Meg Dods, a sentimental virago, keeps a rundown inn in a derelict Tweedale village, while the young Laird is living way beyond his means. When a nearby spring becomes a Spa, life changes as a hotel and a troop of social climbers move in. But this is not a tale of antique virtue giving way to decadent ostentation: although the gang at the ‘Well’ dance the seven deadly sins, everyone in the book has feet of clay.

No historical figures appear in The Pirate, and there are no historical events, but it is still an historical novel because it dramatises those ‘corners of time’ where an old era is coming to an end, and a new is beginning. The novel is set in Orkney and Shetland in 1689, and for the northern isles the ‘Glorious Revolution’ actually means the beginning of the cultural dominance of Scotland and the advent of English power.Scott draws heavily on the diary he kept on his tour round the lighthouses of Scotland in 1814. In both the diary and the novel he weighs the real need to improve the agricultural methods of this barely subsistence economy against the force of tradition and the human cost of rapid change.The plot hinges on an illicit relationship, and is driven by dark men twisted by their criminality, an obsessed woman searching for her lost son, and the murderous rivalry of two young men - a family tale which illustrates the uses and abuses of traditional lore, as well as Scott’s extraordinary grasp of the literature of the north.

2026 AXIOM "GOLD" AWARD — "OUTSTANDING BOOK OF THE YEAR"“This is a must-read for anyone concerned with where we are today and looking for a better path forward.”―Steve Wozniak, Co-founder, Apple Inc.Big Tech is driving us, our kids, and society mad. In the nick of time, Restoring Our Sanity Online presents the bold, revolutionary framework for an epic reboot. What would social media look like if it nourished our critical thinking, mental health, privacy, civil discourse, and democracy? Is that even possible? Restoring Our Sanity Online is the entertaining, informative, and frequently jaw-dropping social reset by Mark Weinstein, contemporary tech leader, privacy expert, and one of the visionary inventors of social networking. This book is for all of us. Casual and heavy users of social media, parents, teachers, students, techies, entrepreneurs, investors, and elected officials. Restoring Our Sanity Online is the catapult to an exciting, enriching, and authentic future. Readers will embark on a captivating journey leading to an inspiring and actionable reinvention. Restoring Our Sanity Online includes thought-provoking insights including: Empowering You—Social Media User, Content CreatorIn The Crosshairs: Privacy And AnonymitySaving Our Kids From The AbyssSurprise! Social Media Can Be Good For Your Mental HealthIs AI The High-Tech Tattletale In Your Social Experience?Lifting the Veil On Bots and TrollsFacts, Opinions, Lies—Who Decides?Web3 Is Here—What The Heck Is It?Is There a Better Way?

2026 AXIOM "GOLD" AWARD — "OUTSTANDING BOOK OF THE YEAR"

“This is a must-read for anyone concerned with where we are today and looking for a better path forward.” ―Steve Wozniak, Co-founder, Apple Inc.

Big Tech is driving us, our kids, and society mad. In the nick of time, Restoring Our Sanity Online presents the bold, revolutionary framework for an epic reboot. What would social media look like if it nourished our critical thinking, mental health, privacy, civil discourse, and democracy? Is that even possible?

Restoring Our Sanity Online is the entertaining, informative, and frequently jaw-dropping social reset by Mark Weinstein, contemporary tech leader, privacy expert, and one of the visionary inventors of social networking. This book is for all of us. Casual and heavy users of social media, parents, teachers, students, techies, entrepreneurs, investors, and elected officials. Restoring Our Sanity Online is the catapult to an exciting, enriching, and authentic future. Readers will embark on a captivating journey leading to an inspiring and actionable reinvention. Restoring Our Sanity Online includes thought-provoking insights including:

Empowering You—Social Media User, Content Creator In The Crosshairs: Privacy And Anonymity Saving Our Kids From The Abyss Surprise! Social Media Can Be Good For Your Mental Health Is AI The High-Tech Tattletale In Your Social Experience? Lifting the Veil On Bots and Trolls Facts, Opinions, Lies—Who Decides? Web3 Is Here—What The Heck Is It? Is There a Better Way?

“This is a must-read for anyone concerned with where we are today and looking for a better path forward.” ―Steve Wozniak, Co-founder, Apple Inc.

Big Tech is driving us, our kids, and society mad. In the nick of time, Restoring Our Sanity Online presents the bold, revolutionary framework for an epic reboot. What would social media look like if it nourished our critical thinking, mental health, privacy, civil discourse, and democracy? Is that even possible?

Restoring Our Sanity Online is the entertaining, informative, and frequently jaw-dropping social reset by Mark Weinstein, contemporary tech leader, privacy expert, and one of the visionary inventors of social networking. This book is for all of us. Casual and heavy users of social media, parents, teachers, students, techies, entrepreneurs, investors, and elected officials. Restoring Our Sanity Online is the catapult to an exciting, enriching, and authentic future. Readers will embark on a captivating journey leading to an inspiring and actionable reinvention. Restoring Our Sanity Online includes thought-provoking insights including:

Empowering You—Social Media User, Content Creator In The Crosshairs: Privacy And Anonymity Saving Our Kids From The Abyss Surprise! Social Media Can Be Good For Your Mental Health Is AI The High-Tech Tattletale In Your Social Experience? Lifting the Veil On Bots and Trolls Facts, Opinions, Lies—Who Decides? Web3 Is Here—What The Heck Is It? Is There a Better Way?

A Critical Introduction to Social Research is the new, updated and improved edition of A Short Introduction to Social Research. This book introduces students and researchers to the key ideas and issues that inform research practice. In it, Henn, Weinstein and Foard provide a clear and easy-to-understand route-map to help the reader plan their research project from beginning to end.

A Critical Introduction is perfect for use on introductory methods courses and is also an invaluable guide for the first time researcher embarking on their own small-scale research project.

This new second edition now features updated chapters which reflect recent debates and developments in the field, including:

- New coverage of emancipatory and feminist approaches;

- Comparative research methods, evaluation research, and action research;

- Online research;

- Glossary of key terms;

- Revised further reading sections at the end of each chapter which include peer-reviewed research articles.

This book aims to prepare students and new researchers for their research project. Brilliantly written throughout, this is your essential guide to the theory of research, the practice of research and the best ways to plan and manage your research.

A Critical Introduction to Social Research is the new, updated and improved edition of A Short Introduction to Social Research. This book introduces students and researchers to the key ideas and issues that inform research practice. In it, Henn, Weinstein and Foard provide a clear and easy-to-understand route-map to help the reader plan their research project from beginning to end.

A Critical Introduction is perfect for use on introductory methods courses and is also an invaluable guide for the first time researcher embarking on their own small-scale research project.

This new second edition now features updated chapters which reflect recent debates and developments in the field, including:

- New coverage of emancipatory and feminist approaches;

- Comparative research methods, evaluation research, and action research;

- Online research;

- Glossary of key terms;

- Revised further reading sections at the end of each chapter which include peer-reviewed research articles.

This book aims to prepare students and new researchers for their research project. Brilliantly written throughout, this is your essential guide to the theory of research, the practice of research and the best ways to plan and manage your research.

A Critical Introduction to Social Research is the new, updated and improved edition of A Short Introduction to Social Research. This book introduces students and researchers to the key ideas and issues that inform research practice. In it, Henn, Weinstein and Foard provide a clear and easy-to-understand route-map to help the reader plan their research project from beginning to end.

A Critical Introduction is perfect for use on introductory methods courses and is also an invaluable guide for the first time researcher embarking on their own small-scale research project.

This new second edition now features updated chapters which reflect recent debates and developments in the field, including:

- New coverage of emancipatory and feminist approaches;

- Comparative research methods, evaluation research, and action research;

- Online research;

- Glossary of key terms;

- Revised further reading sections at the end of each chapter which include peer-reviewed research articles.

This book aims to prepare students and new researchers for their research project. Brilliantly written throughout, this is your essential guide to the theory of research, the practice of research and the best ways to plan and manage your research.

Meg Dods, a sentimental virago, keeps a rundown inn in a derelict Tweedale village, while the young Laird is living way beyond his means. When a nearby spring becomes a Spa, life changes as a hotel and a troop of social climbers move in. But this is not a tale of antique virtue giving way to decadent ostentation: although the gang at the ‘Well’ dance the seven deadly sins, everyone in the book has feet of clay.

No historical figures appear in The Pirate, and there are no historical events, but it is still an historical novel because it dramatises those ‘corners of time’ where an old era is coming to an end, and a new is beginning. The novel is set in Orkney and Shetland in 1689, and for the northern isles the ‘Glorious Revolution’ actually means the beginning of the cultural dominance of Scotland and the advent of English power.Scott draws heavily on the diary he kept on his tour round the lighthouses of Scotland in 1814. In both the diary and the novel he weighs the real need to improve the agricultural methods of this barely subsistence economy against the force of tradition and the human cost of rapid change.The plot hinges on an illicit relationship, and is driven by dark men twisted by their criminality, an obsessed woman searching for her lost son, and the murderous rivalry of two young men - a family tale which illustrates the uses and abuses of traditional lore, as well as Scott’s extraordinary grasp of the literature of the north.

2026 AXIOM "GOLD" AWARD — "OUTSTANDING BOOK OF THE YEAR"“This is a must-read for anyone concerned with where we are today and looking for a better path forward.”―Steve Wozniak, Co-founder, Apple Inc.Big Tech is driving us, our kids, and society mad. In the nick of time, Restoring Our Sanity Online presents the bold, revolutionary framework for an epic reboot. What would social media look like if it nourished our critical thinking, mental health, privacy, civil discourse, and democracy? Is that even possible? Restoring Our Sanity Online is the entertaining, informative, and frequently jaw-dropping social reset by Mark Weinstein, contemporary tech leader, privacy expert, and one of the visionary inventors of social networking. This book is for all of us. Casual and heavy users of social media, parents, teachers, students, techies, entrepreneurs, investors, and elected officials. Restoring Our Sanity Online is the catapult to an exciting, enriching, and authentic future. Readers will embark on a captivating journey leading to an inspiring and actionable reinvention. Restoring Our Sanity Online includes thought-provoking insights including: Empowering You—Social Media User, Content CreatorIn The Crosshairs: Privacy And AnonymitySaving Our Kids From The AbyssSurprise! Social Media Can Be Good For Your Mental HealthIs AI The High-Tech Tattletale In Your Social Experience?Lifting the Veil On Bots and TrollsFacts, Opinions, Lies—Who Decides?Web3 Is Here—What The Heck Is It?Is There a Better Way?

2026 AXIOM "GOLD" AWARD — "OUTSTANDING BOOK OF THE YEAR"

“This is a must-read for anyone concerned with where we are today and looking for a better path forward.” ―Steve Wozniak, Co-founder, Apple Inc.

Big Tech is driving us, our kids, and society mad. In the nick of time, Restoring Our Sanity Online presents the bold, revolutionary framework for an epic reboot. What would social media look like if it nourished our critical thinking, mental health, privacy, civil discourse, and democracy? Is that even possible?

Restoring Our Sanity Online is the entertaining, informative, and frequently jaw-dropping social reset by Mark Weinstein, contemporary tech leader, privacy expert, and one of the visionary inventors of social networking. This book is for all of us. Casual and heavy users of social media, parents, teachers, students, techies, entrepreneurs, investors, and elected officials. Restoring Our Sanity Online is the catapult to an exciting, enriching, and authentic future. Readers will embark on a captivating journey leading to an inspiring and actionable reinvention. Restoring Our Sanity Online includes thought-provoking insights including:

Empowering You—Social Media User, Content Creator In The Crosshairs: Privacy And Anonymity Saving Our Kids From The Abyss Surprise! Social Media Can Be Good For Your Mental Health Is AI The High-Tech Tattletale In Your Social Experience? Lifting the Veil On Bots and Trolls Facts, Opinions, Lies—Who Decides? Web3 Is Here—What The Heck Is It? Is There a Better Way?

“This is a must-read for anyone concerned with where we are today and looking for a better path forward.” ―Steve Wozniak, Co-founder, Apple Inc.

Big Tech is driving us, our kids, and society mad. In the nick of time, Restoring Our Sanity Online presents the bold, revolutionary framework for an epic reboot. What would social media look like if it nourished our critical thinking, mental health, privacy, civil discourse, and democracy? Is that even possible?

Restoring Our Sanity Online is the entertaining, informative, and frequently jaw-dropping social reset by Mark Weinstein, contemporary tech leader, privacy expert, and one of the visionary inventors of social networking. This book is for all of us. Casual and heavy users of social media, parents, teachers, students, techies, entrepreneurs, investors, and elected officials. Restoring Our Sanity Online is the catapult to an exciting, enriching, and authentic future. Readers will embark on a captivating journey leading to an inspiring and actionable reinvention. Restoring Our Sanity Online includes thought-provoking insights including:

Empowering You—Social Media User, Content Creator In The Crosshairs: Privacy And Anonymity Saving Our Kids From The Abyss Surprise! Social Media Can Be Good For Your Mental Health Is AI The High-Tech Tattletale In Your Social Experience? Lifting the Veil On Bots and Trolls Facts, Opinions, Lies—Who Decides? Web3 Is Here—What The Heck Is It? Is There a Better Way?

A Critical Introduction to Social Research is the new, updated and improved edition of A Short Introduction to Social Research. This book introduces students and researchers to the key ideas and issues that inform research practice. In it, Henn, Weinstein and Foard provide a clear and easy-to-understand route-map to help the reader plan their research project from beginning to end.

A Critical Introduction is perfect for use on introductory methods courses and is also an invaluable guide for the first time researcher embarking on their own small-scale research project.

This new second edition now features updated chapters which reflect recent debates and developments in the field, including:

- New coverage of emancipatory and feminist approaches;

- Comparative research methods, evaluation research, and action research;

- Online research;

- Glossary of key terms;

- Revised further reading sections at the end of each chapter which include peer-reviewed research articles.

This book aims to prepare students and new researchers for their research project. Brilliantly written throughout, this is your essential guide to the theory of research, the practice of research and the best ways to plan and manage your research.

A Critical Introduction to Social Research is the new, updated and improved edition of A Short Introduction to Social Research. This book introduces students and researchers to the key ideas and issues that inform research practice. In it, Henn, Weinstein and Foard provide a clear and easy-to-understand route-map to help the reader plan their research project from beginning to end.

A Critical Introduction is perfect for use on introductory methods courses and is also an invaluable guide for the first time researcher embarking on their own small-scale research project.

This new second edition now features updated chapters which reflect recent debates and developments in the field, including:

- New coverage of emancipatory and feminist approaches;

- Comparative research methods, evaluation research, and action research;

- Online research;

- Glossary of key terms;

- Revised further reading sections at the end of each chapter which include peer-reviewed research articles.

This book aims to prepare students and new researchers for their research project. Brilliantly written throughout, this is your essential guide to the theory of research, the practice of research and the best ways to plan and manage your research.

A Critical Introduction to Social Research is the new, updated and improved edition of A Short Introduction to Social Research. This book introduces students and researchers to the key ideas and issues that inform research practice. In it, Henn, Weinstein and Foard provide a clear and easy-to-understand route-map to help the reader plan their research project from beginning to end.

A Critical Introduction is perfect for use on introductory methods courses and is also an invaluable guide for the first time researcher embarking on their own small-scale research project.

This new second edition now features updated chapters which reflect recent debates and developments in the field, including:

- New coverage of emancipatory and feminist approaches;

- Comparative research methods, evaluation research, and action research;

- Online research;

- Glossary of key terms;

- Revised further reading sections at the end of each chapter which include peer-reviewed research articles.

This book aims to prepare students and new researchers for their research project. Brilliantly written throughout, this is your essential guide to the theory of research, the practice of research and the best ways to plan and manage your research.