The Great Scot

Robert the Bruce was Scotland's greatest King ever. The Bruce, as he was known, was crowned King of Scots in 1306, a time when the ancient kingdom of Scotland was under harsh and illegal English occupation. As soon as King Robert began his reign, his army was treacherously attack at Methven, resulting in a calamitous defeat for the Scots which forced the Bruce into hiding.

Yet, steadily between 1307 and 1313 King Robert won battle after battle. shunning pitched medieval clashes, and fighting as a guerilla force, a form of warfare which he, perhaps, invented. The war peaked in 1314 when the Bruce faced a formidable English invasion. With brilliant tactics and resolute bravery the vastly outnumbered Scots defeated and routed the knights, archers, and foot soldiers of mighty England at the Battle of Bannockburn.

And that's only the first part of this epic tale of the Bruce's long and event-filled life. The Great Scot is a novel filled with valor, treachery, passionate love, journeys great and small, and people of every rank and situation-all from the pages of Scottish history.

A. Bruce, a descendent of Sir Edward Bruce, brother of Robert the Bruce, is a native of Pittsburgh and a graduate of the Wharton School. He has written two nonfiction books on the contributions Scots have made to civilization, The Mark of the Scots, and The Scottish 100, which has received numerous honors.

He is married with two grown children and lives with his wife, Tamara, in New York City.