The Clyde: River and Firth

For this, one of a series of illustrated volumes, first published in 1907, Neil Munro (1863-1930) was surely the ideal choice of author with his versatility as historical novelist and journalist. Born and bred in Inveraray, he spent years on the Glasgow Evening News, contributing two well-loved columns that envious colleagues would describe as having "the Munro touch". Para Handy made his first casual appearance in those pages. This book is a rich storehouse of facts geographical and historical, but it too shows "the Munro touch". We feel his joie de vivre and his innate love of his own corner of the world as he accompanies us from the river's source at Little Clyde Farm, past the orchards near Lanark, the shipyards of Glasgow, down to the Firth itself in its "doon the watter" heyday, ending with chapters on Loch Fyne and the islands. With sixty-seven black-and-white illustrations.