Arriving For Review: Early Golf Book

Arriving For Review: Early Golf: Royal Myths and Ancient Histories

Edinburgh University Press sent a pdf copy of Early Golf: Royal Myths and Ancient Histories by Neil S. Millar.

Publisher’s Website
On Amazon

From the publisher’s description

Exploring the myths and revisiting the evidence surrounding the early history of golf

Explores the early history of golf, from the earliest written reference in a Scottish Act of Parliament from the 1450s

Challenges enduring myths and popular misconceptions concerning the early history of golf

Features 78 colour and 11 black and white illustrations

Numerous myths and misconceptions have become entrenched in the popular history of golf. In this book, Neil Millar challenges these myths and revisits the evidence surrounding the sport’s early history. He shows how the game blossomed in Scotland in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and describes the role of Scottish golfers in its spread to other countries between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. And he examines the relative antiquity of golf compared with that of other early stick-and-ball games – a topic that has been debated extensively.

Golf historians frequently retell anecdotes concerning historical figures such as King James II of Scotland (1430-1460), Queen Catherine of Aragon (1484-1536), Mary Queen of Scots (1542-1587), King Charles I (1600-1649) and James, Duke of York (1633-1701). This book re-examines the evidence underpinning these claims to provide a reliable account of early golf history.

Author Neil Millar is a member of the Royal and Ancient and is a Professor of Molecular Pharmacology at University College London.

I am excited to read this one. I’ll have a full review in due course.