This is a revised, updated and newly colour-illustrated companion and guide to Edinburgh's - and Scotland's - past and present. Professor Youngson matches buildings with history. First there is the city as it stands. He draws our attention to its visible splendour and curiosities, explaining how they came to be there and showing how far it was a plan, and how far an accident that Edinburgh has become one of the most visually inspiring cities in Europe. But in Edinburgh, as perhaps in no other city, the visible - however arresting - is outdone by the invisible. The character of the city, beyond appearances, is in its ghosts, who in these pages walk the streets: kings and queens, John Knox, Scott, Stevenson, Burke and Hare, assassins and their victims. The Border region complements the town, easy rolling landscapes "with sheep on the warm hillside" and the River Tweed never far away. There are great houses such as Bowhill and Floors; mighty fortresses like Hermitage, in wild remote country, and above all four Border abbeys, half destroyed by invading armies. Nowhere else, surely, are the beauties of nature and the destruction of beautiful things so poignantly combined.
"The Companion Guide to Edinburgh and the Borders" captures the charm and mystery of Edinburgh, and should be an excellent companion for those travelling through Edinburgh and the Borders, or who have an interest in the impressive architecture and history of this part of Scotland.