Mixing family memories, social history and personal experience, Lorna Sixsmith tells how she and her husband abandoned their nine-to-five jobs to return to her ancestral farm in rural Ireland. Between a warm, often humorous account of the challenges of sheep-rearing, milking and the calving season, she explores her forebears’ history, and the hard lives and dark deeds that lie beneath a seeming pastoral idyll.

Drawn from the collections of Dundee Art Galleries and Museums, this volume of early photographs shows the sailing ships and the highly skilled crews of the Dundee whaling industry, often set against the dramatic ice seas and landscapes of the Arctic. Offering insights into an almost forgotten aspect of Dundee’s history, the book demonstrates the importance of whaling for the city between the mid 18th century and the First World War.