Supernatural Scotland
By Roddy Martine 

     There is nothing like a good ghost story, and if it also happens to be true, so much the better! A fascination for the supernatural seems almost universal and increases rather than fades away the more we know about the world around us. Perhaps the supernatural is the last bastion of the unknown, the last place of our personal knowledge where the caption "here be dragons" could be said to the sum total of our understanding. Scotland has a wealth of history of the most robust type, so it is hardly surprising that it should be so haunted. A fascination for the supernatural seems almost universal.

     Not that this book deals solely with ghosts; there are chapters on poltergeists, second sight, reincarnation, prophecy and some other even stranger mysteries. Don't search the pages for the Monster of Glamis, Nessie, the Brahan Seer, headless horsemen and spectral white ladies; you will find none of these things in this book.

     This is not a collection of sightings and tales from the past, but from our own contemporary times and giving accounts of their brushes with the Unseen World are all kinds of modern folk. Most of the places can be visited so this makes an ideal book for anybody who lives in Scotland or who is going there on holiday. Author Roddy Martine has a good storytelling style, manages to make some short accounts into something compelling, and clearly has a real feel for his material.

     This might have been the sort of book to just sit down and read if the stories had been longer, but it would have resulted in a loss of verisimilitude. As it is, this is a great book for keeping on your coffee table and dipping into at random. Illustrated with some unfanciful color photos, this is the sort of book that makes you think that there might be something out there after all.