The Makers of Scotland - Picts, Romans, Gaels and Vikings

Colloquial Scottish Gaelic is the ideal introduction to the language of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland: a modern language with a rich tradition.
This step-by-step approach has been devised to make speaking, reading and writing Scottish Gaelic easy and enjoyable. No previous knowledge of the language is required.
What makes Colloquial Scottish Gaelic your best choice for learning the language?

• emphasis on up-to-date, conversational language
• clear explanations of how the language works
• helpful grammar notes
• comprehensive vocabulary lists (Scottish Gaelic-English and English-Scottish Gaelic)
• lively illustrations throughout

This rewarding course will give you confidence in using Scottish Gaelic in a wide range of situations.

Accompanying audio material is available to purchase separately in two CDs or comes included in the great value Colloquial pack. Recorded by native speakers, the audio material complements the book and will help develop your listening and pronunciation skills.

Catherine Hogarth, who came from a cultured Scots family, married Charles Dickens in 1836, the same year he began serializing his first novel. Together they traveled widely, entertained frequently, and raised ten children. In 1858, the celebrated writer pressured Catherine to leave their home, unjustly alleging that she was mentally disordered-unfit and unloved as wife and mother. Constructing a plotline nearly as powerful as his stories of Scrooge and Little Nell, Dickens created the image of his wife as a depressed and uninteresting figure, using two of her three sisters against her, by measuring her presumed weaknesses against their strengths. This self-serving fiction is still widely accepted.

In the first comprehensive biography of Catherine Dickens, Lillian Nayder debunks this tale in retelling it, wresting away from the famous novelist the power to shape his wife's story. Nayder demonstrates that the Dickenses' marriage was long a happy one; more important, she shows that the figure we know only as "Mrs. Charles Dickens" was also a daughter, sister, and friend, a loving mother and grandmother, a capable household manager, and an intelligent person whose company was valued and sought by a wide circle of women and men. Making use of the Dickenses' banking records and legal papers as well as their correspondence with friends and family members, Nayder challenges the long-standing view of Catherine Dickens and offers unparalleled insights into the relations among the four Hogarth sisters, reclaiming those cherished by the famous novelist as Catherine's own and illuminating her special bond with her youngest sister, Helen, her staunchest ally during the marital breakdown.

Drawing on little-known, unpublished material and forcing Catherine's husband from center stage, The Other Dickens revolutionizes our perception of the Dickens family dynamic, illuminates the legal and emotional ambiguities of Catherine's position as a "single" wife, and deepens our understanding of what it meant to be a woman in the Victorian age.

Your Census Research Companion

Census records are a key source for tracing your family tree-and this handy collection puts census-related resources, tips, lists and need-to-know facts at your fingertips! Use The Genealogist's Census Pocket Reference to find

• websites with census records and date
• questions from each U.S. census 1790 to 1940
• maps of the territory covered in each federal census
• a key to common abbreviations
• instructions to enumerators population and immigration trends
• explanations of special schedules
• state and international census resources