Have a look at just some of our favourite new titles from Scottish Publishers
Michael Russell, described by the Scotsman as a ‘talent to be followed closely’, debuts with a novel, Lie of the Land (Polygon) set in a post-catastrophe Scotland
Dacre’s War (Polygon) by Rosemary Goring, the sequel to the well-received After Flodden, follows the fortunes of Adam Crozier a decade after the battle of Flodden, in a story of personal and political vengeance
Scarlett Thomas’s The Seed Collectors (Canongate) is a contemporary tale of inheritance, enlightenment, life, death, desire and family trees, and is out now in hardback. Neil Gaiman’s a fan, calling it ‘a sharply observed contemporary novel of real people and real plants and real desire and real hurt, and somehow also one of the sharpest fantasies I’ve encountered’
Prolific writer Chris Dolan has released his latest novel, Aliyyah, a modern Arabian tale set in an unnamed war-torn country. Publisher Vagabond Voices describes it as ‘a Romeo and Juliet story, but one for an age where scientific materialism is crossing bloody swords with religion’
In Eva Makis’ prize-winning fourth novel, The Spice Box Letters (Sandstone Press), Katerina inherits a wooden spice box containing letters and diaries after her grandmother dies. As she pieces together her family history, she learns of the shattering effects of the Armenian tragedy of 1915
In poetry, Tessa Ransford’s new collection, A Good Cause (Luath Press), offers a new selection of previously uncollected poems, the ‘good cause’ being ultimately the intrinsic good of poetry itself
In children’s, Cathy Forde’s new book, The Blitz Next Door (Floris Books), is the latest addition to the Kelpies series and centres on the devastating events of the Clydebank Blitz
In non-fiction, 100 Masterpieces from the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) by John Leighton, the director-general of the gallery, features such beauties as the sumptuous home-grown Lady Agnew of Lochnaw (a keen favourite of Phil Jupitus, apparently…) as well as pictures by Titian, Rembrandt and Vermeer, Picasso, Hockney and Warhol
Peter May is a novelist, originally from Glasgow but now living and working in France. He started out as a journalist, studying at the Edinburgh College of Commerce, and winning the Fraser Award aged just 21 for his writing. He was named Scotland’s You …
Sparsile Books is a small independent publisher, based in Glasgow, specializing in high quality fiction and non-fiction. We see publishing as an art in itself, and we work closely with our authors to ensure that the books we publish give readers a uniq …