On sale now: The Book of Here & There
A dark, hidden story of slavery is uncovered...A bundle of scrolls is unearthed from beneath a city street. The life story of an enslaved scribe, Cato.
One piece in the jigsaw of a detective trail, which turns the lives of proud Glaswegian Hamish and Bristolian Jenny upside down. They embark on a secret quest left by Hamish’s missing Grandpa, to finish his story of the origins of his beloved city, Glasgow.
"A compelling story of Scotland and black slavery told from the perspective of the enslaved, not the slavers."
– Sir Tom Devine"Disturbing but uplifting, read this novel and it will challenge your view of the past."
– Jideofor Muotune, Creative Director, theafrowegian.org
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New: The Book of Here & There
Slavery appears regularly in the press. Over the past year, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee have highlighted their mansions, statues and street names which are linked to slavery. If we want to find out more, we can consult thick history books. Or we can just read a story: The Book of Here and There.What’s the book about?It's a story about two relations, Hamish (from Glasgow) and Jenny (from Bristol) who embark on a detective trail.What inspired you to write it?It's based loosely on my own detective trail.You’ve been to the Caribbean?Yes, to several islands.What was your impression there?It was a life changing experience, with Scottish connections everywhere.In the background it's about slavery?Yes, but I’m not trying to convince anybody. Just showing how some folk react to slavery. The reader can take it or leave it.But isn’t it a serious subject?I’ve written a lot of factual history and it’s a necessary part of the issue. But it can be too much. Perhaps a story is easier to absorb than factual history.Read The Book of Here & There and find out for yourself.
Other Publications
Although this is my first foray into fiction, I've published widely on Scotland and slavery.Click the button below for full details.
Other Publications
Order The Book of Here & There
You can order your copy of The Book of Here & There from any one of the online retailers linked below.
About Stuart Nisbet
This novel, The Book of Here & There, has been long in gestation. Although my first degree was in Civil Engineering, and my career has been spent as a structural engineer, my history hobby grew in parallel.My main interest has always been the 18th century, far enough away to be interesting, but close enough to be recoverable. My enduring interest has been the growth of Glasgow and its surrounding landscape. This led to pursuing the colonial merchants who dominated the city and set up their country estates in the surrounding parishes.In 1992, along with Tom Welsh, I published ‘Robert Allason and Greenbank,’ about the owner of a National Trust for Scotland property south of Glasgow. At this time slavery was a very small part of the equation, but gradually, after publication, the Allason brothers’ slave numbers grew to tens, then hundreds. Despite this, I kept returning to a single named servant, ‘Negro John,’ kept in Robert Allason’s country house. Searches of the Glasgow press uncovered more African names: those who had escaped from the merchants homes, including ‘Cato’.
In 2004, thanks to funding from a Paisley charity, I completed a PhD in eighteenth-century Scottish history, as a mature student, in my own time, when my three children were at University. Hints that some of my merchants owned plantations led to questions about the true impact of slavery (‘Slavery and the Rise of the West of Scotland,’ 2007). This coincided with the first significant Scottish wave of interest, on the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade.Continuing my dual interest in written sources and the landscape, I chased two of my merchants to the Leeward Islands, then to Grenada. For someone born in Glasgow, these trips were life-changing experiences. At the same time, I stumbled on a ledger in the National Library of Scotland containing dozens of 1720s letters written by one of my merchants (‘A Sufficient Stock of Negroes,’ 2008). This blew their accepted stories wide open.
A book and further articles followed, on the impact of my merchants at home (‘Castle Semple Rediscovered,’ and ‘Early Glasgow Sugar Planters in the Caribbean,’ both 2009). On a lighter note, wider public interest was fed by talks, guided walks, articles and letters in the press, (including ‘Early Africans in Renfrewshire,’ 2013 and ‘Renfrewshire’s Slave Legacies,’ 2019).Although my merchants dabbled in slave trading (‘A Glasgow Slaving Tragedy,’ 2012), my own interest focussed on slave owning, which was more significant in Scotland. In 2015 I collaborated with leading academics and fellow independents in the first major history of Scotland and slavery (‘Recovering Scotland’s Slavery Past’).I originally came to slavery by chance, through curiosity about the vast wealth of several merchants. However, the longer I was involved, the more uneasy I became that, unlike their planter-owners, the vast African majority remained invisible. I began to turn to fiction (‘Free Thinking,’ 2013) and completed credit bearing Creative Writing courses at the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde: this novel is the outcome.Chasing and exposing merchant-planters is an important part of the process of coming to terms with slavery in Scotland. Yet the planters were outnumbered 200 to 1 by their enslaved workforce. As fellow researcher David Alston has noted, ‘Slavery stole the identities and the voices of its victims and consigned them to a great silence.’The longer I’ve been involved in the subject, the more I’ve realised that, like Cato, their voices are not unrecoverable. Black Lives not only matter in Scottish history, they had a huge impact in the development of the Scotland that we live in today. Unlike other cities and countries, Glasgow and Scotland have barely begun to come to terms with the human cost of chattel slavery. Indeed, we are still at the stage of counting numbers. Hopefully, in the process, we can begin to hear the voices. For, without them, the numbers are meaningless.Full details of my publications, including those mentioned above, can be found here.
News
More Forthcoming Events
01/05/2024
I will be doing book talks on Thursday 6th June at Paisley and Tuesday 8th October at JohnstoneI will also be continuing a series of local talks and walks in May and June, details can be found here
New Event: Barrhead Foundry
01/02/2024
Wednesday 6th March, 1pmThis free event takes place at Barrhead Foundry, Main Street, Barrhead G78 1SWJoin historian and author Dr. Stuart Nisbet, as he gives an illustrated talk based on his own personal journey to uncover the truth about Scotland and slavery - a journey which led to the publication of his first novel The Book of Here and There.Pre-booking is essential - for more details and how to book, click here.
New Event: 'From Glasgow to the Caribbean'
25/10/2023
I am pleased to announce that I will be at the Couper Institute Library on 22nd November 2023 to discuss my novel The Book of Here & There.Full details are here: www.glasgowlife.org.uk/event/1/stuart-nisbet-from-glasgow-to-the-caribbean.To book your free place please email: mailto:ayewrite@glasgowlife.org.uk or phone Couper Institute Library: 0141 276 0771
Upcoming Events
31/08/2023
I'm delighted to be doing some new events in the forthcoming weeks.First of all, I'll be delivering an illustrated talk, From Castle Semple to the Caribbean, at Castle Semple Visitor centre on 27th September at 7pm – for more details see
www.whatsonrenfrewshire.co.uk/event/125149-from-castle-semple-to-the-caribbean.Then on 26th October I'll be running a Heritage Class at Netherlee entitled East Renfrewshire & Slavery
www.ercultureandleisure.org/events/east-renfrewshire-slavery.And as an optional counterpart to the above there will be a Guided Walk on 2nd November – details can be found here: www.ercultureandleisure.org/events/east-renfrewshire-slavery-walk.I look forward to seeing people at these events.
Article in Local Community Magazine
04/04/2023
The Book of Here & There was featured in a community magazine, the Gryffe Advertizer, in its April 2023 issue.Here's the full article if you'd like to read it.
Article in History Scotland
16/02/2023
I'm pleased to announce that I have an article in the latest issue of History Scotland magazine, vol 23 no. 2, March/April 2023.In it I ask whether the voices of enslaved people might be brought to the fore through the medium of fiction that is based upon solid research, and how using stories can improve our collective understanding of our history.If this sounds interesting, or if you're curious about any other aspects of Scotland's long history, you can subscribe to History Scotland by clicking this link.
Author Event at Giffnock Library
13/02/2023
On Thursday 23rd February at 6:30pm there will be a free author event at Giffnock Library to mark the publication of **The Book of Here & There _.I will give an illustrated talk taking a look at the history of slavery through a personal journey. Following the talk I'll be signing copies of _The Book of Here & There **, my new novel loosely based on the personal detective trail uncovered in the talk.The event is suitable for adults aged 16 and over. It's free, you just need to book your space with the library. Click here or the 'Event Details' button below to find out more, including the library's contact details.I'm looking forward to seeing you.
The Book of Here & There Online Launch Event
11/01/2023
On Thursday 19th January at 7pm there will be a free online launch event to celebrate the publication of **The Book of Here & There **.I will be in conversation with Kim Macleod from Indie Authors World to talk about the book, the inspiration behind it and what I hope people will take from it.To find out more and reserve your virtual ticket, visit the event page over at Eventbrite.I'm looking forward to seeing you.
New Novel: The Book of Here & There coming soon
14/11/2022
My new novel, The Book of Here & There is to be published at the end of November:_A dark, hidden story of slavery is uncovered...
A bundle of scrolls is unearthed from beneath a city street. The life story of an enslaved scribe, Cato.
One piece in the jigsaw of a detective trail, which turns the lives of proud Glaswegian Hamish and Bristolian Jenny upside down. They embark on a secret quest left by Hamish’s missing Grandpa, to finish his story of the origins of his beloved city, Glasgow._Be among the first to read the book by ordering using the button below.
Contact
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