Patrick Baker

Exploring Scotland's Wild Histories

Unremembered Places

This secret history of the Cairngorms is a series of journeys exploring little-known stories of the Cairngorm Mountains. History combines with travelogue in a vivid account of this elemental scenery— a unique British landscape and its last great wilderness. There have been rare human incursions into the Cairngorm plateau, and Patrick Baker tracks them down. He traces elusive wildlife and relives ghostly sightings on the summit of Ben Macdui. From the search for a long-forgotten climbing shelter and the locating of ancient gem mines, to the discovery of skeletal aircraft remains and the hunt for a mysterious 19th-century aristocratic settlement, he seeks out the unlikeliest and most interesting of features in places far off the beaten track.

A Secret History

The Cairngorms

Johannes Helmrath

Ronny Kaiser

Maike Priesterjahn

The portrayal of princes plays a central role in the historical literature of the European Renaissance. The sixteen contributions collected in this volume examine such portrayals in a broad variety of historiographical, biographical, and poetic texts. It emerges clearly that historical portrayals were not essentially bound by generic constraints but instead took the form of res gestae or historiae, discrete or collective biographies, panegyric, mirrors for princes, epic poetry, orations, even commonplace books – whatever the occasion called for. Beyond questions of genre, the chapters focus on narrative strategies and the transformation of ancient, medieval, and contemporary authors, as well as on the influence of political, cultural, intellectual, and social contexts. Four broad thematic foci inform the structure of this book: the virtues ascribed to the prince, the cultural and political pretensions inscribed in literary portraits, the historical and literary models on which these portraits were based, and the method that underlay them. The volume is rounded out by a critical summary that considers the portrayal of princes in humanist historiogrpahy from the point of view of transformation theory.

The Humanist Depiction of Rulers in Historiographical and Biographical Texts

Portraying the Prince in the Renaissance

The multigenerational conflict between the Franks and the Moors over who would control Western Europe had profound and long-lasting effects. The reverberations of these battles are still with us today. This book will examine the Frankish-Moorish War in the context of the political situation, military organization, tactics, strategies and leadership of both sides.

The FRANKISH-MOORISH WAR 718 To 759

The CRESENT and the HAMMER

Steven M. Oberhelman

Giancarlo Abbamonte

Habent sua fata libelli honors the work of Craig Kallendorf, offering studies in his primary fields of expertise: the history of the book and reading, the classical tradition and reception studies, Renaissance humanism, and Virgilian scholarship.

Studies in Book History, the Classical Tradition, and Humanism in Honor of Craig Kallendorf

Habent sua fata libelli

Fuzzy and his friends were enjoying a night fire when a storm came and put the animals to a test. It was not just any test. It was a test of teamwork, friendship, and care. Fuzzys friends were completing a task far more difficult than one animal could do. Their teamwork, friendship, and caring hearts came together to save the day.

The Stormy Night

Fuzzy the Bear

There are strange relics hidden across Scotland’s landscape: forgotten places that are touchstones to incredible stories and past lives which still resonate today. Yet why are so many of these ‘wild histories’ unnoticed and overlooked? And what can they tell us about our own modern identity? From the high mountain passes of an ancient droving route to a desolate moorland graveyard, from uninhabited postindustrial islands and Clearance villages to caves explored by early climbers and the mysterious strongholds of Christian missionaries, Patrick Baker makes a series of journeys on foot and by paddle. Along the way, he encounters Neolithic settlements, bizarre World War Two structures, evidence of illicit whisky production, sacred wells and Viking burial grounds. Combining a rich fusion of travelogue and historical narrative, he threads themes of geology, natural and social history, literature, and industry from the places he visits, discovering connections between people and place more powerful than can be imagined.

The Unremembered Places

The Cairngorms: A Secret History is a series of journeys exploring barely known human and natural stories of the Cairngorm Mountains. It looks at a unique British landscape, its last great wilderness, with new eyes. History combines with travelogue in a vivid account of this elemental scenery. There have been rare human incursions into the Cairngorm plateau, and Patrick Baker tracks them down. He traces elusive wildlife and relives ghostly sightings on the summit of Ben Macdui. From the search for a long-forgotten climbing shelter and the locating of ancient gem mines, to the discovery of skeletal aircraft remains and the hunt for a mysterious nineteenth-century aristocratic settlement, he seeks out the unlikeliest and most interesting of features in places far off the beaten track. The cultural and human impact of this stunning landscape and reflections on the history of mountaineering are the threads which bind this compelling narrative together.

The Unremembered Places is a poignant and enthralling take on some of Scotland's most fascinating, yet overlooked, places of interest. Shortlisted for the The Great Outdoors Awards - Outdoor Book of the Year 2020 and the Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature 2020.

Patrick Baker

Books

Your next favorite book is out there