Nigel Tranter: 74 books

In the wake of the Battle of Flodden, Scotland was ruled in name only. The boy king, James V was at the mercy of ambitous rival factions, and beyond them, the ever-watchful, looming presence of Henry VIII of England. Escaping from the clutches of the power-hungry Earl of Angus, his most effective...

In 1568, the defeat of Mary, Queen of Scots at the Battle of Langside and her subsequent flight to England left Scotland a troubled nation. Mary's infant son was crowned James VI, with her illegitimate half-brother, the earl of Moray, as Regent. The population remained bitterly divided as Moray...

Ardrinish Bay, on the west coast of Kintyre, is well known for wild fowl, waders and sea birds.  Some of the locals have always exercised their rights to shoot wild fowl between low and high tide marks.  The bird population also attracts bird-watchers.  Inevitably, this led to a conflict...

Iain Findlater was a news editor on the Daily Courier in London. While covering a conference in Edinburgh, he arranged to stay in an hotel in Craigmouth  so that he could visit the nearby Craigmouth Bay to see the abundant bird life there.  It was hardly twenty miles east of Edinburgh, on...

MACREADY BELIEVED DEAD STOP PROJECT IN BALANCE STOP PLEASE COME STOP said the cable which reached the respectable Fenchurch Street office of Cranstoun and Macready, Importers and Exporters. Plain words, but enough to baffle David Cranstoun, since his partner, Jim MacReady, was not supposed to be anywhere...

A humble laird from Largoshire, Andrew Wood's determination to avenge his father's murder by English pirates, led to his national renown as a pirate-slayer. This brought him to the attention of King James III, who asked Wood to build up a number of captured vessels to form the nucleus of a national...

Marie de Guise ruled Scotland alone after the death of her husband James V. She foiled Henry Tudor of England's plans to marry her baby daughter to his son Edward and unite the two thrones under English rule by sending young Mary to France. She kept the peace between Protestants and Catholics while...

Seven years on and the principal characters of Trespass are in the Scottish Borders at David Scott's home at Hyndlaw during the Second World War.   A Polish refugee and staff have become tenants of an adjoining estate and appear to be up to no good.  However, that is resolved to the...

The quashing of the Jacobite Rising of 1745 saw an end to the ambitions of the exiled house of Stuart. But somehow the young pretender, Prince Charles Edward, otherwise known as Bonnie Prince Charlie, manage to avoid arrest. For six extraordinary months the handsome young prince, often starving,...

It was almost inevitable that in the 15th century the new Scots royal house of Stewart would have to come to a reckoning with the great house of Douglas. Young Will Douglas, the eight earl, was born to vast power, influence - and trouble. And with the boy-king James II on an uneasy throne,...

In 1745 the Highlanders limped away from the bitter field of Culloden. Soon the Duke of Cumberland was offering a huge sum for the capture of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, dead or alive. Duncan MacGregor, great-nephew of Rob Roy, volunteers to join the small band of men escorting the Prince...

When James the Sixth, His Grace of Scotland, also becomes His Majesty of England, far-reaching changes take place in the two realms. David Murray, the young son of Sir Andrew, a Perthshire laird, has no aspirations to greatness. Then a chance encounter with King James the Sixth leads to him becoming...

In 1678, Scotland liesunder the dark threat of union with England. In an era of intrigue and bloodshed, Andrew Fletcher, laird of Saltoun, stands out as a man of ideals and integrity. His fearless and dogged opposition to the Treaty becomes a thirty-year campaign fought in Europe as well as...

After young James the Third's accession to the Scottish throne, the ambitious Boyd family of Kilmarnock seized power in a bloodless coup. Mary Stewart, James' eldest sister, was at first unwilling to marry Thomas Boyd, future Earl of Arran - but she had no choice. Eventually, however, she learned...