Skip to main content

Brutal Scotland

A major new photographic survey of Scotland’s post-war architecture by acclaimed photographer of Modernist buildings, Simon Phipps

Many of the new buildings that were constructed in the dynamic, socially motivated period of post-war architecture have now been repurposed, pulled down or left to slowly decay. But others still serve their community. Their impact is beautifully and boldly visible in Phipps’ photographs. From the Post Office of Inverness to the Gala Fairydean Rovers Football Club stand in Galashiels, these stadiums and homes, leisure centres and fire stations, churches and libraries, were built for a people and nation in flux, the architects envisioning a new era of opportunity. 

Their popularity may have declined by the turn of the century, but recent decades have seen a new recognition of the talent and epochal spirit that created lecture halls and banks with equal emphasis on form, utility and function.

‘Impelled by ambitions of nation-building, Scotland’s outstanding cache of Brutalist buildings gave shape to how people lived, worked, studied, shopped, worshipped and spent their leisure time.’ 

Catherine Slessor, from the introduction to Brutal Scotland

Hester

Hester

A dazzlingly inventive tale of troubled legacies, desire and unsung power, inspired by The Scarlet Letter.

Glasgow, 1829: Isobel, a young seamstress, and her husband Edward set sail for New England, in flight from his mounting debts and addictions. But, arriving in Salem, Massachusetts, Edward soon takes off again, and Isobel finds herself penniless and alone.

Then she meets Nathaniel, a fledgling writer, and the two are instantly drawn to each other: he is haunted by his ancestors, who sent innocent women to the gallows during the Salem witch trials – while she is an unusually gifted needleworker, troubled by her own strange talents. Nathaniel and Isobel grow ever closer. Together, they are dark storyteller and muse; enchanter and enchanted. But which is which?

The Nine Lives of John Ogilby

Four hundred years ago, every barrister had to dance because dancing put them in harmony with the universe. John Ogilby’s first job, in 1612, was to teach them. By the 1670s, he was Charles II’s Royal Cosmographer, creating beautiful measured drawings that placed roads on maps for the first time. During the intervening years, Ogilby had travelled through fire and plague, war and shipwreck; had been an impresario in Dublin, a poet in London, a soldier and sea captain, as well as a secret agent, publisher and scientific geographer. The world of his youth had been blown up and turned upside down. Beset by danger, he carefully concealed his biography in codes and cyphers, which meant that the truth about his life has remained unknown… until today.

In this enlightening book, Alan Ereira brings a fascinating hidden history to light, and reveals that Ogilby’s celebrated Britannia is far more than a harmless road atlas: it is, rather, filled with secrets designed to serve a conspiracy of kings and England’s undoing. The Nine Lives of John Ogilby is the story of a remarkable man, and of a covert journey which gave birth to the modern world.

Sign up to hear more

Sign up to get the latest news and events from Duckworth.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyReturn