War. It contains marvellous stories of love, courage, hope and tragedy and introduces the reader to the recipients of these letters.

In 'The Time Machine', Wells' time traveller journeys to 802701 AD, where humanity has evolved and divided into the effete Eloi and the brutal Morlocks. This science fiction classic raises profound questions about progress and social order.