“..so much well-researched material that the reader finally puts the book down battered, angry and determined that something should be done…” “frank, fearless and at times ferocious.” ………… “an eloquent lament for the Scottish legal profession’s apparent collective loss of moral purpose.” – The Herald, 30 October 2010

“The book is an essential read for all of us who want to live in the Scotland we imagine” –John Watson, Stone Country

“Wightman may have trained in forestry and worked as an environmental scientist and campaigner but he brings a lawyerly and forensic analysis to task: a voyage of discovery to find out how landowners in Scotland got their hands on the millions of acres that were once held in common” – The Times

“Utterly magnificent” – Sunday Herald

“well-written, provoking, extensively researched” – Edinburgh Law Review

I was glad to find Andy Wightman’s updated account of how this country was stolen from its people, The Poor Had No Lawyers-Who Owns Scotland And How They Got It (Birlinn, £9.99). Brilliantly researched, extremely well written and shocking in its detail, this book reminds us that when Proudhon coined his famous dictum, “property is theft”, he didn’t know the half of it. – John Burnside, novelist, Sunday Herald Review of Books of 2011 (27 November 2011)

Even readers whose political position and views about property differ from Andy Wightman’s will acknowledge the value of his book. It offers a vast amount of useful and important information, much to chew on, much to argue with, and a good deal to disturb complacency – Allan Massie, Times Literary Supplement, 14 December 2011