Books by David M. Addison

Starting at Blairgowrie and proceeding through Royal Deeside and the Cairngorms National Park, the 90-mile-long Snow Roads Scenic Route ends at Grantown-on-Spey. It features the highest main road in the UK and, along the way, it offers the traveller some of Scotland's most spectacular scenery.What this book seeks to do is to take a look at what lies behind the incredible vistas, to tell the story of the people who once inhabited this ancient landscape, from the Picts to the more recent past. It's a story with a huge cast of disparate characters. Kings and queens; dukes and duchesses; earls and lairds. Criminals and conmen; chieftains and caterans. Road builders and railway builders; radical ministers and rhymers. Saints and smugglers; storytellers and songsmiths. Jacobites and Redcoats. Pioneers and heather priests. As testimony to their times, the landscape is dotted with standing stones and stone circles, castles and churches, old military roads and railways, holy sites and battle sites. And associated with them are myths, legends, and folklore - tales galore of love and death and derring-do, murder and ghostly goings-on. Appreciate the scenery for its own sake, but you will get much more from your trip, see the Snow Roads Scenic Route through more informed eyes, if you read this book first, or take it with you on your travels.And appropriately enough for a route with snow in its title, the author goes off piste as he visits other places of interest which should not be missed - and where he comes across even more astonishing tales to tell.

The SWC300 Route has been described as Scotland's Secret Corner - with some justification.This book seeks to shed a light on the history and culture of this largely ignored part of Scotland. By delving into the colourful events that happened here in the past, the intention is to enhance and enrich your exploration of this land of contrasts as you travel through its rolling hills and along its spectacularly scenic coastline.The Neolithic settlers, the first Christians, the medieval warlords and the reivers - all played a part in shaping this war-torn land. Sharing a common border with the Auld Enemy - the English - it was badly affected during the Wars of Independence, just as it was during the Covenanting period: what came to be called the Killing Time. Sad to say, there were more deaths from disasters down the mines, out at sea, in the air, and in what remains, to this day, the UK's worst-ever rail disaster.Follow in the footsteps of those who left their mark here. It's a varied cast of characters: kings, commoners and Covenanters; saints and sinners; murderers and martyrs; monks and ministers; poets and pioneers; engineers and explorers; artists and architects; geniuses and gypsies; writers and witches - even troglodytes and cannibals.There are ruined castles and tower houses; grand houses and gardens; abbeys and churches; standing stones and stone circles; museums and monuments; retired railway engines and planes from yesteryear.There are legends; folktales; and tales of the supernatural - all part of the rich tapestry that forms part of the greater and enthralling story that will be revealed to you as you explore what has been a neglected part of Scotland for far too long.It's hard to imagine there can be another part of Scotland that has so much to offer the tourist.

Long before Thomas Cook made mass tourism to Italy possible in the 1860s there was the Grand Tour which, believe it or not, goes back a couple of centuries before that. Seen as a sort of educational finishing school for aristocrats, the Tour took in the Classical and Renaissance sights of Italy, finishing up in Naples and Pompeii. Now, on a package tour, along comes David M. Addison accompanied by his wife, aka La Belle Dame Sans Merci, who thinks he could do with a bit of polishing up as they take in the cultural hotspots of Naples, Pompeii, Assisi, Florence, Pisa, Siena, Rome and the Vatican.The sweep of this book takes the reader from Roman times to the Renaissance, from emperors to kings - including the artists and architects, the politicians and popes, the saints and sinners - all of whom exercised a major influence on their times. With an eye for the off-beat and the extraordinary, this is a personal account of what most impressed the author on his latter-day educational Tour.Seamlessly interwoven with the Italy of the past, is the author's take on present-day Italy. In a humorous, self-deprecatory style, he describes life as he sees it, the curious incidents he witnesses, the interesting people he meets, including his travelling companions. He makes no secret of the scrapes he gets into which arise out of his own eccentricities, nor the occasions when he causes embarrassment of the most cringe-making kind to his long-suffering wife.Much more serious however, was the time when, all alone, the author found himself accosted in the street by three menacing-looking men demanding his passport…

Travelling anti-clockwise, David M. Addison seeks his kicks on Scotland's equivalent of Route 66. Otherwise known as NC500, the route takes you through five hundred miles of some of Scotland's most spectacular scenery. No wonder it has been voted as one of the world's five most scenic road journeys.There are many mays of exploring the NC500. You can drive it, cycle it, motorbike it or even walk it, even if you are not one of The Proclaimers! And there are as many activities, places of interest and sights to be seen along the way as there are miles. This is a personal account of the author's exploration of the NC500 as well as some detours from it, such as to the Black Isle, Strathpeffer and Dingwall. Whatever your reason or reasons for exploring the NC500 may be, you should read this book before you go, or take it with you as a vade mecum. It will enhance your appreciation of the NC500 as you learn about the history behind the turbulent past of the many castles; hear folk tales, myths and legends connected with the area; become acquainted with the ancient peoples who once lived in this timeless landscape, and read about the lives of more recent heroes such as the good Hugh Miller who met a tragic end and villains such as the notorious Duke of Sutherland, who died in his bed (and may not be quite as bad as he is painted). There are a good number of other characters too of whom you may have never heard: some colourful, some eccentric, some very eccentric.You may not necessarily wish to follow in the author's footsteps in all that he did, but if you read this book you will certainly see the landscape through more informed eyes as you do whatever you want to do en route NC500.Sit in your car and enjoy the scenery for its own sake (and remember you get a different perspective from a different direction, so you may want to come back and do it again to get an alternative point of view!), or get out and explore it at closer quarters - the choice is yours, but this book will complement your experience, whatever you decide.

Music, music, music. Right from the start of his package holiday to Menorca, "music" plagues and obsesses the author. But let's face it, as Iona, his long-suffering wife can testify, he's a pretty intolerant sort of a person. Seen through his eyes, this book provides a sideways look at Menorca, a sort of rough guide to the island, (but not nearly as rough as his next door neighbours in his holiday apartment). Informative, but at the same time witty and amusing, A Meander in Menorca is an idiosyncratic commentary on this little island from its earliest inhabitants, the ancient Talayotic culture, to the present-day tourists, some of whom have no culture at all.