Getting 3 batters out in order on nine pitches is one of the most remarkable feats in baseball. Since the late 1800s, only 71 pitchers have been able to do it. Yet, unlike other rare achievements in baseball, such as pitching a perfect game, the "immaculate inning" does not capture the same attention or consideration. In a game that is as unpredictable as baseball, perfection, when it occurs, should be cause for both reflection and celebration. In Immaculate, Cairney provides a short histo...

Canada has long been recognized as a leader in the field of psychiatric epidemiology, the study of the factors affecting mental health in populations. However, there has never been a book dedicated to the study of mental disorder at a population level in Canada. This collection of essays by leading scholars in the discipline uses data from the country's first national survey of mental disorder, the Canadian Community Health Survey of 2005, to fill that gap.Mental Disorder in Ca...

Superstition has been a part of baseball from the beginning. From good luck charms to human mascots to ritual statues of Babe Ruth to the curse of Colonel Sanders, there may be almost as many superstitions as players (or fans). Drawing on social science, religious studies and SABRmetrics, this book explores the rich history of supernatural belief in the game and documents a wide variety of rituals, fetishes, taboos and jinxes. Some of these have changed over time but coping with uncertaint...

'Clutching in my hand my seven copper pennies, I ran down the two flights of stone stairs from our tenement flat and through the East End to Kinloch Street, where, puffing a bit, I joined the queue of other wee boys lining up to place their coins on the brass plate above the iron turnstile, push hard against it, then climb up onto the dirt terracing and into Paradise. The rest of the world called it Celtic Park.'This is a story seen through green-and-white spectacles. It begins whe...

James Edward McGrory (1904-82) is a Celtic legend, remembered today as the greatest goal-scorer in the history of Scottish football. His record of 550 goals in his 15-year career at Parkhead from 1922 to 1937 is unlikely to be surpassed and will stand forever as a memorial to a player who was a typical product of the period between the two world wars. At a depressing time when wages were low and work was scarce, his feats on the field provided a welcome and much-needed escape for the thous...

Andrew Carnegie: self-made Scottish-American steel millionaire and international philanthropist, remembered through trusts, charities and public buildings on both sides of the Atlantic. Robert Burns: Scotland's greatest poet and most famous philanderer; an inspiration for future liberal politicians and an almost mythical cultural icon. What do the world's greatest tycoon and Scotland's finest bard have in common? More than you might think. Despite dying thirty nine years prior to Carnegie'...

This publication is actor John Cairney's life with Robert Burns in theatrical terms. Since 1959, he has been involved with Burns as actor, director and writer. Over the years, Cairney has taken the opportunity to investigate different aspects of Burns as they relate to performance in the theatre. For the first time he has brought all these working playscripts, which have already been tested before a live audience, together in book form. Others interested in the prismatic attraction that is...

Is there anything new to say about Robert Burns? John Cairney says it's time to trash Burns the Brand and come on the trail of the real Robert Burns. He is the best of travelling companions on the convivial, entertaining journey to the heart of the Burns story. Alloway – Burns' birthplace. Tam O' Shanter draws on the Alloway Kirk witch stories first heard by Burns in his childhood Mossgiel – Between 1784 and 1786 in a phenomenal burst out of creativity, Burns wrote some of his most memorab...

This is a book about Glasgow, but not your everyday history book. Glasgow by the way, but is a contemporary series of essays examining different aspects of Glasgow in a historical and cultural context, revealing a unique, amusing and sometimes critical, perspective of Cairney's beloved city. Those who remember John Cairney's performances and have read his other books will enjoy the insightful anecdotes from Cairney's career.

This is not another complete works collection but a personal selection of sixty favourite poems, songs and other works, chosen by the Man Who Played Burns , as well as an introduction that explores Burns' life and influences, his triumphs and tragedies. The Luath Burns Companion is a unique introduction to the works of ona of Scotland's best loved poets by a man with an obvious love and depth of understanding for Burns and his work. This selection reveals the drama, passion, pathos and hum...

A book for actors, for would-be actors and for everyone who has a curiosity about theatre as it is on the inside. The bareback performance of the histrionic art as it has been since the Greeks. This is one actor's experience over 60 years as a professional, including roles in The Avengers, Dr Finlay's Casebook, Jason and the Argonauts and This Man Craig.

Like Charles Rennie Mackintosh, John Cairney began his career at the age of 15 at the Glasgow School of Art. He tells of the working life of Charles Rennie Mackintosh as well as the beautiful love story which tragically ended with Mackintosh's sudden death at the age of 60. His wife and co-artist, Margaret Macdonald died three years later.