Edinburgh: A History of the City

Description

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. Edinburgh, 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 Edinburgh's cultural, political and social history, and painting a vivid portrait of a city - that like Stevenson's Dr Jekyll - is both dark and light, both dark and light, both Auld Reekie and Athens of the North.

Michael Fry is a historian and writer who lives and has worked in Edinburgh since 1970. Since 1988 he has published seven books of Scottish history, each of which has overthrown some cherished myth. As a result Waterstone's main bookshop in Edinburgh has a whole section devoted to the works of "Michael Fry, Scotland's most controversial historian".