Birlinn (publisher)

Birlinn
Founded1992
FounderHugh Andrew
Country of originScotland
Headquarters locationEdinburgh
DistributionBookSource (UK)
NewSouth Books (Australia)
Independent Publishers Group (US)
Casemate (US military books)[1]
Publication typesBooks
ImprintsPolygon, Mercat
Official websitebirlinn.co.uk
Scottish independent publishing house

Birlinn Limited is an independent publishing house based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1992 by managing director Hugh Andrew.[2][3]

Imprints

Birlinn Limited is composed of a number of imprints, including:

  • Birlinn, which publishes Scottish interest books, from biography to history, military history and Scottish Gaelic. (Its name comes from the old Norse word birlinn, meaning a long boat or small galley with 12 to 18 oars, used especially in the Hebrides and West Highlands of Scotland in the Middle Ages.[4])
  • Polygon Books, which publishes literary fiction and poetry, both classic and modern, from Scottish writers such as Robin Jenkins, George Mackay Brown, and the author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Alexander McCall Smith. It was founded in the late 1960s by students of the University of Edinburgh.[5]
  • Mercat Press, founded in 1970 and acquired by Birlinn in 2007, which publishes walking and climbing guides. (Mercat is the Scots language word for "market" or "trade".[6])
  • John Donald, publishing academic books about Scotland.

Notable authors and works

References

  1. ^ "Catalogues :: Birlinn Ltd". Retrieved 4 December 2017.
  2. ^ Royalsoced.org.uk
  3. ^ Goring, Rosemary (28 July 2017). "Birlinn marks 25 years of producing 'seminal' books about Scotland". The Herald. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
  4. ^ The Birlinn or Heraldic Galley Archived 25 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ Polygon Publishers
  6. ^ Mercat - definition of Mercat by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia
  7. ^ "Alexander McCall Smith - You have to know the places you're writing about". The Bookseller. Retrieved 14 December 2021.
  8. ^ Folklib.net
  9. ^ Combe, M. M. (2011). Review of Andy Wightman, 'The Poor had no Lawyers: Who Owns Scotland (and how they got it)'. Environmental Law Review, 13(3), 242-243. https://doi.org/10.1350/enlr.2011.13.3.131

External links

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  • Education (Scotland) Act 1872 (past)
  • Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005
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