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Caledonia

Exploring Scotland's history

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Caledonia

Caledonia

Caledonia

Caledonia

Caledonia

Exploring Scotland's history

Exploring Scotland's history

Exploring Scotland's history

Exploring Scotland's history

David Morrison
David Morrison
David Morrison
David Morrison
1 Campaign |
Glasgow, United Kingdom
$0 USD $0 USD 0 backers
0% of $618 Flexible Goal Flexible Goal

Short Summary

Most of us are familiar with a few snapshots from Scottish history. Characters like Mary Queen of Scots and William Wallace crop up time and again alongside key events such as the Glencoe Massacre or Culloden. However, the broad brush of Scotland's history gets a lot less exposure and many remarkable events and fascinating lifestyles go largely unexplored.

This project aims to make it straightforward and enjoyable to get a grasp on how the overall story fits together and explores highlights just waiting to be dragged out into the open. The content sets out to make more of Scotland's story highly accessible by presenting the past through lashings of colour artwork; very readable, relatively short accounts; and focusing on events which brought change. As a Scottish historian, experienced content developer and contract university lecturer, I'm trained for the work involved and a sizeable share of the heavy lifting has already been done in terms of preparing artwork and making detailed notes.

Contributors are being asked to support and take a bit of a journey into the past for themselves. At the same time they are contributing to a resource, which offers a series of stepping stones towards widening access to Scottish culture, protecting cultural diversity and building authentic accounts.

What We Need & What You Get

Funding goes towards taking the current pool of raw materials, expanding it further and turning the whole lot into as polished a presentation as possible. Having prepared e-books before I'm aware how much can be done to deliver good quality content under your own steam - and how much more can be achieved with greater flexibility in terms of time, materials and kit.

The titles arrive as PDFs with standard US Letter pages, UK English and full page, colour illustrations. The text is 18-20 pt. This makes the files readable on many devices and keeps the text in shorter titles readable when set alongside the images for use as a presentation. Rewards are cumulative.

Please note the images are made at much larger size than IndieGoGo displays - to see all the layer effects and textures I recommend viewing on a colour monitor at 24" or a projector.

The + signs added to the perks below indicate the minimum content. For example, cover and title pages don't count.

Caledonia

  • - Scottish Legends (100+ pages, 12+ illustrations)

Scottish Legends includes selected tales from collections of original Scottish, Gaelic and Norse-Gael mythology. These are shown with colour illustrations of supernatural creatures and mythical treasures from Scotland's folklore. The e-book also has a short commentary on the myths and legends.
  • Alba (50+ pages, 25+ illustrations)

This title combines short comments on events from Scotland's early history with matching images. The content identifies many key events from the earliest prehistory through to the Middle Ages. Taken together the images and comments deliver a colourful 'route map' connecting up major or dramatic events or incidents. (There's a lot of artwork, but Alba necessarily collects from across the titles).

  • Primeval Scotland (36+ pages, 12+ illustrations)

Fuller commentary and images start to flesh out the story of early Scotland. Climate change, a huge meteor strike and any amount of volcanic activity feature large. While the inhabitants at various stages include sea scorpions, Skye's Jurassic dinosaurs and - those top-of-the line ambush predators - Sabretooth Tigers.

  • Ancient Scotland (36+ pages, 12+ illustrations)

Ancient Scotland continues from and follows the same approach as Primeval Scotland. As our distant ancestors arrive from Europe they begin by forming societies adapted to survive. However, as permanent hearths and homes appeared a sophisticated Neolithic civilisation developed - from roughly 6500 years ago.

Much of what these early 'Scots' made and exported is quite familiar, at least in name, from sites such as Orkney's Ness of Brodgar and, later, Callanish.

  • The Road to Bannockburn (60+ pages, 10+ illustrations)

The first of two colour illustrated titles on the First Scottish War of Independence goes into greater detail than the shorter titles above. Sections of the text were tried-out online as a testing ground for accessible content, resulting in adding revised text, new text and original documents to offer a broad account of the conflict.

The rebellion of De Moray and Wallace is covered in the first title; along with the years between Wallace's capture and the defining battle at Bannockburn.

  • The Defence of the Realm (60+ pages, 10+ illustrations)

The years after Bannockburn brought further conflict and this title looks at how the conflict was contained and what was done to consolidate Scotland's position. As with the first of the pair, the e-book includes colour illustrations, links to Wikipedia to map key locations and suggestions for further reading.

I'll add a slice of sample text from Defence of the Realm here:

"Douglas was about to celebrate the completion of a new hunting lodge at Lintalee in Jedburgh forest. Arundel thought it would be a good idea to send a force of several thousand axe-wielding men-at-arms to dismantle the new hunting lodge.

At the time James Douglas had barely fifty mounted men at his disposal, along with several companies of archers drawn from the nearby Douglas lands. An ambush was clearly in order and as Arundel's force approached Douglas ordered his men to lash together the trees and thickets on either side of a narrow point on the road.

The army of woodcutters advanced into the ambush, which Douglas triggered by leading his knights on a charge at the English vanguard. There may have been relatively few mounted Scottish knights, but funnelling them into a road and charging at full speed resulted in a pile driving effect.

The English vanguard couldn’t back up or escape to either side and the Scottish knights’ momentum placed a formidable bottleneck in the only available road. As a result, Douglas' archers simply set about pouring arrows into the largely immobilised English column.

Meanwhile, three hundred of the English troops had taken a different route and stumbled upon Douglas' generously provisioned but unoccupied lodge. Believing themselves safe in the knowledge that Douglas would either be defeated or at the very least delayed at length, the English soldiers settled down to enjoy a meal.

It wasn't a meal they had time to savour, as Douglas had identified Sir Thomas Richmond as the commander of the English forces on the ground during the Scots’ initial charge.

As the two forces clashed, Douglas leapt straight from his own horse on to Sir Thomas with a dagger at the ready.

Having stabbed the unfortunate Sir Thomas to death with the dagger, Douglas then claimed the English knight's fur hat as a trophy - which probably helped to further demoralise the already struggling English force.

Consequently, the battle was over almost as soon as it had started and Douglas went straight back to his lodge. Few, if any, of the band of feasting English soldiers survived his return."

The feedback on the trial text was consistently good. which comes across as an encouragement to add key features and characters skipped at the first attempt. In particular, the one text revised to two texts uses more intense images, adds quotes from original documents, covers the early rebellion more fully and includes more personal stories. Sample feedback at the time.

  • Caledonia (60+ pages, 10+ illustrations)

While sticking to the illustrated, accessible approach the project's most discursive title ranges across a series of controversial or much debated topics. These date from early to relatively modern times and reconsider people and events such as the enigmatic Beaker People, the war against the Romans and much more recently the Massacre of Glencoe. You can quickly review the evidence and make up your own mind about which scenarios seem most credible.

  • The Complete Caledonia (The Lot)

You're clearly a history enthusiast and you'd like all the content rolled into one epic e-title. That's a one of a kind copy with a cover chosen from the available artwork. Plus a title page showing your name and a Scottish symbol/ icon of choice from a set. Only you will receive the personal copy and hold access to your copy thereafter. I'll be making a handful of uniques for myself and immediate family, but will not be releasing your personal version.

Risks & Challenges

What happens if the project doesn't meet its goal. On returning to Scottish history after a long break I was pleasantly surprised by how much more archeologists have uncovered and been made aware of how misinformation thrives on the Internet. The work needs done from my point of view and that's why I've selected the flexible funding option.

So, if resources are short I'll just have to dig a bit deeper and curb my habit of adding an extra this and that along the way. Basically, if you support the project I deliver the agreed content I'm committed to delivering to a high standard.

The work involved is all known territory. I've 20+ years of concurrent experience in Secondary/ Higher Education and as a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy I'm trained to get the job done.

A solo project - apart from help with editing and proofing - relies on my availability. That is in place and other than unavoidable, exceptional circumstances I'll be sticking to agreed targets. I'm building a fair amount of leeway into the delivery date to begin with, but I fully intend to be sending out the first titles very soon after the 60 days of this crowdfund.

Other Ways You Can Help

If you're unable to chip in on the cash front I'd appreciate a share or a mention to your mates. Nothing like a bit of passing round to generate a little extra interest.

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Choose your Perk

Scottish Legends

Currency Conversion $4 USD
£3 GBP
Scottish Legends PDF
Estimated Shipping
August 2016
0 claimed

Alba

Currency Conversion $7 USD
£6 GBP
Alba PDF + Scottish Legends PDF
Estimated Shipping
August 2016
0 claimed

Primeval Scotland

Currency Conversion $10 USD
£8 GBP
Primeval Scotland PDF + Alba PDF + Scottish Legends PDF
Estimated Shipping
August 2016
0 claimed

Ancient Scotland

Currency Conversion $12 USD
£10 GBP
Ancient Scotland PDF + Primeval Scotland PDF + Alba PDF + Scottish Legends PDF
Estimated Shipping
August 2016
1 claimed

The Road to Bannockburn

Currency Conversion $16 USD
£13 GBP
The Road to Bannockburn PDF + Ancient Scotland PDF + Primeval Scotland PDF + Alba PDF + Scottish Legends PDF
Estimated Shipping
August 2016
0 claimed

The Defence of the Realm

Currency Conversion $20 USD
£16 GBP
The Defence of the Realm PDF + The Road to Bannockburn PDF + Ancient Scotland PDF + Primeval Scotland PDF + Alba PDF + Scottish Legends PDF
Estimated Shipping
August 2016
0 claimed

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