THE BEST OF SCOTTISH BOOKS

The Scotsman Wall Calendar, popular world-wide, provides 12 magnificent views of Scotland’s landmarks and natural beauty.Comes complete with strong cardboard envelope making it ideal for posting.

‘Evocative and sumptuously imagined. A feast for the senses . . . The Fair Botanists is dazzling.’ Celia Reynolds’Sprinkled with deliciously tantalising scandal and intrigue, and colourful, engaging characters. A sheer joy to read.’ Sue Lawrence***Could one rare plant hold the key to a thousand riches?It’s the summer of 1822 and Edinburgh is abuzz with rumours of King George IV’s impending visit. In botanical circles, however, a different kind of excitement has gripped the city. In the newly-installed Botanic Garden, the Agave Americana plant looks set to flower – an event that only occurs once every few decades.When newly widowed Elizabeth arrives in Edinburgh to live with her late husband’s aunt Clementina, she’s determined to put her unhappy past in London behind her. As she settles into her new home, she becomes fascinated by the beautiful Botanic Garden which borders the grand house and offers her services as an artist to record the rare plant’s impending bloom. In this pursuit, she meets Belle Brodie, a vivacious young woman with a passion for botany and the lucrative, dark art of perfume creation.Belle is determined to keep both her real identity and the reason for her interest the Garden secret from her new friend. But as Elizabeth and Belle are about to discover, secrets don’t last long in this Enlightenment city . . .And when they are revealed, they can carry the greatest of consequences.

Soar into space with this glorious love story of alienfolk, from the creators of The Gruffalo and StickMan, now in an early reader format to supportchildren who are gaining confidence in reading.The Smeds (who are red) never mix with the Smoos (who are blue).So when a young Smed and Smoo fall in love, their families stronglydisapprove.But peace is restored and love conquers all in this happiest oflove stories. There’s even a gorgeous purple baby to celebrate!This Early Reader edition contains the complete classic storyand pictures, in a pocket-book format, and with an extra-clear fontand layout, to support children who are gaining confidence inreading.Winner at the British Book Awards 2020 – Children’s Illustrated& Non-Fiction Book of the YearWith fabulous rhymes and breathtaking illustrations, this bookis literally out of this world!From the creators of The Gruffalo, Stick Man and ZOG, which have all beenmade into animated films shown on BBC1Zog and the Flying Doctors animationwill be shown on BBC1 December2020.Praise for The Smeds and the Smoos:’A book for our time.’ BBC Radio 4’Blast off with the most exciting book yet from the creatorof The Gruffalo. Get ready for a wild and wonderful journey throughspace in a book that is perfect for reading together.’ TheSun’The Gruffalo team’s own Jabberwocky, with rhyme and nonsensewords but a happy ending, inventively illustrated by Scheffler.’The Times’A timely tale of tolerance that’s fun to read aloud.’Daily Express

**THE BRAND-NEW THRILLER FROM THE #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER****’A TERRIFIC WRITER’ MARK BILLINGHAM****PETER MAY: OVER 5.5 MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE**In a sleepy French village, the body of a man shot through the head is disinterred by the roots of a fallen tree. A week later a famous art critic is viciously murdered in a nearby house. The deaths occurred more than seventy years apart.Asked by a colleague to inspect the site of the former, forensics expert Enzo Macleod quickly finds himself embroiled in the investigation of the latter. Two extraordinary narratives are set in train – one historical, unfolding in the treacherous wartime years of Occupied France; the other contemporary, set in the autumn of 2020 as France re-enters Covid lockdown.And Enzo’s investigations reveal an unexpected link between the murders – the Mona Lisa.Tasked by the exiled General Charles de Gaulle to keep the world’s most famous painting out of Nazi hands after the fall of France in 1940, 28-year-old Georgette Pignal finds herself swept along by the tide of history. Following in the wake of Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa as it is moved from chateau to chateau by the Louvre, she finds herself just one step ahead of two German art experts sent to steal it for rival patrons – Hitler and Goering.What none of them know is that the Louvre itself has taken exceptional measures to keep the painting safe, unwittingly setting in train a fatal sequence of events extending over seven decades.Events that have led to both killings.The Night Gate spans three generations, taking us from war-torn London, the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, Berlin and Vichy France, to the deadly enemy facing the world in 2020. In his latest novel, Peter May shows why he is one of the great contemporary writers of crime fiction.(P)2021 Quercus Editions Limited

Paul Murton journeys the length and breadth of the spectacularly beautiful Scottish Highlands. In addition to bringing a fresh eye to popular destinations such as Glencoe, Ben Nevis, Loch Ness and the Cairngorms, he also visits some remote and little-known locations hidden off the beaten track.Throughout his travels, Paul meets a host of modern Highlanders, from caber tossers and gamekeepers to lairds to pipers. With an instinct for the unusual, he uncovers some strange tales, myths and legends along the way: stories of Jacobites, clan warfare, murder and cattle rustling fill each chapter – as well as some hilarious anecdotes based on his extensive personal experience of a place he loves to call home.

In 1752, Seamus a’Ghlynne, James of the Glen, was executed for the murder of government man Colin Campbell. He was almost certainly innocent.When banners are placed at his gravesite claiming that his namesake, James Stewart, is innocent of murder, reporter Rebecca Connolly smells a story. The young Stewart has been in prison for ten years for the brutal murder of his lover, lawyer and politician Murdo Maxwell, in his Appin home. Rebecca soon discovers that Maxwell believed he was being followed prior to his murder and his phones were tapped.Why is a Glasgow crime boss so interested in the case? As Rebecca keeps digging, she finds herself in the sights of Inverness crime matriarch Mo Burke, who wants payback for the damage caused to her family in a previous case.Set against the stunning backdrop of the Scottish Highlands, A Rattle of Bones is a tale of injustice and mystery, and the echo of the past in the present.

It is 1938 and the final days of the British Empire. In a bungalow high up in the green hills above the plains of Ceylon, under a vast blue sky, live the Ferguson family: Bella, a precocious eight-year-old; her father Henry – owner of Pitlochry, a tea plantation – and her mother Virginia. The story centres around the Pavilion in the Clouds, set in the idyllic grounds carved out of the wilderness. But all is not as serene as it seems. Bella is suspicious of her governess, Miss White’s intentions. Her suspicion sparks off her mother’s imagination and after an unfortunate series of events, a confrontation is had with Miss White and a gunshot rings off around the hills.Years later, Bella, now living back in Scotland at university in St Andrews, is faced, once again with her past. Will she at last find out what happened between her Father and Miss White? And will the guilt she has lived with all these years be reconciled by a long over-due apology?

Step into a magical world of beautiful princesses and handsome princes, wicked witches and good fairies. Here are ten of the best-loved fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm, retold in a friendly, accessible way that’s perfect for young children, and now in a beautiful new edition.Featuring glowing illustrations by Emma Chichester Clark, and translated from Saviour Pirotta’s lively retellings, these classic fairy tales are now shared in Scots for the first time, translated by a host of well known Scottish writers.Featured Stories: The Sleepin Princess (Matthew Fitt); The Enchantit Gingebreid Hoose (Lari Don); The Magic Bear and the Bonnie Prince (Val McDermid); The Golden-Haired Lassie in the Tower (Sanjeev Kohli); The Wee Moosie and the Swickfu Cat (Shane Strachan); The Princess and the Seeven Wee Gadgies (Thomas Clark); The Swans and the Guid Sister (Ashley Douglas); The Princess and the Puddock (James Robertson); The Lassie That Spun Strae intae Gowd (Matthew Mackie); The Twelve Dauncin Princesses (Susi Briggs)

A case of mistaken identity leads to unintentional criminal activity when a dream family holiday goes terribly wrong in this punny comedy caper from author-illustrator Tom McLaughlin.The Goodfellows are the perfect family. From helping the local community to scooping up prizes in school, there’snothing they can’t do. And they’ve just won the holiday of a lifetime to the Big Apple!When the family touchdown in New York and overhear a gentleman looking for the goodfellas, they can only assume he’s there to pick them up. But soon they’re involved in a diamond robbery and a gangster named Big Tony is thanking them for their impeccable work. It looks like everything for the Goodfellows is about to go very, very wrong …

‘A tale I have for you.’Embra, winter of 1574. Queen Mary has fled Scotland, to raise an army from the French. Her son and heir, Jamie is held under protection in Stirling Castle. John Knox is dead. The people are unmoored and lurching under the uncertain governance of this riven land. It’s a deadly time for young student Will Fowler, short of stature, low of birth but mightily ambitious, to make his name.Fowler has found himself where the scorch marks of the martyrs burned at the stake can be seen on every street, where differences in doctrine can prove fatal, where the feuds of great families pull innocents into their bloody realm. There he befriends the austere stick-wielding philosopher Tom Nicolson, son of a fishing family whose sister Rose, untutored, brilliant and exceedingly beautiful exhibits a free-thinking mind that can only bring danger upon her and her admirers.The lowly students are adept at attracting the attentions of the rich and powerful, not least Walter Scott, brave and ruthless heir to Branxholm and Buccleuch, who is set on exploiting the civil wars to further his political and dynastic ambitions. His friendship and patronage will lead Will to the to the very centre of a conspiracy that will determine who will take Scotland’s crown.Rose Nicolson is a vivid, passionate and unforgettable novel of this most dramatic period of Scotland’s history, told by a character whose rise mirrors the conflicts he narrates, the battles between faith and reason, love and friendship, self-interest and loyalty. It confirms Andrew Greig as one of the great contemporary writers of fiction.

The Fair Botanists is a bewitching and immersive story for fans of Jessie Burton, Sarah Perry and The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock.Could one rare plant hold the key to a thousand riches?It’s the summer of 1822 and Edinburgh is abuzz with rumours of King George IV’s impending visit. In botanical circles, however, a different kind of excitement has gripped the city. In the newly-installed Botanic Garden, the Agave Americana plant looks set to flower – an event that only occurs once every few decades.When newly widowed Elizabeth arrives in Edinburgh to live with her late husband’s aunt Clementina, she’s determined to put her unhappy past in London behind her. As she settles into her new home, she becomes fascinated by the beautiful Botanic Garden which borders the grand house and offers her services as an artist to record the rare plant’s impending bloom. In this pursuit, she meets Belle Brodie, a vivacious young woman with a passion for botany and the lucrative, dark art of perfume creation.Belle is determined to keep both her real identity and the reason for her interest the Garden secret from her new friend. But as Elizabeth and Belle are about to discover, secrets don’t last long in this Enlightenment city . . .And when they are revealed, they can carry the greatest of consequences.(P) 2021 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd

In this evocative work of what the author in his Afterword calls ‘autofiction’ or ‘a kind of novelised memoir’, Jay Parini takes us back fifty years, when he fled the United States for Scotland. He was in frantic flight from the Vietnam War and desperately in search of his adult life. There, through unlikely circumstances, he met famed Argentinian author Jorge Luis Borges.Borges was in his seventies, blind and frail. Parini was asked to look after him while his translator was unexpectedly called away. When Borges heard that Parini owned a 1957 Morris Minor, he declared a long-held wish to visit the Scottish Highlands, where he hoped to meet a man in Inverness who was interested in Anglo-Saxon riddles. As they travelled, the charmingly garrulous Borges took Parini on a grand tour of western literature and ideas while promising to teach him about love and poetry. As Borges’s world of labyrinths, mirrors and doubles shimmered into being, their escapades took a surreal turn.Borges and Me is a classic road novel, based on true events. It’s also a magical tour of an era – like our own – in which uncertainties abound, and when – as ever – it’s the young and the old who hear voices and dream dreams.

In this evocative work of what the author in his Afterword calls ‘autofiction’ or ‘a kind of novelised memoir’, Jay Parini takes us back fifty years, when he fled the United States for Scotland. He was in frantic flight from the Vietnam War and desperately in search of his adult life. There, through unlikely circumstances, he met famed Argentinian author Jorge Luis Borges.Borges was in his seventies, blind and frail. Parini was asked to look after him while his translator was unexpectedly called away. When Borges heard that Parini owned a 1957 Morris Minor, he declared a long-held wish to visit the Scottish Highlands, where he hoped to meet a man in Inverness who was interested in Anglo-Saxon riddles. As they travelled, the charmingly garrulous Borges took Parini on a grand tour of western literature and ideas while promising to teach him about love and poetry. As Borges’s world of labyrinths, mirrors and doubles shimmered into being, their escapades took a surreal turn.Borges and Me is a classic road novel, based on true events. It’s also a magical tour of an era – like our own – in which uncertainties abound, and when – as ever – it’s the young and the old who hear voices and dream dreams.

How do our roots in the land define us?Hidden in the breath-taking mountains of wild Scotland, Glen Conach is the home of secrets and stories, of fables and folklore. Over hundreds of years, three lives are woven together.In ancient Britain, the hermit Saint Conach performs impossible miracles, which survive as legend in ‘The Book of Glen Conach’.Generations later in the nineteenth century, the book is rediscovered by charlatan Charles Gibb, who hustles his way into the big house at the heart of the village.In the present-day, young Lachie whispers to Maja of ghosts he has seen in the glen. Reflecting back on her long life, Maja believes him, as she has some ghosts of her own.From best-selling author James Robertson, News of the Dead is a captivating examination of the distance between the stories we tell of ourselves and the way in which we are remembered.

Several ghosts haunt Learning to Sleep, John Burnside’s first collection of poetry in four years – from the author’s mother, commemorated in an exquisitely charged variant on the pastoral elegy, to the poet Arthur Rimbaud, who wanders an implausible Lincolnshire landscape looking for some sign of belonging. Throughout the book, the powers and dominions of a lost pagan ancestry emerge unexpectedly through the gaps in contemporary life: half-seen and fleeting, but profoundly present. Behind it all, the figure of Hypnos, the Greek god of sleep, marks Burnside’s own attempts to come to terms with the severe sleep disorder from which he has suffered for years, a condition that culminated in the recent near-death experience that informs the latter part of the book. Add to this a series of provocative meditations on the ways in which we are all harmed by institutions, from organised religion, or marriage, to the tawdry concepts of gender and romantic love that subtly govern our personal lives, and Learning to Sleep reveals Burnside at his most elegiac, while still retaining a radical pagan’s sense of celebration and cultural independence.

Scottish heroes and heroines pack of five books: The Story of William Wallace, Mary Queen of Scots, The Story of Robert the Bruce, The Story of Bonnie Prince Charlie, The Story of Rob Roy. Exciting stories with timelines at the back that show the importance of each leader. Suitable for age 7+. Good for schools and homework projects.William Wallace: The thrilling story of how Sir William Wallace, a Scottish patriot and national hero, leads his army against the English at the Battle of Stirling Bridge.Mary Queen of Scots: The Story of Scotland’s youngest Queen, who was imprisoned because she was seen as a threat to Queen Elizabeth 1.The Story of Robert Bruce: an exciting account of the life of the warrior king who secured Scotland’s independence from England.The Story of Bonnie Prince Charlie: The Story of Charles Edward Stuart in his quest for the return to the throne of a Stuart king.The Story of Rob Roy: A popular Scottish folk hero, Rob Roy is the nickname for Scottish hero Robert Roy MacGregor, who has been described as a Scottish Robin Hood.

A brilliantly entertaining ‘be-careful-what-you-wish-for’ tale that’s full of farmyard fun – from the bestselling Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Anna Currey in her charming, classic style.Old Macdonald is cleaning out his farmhouse kitchen when he comes across a dusty old teapot. And no one could be more surprised when a wish-granting genie pops out of the spout. Old Macdonald wishes for a wife, who wishes for a baby. A baby who wishes for a dog, who wishes for a cat, who wishes for some mice! It doesn’t take long before the farmyard starts getting very busy, and VERY noisy! Will the genie ever get a break from granting wishes, and find some peace? If only there was someone who could grant him a wish . . .The Teeny Weeny Genie is a magical picture book adventure packed with lots of favourite farmyard animals from Julia Donaldson and Anna Currey, creators of Rosie’s Hat and One Ted Falls Out of Bed.

Where has Superworm gone? Can you find him?Lift the colourful felt flaps in this fun chunky board book, perfectfor small hands, until you find Superworm! While there isso much fun to be had, this board book will also help increase hand-eyeco-ordination, develop speech and aid learning through repetition.Based on the bestselling book Superworm by Julia Donaldsonand illustrated by Axel Scheffler, the creators of TheGruffalo.

A brilliantly entertaining ‘be-careful-what-you-wish-for’ tale that’s full of farmyard fun – from the bestselling Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Anna Currey in her charming, classic style.Old Macdonald is cleaning out his farmhouse kitchen when he comes across a dusty old teapot. And no one could be more surprised when a wish-granting genie pops out of the spout. Old Macdonald wishes for a wife, who wishes for a baby. A baby who wishes for a dog, who wishes for a cat, who wishes for some mice! It doesn’t take long before the farmyard starts getting very busy, and VERY noisy! Will the genie ever get a break from granting wishes, and find some peace? If only there was someone who could grant him a wish . . .The Teeny Weeny Genie is a magical picture book adventure packed with lots of favourite farmyard animals from Julia Donaldson and Anna Currey, creators of Rosie’s Hat and One Ted Falls Out of Bed.

In this compelling story of teenage rivalry and friendship, award-winning author Keith Gray captures the subtle agonies and reality of life growing up in a small town.Sully is the best climber in the village. He can scale the Twisted Sister’s tangled branches and clamber up Double Trunker with ease. But when new kid Nottingham shows up and astonishes everyone with his climbing skills, Sully’s status is under threat and there’s only one way to prove who’s best. Sully and Nottingham must race to climb the last unnamed tree. Whoever makes it to the top will become a legend. But something spiteful and ugly has reared its head in Sully … Is it worth losing everything just to reach the top?