THE BEST OF SCOTTISH BOOKS

From the The Scots Wars of Independence – The Independence Chronicles Series.

Scotland, 1306. A fractured kingdom. A hunted king. A secret that could alter Europe’s fate.
King Robert the Bruce, bruised by betrayal and hunted by English forces, slips northward through mist and deception towards the rugged isles of Orkney. With him travels not only the hope of Scottish sovereignty—but a noble rival to England’s crown and whispers of a treasure whose legend could tip the balance of empires.
From Norwegian fjords to the gilded courts of Byzantium, power-hungry monarchs stir. They are drawn not merely by gold, but by fear. Regimes tremble. Thrones creak. And the treasure may offer salvation… or signal ruin.
The Bruce’s Treasure is the explosive third chapter in a sweeping eight-part saga that tears through the Scottish Wars of Independence with razor-sharp intensity. From shattered vows to secret pacts, this is a tale of men willing to lose their honour—and their lives—for the ultimate prize of independence.

‘to be affected in many ways
is the sole ambition of the days’

Thrums grows out of Clark’s celebrated collection, that which appears, in an extension and affirmation of that book’s particular aesthetic. Including poems first published in London Review of Books and New York Review of Books, the poems’ closely observed landscapes tell of presence and loss, of change and precarious continuity.

One of Scotland’s most distinctive writers, a vivid minimalist, ruralist and experimentalist, his selected poems, The Threadbare Coat (2020), is also published by Carcanet.

A hagtale, a dark fable, a story told around winter’s fires and known to Shakespeare but never written down. Until now.

In eleventh-century Scotland, feral wolf-child Wulva is brought up by witches and then sent to live at a Scottish castle, where she falls under the spell of cruel, ambitious Lord Macbeth.

Three hundred years later, gentle Brother Rowan goes on a strange and perilous journey to a remote and ancient monastery to write a history of the Scottish king-line.

Misfits in their own time, seekers after truth, Wulva and Rowan are deeply connected despite the centuries that separate them.

Hagtale explores the power of stories lost and found, their transformative potential, and who gets to be the owner of the tale.

A major new photographic survey of Scotland’s post-war architecture by acclaimed photographer of Modernist buildings, Simon Phipps

Many of the new buildings that were constructed in the dynamic, socially motivated period of post-war architecture have now been repurposed, pulled down or left to slowly decay. But others still serve their community. Their impact is beautifully and boldly visible in Phipps’ photographs. From the Post Office of Inverness to the Gala Fairydean Rovers Football Club stand in Galashiels, these stadiums and homes, leisure centres and fire stations, churches and libraries, were built for a people and nation in flux, the architects envisioning a new era of opportunity.

Their popularity may have declined by the turn of the century, but recent decades have seen a new recognition of the talent and epochal spirit that created lecture halls and banks with equal emphasis on form, utility and function.

‘Impelled by ambitions of nation-building, Scotland’s outstanding cache of Brutalist buildings gave shape to how people lived, worked, studied, shopped, worshipped and spent their leisure time.’  – Catherine Slessor, from the introduction to Brutal Scotland

Bored with life as a teacher in an Edinburgh girls’ school, artist Rosie recognises Alex Kuznetsov from her previous life as a decoder at Bletchley Park. Alex, a war hero and anti-Soviet intelligence officer, is running a Russian language school for National Servicemen to put Britain’s best and brightest young men through intensive training as translators and intelligence operators in the event of a third world war. During an ardent courtship, Rosie joins the JSSL as an art teacher, but she soon finds out that there is more to her role as Alex gains her confidence and persuades her to take on a daring undercover espionage mission in a Highland country house. Rosie discovers that the world of spies is full of treachery, manipulation and deceit, and that what started out as a thrilling game can have deadly consequences. Faced with a choice between duty and love, and between stability and adventure, Rosie must decide where her loyalties lie.

Leaving behind a comprehensive archive, Alfred Buckham wrote in detail about his exploits, including his nine crashes and how, to get the best images, he would stand up while flying in an open biplane, tying his right leg to the seat with a scarf, in order to loop the loop in ‘perfect safety’.

But dive a little deeper and there is an even more interesting story – how he created these unbelievable photographs. Using a combination of different negatives, Buckham used his skills in the darkroom to craft stunning images that capture the experience of flight but with a little extra drama.

Published to accompany the first major exhibition of Alfred Buckham’s work, this book draws on the photographer’s archive, held by his grandsons, and exciting new acquisitions made by the National Galleries of Scotland including the camera he took to the skies and a selection of the negatives used to craft his most celebrated images.

From the wave-washed coast of the Firth of Forth to the high ground of Arthur’s Seat and the Pentland Hills, and from the sparkling waters of the Water of Leith to the woodlands of Corstorphine, Edinburgh is a truly wild city with a wonderful abundance of wildlife. In Wild Edinburgh, nature writer Keith Broomfield explores the wildlife of the city of his childhood. In an eclectic line-up that includes foxes and badgers, strange parasitic plants, storm-tossed seabirds and fluttering bats, Wild Edinburgh is the perfect book for those who love Scotland’s capital city and are keen to delve deeper into its wild riches. The book includes a handy information guide at the end of each chapter, so that readers, too, can visit these wonderful places and enjoy their fauna and flora.

A candid, moving and kinetic story of self-realisation through the power of music, Our Secrets Are The Same is the remarkable joint memoir by Simple Minds’ founder members, Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill. It not only reveals the inner workings of one of the most innovative and successful British bands of the past half-century, but the deeply personal tale of an extraordinary friendship which powered teenage dreams into visionary action.

Exploring key songs, places, years and events in the Simple Minds story, and told in the distinct voices of both men, Our Secrets Are The Same explores a bond which has encompassed stratospheric highs and humbling lows, marriages and divorces, fatherhood, fickle fame, tricky inter-band dynamics, the occasional explosive bust up, and a ruthless streak to rival the Sicilian Mafia.

Their connection is grounded in shared experiences and a set of values and codes so deeply ingrained they don’t need to be spoken. For Our Secrets Are The Same is not just the story of two rock stars, but of two sons, brothers, partners and parents who have never forgotten where they come from. Two men who have remained deeply bonded to their roots and each other, while fulfilling a teenage dream to form a world-class live band and take their music around the globe.

Fascinating and funny, evocative and inspiring, this unforgettable memoir captures a unique journey through life and music, and a friendship like no other.

It is 1962, and Marta Khoury, a trail-blazing marine archaeologist, has travelled to Cairnroch, a small island off the east coast of Scotland. An Arctic shipwreck containing the remains of a famous Victorian explorer has been towed back to the island at the behest of his wealthy descendants. Marta’s job is to retrieve valuable artefacts from the vessel, deep beneath the freezing Scottish waters. But on her first dive, she becomes convinced she has seen a ghostly figure lurking in the wreckage.

When Marta discovers objects from the vessel have inexplicably disappeared, she must work to uncover their whereabouts before her boss – who is also her ex-husband – discovers their absence. As a series of unsettling and strange occurrences begins to unfold, Marta’s work trip turns into a long winter as the worst snowstorms of the century sweep in and trap the islanders, and their ghosts, in an icy wilderness.

The Barrowland Ballroom has been at the heart of the live music scene for decades. Since it opened in 1934, it has seen almost a century of music history performed and celebrated across genres. It is a true staple of Glasgow’s identity.

Barrowland captures the spirit of its people, the pulse of its culture and the deep sense of community that defines this beloved ballroom. Join us as we dive into the pit of the Barrowland Ballroom and those who inhabit it.

Discover the wonder of marine life seen up close in these joyous and sparkling essays.

In 2022, Christina Riley became an ‘underwater artist in residence’ at the Argyll Coast Hope Spot – a place of incredible natural beauty in Scotland also crucial for the health of the world’s oceans. She spent days submerged alongside marine life, before resurfacing to reflect, recreate and recount what she had seen – and the feelings of love, hope and responsibility her experience had evoked in her.

The resulting essays, collected in this stunning volume, swim through the kaleidoscope of marine life she found there, from starfish to seagrass to the water itself. What shines through all of them is a sense of wonder that is also a call to action. Looking Down at the Stars asks: how can we harness our feelings of awe at the natural world in order to take better care of it?

Christina Riley’s lyrical prose is the perfect guide to this unfamiliar underwater world, brimming with surprises, sunlight and sea stars.

From Celtic druids and Viking Yule to the outright banning of Christmas for 400 years, The Broons, first footing and the Loony Dook, this is a joyous miscellany that showcases the creative, elaborate and sometimes downright bizarre aspects of Scottish Christmas and New Year, from the ancient past to the more recent present. It includes different local traditions, from those practised in the Borders all the way to the islands of Orkney and Shetland, as well as the nationwide pastimes enjoyed by everyone.

The book is packed with tradition, lore and legend, as well as poems, stories, carols, recipes, history, jokes and fun facts Illustrated throughout with line drawings and black and white photographs.

Best enjoyed in front of an open fire with a glass of whisky and a black bun.

From Mexico to Patagonia, the struggle for women’s rights in Latin America comes alive in the voices of the artists and activists making the change.

La Lucha gathers the voices of 30 artists, scholars, and activists, from 17 countries, actively engaged in the fight for women’s rights in Latin America. From the patriarchy to femicide, to the inflections of identity embedded in colour, class, and indigenous cultures, their struggle embodies the contested definitions and priorities of feminism. Their solidarity, and tirelessness, has yielded striking, game-changing results in areas as disparate, and as fundamental to women’s lives, as reproductive health, environmentalism, anti-colonialism, and human rights. With contributors that include Isabel Allende, Selva Almada, Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, Valeria Luiselli, Lina Meruane, Claudia Piñeiro, and Cristina Rivera Garza, this unprecedented collection is sure to challenge, provoke, and inspire.

The Burning Grounds is the award winning novel from the author of Hunted – the British Book Awards Crime Thriller of the Year 2025 and Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2025

In the Burning Ghats of Calcutta where the dead are laid to rest, a man is found murdered, his throat cut from ear to ear.

The body is that of a popular patron of the arts, a man who was, by all accounts, beloved by all: so what was the motive for his murder? Despite being out of favour with the Imperial Police Force, Detective Sam Wyndham is assigned to the case and finds himself thrust into the glamorous world of Indian cinema.

Meanwhile Surendranath Banerjee, recently returned from Europe after three years spent running from the fallout of his last case, is searching for a missing photographer; a trailblazing woman at the forefront of the profession. When Suren discovers that the vanished woman is linked to Sam’s murder investigation, the two men find themselves working together once again – but will Wyndham and Banerjee be able to put their differences aside to solve the case?

The North Sea, a maritime highway and the edge of a nation of islanders with a proud sea-faring past. Running from Kent and the Rhine estuary to the Norwegian coast and the tip of the Shetland islands, it has been home to warring tribes, foreign invaders, lost civilisations and holidaymakers. Its history spans millennia, since a seismic shift sent land retreating and water rushing in. Today, the North Sea continues to rise, claiming land mass as the east coast crumbles and sinks.

In The North Sea, renowned historian Alistair Moffat spends a year travelling its shores to better understand our relationship to the sea. He takes us on an epic, sweeping history from the Kentish coast to flooded homes, crossing wild fenland and Brexit fault lines, visiting well-worn seaside towns and windswept island monasteries.

The story he tells is one of newcomers and the mark they left, of Roman invasions, the arrival of the Saxons and the Viking raids. But it is also a story of those they met, of Pictish citadels and Orcadian stone circles. It is a story of technological advancement, of submarine engineering and weather forecasting. It is a story of huge industry, from whaling expeditions and fishing trawlers to the boom of North Sea oil and offshore wind farms. This is the story of how the North Sea shaped us and will continue to do so; it is above all a story of insistent, inescapable change.

Badlands opens with the horror of a man gradually waking to find himself fully and sharply dressed on a hotel bed in the Highlands with no memory of who he is or how he got there. And he is not alone, a secondary horror which drives him to seek the help of a girl in a pub before he takes off on a flight through the landscape in search of answers and an identity.

The girl in the pub, herself a stranger, is on a quest to unlock family secrets that are rooted in Vienna. Two characters, an amnesiac man stumbling around the countryside and a single-minded young woman forced by circumstance to reconnect with her Austrian roots, carry the plot and their paths cross and divide as they gradually work towards its eventual resolution.

Book 5 in the Edinburgh Nights series.

‘I’ve had my arse kicked more times than I can count’

Ropa Moyo is dead, banished to the Other Place by the reanimated spirit of Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville of Scotland. Turns out being on the losing side sucks worse than being skint.

Now, the Cult of Dundas intends to ascend to godhood, spreading their corrupting reach from Edinburgh to all of Scotland’s schools of magic. Ropa must find some way to escape the Other Place, save her sister and gather allies across the country before Edinburgh falls.

A royal plot, a family secret and a stolen body. As Scotland descends into petty in-fighting, Ropa’s only hope lies in her grandmother’s final secret: the first school of magic.

An ancient power is returning . . . and is hungry for revenge.

Past and future collide in this engaging journey through climate change, fossil capitalism and the struggle for a sustainable world.

Scotland’s history and future are entangled with climate change and the story of the modern world. This small country on the fringes of northern Europe pioneered fossil capitalism and played a key role in its spread across the planet. It is a living museum of the crisis of the west, of deindustrialisation, stagnation and the struggle to build a better future from the ashes.

Journalist and sociologist Dominic Hinde travels from the treeless Highlands to the lowland cities, struggling to balance memories with aspiration. Through this journey he finds that his own sensory turmoil, shaped by recovery from a near fatal accident, mirrors the disarray of the fossil fuel transition – an uncertain passage between what was and what must be.

Part memoir, part environmental history, part travelogue, this is a compelling narrative of connections – to place, energy and the possibility of renewal. Through the lens of one country, it asks a vital question: can the lessons of the past help us build a more sustainable future?

St Andrews, Scotland: When a woman’s eviscerated body is found on the golf course close to the Fairmont Hotel, DCI Andy Gilchrist and his associate DS Jessie Janes are assigned the investigation. But the post-mortem examination uncovers a shocking detail that must be kept from the public…

Who could carry out such a brutal murder? And what is the significance of the gruesome trophy?

When DNA uncovers links to a murder committed thirty years earlier, Gilchrist fears a killer of old has resurfaced, or worse, a debut serial killer setting out to learn his murderous trade. The hunt for the killer forces Gilchrist down a dangerous path that puts his and Jessie’s lives in danger, and ultimately leads them to a mind-playing madman who would rather kill again than go to prison.

As Gilchrist homes in on the murderer, he finds himself relentlessly drawn into the killer’s mind games and a desperate fight for his life, in which there can only be one winner.

Has Gilchrist finally met his match?

In Glasgoscopy a community health professional takes the pulse of North West Glasgow, observes connections and disconnections between city and citizen, examines how language, physical and social environments affect health. Vicki Husband has created a series of microstories, which are a fictionalised collage of her experience and her lyrical reflections on over twenty-five years of being a brief guest in so many lives.