Books by Michael Meighan

In this book author Michael Meighan examines the history of Scotland through its monuments and memorials.

Explore the fascinating history of Glasgow in this fully illustrated A-Z guide to the city's people and places.

Glasgow has a long and rich history and the buildings housed within this architecturally impressive city tell its tale accordingly, from its sixth-century origins, to its current role as a vibrant and cosmopolitan centre of new industry and education. Glasgow in 50 Buildings explores the history of this wonderful city by presenting a selection of its greatest architectural treasures. From the medieval Provand's Lordship to the contemporary Riverside Museum, this unique study celebrates Glasgow's architectural heritage in a new and accessible way. Historian Michael Meighan guides the reader on a tour of the city's historic buildings and modern structural marvels. The churches, theatres, commercial and public edifices of Glasgow's rich industrial heritage are presented alongside the innovative buildings of a twenty-first-century city. Images are arranged chronologically to tell the story of Glasgow's development through its most significant buildings. A specially designed map appears at the beginning of the volume to show where each building is located and the text is illustrated with colour photographs and archival images, showcasing the best of Glasgow's heritage in fifty buildings.

Located on the banks of the River Clyde, Glasgow was once the second city of the Empire, producing ships, locomotives, cars and heavy engineering for the world. Its docks would see huge numbers of exports. But Glasgow is much more than this; it is a religious centre, with one of Scotland's earliest churches, a centre for the Virginia tobacco trade, a home of designers and architects, inventors and entrepreneurs, artists and industrialists. It is that variety of talent, and the melting pot of immigrants and other Scots, sucked into the city at its peak that saw the phenomenal growth in wealth and culture that has left the city with a legacy of fine Victorian architecture, and it is its decline that has seen a legacy of remote council estates. However, Glasgow has risen again, and is truly a vibrant city, thanks to its self-promotion from Dr Michael Kelly's 'Glasgow's Miles Better' campaign to its use in gritty film and TV productions, as well as its ability to look at the past and preserve the best of the old, while producing some of the most startling modern architecture outside of London. Michael Meighan tells the story of Glasgow, from its drumlin days in the Ice Age to the growth of the Church, its industries, its people and the phenomenal expansion of the Victorian era and the legacy it has left us.

The River Forth is one of Scotland's great waterways. It has a majestic history and heritage, part of which is the Forth bridges. Of these, the most iconic is the Forth Rail Bridge, which opened in 1890. But there is also the Kincardine Bridge, opened in 1936 and once the longest swing bridge in Europe, the Forth Road Bridge, opened in 1964, and the new Queensferry Crossing, due to be completed in 2016. In this book, Michael Meighan looks at all these bridges as well as the Clackmannanshire Bridge and the fords, ferries and smaller bridges which preceded these great crossings. The Forth crossings have a special place in the history and culture of Scotland, and in the hearts of all Scots, and Michael Meighan pays tribute to them in a wonderful mix of both old and new images.