The Garden of Cosmic Speculation

The Garden of Cosmic Speculation is at Portrack House, near Dumfries in South West Scotland and is a private garden created by Charles Jencks. To read more about this story, click here.

Viking boat burial discovered in Scotland

Great Britain’s first fully intact Viking boat burial site has been discovered by archaeologists working in northwest Scotland.

The 5 metre-long grave contained the remains of a high status Viking, who was buried with an axe, a sword with a beautifully decorated hilt, a spear, shield boss and bronze ring-pin. The Viking had been buried in a ship, whose 200 or so metal rivets were also found by the team.

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Anti-terrorism laws gone mad?

A security guard in Braehead shopping centre near Glasgow questioned a man who was taking pictures of his young daughter eating an ice-cream. The guard told him that photography in the mall was "illegal" and demanded that he delete any photos he'd taken while there. When the man told him he'd already posted the photos to Facebook, the guard summoned a policeman, who said that he could confiscate the phone under the UK's terrorism laws. The policeman took his details and "he was eventually allowed to leave."

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Whisky wastewater powers Scottish distillery

William Grant & Sons — makers of the single malt libation Glenfiddich — will power one of its Scottish distilleries using an abundant, homegrown product: whisky wastewater.

This isn’t a new foray into alternative energy sources for the company. Over the past two years, William Grant has bought three Jenbacher gas engines from GE that operate on biogas created from the residual malt materials used in distillation to produce alcohol.

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You can find out more about Scottish whisky in Scottish Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Scotland the Brave, written by Jonathan Green and published by Skyhorse Publishing.

Ciao, I'm from Glasgow!

A Glaswegian grandmother has started speaking with an Italian accent after suffering a stroke, despite never having visited the country.

Debbie McCann, 48, had a strong Glaswegian accent before the minor stroke in November last year. But in the weeks following her illness she lost the ability to speak at all only to regain a voice she didn't recognise as her own.

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Pax Britannia: Time's Arrow - Red-Handed is here!

Ulysses Quicksilver: agent of the throne, dandy and hero. Heart-broken, battered, mutilated and shot, he’s been driven backwards and forwards in time... but appearing in the middle of a crime scene is never the best way to start your visit to Paris...

Time’s Arrow offers the reader a unique opportunity – to decide the course of this latest Pax Britannia adventure!

In the tradition of Charles Dickens himself, Abaddon Books will be publishing Time’s Arrow in three ebook instalments. At the end of parts one (‘Red-Handed’) and two (‘Black Swan’) readers will be able to vote on how the adventure progresses via the Abaddon Books website at www.abaddonbooks.com. The entire text will then be published in a paperback edition in 2012.

Don’t miss out on the chance to become a part of publishing history. Pre-order Pax Britannia: Time’s Arrow today!