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Jacket illustration by Val Biro

THE STONE

©Nigel Tranter
Published by Hodder and Stoughton, 1958,
The action of this book is in the 20th century

The text of this synopsis is taken from the bookjacket.

Certain experts and archaeologists have long held that the famed Stone of Destiny, now under electronic guard in the Coronation Chair at Westminister Abbey, is a 700-year-old fake, being merely a great lump of red sandstone quarried at Scone to deceive Edward I, Hammer of the Scots, who stole it, while the true Scottish Coronation Stone was secretly buried somehwere in the Scone district of Perthshire.

When an Oxford University research team decided that they had discovered where the genuine Stone was buried and sent an expedition to Scotland to dig it up, violent repercussions were bound to result, and sparks to fly. After the world-famous upheaval of several years ago, what might happen in Scotland - and in London - challenged the imagination. A young and impoverished Scots baronet decided to take a hand and, in partnership with a burly Glasgow ex-riveter and a local farmer's daughter, set out to ensure that this Stone should remain in Scotland at all costs.

This is the theme of a fast-moving, highly realistic and possible adventure story by Nigel Tranter - who did not remain wholly uninvolved in a part of the Stone drama of some years ago. The inevitable fireworks and high jinks are not entirely concerned with ancient masonry.

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