When doing research for Lion in the Heather, I forced myself to read all of Sir Walter Scott's first novel, Waverley, every verbose word of it. Let's just say it is no Ivanhoe. Known as a poet, but in desperate need of money, he sold out to write popular romantic fiction and chose as his subject the Scottish Highlands just before the defeat of the clans and the attempt to wipe out their culture by the British victors. His...