The Kirkwall Scroll

[Niven Sinclair <niven@niven.co.uk>]

Everyone who attended the Sinclair Symposium in Orkney in September, 1997
was given a copy of the Kirkwall Scroll so there must be several hundred of 
them
in Sinclair hands in the U.S., Canada and elsewhere.

Unfortunately, I have mislaid my own copy but, if it comes to hand, I will 
send it
on to Bill Buehler immediately.  As the reproduction is about 3' x 18", I 
doubt if
anyone will be able to download it via a computer but, as I am an untutored
foreigner in such matters, there may be a way around the size problem.

Andrew Sinclair has just completed his Empire Saga about the wandering Scots.
This epic tale which contains four books:

                                         The Far Corners of the Earth
                                         The Strength of the Hills
                                         The Sea is His
                                         The People of His Pasture

under the inclusive title of "Blood and Kin"

This is Andrew Sinclair at his very best.  He tells the tale of two 
Sinclair families who
spread their tentacles to the "Far Corners of the Earth" following the 
Highland Clearances.

In its review of the book "The Times Literary Supplement" writes:

         "This is liquid history, history as a river, that will either 
sweep you forward, like
           the Scots, or submerge you like Crazy Horse and his Sioux.  It 
eschews all
           causality except the law of motion and the hand of God.

         "So, even before we begin, we are being offered a puzzle 
calculated to distract
           us from the book in hand.  Are these Sinclairs, Andrew 
Sinclair's inventions?
           The dust jacket promises us a blend of fact and fiction.  Are 
they, then, fleshed
           out individuals from his own family history? Are they real?  Is 
the story true?

         "More than costume drama or mere chronicle, it offers the 
attentive reader
           thoughtful consideration of the relationship between history in 
the making
           and the people who make it"

Over ten years ago, Andrew kindly allowed me to read the Mss of the first 
two books
in the quartet.  Ever since, I have been encouraging him, cajoling him, 
beseeching
him, begging him to complete the work because, as I have said, this is 
Andrew Sinclair
at his very best.  True, it is a mixture of fact and fiction skillfully 
blended together in
a manner which allows us to identify our own "Kith and Kin" as they settle 
new lands.
And appropriately, the surviving Sinclairs meet at a Clan Gathering in 
Caithness  at
the Millennium - just as so many of us met at the Halkirk Games last year.

This book is a "must".  This is an enthralling saga of Empire: the Gone 
with the Wind
of the Clans of Scotland with the Sinclairs as the main characters.

Niven Sinclair