Birlinn (publisher)
 | |
| Founded | 1992 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Hugh Andrew |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom (Scotland) |
| Headquarters location | Edinburgh |
| Distribution | BookSource (UK) NewSouth Books (Australia) Independent Publishers Group (US) Casemate (US military books)[1] |
| Publication types | Books |
| Imprints | Polygon, Mercat |
| Official website | birlinn |
Birlinn Limited is an independent publishing house based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1992 by managing director Hugh Andrew.[2][3]
Imprints
[edit]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.[7]
Digital Publishing and Ebooks
[edit]Birlinn makes its titles available as ebooks through its own website as well as through other online retailers.[8]
In collaboration with TannerRitchie Publishing and Edinburgh University Press, Birlinn publishes Scotland's History Online, a major collection of new and backlist academic Scottish historical research aimed at academic libraries and individual researchers.[9]
Notable authors and works
[edit]- Alexander McCall Smith[10]
- Love in the Time of Bertie (2021)
- The People's City (2022)
- Martin C. Strong[11]
- The Great Folk Discography, Vol. 1: Pioneers & Early Legends (2010)
- The Great Folk Discography, Vol. 2: The Next Generation (2011)
- Andy Wightman
- The Poor Had No Lawyers (Third Edition, 2015)[12]
References
[edit]- ^ "Catalogues :: Birlinn Ltd". Retrieved 4 December 2017.
- ^ Royalsoced.org.uk
- ^ Goring, Rosemary (28 July 2017). "Birlinn marks 25 years of producing 'seminal' books about Scotland". The Herald. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
- ^ The Birlinn or Heraldic Galley Archived 25 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Polygon Publishers
- ^ Mercat - definition of Mercat by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia
- ^ "John Donald | Birlinn Ltd". Birlinn Ltd. 1 February 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Birlinn Ltd - Independent Scottish Publisher - buy books online". Birlinn Ltd. Retrieved 1 February 2026.
- ^ "Scotland's History Online". 1 February 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Alexander McCall Smith - You have to know the places you're writing about". The Bookseller. Retrieved 14 December 2021.
- ^ Folklib.net
- ^ 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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