Explore the Trilogy
Three Paintings. Three Volumes. One Historical Journey.
The Gentry Links Trilogy, published by Grant Books in 2023, examines the emergence of the modern game through three iconic paintings and the lives of the individuals associated with them.
Each volume explores a different aspect of golf's nineteenth-century development, combining original biographical and genealogical research with the evidence of historical art.
Together, they reveal the people, places and relationships through which golf developed from its Scottish foundations into an increasingly organised and international game.
Volume I — Gentry Links: The Great Men of The Golfers
Charles Lees' painting as a complex historical composition with its metaphors of royalty, Scottish gentry, champion
golfers and the social world of St Andrews, East Lothian
and Perth.
Volume II — North Berwick and its Gentry Links
Sir Francis Grant's painting, the founding of North Berwick Golf Club, its influential family networks, its connections
with Prestwick and the overseas spread of Scottish golf.
Reflective analysis of Charles Lees' preparatory sketches.
Volume III — Medal Day 1894
Beginning with Captain Driving Off (Medal Day, 1894),the third volume broadens the investigation to the
North Atlantic world, Victorian society, professional
golf, the first Rules of Golf Committee and the origins of international governance.
