Scottish Proverbs

As much as the brilliant perspectives and profound insights of their works astound me, nothing scribed by the likes of Hegel, Kant, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, etc. is as immediately and universally serviceable as the charming truisms in this slim book. Colored by a uniquely Scottish wit and thrift of prose, these maxims are easy to remember, worth repeating and worthy of adherence. And they make for compulsive reading!

Scottish Proverbs contains distillations of the Scottish experience in the form of proverbs that have evolved from that experience. Collected by Julie Jensen McDonald beginning with research for her novel The Heather and the Rose, these bits of folk wisdom are reproduced in hand calligraphy adapted to the styles of the seventh-century Insular Half-Unicals and tenth-century Anglo-Saxon Miniscule, both from the manuscript The Lindisfarne Gospels. Printed single-sided, each page is a work of art worthy of framing. Illustrations include the Scottish Lion, a celtic cross from Iona, a fictional clan badge from the family of Nessie, the Loch Ness monster, and on the cover, a Luckenbooth pin designed to win the heart of Mary Queen of Scots. The cover plaid is Black Stewart.Julie Jensen McDonald, related by marriage to the great Clan Donald, is the author of more than a dozen published books, including novels, a biography and a volume of regional history. Esther Feske, calligrapher and graphic designer from ALbuquerque, New Mexico, relates to the family of Oglevie and was also the designer for Julie McDonald's prize-winning Scandinavian Proverbs.This collection-sometimes rueful, other times philosophical, occasionally humorous and always practical- gives an insight to the people and their experience. Throughout this book are the words of Robert Burns, the immortal poet of Ayr, who wrote many a line that sounds like, and has become a proverb. His down-to-earth insights have been passed from generation to generation with the same enduring verity as the proverbs forged in the hearts of the Scots.