Edinburgh

The late poet laureate, Sir John Betjeman, said that Edinburgh was the most beautiful city in Europe. Like some other great cities it is set on seven hills. But only one of these, Rome, rivals Edinburgh in matching the beauty of its setting with the stateliness of its buildings. Edinbrugh, too, provides the backdrop to much of the dark drama of the Scottish past, from Mary Queen of Scots to Bonnie Prince Charlie and beyond. Michael Fry, who has lived and worked there for nearly forty years, provides a compellingly readable account of this great city, from the earliest times to the present, balancing Edinburghs cultural, political and social history, and painting a vivid portrait of a city - that like Stevensons Dr Jekyll - is both dark and light, both dark and light, both Auld Reekie and Athens of the North.

‘Impressive … in the style of Peter Ackroyd’s history of London’ Magnus Linklator, Spectator

No one interested in the history of Edinburgh, and indeed Scotland, should be without it’ Allan Massie,Scotsman