Alan Young – författare

For nearly 700 years debate has raged over the true nature of William Wallace and his role in Scotland’s turbulent history. Was he the Braveheart of Blind Harry’s legendary account, the bold, but savage, hero of the Scottish wars? Or, as some contemporary chroniclers attested, nothing but a villainous thief and vagrant fugitive? This book draws on a wide range of contemporary and modern sources to look behind the figure of legend to find Wallace’s true character. Through superb photographs, we trace the journey of Wallace from his modest upbringing in south-west Scotland and his first victory as a ‘guerilla’ leader and military commander at Stirling Bridge to his painful death seven years later. We see his ‘invasion’ of Northumberland and Cumberland. This is an essential travelling companion for a journey through Wallace’s kingdom and to learn more about the myth and the man.

Many studies of African-American gospel music spotlight history and style. This one, however, is focused mainly on grassroots makers and singers. Most of those included here are not stars. A few have received national recognition, but most are known only in their own home areas. Yet their collective stories presented in this book indicate that black gospel music is one of the most prevalent forms of contemporary American song. Its author Alan Young is a New Zealander who came to the South seeking authentic blues music. Instead, he found gospel to be the most pervasive, fundamental music in the contemporary African-American South. Blues, he concludes, has largely lost touch with its roots, while gospel continues to express authentic resources. Conducting interviews with singers and others in the gospel world of Tennessee and Mississippi, Young ascertains that gospel is firmly rooted in community life. Woke Me Up This Morning includes his candid, widely varied conversations with a capella groups, with radio personalities, with preachers, and with soloists whose performances reveal the diversity of gospel styles. Major figures interviewed include the Spirit of Memphis Quartet and the Reverend Willie Morganfield, author and singer of the million-selling ""What Is This?"" who turned his back on fame in order to pastor a church in the heart of the Mississippi Delta. All speak freely in oral-history style here, telling how they became involved in gospel music and religion, how it enriches their lives, how it is connected to secular music (especially blues), and how the spiritual and the practical are united in their performances. Their accounts reveal the essential grassroots force and spirit of gospel music and demonstrate that if blues springs from America's soul, then gospel arises from its heart.

This volume aims to critically examine the bad reputation gained by the Comyns in post-Bruce Scotland. The name "Comyn" has long been associated in Scottish tradition with treachery: the family were involved in the infamous kidnapping of the young Alexaner III in 1257, were accused of treachery against William Wallace at the Battle of Falkirk in 1298, and of betraying Robert Bruce to Edward I of England 1306. This reappraisal of the Comyns'' role concludes that the period 1212 to 1314 should be regarded as the "Comyn century" in Scottish history. The book highlights the Comyns'' role as pillars of the Scottish monarchy and leaders of the political community of the realm in this formative century. The family''s interests and influence extended into every corner of Scotland and their castles controlled key lines of communication, especially in Northern Scotland.It is against this background that Bruce''s political ambitions in Scotland and Edward I''s attempts to influence Scottish affairs in the late-13th century are set. Comyn dominance of the Scottish political scene adds a new twist to the murder of John Comyn by Robert Bruce in the Greyfriars'' Church at Dumfries in 1306, and to the impact of the Battle of Bannockburn (1314) on the power struggle within Scotland. This study of the Comyns intends to help establish the strength of opposition to Robert Bruce at the end of the 13th century. A non-Bruce view of the 13th-century Scottish history.The issue of power politics within Scotland, and between England and Scotland, is a constant central theme.

The English humour magazine Punch, or the London Charivari, which first appeared in 1841, quickly became something of a national institution with a large and multi-layered readership. Though comic in tone, Punch was deeply serious about upholding high literary and artistic standards, about dealing with serious subject-matter, and about attempting to nurture its readers’ appreciation of the national drama and of Shakespeare’s plays in particular. The author’s detailed examination of Punch’s constant advocacy of Shakespeare reveals telling new evidence concerning the ubiquitous presence of Shakespeare within Victorian culture. New research in the Punch archives and elsewhere also reveals the identities of many of the Punch authors and artists. The author shows how those who worked for Punch often subsumed their collective identities within the single persona of Mr. Punch, a fictional creation who repeatedly presents himself in both texts and graphics as a close friend and admirer of Shakespeare, a man able to remind Victorian readers constantly of the supreme literary and moral values represented by Shakespeare’s works.

For over 600 years, Robert the Bruce has had a unique place in Scottish history. Yet behind the legendary hero king is a complex, and in many ways, more fascinating picture. He was a man who not only led his nation to a famous victory over the English at Bannockburn, but who overcame great odds to win power for himself in Scotland and fulfil his family’s long-held ambition for political power. This book, illustrated with superb colour and black and white photographs, takes the reader on Bruce’s journey, from his birth in south-west Scotland to his kingship and triumph at Bannockburn. Here are the sites and settings associated with Robert the Bruce and those he fought. This is an essential travelling companion for a journey through Bruce’s kingdom and to learn more about the myth and the man.