Birlinn New Title Catalogue Spring 2017

The People's Historian
APRIL 2017
The Scots
A Genetic Journey
Alistair Moffat is a former
Director of the Edinburgh
Festival Fringe and Director
of Programmes at Scottish
Television. He now runs the
Borders and Lennoxlove
book festivals and is
currently Rector of St
Andrews University. He
has written numerous
books, including Tuscany,
The Faded Map, The Sea
Kingdoms, The Borders and
The Scots: A Genetic Journey,
all of which are published by
Birlinn.
History has always mattered to Scots,
and rarely more so than now at the
outset of a new century, after more
than ten years of a new parliament
and the new census of 2011. An
almost limitless archive of our history
lies hidden inside our bodies and we
carry the ancient story of Scotland
around with us. The mushrooming
of genetic studies, of DNA analysis,
is rewriting our history in spectacular
fashion.
This new edition takes into account
recent developments in DNA science
and includes recent findings on
early farming and its migrations,
Neanderthal DNA, the classic Celtic
DNA Y chromosome haplogroup, the
royal Stewart lineages, and physical
characteristics such as red hair and
blue eyes.
‘[Moffat] is wonderfully able to
communicate the epic elements of
the story – which matters because
that’s precisely what man’s survival
has been’ – The Scotsman
'A fascinating picture'
– James Naughtie, Today Programme
BBC Radio 4
Format: 198 x 129mm B-pbk
ISBN: 9781780274447
Price: £9.99
Extent: 272pp
Illustrations: 8pp colour plates
April 2017
38
'The fusion of science and the physical
history – like an abandoned croft –
allows people to trace their Scots
ancestry with precision’
– Sunday Herald
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