Whisky, Kilts, and the Loch Ness Monster

"Readers will love Bill Starr's masterpiece for the British history he relates, his insights into Johnson and Boswell, and his gustatorial delights and missteps. Plenty of people will slowly pore over his beautiful descriptions of Scottish landscapes, relishing every bog, loch, and craggy outcrop. Good for them. But listen-this book is outright hilarious in between. It's Bill Bryson funny. It's Sedaris funny. I don't want to judge poor Bill Starr, but at times it's as if Ziggy went on a road trip, and because of that notion of catharsis, we can all feel better about ourselves as we watch Bill Starr endure all things Scottish: the elements, the language, the myths, the customs. I'm glad he got out of there alive, and relatively sane enough to finish this wonderful memoir."—George Singleton, author of The Half-Mammals of Dixie

"Starr made a spirited return visit to Scotland after thirty years to follow in the literary footsteps of Samuel Johnson and James Boswell, who visited the Highlands and the Hebrides in 1773 and wrote about it. The reader quickly learns that Starr is making the same trip, but in reverse, so there is a suspicion that something funny is going on. In fact, there are a lot of funny things going on. This is an often hilarious travel-autobiography by an erudite, gregarious traveler with a large fund of humor, who loves to tell a good story about the things he sees, hears, and tastes, and about the people he meets. Think of the chapters as potato chips; you can't read only one."—O. M. Brack Jr.

"This book is a delight-historically sweeping, informative, and crisply written. In it, William Starr treats us to his personal journey of discovery through the Scottish Highlands and Hebridean and Orkney islands. From an informed American perspective, he blends hilarious and droll reflections on Scotland's history and culture with an affectionate and insightful tracking of the footsteps of Boswell and Johnson in their famous three-month intrepid trek in 1773 through the wilds of the Highlands. Starr transports us with charm and force to this remote corner of the globe where, like Boswell and Johnson, one often feels perched on the very edge of existence."—Peter Martin, author of Samuel Johnson: A Biography and A Life of James Boswell