Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0748661484, Paperback)

Visitors' preconceptions of Scotland tend to embrace the stereotypes and ignore the rest. You know all about the three "H"'s--highlands, heather, and haggis--plus bagpipes and kilts, whisky and beer, cobblestones, sheep, and unreliable weather. The more enlightened have heard (maybe even are going to) the Edinburgh Arts Festival. The pity is, it's not hard to go, have a wonderful time, and come back without knowing any more.

David Daiches's Companion to Scottish Culture, however, will change Scotland for you forever. An A to Z of everything Scottish, it's a brilliant resource on an exceptional place, covering movements, individuals, and institutions through Scottish history, including the flowering of art, music, and literature that's taken place in the last decade. With a superb 3,500-entry index that runs from Aberdeen to Woolen Industries, the book contains over 400 articles on children's street games, portrait painting, and eating habits, great industrialists, football, and the Scottish Enlightenment.

Destined to grace the shelves of schools and Scottish households, it's a treasure trove for travelers, too. How nice to arrive, confident in the knowledge of just who Robert the Bruce was, who are (and were) the best Scottish fiddlers, and why children go about during Hallowe'en saying "please to help the guisers and I'll sing ye a bonnie wee sang." --Stephanie Gold