The House of Lochar Publishers

THE HOUSE OF LOCHAR NEWSLETTER : March 2010

Things are happening thick and fast on a number of fronts so here goes:

"THE BOOK OF ISLAY" facsimile edition

The proof copy was received about a fortnight ago and we are delighted with the quality. Thanks to "ForArgyll.com", "The Ileach" and "The Corncrake" over 140 people have registered an interest in our "special offer" (see below). In addition, Roy's of Bowmore will be stocking it at a more conventional price and it has been offered to two bookshops in Oban (no reply - if they are not interested we will offer it to e.g. War & Peace Museum, MacDougall Trust, TIO or somebody like that). It is a little sad that "The Oban Times" has chosen to ignore a publication that might well have interested its readers, but that's life.

To match the demand without over-exposure to market forces we have ordered 250 copies, and expect to receive them within the first week of March. All the people who have expressed an interest will be contacted and given first refusal at £35.00 plus postage where required. Copies can be purchased to be set aside for later collection and most people in Argyll should be able to persuade somebody who will be visiting Colonsay to uplift their copy.

After all the advance orders have been despatched, we will put a further 10% to one side so that if your Email is down, or you are away or in hospital or whatever, you will not lose your "first refusal" status (as long as you are on the list!). Only then will we release the balance, at a RRP of £65.00 - please note that booksellers may charge whatever price they fancy, so we cannot predict what price it may be in a shop or on Amazon etc.

This magisterial work was first published in 1895, and only 250 copies were printed. Copies are now very rare indeed and cost many hundreds of pounds, making them too valuable for normal use. House of Lochar is delighted to publish this facsimile edition. Please see more details here, and note our offer below. Send an email to byrne@colonsay.org.uk with "Book of Islay pre-publication interest" in the subject line.

SPECIAL OFFER: This is a very expensive production and RRP will have to reflect that fact.... but, we offered to supply the first 100 copies at £35.00 plus P&P and have had an excellent response. We have therefore decided to extend the offer until such time as the books are delivered to our warehouse. Send no money now, but send an email as above, without obligation. As soon as the books are to hand, we will email you, giving you the opportunity to take up your option or not.

"The Byrnes and the O'Byrnes": All pre-publication orders were despatched on 11 February and had a note within to indicate cost (£30.00 plus postage). Payment has now been received for almost all of them - thank you. Happily, initial feed-back has been highly encouraging; review copies have been accepted by "Ireland's Own", "Irish Geneaological Society" and "Books Ireland". We would be glad to hear of interest from other appropriate publications.

The published price will be a little more than £50.00 but we will continue to accept direct pre-publication orders at £30.00 until 10th April. The official date of publication is now planned for Dublin on 18th April 2010, when the author will be present. To enjoy the pre-publication discount, please go to the special order page.

Latest update: We have created a Readers' Forum for your feedback.

Tales of Whisky & Smuggling by Stuart McHardy: We are delighted to announce that this very popular book is readily available once more. It joins our growing list of classic titles which we can ensure will remain in print and available immediately from our own warehouse.

Island Titles:

You read about The Book of Islay above. Now read about "Lonely Colonsay - Island at the Edge"

This is to be a new guide to Colonsay, the result of years of study. It will be arranged by geographical area rather than by timeline so that instead of just going from the Bronze Age to the iron Age etc., it will describe an individual area in depth. Thus the reader can read up all about (say) Balnahard one evening, and then spend the following day exploring that specific farm, following a suggested walking route. This book will include references to many historic sites, to genealogical information and to local stories hitherto unpublished.

Work on final checking of detail continues apace, but the completed text has slipped beyond the target date. We are still aiming for Easter publication, but the maps have still to be commissioned, so it is a bit of a cliff-hanger. Accurate Ordnance Survey map references are going to be included since GPS devices are now so readily available.

There will be maps and a photographic section.

Special Offers

We continue our "two for the price of one" offer, post-free within the UK. Please note that full details of the books appear elsewhere on the site, but to enjoy the special offer you MUST order direct from this special page.

The Railways of Scotland

All five volumes in our classic series are once again available from stock - although they are a series, each one is a stand-alone title in its own right. If you use these lines, or live near them, or have a railway-buff in the family, these books will be of interest:

Volume 1: The West Highland Railway

Volume 2: The Highland Railway

Volume 3: The Great North of Scotland Railway

Volume 4: The Callander & Oban Railway

Volume 5: The Skye Railway

In addition, we have a facsimile edition of a brilliant guidebook:
"Victorian Travel on the West Highland Line"

Funnily enough, we spotted a very odd reference which links Jesuits with our own island of Colonsay... it is the first we have heard of it, so we repeat the details here. If anybody has further details, we would love to know:

"December 22 1649: Fr. David Glawey, a missionary in the Inner and Lower Hebrides - Islay, Colonsay, Oronsay and Arran - died. (Jesuit)."

Anyway, that was just an aside. The work detailed below is in no way parochial, it is in fact the definitive study of the role of the Jesuits at a critical period in our national history.

UNIQUE STUDY OF SCOTLAND'S COUNTER-REFORMATION

So Strange a monster as a Jesuiste-The Society of Jesus in Sixteenth Century Scotland "
by Michael Yellowlees

During the turbulent reigns of Mary Queen of Scotland and James VI, the Jesuits played a significant role in preserving Catholicism in the land of John Knox. This book examines the political and religious aims of the Society of Jesus at this time and, at a human level, tells the story of the small number of young Scots who joined one of the spiritual elites of the Catholic church and were revered or reviled by their countrymen. 1 899863 88 5 £18.99 HB

This magnificent book was well reviewed though briefly in the Catholic Observer and in the Scotsman. More significantly the Catholic Herald devoted nearly half a page to the work and calls it "a pioneer study that clears dense mist from an obscure enterprise".

This site provides completely secure purchasing facilities and our warehouse in Colonsay is devoted to the supply of retail customers, whom we are able to supply "post-free" within the UK. Charges to other destinations are calculated by weight - customers may purchase any title with the minimum of fuss. Under "Postage options" simply select your destination (within UK, within Europe or "Rest of the World") and the total price including airmail postage will be clearly indicated.

We have adopted PayPal as our method for secure transactions, which enables us to accept all major cards as well as PayPal itself. You will find that the facility now exists throughout this site, and is also on our domestic site - Post free purchasing within UK