THE BAGPIPE, THE SPORRAN, AND THE DIRK Colin had a melancholy homecoming from University to his father's house in the shire of Argile and the fabled highlands of Scotland. The year is 1744. The land of peaceful glens, misty lochs and the skirl of pipes in the heather is embroiled in change. From the fractious clan battles has arisen the famous Montrose, who sacks Inveraray and then wins the battle of Inverlochy. The Marquis of Argile, Gillesbeg Gruamach, wishes to return from clan warfare to peace and lawful commerce and opposes Montrose. Colin meets the swaggering character Iain Aluinn -- known to his compatriots as John Splendid -- who serves his Marquis, but longs for rebellion and battle. Colin finds adventure and romance in tumultuous homeland -- and far, far more.

Author Biography

Neil Munro (1863 - 1930) was a Scottish journalist, newspaper editor, author and literary critic. He was a serious writer, but is now mainly known for his humorous short stories, originally written under the pen name Hugh Foulis. The best known of these stories are about the fictional Clyde puffer the Vital Spark and her captain Para Handy but they also include stories about the waiter and kirk beadle Erchie MacPherson and the traveling drapery salesman Jimmy Swan. They were originally published in the Glasgow Evening News, but collections were published as books. A key figure in Scottish literary circles, Munro was a friend of the writers J. M. Barrie, John Buchan, Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham and Joseph Conrad and the artists Edward A. Hornel, George Houston, Pittendrigh MacGillivray and Robert Macaulay Stevenson. He was an early promoter of the works of both Conrad and Rudyard Kipling.