« back to Art, Culture, Sport, Lifestyle
Sgian Dubh
Anthony Martin, MB ChB 1963
Anthony Martin has written a page-turner; a gripping and eccentric adventure story for older children. Action-packed and mysterious, it engages, charms and grips from first to last. The novel opens with a Bedouin camp in the Sahara, nearly 2,000 years ago, that is destroyed by a meteor; a clan hideout by a loch in Dark Age Scotland, and London in 1950, where we have a glimpse of a car driving north with The Stone of Destiny in its boot.
Jumping forward to 2007 we meet Sgian Dubh. Sgian is a schoolboy, but he is no ordinary adolescent. His behaviour is eccentric, he has remarkable climbing skills, he is peculiarly gifted with second sight, and is the latest in a long line of Scots with this ability. Beset by a good cast of shadowy, sinister villains, Sgian is helped along by an endearing collection of supporting characters especially MacKenzie, a gardener, and Anna Sterne, a geologist who accompanies him on his quest.
The plot centres around Sgian s search for understanding of his special gift. His father has told him little or nothing about his heritage, so he must set off on an investigation of his own, searching for clues about his ancestry and what it has to do with Scotland's fabled Stone of Destiny, the ancient seat of kings. Meanwhile, shadowy figures are pursuing him.
They took away his mother when he was a little boy, and they want Sgian himself for what purpose, we must wait and find out.
ISBN: 1906050708
