Beauty Spots around Edinburgh (n.d., Wm. S. Thomson (Colour Photographs) Ltd. 8b St. Vincent Street, Edinburgh, 3) was published between 1963 and 1967. When Thomson moved from Corpach near Fort William to Edinburgh, the printing quality of colour photographs was much more advanced, and more oversized prints for an affordable customer price became possible. Beauty Spots is a series of about ten spiral-bound books, size A4+, each containing 12 photographs picturing landscapes, cityscapes and historical buildings, and a one-page introduction.
So far, I am aware of four Beauty Spot books that cover Scotland or the Highland in general: Scottish Beauty Spots in Colour No.1, No.2 and No.3, and Highland Beauty Spots in Colour, with a colour photograph on the cover. Six books cover each a particular area: Around Edinburgh, Argyll, Skye and Wester Ross, Inverness-shire, North Highlands and Perthshire, with just the title on a creme to light brown carton paper.
The booklet on Edinburgh and its outskirts, even into the Borders, has a one-page introduction. The is no name mentioned, so probably Thomson was the author.
William S. Thomson (1906-1967) was a Scottish photographer who roamed his beloved country for thirty years in the 1940s, 1950s the 1960s. He lived in Glasgow, Orkney, Fort William, Corpach and Edinburgh. He published two pictoral books, The Highland in Colour, published by Oliver & Boyd in 1954, and Colourful Scotland, from the same publisher in 1956. Thomson also produced about 20 smaller booklets, focused on different regions, in the Let's See series, and a series of spiral bound books called Beauty Spots. For Travel in Time I rediscover the Highlands and wonder in Thomson's footsteps.
