'Oh come now, Mr Buchanan. When one goes out into the world, one always ends up smelling of something or other.' Fergus Buchanan has led a charmed life: a doting family, a loving sweetheart and the respect of his neighbours. All is as it should be and nothing stands between him and the limitless happiness that is his destiny. But then he is sent from his remote island to retrieve the cursing stone, and his adventures in the wild world beyond cause him to question everything he thought he knew. Succeed or fail, nothing will be the same again. This modern quest is a story of courage, duty and revenge, of family ties and loves lost and found, of dragons and postcodes.

According to the accepted wisdom, in the 1860s the football games created by public schoolboys were transplanted from these elite foundations, rapidly becoming the sports of the masses. But has this history ever been challenged or explored? Football, The First Hundred Years, provides a revisionist history of the game, challenging previously widely-accepted belief. The book argues that established football histories do not correspond with the facts. Football, as played by the 'masses' previous to the public school codes is almost always portrayed as wild and quite barbaric but Harvey shows evidence suggesting this view to be a serious over-simplification. Football's First One Hundred Years provides a very detailed picture of the football played outside the confines of the public schools, revealing a culture that was every bit as sophisticated as that found within their prestigious walls. Indeed, the administrative body created by public schoolboys, the FA, rapidly collapsed and by 1867, it was the intervention of working class representatives from Sheffield who saved soccer. offering a different perspective on almost every aspect of the established history of the formative years of the game. The book will be of great interest to sports historians and football enthusiasts alike.

The story of the creation of Britain's national game has often been told. According to the accepted wisdom, the refined football games created by English public schools in the 1860s subsequently became the sports of the masses. Football, The First Hundred Years, provides a revisionist history of the game, challenging previously widely-accepted beliefs. Harvey argues that established football history does not correspond with the facts. Football, as played by the 'masses' prior to the adoption of the public school codes is almost always portrayed as wild and barbaric. This view may require considerable modification in the light of Harvey's research. Football's First One Hundred Years provides a very detailed picture of the football played outside the confines of the public schools, revealing a culture that was every bit as sophisticated and influential as that found within their prestigious walls. Football, The First Hundred Years sets forth a completely revisionist thesis, offering a different perspective on almost every aspect of the established history of the formative years of the game. The book will be of great interest to sports historians and football enthusiasts alike.

Inverness, known as the capital of the Highlands, was designated a Millennium city in 2000. This Royal and Ancient Burgh is recorded going back thousands of years, but it doesn't look like an old town because it was sacked and burned so many times that little remains of its long history. There are exceptions, including a house which dates from 1592 and Dunbar's Hospital of 1688. Also nearby is the site of the Battle of Culloden, the last battle fought on British soil. Situated at the head of the Moray Firth and the mouth of the Great Glen, Inverness is a terminus and starting point for travel and traffic, living up to its other nickname as the Hub of the Highlands. In the words of Neil M. Gunn: 'No one can say he has seen Scotland who has not seen the Highlands, and no one can say he has been to the Highlands who has not stopped to sample its spirit in Inverness.'

Geomorphology is the study of the earth's landforms and the processes that made the landscape look the way it does today. What we see when we look at a scenic view is the result of the interplay of the forces that shape the earth's surface. These operate on many different timescales and involve geological as well as climatic forces. Adrian Harvey introduces the varying geomorphological forces and differing timescales which thus combine: from the global, which shape continents and mountain ranges; through the regional, producing hills and river basins; to the local, forming beaches, glaciers and slopes; to those micro scale forces which weather rock faces and produce sediment. Finally, he considers the effect that humans have had on the world's topography.