In its heyday Cellardyke was one of the major fishing ports on the east coast of Scotland and even today, almost sixty years after amalgamating with its neighbour Anstruther, the village retains much of its former character and individuality. The author is a native of Cellardyke and his family have been connected with the fishing industry since the time of the earliest parish records. Fishermen, smugglers and press-gangs figure largely in his colourful account, in which historical facts culled from an impressive variety of original sources are intermingled with anecdotes, oral tradition and tales of tragedy at sea. This book combines information and entertainment in equal measure. In its pages are to be found witchcraft and warfare, Jacobite uprisings and political skullduggery, superstition and science. Here too are stories of such notable personalities as Cardinal Beaton, the Rev. James Melville, Captain Alexander Rodger, pioneer of the China tea-clipper trade, and Sir William Watson Hughes, once the richest man in Australia. The text is illustrated throughout with a wealth of fascinating historic photographs, which bring the past of these unique Fife towns to life.