After writing Crème de la Crème, his lively and entertaining survey of Edinburgh's girls' schools, Alasdair Roberts has turned his attention to the city's boys' schools. The High School dates back to medieval times, and Heriot's opened in 1659, but the Edinburgh boys' schools really took off in the 19th century with the transformation of boarding 'hospitals' such as George Watson's and Daniel Stewart's into day schools, and the author covers those developments in some detail, as well as looking at earlier history and later developments, such as the founding of schools such as the Academy and boarding schools like Fettes, Merchiston and Loretto. He also writes about education in the classroom, on the games fields and in the wider sense. Alasdair Roberts describes the impact of two world wars on boys' schools -- that of 1914-18 being particularly devastating. Recently these schools have come under pressure both economically and politically, and general social change has contributed to all but one of Edinburgh's boys' schools becoming coeducational. Illustrated with drawings and photographs, Ties that Bind is a worthy companion to Crème de la Crème.

Alasdair Roberts attended an Edinburgh boys' school before reading History at Edinburgh University. After adding an Education degree from Glasgow University and teaching high school in Montreal, he joined the staff of Aberdeen College of Education. He has written extensively on both history and education and his books include Crème de la Crème and Out to Play: the Middle Years of Childhood. Now a full-time writer in retirement on the NW coast of Scotland, he has three Highland books in print and is working on a fourth.