Lion in the North: A Personal View of Scotland's History

by John Prebble

This work looks at the Scotland's turbulent history.

Genres: History, Scotland, Nonfiction

344 pages, Hardcover

First published April 28, 1981

About the author

John Edward Curtis Prebble, FRSL, OBE was an English/Canadian journalist, novelist, documentarian and historian. He is best known for his studies of Scottish history.

He was born in Edmonton, Middlesex, England, but he grew up in Saskatchewan, Canada, where his father had a brother. His parents emigrated there after World War I. Returning to England with his family, he attended the Latymer School. He joined the Communist Party of Great Britain but abandoned it after World War II.

Reviews

[Pam Baddeley · Rating 3 out of 5]

An ambitious history of Scotland starting in earliest times where there are no written records, right up until the mid 19th century or so. It obviously covers a lot of ground and, as the author states, is a personal history. This is especially visible when towards the end of the book he states that Scotland could never again be an independent country - given the current political situation, a particularly ironic viewpoint.

The impression is given of Scotland as a loose coalition of warring factions for many centuries, some of whom were looked down on by the others (the Highlanders who themselves were tribal and in conflict with each other over land and livestock and who kept their own language until a policy of genocide was carried out against them). There are some useful genealogies which I made frequent use of, as the story does dot about in time a bit and people are referred to in two or three ways - by title or full name or by surname as in 'the Graham'. I did find that confusing and sometimes was not clear without backtracking to work out who was meant especially as a succession of men were referred to in that way. And it was always men whose identity was in doubt - a few women such as Mary of Guise and Mary Queen of Scots appear - as mainly the book is a story of conflict among men in which women and children are the pawns and victims.

I found it a bit hard going at times and given the somewhat dry nature of a lot of it, despite the mayhem and murder, would rate it at a middling 3 stars.

[Richard Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fine account of Scotland's history.

[Marcella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty solid. This took me ages to read but Prebble kept me going with his vicious zingers and occasional sass. One take is that Scotland won a few battles but lost a lot of wars, but this was full of other analysis and different views of big and small moments in Scottish history. Lots of well-placed images, too.

[Brette · Rating 2 out of 5]

While this was a really interesting book to read, it was mostly interesting to read in that I was trying to see past the author's biases. It was fun to see whether I could. The author himself admits that it is "subjective" and "partisan" and this history of Scotland written by an Englishman certainly is.

[Gavin Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Lion in the North is a good overview of Scottish history from the formation of Scotland into a single country until it joined the Union and settled in as part of Britain. Prebble admits that this is a personal view of Scottish history so there are some people that might feel aggrieved at the view that Scotland ceased to be a distinct unit and simply a part of Britain in the early to mid nineteenth century (I'd be one of them). But, as Prebble was writing from a non-Scottish perspective (he was born in England but grew up in Canada) in the late seventies and early eighties, I suppose it is easy to see how he could claim with such certainty that it is unimaginable that Scotland would ever become an independent state again (apologies for paraphrasing but I don't have the book to hand to check the exact quote). From the narrow victory of the Better Together campaign in last September's referendum, I'd say that history has moved out from under Prebble. It's interesting how often historians survey hundreds of years of past change but are less able to see those threads march into the future. Still, this is a great starting point for those wishing to expand their knowledge of Scottish history. Prebble skates through vast amounts of kings, noblemen, battles and feuds. You could really learn a lot by picking and choosing interesting parts of this history as a diving board for deeper study.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 1971 this popular summary of Scottish history is now rather old. My copy has been sitting unread on my bookshelf for at least a decade. So in this referendum year I thought it was high time I read it. I have thoroughly enjoyed what is a highly informative, readable and well-illustrated account of Scotland through the ages. I now feel I have a good framework on which to hang my further reading. I could have wished that John Prebble had not ended his history in the middle of the nineteenth century, as if nothing worth mentioning had happened in Scotland in the more than a century between then and when he wrote his book. At times his account makes Scotland sound like the Afghanistan of its day, so often lacking strong centralised leadership, torn apart by warlords perpetually fighting for supremacy, repeatedly invaded by a foreign power, its people enduring poverty exploitation and murder. The early Presbyterians are even reminiscent in their extremism to the Taliban. I do not usually enjoy reading social and economic history, but, though John Prebble does try to sketch in what life was like for ordinary Scots, I began to find the endless warring of the nobility tedious - there must be more to the story of Scots than this. But that said, this is still a very well-written book that has helped me form my opinions in the lead-up to 18 September 2014.

[Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

A excellent if convoluted history of the people and events that shaped the history of Scotland. The author has a penchant for introducing key players under different titles and names throughout the book. Genealogy charts in the back were very useful as was the map.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable, maybe a little spotty, but he does say it's a personal view. A hard country, Scotland.

[Iain Watson]

Lion In the North: A Personal View of Scotland's History by John Prebble (date?)

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic overview of the history of Scotland.