New publication: Scottish Broadsword and British Singlestick

[KeithFarrell]

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Available to purchase through the Corsair's Wares online store and my Amazon.co.uk store.

I am delighted to announce that my new book is now available: "Scottish Broadsword and British Singlestick".

This book is an introduction to the history, use and context of the Scottish basket-hilted broadsword. As part of the Academy of Historical Arts Study Guide series, it is intended to serve as a study guide for practitioners of historical fencing who work with this weapon, or who would like to begin learning its style. Instructors will also find it helpful as it provides plenty of contextual information to use for illustrating lessons, and anecdotes to help students engage with the system.

Contained within is all the information required for self-study of two fascinating disciplines, Scottish broadsword and British singlestick, with salient points for study for people who do not have the luxury of regular access to a teacher. For practitioners who do receive regular tuition, this book will not replace input from your teacher, but will instead supplement it and offer a greater awareness and understanding of the context of the art that you study.

Book Details:
- Author: Keith Farrell
- Publisher: Fallen Rook Publishing
- Date of Publication: 20th October 2014
- ISBN: 978-0-9926735-1-2
- Binding: Perfect-Bound Paperback
- Pages: 354
- Height: 22.86 cm
- Width: 15.24 cm
- Language: English

For just now, it is available to purchase through the Corsair's Wares online store and my Amazon.co.uk store.

[John Farthing]

Congratulations on your latest publication and thank you for sharing here on our forum! Although the scope of this work would appear to be of a later period than the ARMA's curriculæ generally explores, it will no doubt be of interest to many here (myself included).

Out of curiosity, what historical sources provided the bedrock of your research in writing this book? I doubt any such undertaking would be complete without an analysis of Donald McBane, but were there any other particular works which inspired or otherwise helped complete this project?

Thanks in advance for considering my questions and thanks again for sharing this post.

[KeithFarrell]

Hi John, and thanks!

I have added the table of contents to our website, since it is a little hard to explain the book without reference to that! here it is: http://www.historical-academy.co.uk/publishing/scottish-broadsword-and-british-singlestick.php#contents

The main reference for people wanting to use the book for self-study is Roworth, although I examine its relationship to other broadsword systems of the 18th century. There are certainly some Scottish influences, but it would be fair to say it is not purely Scottish in nature.

I looked at the Scottish way of waging war, both in personal duels and larger scale conflicts. This allowed me to state some conclusions about how I believe the Scots fought, in a more stylistic sense. These notes about style can then be applied to any of the systems that have Scottish roots. Taking something very Scottish such as McBane's system or Anti-Pugilism, but applying the wrong stylistic elements, will no longer reflect a Scottish way of fighting; however, I think taking any system with Scottish elements and influence, and applying the correct stylistic elements, will make the system arguably Scottish in flavour.

So most of my work is analysing the various stylistic elements that separate the various different styles of swordsmanship and singlesticking in different parts of the country at different times. With such analysis, readers can then apply these ideas to their practise of the system that they study.

Some primary sources that I consulted heavily:

Roworth's Art of Defence on Foot from 1798 and 1804.

Angelo's Hungarian and Highland Broadsword and The Guards and Lessons of the Highland Broadsword.

Sinclair's Anti-Pugilism.

Page's The Use of the Broad Sword.

McBane's The Expert Sword-Man's Companion.

Donald Macleod's memoirs.

Logan's The Scottish Gael.

Samuel Johnson's A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland.

Donald Walker's Defensive Exercises.

Allanson-Winn and C. Phillips-Wolley's Broad-Sword and Single- Stick.

Some secondary sources that I consulted heavily:

Aylward's The English Master of Defence and The House of Angelo.

Thompson's Broadsword Academy and Highland Martial Culture.

Magnus Magnusson's Scotland: The Story of a Nation.

Fergus Cannan's Scottish Arms and Armour.

And of course, several others - the bibliography is about 11 pages long. Hopefully that gives you a flavour of the places from which I have been drawing information

[John Farthing]

Thank you for taking the time to write such a thoughtful and throrough response!
Best of luck with the book; I look forward to reading it!