Legend of the Celtic Stone (Caledonia Book #1)

Michael Phillips

Description

When a legendary stone is stolen from Westminster Abbey, Great Britain is set astir. Both the IRA and the Scottish nationalists are suspected. Amid the uproar, young politician Andrew Trentham embarks on a personal quest for answers. But the more he learns about his Scottish ancestry, the more questions he has.

Sujets

• Historical fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 01 mars 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781441229595
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
© 1999 by Michael Phillips
Published by Bethany House Publishers
11400 Hampshire Avenue South
Bloomington, Minnesota 55438
www.bethanyhouse.com
Bethany House Publishers is a division of
Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan
www.bakerpublishinggroup.com
Ebook edition created 2016
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
ISBN 978-1-4412-2959-5
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
Cover design by Dan Pitts
Dedication
To the memory of James A. Michener Master of the Historical Novel
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Caledonia
Epigraph
Prologue—The Legend and the Prophecy
1. The Stone
2. Heir to a Legacy
3. The Maiden of Glencoe
4. Call of Ancient Roots
5. The Wanderer
6. Shake-Up in Westminster
7. Father of the Caledonii
8. Leader of the Liberal Democrats
9. To Withstand an Empire
10. Springtime of Discovery
11. Coming of the Dove
12. Roots, Past and Present
13. From Eire to Caledonia
Epilogue
The British Parliamentary System, Scottish Home Rule, and Devolution
Notes and Bibliography
About the Author
Books by Michael Phillips
Acknowledgments
No novelist can write of historical events without great reliance on others—historians mainly—from whom he gleans a multitude of perspectives that find their way into the text. A more thorough acknowledgment of my research sources is included in the Notes and Bibliography at the end of this book.
I commend that appendix to you. I have certainly not written this book in a vacuum, and I would like to recognize those many authors whose works have been helpful to me.
Here I will only comment that this manuscript has been submitted to friends and scholars more knowledgeable than I in certain of the historical eras in which this book is set. I can attest that there are no intentional inaccuracies. I am enough of an historical legalist to spare no reasonable effort to get details precise where it is possible to do so. At the same time, I am as much storyteller as historian. As such I constantly find myself sniffing out intriguing themes and may-have -been s and what-if s to which the evidence lends itself, but which the known facts do not positively reveal.
A novelist necessarily offers interpretive viewpoints as a result of his storytelling instincts, and it cannot be helped that there are historians who disagree with some of them. Where perhaps greater scholastic expertise reveals errors in the text that follows, I hope those men and women whose erudite authority exceeds mine will forgive whatever unintentional indiscretions I may commit.
The following individuals have been very helpful in various capacities: Bill and Eve Murison (Scots dialect, geography), Donnie Macdonald (Gaelic), Helen Macpherson (fueling the fires), Archie Duncan (history), Joan Grytness (interior maps), Nigel Halliday (Irish issues and for the added richness of his company at Iona, Glencoe, and Edinburgh), Arthur Eedle (British politics and names), Rick Christian (fanning the visionary flames of what Caledonia could become), Stephen and Hilary Anderson (for provision of an oasis of hospitality, including an impromptu day in London, and for proofreading), Judith Pella (brainstorming), and Mary Hutchison, Anne Buchanan, and Helen Motter (editorial guidance).
I especially want to thank my father, Denver Phillips, who has now gone to be with the Lord but whose handwritten notes on earlier manuscripts continue as fond reminders of his involvement in the development of Caledonia . Thanks also to my mother, Eloise Phillips, for proofreading an earlier draft of the manuscript, to my sons Patrick, Robin, and Gregory, and of course to my wife, Judy, for ten years of encouragement as the vision of Caledonia gradually took shape and ultimately became reality.
I would also acknowledge Gary and Carol Johnson, Jeanne Mikkelson, David Horton, Julie Klassen, and others at Bethany House Publishers whose vision for this project has burned, if not quite so brightly as mine, certainly in some cases nearly as long, and whose ideas and hard work have been valuable in bringing this ten-year labor, with all its ups and downs, into fruition. Hundreds of thousands of lovers of George MacDonald are deeply indebted to Bethany for its commitment to keeping alive the works of this significant Scottish writer of the last century. Now Bethany adds this epic story of Caledonia to its expanding selection of titles about Scotland, for which those interested in Scotland the world over will, I am sure, be profoundly grateful.
Last but foremost, I would use this forum to acknowledge a man whose influence upon me as a writer has been foundational and profound, a name that will be familiar to nearly all who read my words: James A. Michener, the great American novelist and historian, who died in 1997. As George MacDonald has served as my spiritual mentor, James Michener has occupied something of that same capacity in matters historical. Both men have served as literary mentors throughout the years of my own writing. Whenever I write, whatever I write, their styles and perspectives are ever before me.
I have admired Mr. Michener’s work now for about half my life and consider him the master at communicating that wonderful, delicate, invisible balance so necessary to turn history into fiction. He has been captivating, educating, and entertaining a vast audience for years in what I can only describe as a wonderfully peculiar art form all his own, masterfully interweaving events and lives from widely varying time periods and multiple story lines—both factual and imaginary—into grand tapestries of vivid color and panoramic scope. I thus acknowledge my debt and thank him posthumously for his contribution to my vision for this effort.
For all these reasons, then, and on behalf of millions of appreciative readers around the globe, I offer not only these brief words, but also the dedication of this present volume.
Introduction
All Scots Together
Any book may be enjoyed on a variety of levels. Caledonia will be picked up for as many distinctive reasons as there are those now reading these words.
You of Celtic blood will naturally be motivated by love of nation and pride in your ancestry.
Affection for that wild, infinitely diverse, and captivating region north of the Solway and Tweed, however, is by no means limited to those of known Scots extraction. Scotland is a domain of our earth that cannot be visited, the Scots are a people that cannot be known, theirs is a heritage that cannot be discovered without a change occurring inside . . . something mystical, a pinprick into the soul—or it may be the piercing of a razor-tip point of the Highland knife called a sgian-dubh —imparting a mysterious sense that a little piece of this place is yours too.
Others, perhaps even without Scots blood coursing through their veins and who have not yet been lured into the northern reaches by the magical Caledonian soul-prick, find themselves caught up in Scotland’s story for the history it so unforgettably brings to life. It is an ancient and stirring tale full of intrigue, romance, drama, and adventure, whether or not one possesses personal connections to a certain date or place or family name within it.
Noted Scottish author Nigel Tranter writes,
The Scottish people have always been independent, individualistic . . . and . . . their land is sufficiently dramatic in itself . . . their long and colourful story is bound to be full, over-full, of incident and echoes of that stormy and controversial past. There is scarcely a yard of the country without its story to tell, of heroism and treachery, of warfare or worship, of flourish or folly or heartbreak—for the Scots never did anything by half. This, the most ancient kingdom in Christendom, has more castles, abbeys, battlefields, graveyards, monuments, stone-circles, inscribed stones and relics of every kind . . . than any other land of its size, in Highlands and Lowlands, mainland and islands.
The ancient land of Caledonia, later known as Scotia and Alba, eventually Scotland, possesses one of the most vivid histories the people who inhabit this globe have ever played out upon it. For Scots the world over, this legacy is no mere bookish chronicle, but rather forms an intrinsic element of who they are. To be a Scot is to possess historically traceable roots that extend backward in time beyond the birth of Christ, back to the very earliest eras when the human creature began to know itself and explore the earth. The heritage of the people who, through the millennia, occupied this particular northern corner of Britain is the legacy, as it were, of a universal tree of the family of man upon the earth. “Remember the men from whence you came” is no mere stale truism, but the very lifeblood by which the Celt lives and breathes.
Scotland’s is a story that beckons—of itself—to be told. I approach it not only as a historian and a storyteller here, but almost as a journalist, reporting with marvel the tale I have observed, of a land and its people. As we shall see, it is an ongoing drama whose climax may yet await us!
A passionate love for history—almost any history—burns within this heart of mine. The people and events of former times hold a fascination that draws me more powerfully than most of what our modern age has to offer. I happen to believe, as well, in the significance of history, that its tales and legends, its facts as well as its myths, are important. They contain lessons and insights and perspectives that can expand o