Böcker av Bruce Durie

Interest in Scots heraldry is at an all-time peak.Balfour Paul's Ordinary of Arms (1903 edition) had some 5,500 entries covering the 230 years from 1672 to 1902.Reid and Wilson's Ordinary Volume II added another 6,000, representing 72 years up to 1973.Now, after not much more than a quarter of a Century, there are almost another 5,000.That just refers to Arms actually granted.In addition there is considerable personal fascination with the field of Heraldry, and especially Scottish Heraldry, not least in the many corners of the globe where Scots are to be found.In 2022 the Lyon Court celebrated the 350th Anniversary of the establishment of the Public Register of All Arms and Bearings in Scotland.As Lord Lyon Dr Joseph J Morrow says in his Foreword to this Volume III: "This is a milestone publication in a milestone year for Scots heraldry".

This volume contains four hard to find and rarely-collected stories by 'Dick Donovan' (JEP Muddock), originally printed in Strand in July, August, September and November 1892, between the 1st and 2nd series of Conan Doyle's adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Also reproduced here is Grant Allen's October 1892 tale, 'The Great Ruby Robbery'. An appreciation of that worthy man, Muddock, for whom the bald term "writer" is wholly inadequate, is included. There are brief sketches of the artists Paul Hardy, who illustrated the Strand Donovan stories, and Sidney Paget, who drew for Grant Allen's yarn, but better known as the accidental illustrator of the Holmes stories (Strand really wanted his brother Walter for that task - see p. 143). The layout of this book differs from that of the original Strand publications, but the typographical conventions of the day have been largely adhered to, even if they look antiquated or simply wrong by today's rules. A few errors have been corrected. Edited by Bruce Durie

Before Sherlock Holmes there was Dick Donovan The first internationally-popular Victorian police detective, Dick Donovan was Glasgow's own protector of the peace. "Dick Donovan" was the pen-name for a hugely successful series of over 200 stories and books written by James Emmerson Preston Muddock. These tales predated in popularity Conan Doyle's early Sherlock Holmes outings, and some were first were published in The Strand Magazine at the same time as the Holmes stories. Dick Donovan achieved an international reputation as the master sleuth, and is reputedly responsible for American detectives being known popularly as "Dicks". The foremost, the original, the genuine, the one, the only Man-Hunter in his earliest cases - now available again, with introductory and biographical material by Dr. Bruce Durie. Warning! Do not allow your children, servants, or elderly relatives of a nervous disposition to read these stirring tales of wrong-doers brought to book! www.brucedurie.co.uk/books

It is 1875. Old Tom Morris and his son, Young Tom Morris, dominate golf. St Andrews is the best course and the Royal and Ancient is the top club. A Morris may win the Open Championship - again! But, one by one, members of the Morris family die. Enter Captain David McArdle, recently of the Black Watch. Champion or villain? War hero or phoney? Friend of Tom Morris - or his nemesis? And what of the local doctor back just from India? The Superintendent of the lunatic asylum? The irascible Edinburgh professor with an interest in potatoes? Other professional golfers with reputations at stake? The recently-discovered memoirs of Fife's Chief Constable, James Fleming Bremner, shed new light on the deaths. Or were they murders? "Whether your interest is golf, St Andrews, social and military history or just a well-crafted mystery, the first volume in the McArdle series is a cracking good yarn!" by Bruce Durie

Interested in Heraldry? Like a good chuckle?This gem from 1878 puts it in perspective.With a spiffing new introduction by well-known Genealogist and Heraldist Dr Bruce Durie, The Comic History of Heraldry is a timeless classic that deserves a place on every bookshelf.Plus... a mystery solved - who was the original author?

The story of how Stirling and its surroundings, by a mixture of geography, history, fate and planning, became what it is today. Illustrated with 120 pictures, the book explores the familiar and unfamiliar sides of central Scotland's premier town and includes some interesting and quirky facts.

Part I - Musings on Things ScottishPart II - Researching your Scottish ancestry from America, with Family History sources, musings on aspects of Scottishness, history, heritage, inheritance, heraldry, migration, land and maps, DNA, hints and tips, and more.by Bruce Durie, considered worldwide one of the top Scottish genealogists and heraldists.""In this idiosyncratic, informed, entertaining and always educational book, Bruce Durie takes the reader through the minefield of researching your Scottish ancestry from the American perspective. This is the book no aspiring American Scot can afford to miss!""

A funny thing happened on the way to the Metaphorest. The Magick is gone. Suddenly, grown to full size without the existence of extropy to keep them thumb-height, the Faerie Folk have to find a new way and a new place to live. But there is hope - the Crystal Dwarfs are dying out and they want an infusion of new blood, preferably female, not too tall and a bit dim. The King of Elfland leads his motley tribe of Imps, Emps, Amps and Umps to the Hole of the Mountain King because the Diamond Duke and five guys named Mho take a shine to Princess Titania and her gels. Little does anyone know that some vestige of Magick still resides in certain crystals. Anyone, that is, except Lobster Rampant of the Third Ear and his band of New Age Dippies. Will Titania get married in white shoes and a mini-dress? Will Prince Vince stage a takeover? And who is Idaho Jonah? Read this, and you'll be none the wiser. This book is mything something important - New York Review of Tooks

THE HIGH HISTORY OF THE HOLY QUAIL A FANTASIA Volume the First in the End of All Magick Saga ALL THE WORLD'S A MAGE... There are only two rules in life - It's Not Fair and Don't Be Late, as Slouch finds when he is apprenticed to Vizagriz, wizard of Al Faq'Ahl. Is all Magick a consequence of a mysterious artefact known as The Holy Quail? What is the InterWeb? What exactly are heroes for? And why does there have to some drippy woman along on every Quest? Slouch finds out more than he wanted about the amatory proclivities of Faerie Folk, is arrested by the Enchanted Cops and discovers what happens when Deities fancy a bit of telly late of an Era. "A comic fantasy masterpiece in the honoured footsteps of Fritz Leiber, Lord Dunsanay and whoever wrote The Revelation of St John the Divine."

This book and the accompanying Volume A (Aberdeen-Kirkcudbright) are composed from the three volumes together called Inquisitionum ad Capellam Domini Regis Retornatarum, quae in Publicis Archivis Scotiae Adhuc Servantur (Inquiries Retourned to the Chancery of our Lord the King which are Held in the Archives of Scotland) from 1544 to 1699). These records, informally known as Retours of Services of Heirs, represent possibly the greatest unused resource for Scottish genealogy and land history, but are not widely available and thus are largely unknown. Essentially, they are abbreviated abstracts of the records of inheritance, the continuity of heritable possession of land and certain associated rights and responsibilities. The original Retours themselves are often long and complicated, and mostly in Latin, but they were indexed and abbreviated into the form presented here. The Retours can be searched by County, then by surname and placename. With additional material and a Latin glossary by Dr. Bruce Durie