Clanlands, Heughan and McTavish

 

Clanlands: Whiskey, warfare, and a Scottish adventure like no other by Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish is supposed to be a fun romp (travelogue?) through Scotland by a couple of friends.

Started: 12/18/2021
Completed: 12/30/2021
Recommendation: Not Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Words for which I sought help:

crinigerous -- having hair

dogsbody -- a person who is given meaningless, boring tasks

dualchas -- cultural inheritance (Gaelic)

Review:

There is some good material in this book, but it is sparse.  I am not a fan of Outlander (never seen it), so the fact that the two who wrote the book are from the series has no meaning for me.  Moreover, their tales of their pasts and the adventures while filming Outlander is only marginally interesting, but takes up a staggeringly large portion of the book.  I think that these two are genuinely friends, but the way that they go at each other is not entertaining for me...it is distracting and bit like trying to referee with 13 year old boys.  Not a fun experience.

The subtitle mentions whiskey, but the most telling whiskey information is about one of the author's own brand (perhaps, also, that the authors drink too much of it).  Other than that, whiskey mentions seem to be focused around what one keeps in a flask in a kilt.  The "warfare" was most of the good material--not that I enjoy warfare, but it was interesting material that kept me engaged.  The "adventure" focused mainly on how uncomfortable they were, though they seemed to look at it in hindsight as a great adventure.  The "great adventure" part, however, was not emphasized.

With a few interesting nuggets, it is not worth the time unless you want to read more about these two actors from Outlander.