What are the threads that bind Scottish Art into a single tradition? Certain stylistic features, such as the heritage of Celtic design with its emphasis on intricate pattern, recur throughout the centuries, most clearly, perhaps, in Mackintosh's Art Nouveau. At a deeper level, Scottish artists have continually returned to certain themes and ideas, or aspects of landscape and history: the presence of the sea and the rocky Scottish coastline, the hardships of the people, incidents from their history, and portraits of those who have formed Scottish culture. A close connection with France has also been surprisingly persistent, from medieval times to the present. All these factors have formed the character of Scottish art, but at the same time it is rich in distinctive personalities and individual genius. Professor Murdo Macdonald brings these men and women vividly to life without losing sight of the wider panorama. His book is particularly opportune at a time when the issue and nature of Scottish identity have come to the foreground.