Birlinn Limited
Encyclopedia
Birlinn Limited is an independent publishing house based in Edinburgh
, Scotland
. Established in 1992 by Managing Director Hugh Andrew, Birlinn Limited is composed of a number of imprint
s, including, among others:
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. Established in 1992 by Managing Director Hugh Andrew, Birlinn Limited is composed of a number of imprint
Imprint
In the publishing industry, an imprint can mean several different things:* As a piece of bibliographic information about a book, it refers to the name and address of the book's publisher and its date of publication as given at the foot or on the verso of its title page.* It can mean a trade name...
s, including, among others:
- Birlinn publishes Scottish interest books, from biography to history, military history and Scottish Gaelic. The name comes from the old NorseOld NorseOld Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
word birlinnBirlinnThe birlinn was a type of boat used especially in the Hebrides and West Highlands of Scotland in the Middle Ages. The Birlinn is a Norse-Gaelic variant on the Norse longship. Variants of the name in English and Lowland Scots include "berlin" and "birling". It probably derives ultimately from the...
, 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.
- Polygon Books publishes literary fictionLiterary fictionLiterary fiction is a term that came into common usage during the early 1960s. The term is principally used to distinguish "serious fiction" which is a work that claims to hold literary merit, in comparison from genre fiction and popular fiction . In broad terms, literary fiction focuses more upon...
and poetryPoetryPoetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
, both classic and modern, from Scottish writers such as Robin Jenkins, George Mackay BrownGeorge Mackay BrownGeorge Mackay Brown , was a Scottish poet, author and dramatist, whose work has a distinctly Orcadian character...
, and the author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective AgencyThe No. 1 Ladies' Detective AgencyThe No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency is a series of twelve novels by Scottish author Alexander McCall Smith. The agency is located in Gaborone, capital of Botswana. Its founder is a Motswana woman, Mma Precious Ramotswe, who features as the stories' protagonist and main detective...
, Alexander McCall SmithAlexander McCall SmithAlexander "Sandy" McCall Smith, CBE, FRSE, is a Rhodesian-born Scottish writer and Emeritus Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. In the late 20th century, McCall Smith became a respected expert on medical law and bioethics and served on British and international committees...
. Polygon Books was originally set up by students of Edinburgh University in the late 1960s.
- Mercat PressMercat PressMercat Press is an imprint of the Edinburgh, Scotland-based publishing company Birlinn Limited. It was established in 1970 as a subsidiary of the bookseller James Thin, and published facsimile editions of out-of-print Scottish works, such as the five-volume The Castellated and Domestic Architecture...
, founded in 1970 and acquired by Birlinn in 2007, now an imprint publishing walking and climbing guides. Mercat is the Scots languageScots languageScots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...
word for "market" or "trade".
- Academic books about Scotland are published under the imprint John Donald.