Far Off In Sunlit Places/ Tam Blake & Co These companion volumes chronicle the incredible stories of Scots emigrants to the United States, Australia and New Zealand and were first published by Canongate of Edinburgh in the mid 1990s. However, in the past decade interest in genealogy and the study of the Scots influences throughout the world, both fuelled by the internet, has increased dramatically. This fascination with family history has brought to the surface thousands upon thousands of stories of Scots setting of for new lives on the other side of the world. In his two important emigration books Jim Hewitson unearths tales of freedom fighters, politicians, prisoners, explorers, doctors, lawyers which give a vivid picture of the breadth and depth of the Scottish contribution to the shaping of the English-speaking world. Rather than genealogical surveys these books are filled with colourful anecdotes, remarkable family stories and hundreds of wonderful photographs. Most remarkable are the stories of the ordinary Scots, farmhands, carpenters, Highlanders, Lowlanders - brave, resilient families who left their home turf, often unwillingly, to cross oceans, deserts, mountains and swamps to build lives for themselves and their families in the New Worlds. These books celebrate the Scottish emigrant in the US and Australisia - almost certainly you have such a pioneer in your own family.