THE BEST OF SCOTTISH BOOKS

Yee Ha! Hanna the Highland Cowgirl is all set for another adventure in this second fabulous picture book from Louise McDougall and Sarah Lovell. This time Hanna and her calf Calamity Jane find themselves in a real pickle at their local agricultural show. Hanna loves Highland Dancing but also loves showing her calf – and when she’s asked to do both she finds herself trying a little too hard as she rushes around the showground. Once again she asks “What would a real cowgirl do?” and discovers that it’s not always about winning but having huge fun as you do your best.

With the widest catchment area of any river in Britain, the Tay drains much of the lower Highlands of Scotland. A vast network of lochs and smaller bodies of water feed the Isla, Garry, Tummel, Almond and Earn, which all flow into this mighty river.

As Robin Crawford walks along the banks of the Tay, we delve into the history of this landscape and his personal connection with it, from hill walks with friends into the mountains of the Tay’s source to his student days in Dundee, where the Tay eventually spills out into the North Sea.

Along the route we dip into the river’s story: the gold-panners on the river Cononish, the Earthquake House outside Comrie, Beatrix Potter’s holiday home near Dunkeld. Throughout, the river is our constant companion, connecting the small moments on which events turn and lives are changed forever.

Unlock the potential of Scotland’s future withUnfinished Businessby Henry McLeish and James Mitchell. This compelling read is essential for political enthusiasts, policymakers and anyone passionate about the evolution of Scottish governance. McLeish and Mitchell dissect the legacy of the 1998 Scottish Parliament legislation, revisiting the core principles that shaped its foundation.

Reflecting on a quarter of a century of progress, the authors highlight past challenges and outline a vision for the next 25 years. Advocating for partnerships rooted in respect and accountability, they call for reforms that align with the original aspirations of the Scottish Parliament. This book not only scrutinises Scotland’s current political status but also illuminates pathways for a more equitable and engaged democracy.

Perfect for academics, students of political science and those interested in the future of Scotland,Unfinished Businessis a crucial addition to the conversation about Scotland’s political landscape and future direction.

Because this book is about films related to a place, rather than to a genre, person, year or era, the range covered is hugely diverse. There will be films discussed here you have not heard of which are worth digging out and I would be beyond astonished if any reader has seen every film I treat as Scottish.

What is a Scottish film?

Which are the best? And the worst?

BRAVEHEART • TRAINSPOTTING • THE WICKERMAN • SUNSET SONG • DOG SOLDIERS • ORPHANS • GREGORY’S GIRL • UNDER THE SKIN • YOUNG ADAM • SCHEME BIRDS • CALIBRE • AND VIOLET • DIRECT • THE ANGELS SHARE • THE 39 STEPS • THE ROAD DANCE • AXE RAIDERS • GOD HELP THE GIRL • NAE PARASAN • RED ROSE • PLAYHOUSE

This book offers a meticulously researched guide to over 400 films set predominantly in Scotland, spanning from silent cinema to modern day blockbusters. Each entry provides essential details, a concise plot summary, contextual insights and critical analysis.

All the opinions I offer in this book are mine, and mine alone. You’re free to disagree, and almost certainly will, and your opinion is equally valid.

Furse emphasises the connections to Scottish culture, highlight adaptations of literature and the real-life events inspiring these films.

Scottish Films is a thrilling treasure chest, packed with fresh insights and lesser known gems waiting to be discovered. It’s a vibrant celebration of Scotland’s cinematic artistry.

You may just discover your next watch!

In Love Goes North, Julie McNeill presents a heartfelt collection of poetry that serves as a love letter to trains, travel and the myriad experiences that shape our lives. Through her evocative verses, McNeill charts her journey north to Glasgow and beyond, capturing the essence of each moment along the way. Each poem is imbued with a sense of longing and joy, inviting readers to reflect on their own journeys and the people who have touched their hearts.

Love Goes North is ideal for poetry enthusiasts, lovers of travel, and anyone captivated by the stories that unfold on the road. It will resonate with those seeking inspiration from the journeys they undertake and the relationships they nurture. This collection is a perfect addition to any bookshelf, offering a comforting reminder of the power of love and connection in our lives.

This far north, they say the dead are with us…

Hogmanay, the far north of Scotland. Alone on the shoreline, lobster fisherman Rob Sinclair pours a dram into the freezing waves of the North Sea. It’s a family tradition; an offering to the sea spirit, the Selkie.

That same night, a stranger arrives in Rob’s village. A young woman, Mairi, charged by her dead mother to carry out three acts of vengeance. Bitter revenge for deeds done before Mairi was born.

Lonely and damaged, Rob and Mairi are drawn to one another. Rob is beguiled by Mairi, but she is elusive, frustrating, her personality shapeshifting. The only certainty is that Mairi is not who she says she is…

Scottish Wars of Independence, 1297. Scottish resistance has been crushed, and King Edward, Hammer of the Scots, now rules the North.
Doesn’t he?

At Chester Castle, young apprentice armourer Harry has no idea just how much his life is going to change from the moment he is told to guard an imprisoned Scottish nobleman: the rebel Andrew de Moray. The boy’s momentary carelessness gives the prisoner all he needs: an opportunity to escape. Harry finds himself kidnapped, and on his way to Scotland.

Soon, he is caught up in the Northern Rising with its skirmishes and stealth attacks. But these are nothing to the storm of questions in Harry’s mind: Whose cause is right? Why has his new master joined forces with the outlaw William Wallace? Can his new friend Euphemia be trusted?

As arrows fly and swords clash at the battle of Stirling Bridge, Harry must choose: Whose side is he on?

In a busy maternity ward, first-time father Dan meets Jada, a dad welcoming his fifth – no, sixth? – child into the world. Dan and Jada come from very different places: both called Glasgow. Dan is a successful TV writer with a townhouse in the West End and a shiny Tesla ready to drive his wife and baby home. Jada is a hustling, small-time criminal who is already planning how to separate Dan from some of the luxuries Jada has never been able to enjoy in his tiny flat in a Brutalist sixties council block.

Both men find that the birth of their sons has fired their ambitions. Dan plans to walk away from his saccharine TV success and finally knuckle down to writing that novel he always felt he had in him. While, for Jada, it’s the opportunity for one last get-rich-quick scheme – ripping off a local airport. When a tragedy occurs, their worlds are brought closer than either could ever have imagined – close enough that it could mean destruction for both of them . . .

In the wake of a deadly storm, past sins return to haunt the living…

Eilean Eòin is a tiny scrap of land which is stranded amidst miles of fierce ocean, where the scant population barely cling to a centuries’ old way of life. It is here that Flora McKinnon, an aging islander, is brought news of her youngest child’s death, whilst tensions are riled by the arrival of a new reverend, Thomas Murray. Murray has a mission: to weed out religious dissent and purge the island in the name of progress.

When a strange young woman is found washed up on the foreshore, illness and famine start to blight the island, stirring whispers of witchcraft. Despite their differences, Flora and Murray unite in an uneasy attempt to solve the mystery of the girl’s identity, which soon becomes an all-consuming obsession. With their own deep-buried skeletons, will the island’s dark secrets make or break them both?

You are afraid of the border places. You are afraid of the fork in the road.

Fleeing her mistakes in Glasgow for a marriage of convenience, Norah Mackenzie’s new home on an estate far in the north of Scotland is a chance for freedom, a fresh start. But in the dim, draughty corridors of Corrain House, something is very wrong. Despite their warm correspondence, her distant, melancholic husband does not seem to know her. She is plagued by ghost ships on the sea, spectres at the corner of her eye, by winding, grasping roots. Her only possible companion, the housekeeper Agnes Gunn, is by turns unnerving and alluring, and harbours uncanny secrets of her own.

As the foundations crumble beneath her feet, Norah must uncover the truth about Corrain House, her husband, Agnes, and herself, if she is to find the freedom she has been chasing.

MOST FAMILY REUNIONS END IN TEARS. THIS ONE WILL END IN MURDER.

Lucy Foley meets Succession in this atmospheric new murder mystery that will keep you hooked right until the last page . . .

On a private island off the west coast of Scotland, the Agarwals gather for a much-awaited family reunion.

Raj, the patriarch and business tycoon, who has six weeks to decide how to split his petrochemicals empire between his three children.

Shalini, the fragile mother, who longs to see her family healed.

Myra, the eldest daughter and golden child, who, unbeknownst to the family, is on the brink of bankruptcy.

Aseem, the son and supposed heir, who must choose between his wife and his family.

Aisha, the fun-loving youngest daughter, who is tired of being treated like a child.

And Zoe, the outsider whose #Instaperfect life is built on a foundation of lies.

Everyone has a secret – but only one would kill to protect it…

In this new edition of her first full-length collection, Gerda Stevenson invites readers into a world rich with music – skipping rhymes, heartfelt laments and lively dance tunes. Her poetry dances across themes of butterflies, snowberries and the bittersweet echoes of childhood, alongside reflections on Bosnia, Iraq and Scotland’s own landscapes. If This Were Real serves as an autobiographical tapestry, weaving together personal and political narratives that resonate deeply with our shared humanity.

This collection is ideal for poetry enthusiasts, readers of contemporary Scottish literature and anyone intrigued by the interplay of personal experience and broader societal themes. It’s a perfect book for those who appreciate the musicality of language and the power of storytelling in verse.

When Danny reveals the dark underside of a company making a new fighting toy gadget, he has no idea of the danger he’s in. A gripping sci-fi mystery from bestselling author Alastair Chisholm.

Everyone is desperate to have a Blitzer, the new fighting-game craze. But Danny’s Blitzer is broken – it won’t fight!

His classmates laugh at him. His brother tells him to wipe the code and start again. But Danny does something different … and everything changes.

For the people behind Blitzers are hiding a deadly secret, and now everyone is in danger. Can Danny uncover the truth? Can he figure out what Blitzers are? And above all, can he save his best friend?

Particularly suitable for readers aged 9+ with a reading age of 8.

For millennia,
elms shaped our landscape and our folklore;
then they started dying.

For the past century, a deadly pandemic has raged across the world, destroying all in its path and outmanoeuvring scientists’ desperate attempts to halt it.

Dutch elm disease has killed hundreds of millions of trees globally and over 25 million in the UK alone, altering our landscapes forever. Few young people have seen a mature elm tree, yet they once covered great swathes of Europe and North America and their legacy lives on in our mythology.

The Lost Elms is a love letter to our vanished elms – the story of how we have nearly lost them all, and the long, slow fight back. It tells the gripping story of the scientists desperately trying to halt the disease’s relentless progress, and demonstrates the deadly effect globalisation can have on the environment, the threat of climate change, the importance of biosecurity and the intricate ways in which trees are interlinked with other species. Woven throughout is a lyrical look at the elm’s central place in our history, culture and folklore – the elm features heavily in Greek, Celtic, Japanese, Germanic and Scandinavian mythology; as the ‘Liberty Tree’ it played a symbolic role in both the American and French Revolutions; and since ancient times the elm has held associations with death and the supernatural.

However all is not lost: recent breakthroughs in ecological understanding reveal elms to be far more resilient than we ever imagined. This tree holds an important place in our history, and now might just offer hopeful lessons for how we can save other disappearing species and our environment.

It was obvious to Catherine Simpson from the beginning that there was something different about her first child, Nina.

Motherhood had always felt like Catherine’s destiny, and she’d grown up nurturing joyful visions of the family she’d create. But her dreams crashed headfirst into the reality of parenthood. It seemed that the world was not Nina-shaped, and no matter how hard they both tried, they had to fight almost everything – especially once Nina started school.

Aged ten, Nina’s autism was diagnosed and a door opened. It became clear why she didn’t think or behave the way other children did, but faced with school bullies, dismissive doctors and insensitive peers, her difficulties were far from over. She and Catherine still felt as though it was them against a world that demanded Nina change as a child and Catherine as a mother.

While Nina remained resolutely herself, Catherine adapted. Mothering an autistic child lit a fierce determination within her and underlined the power of her unconditional love.

This is an unforgettable story that shows what a gift it is to see someone not as the world tells them they should be, but as they are.

When troubled but talented young author Euan meets decorated novelist Malcolm Furnivall, he feels his luck has finally changed. Malcolm takes Euan as a protégé, vouching for him in the rarefied literary scene in the 1950s. But lately, Malcolm has not been himself. Consumed by his work, he cuts an increasingly isolated figure and has become convinced that something terrible will befall him. He summons his loved ones to his secluded island in the Hebrides and – to everyone’s surprise – entrusts Euan with the task of completing his masterpiece.

Malcolm’s suspicions soon prove well-founded; he is discovered brutally murdered in his study, and his invaluable unfinished novel has vanished. Cut off from the mainland, with the killer on the loose and the island’s inhabitants circling, Euan feels both his mentor’s legacy and his only chance at greatness slipping away. He must venture deep into Malcolm’s labyrinthine mansion to find the manuscript before it falls into the wrong hands.

But what he doesn’t yet know is that the closer he comes to solving the mystery, the tighter he will bind himself to a fate sealed in time . . .

A brand new crime series from the award-winning author of the Harry McCoy books.

March 1941. Joseph Gunner is back on the streets of Glasgow after being wounded on the front lines in France.

Keeping the pain in his leg at bay with the help of morphine, Gunner, a former detective, is hoping to lie low as the Luftwaffe begins bombing Glasgow.

But when he runs into his old boss Drummond, he is persuaded to help examine a body found in the wreckage. When it turns out to be that of a German, mutilated to disguise his identity, Gunner reluctantly agrees to investigate.

As he begins to hunt for the truth Gunner runs into old flames and bitter enemies, before finding himself embroiled in a high-level conspiracy that reaches far beyond his hometown of Glasgow.

Partly inspired by the true story of Rudolph Hess’s secret mission to broker appeasement with Britain during the Second World War, Gunner is an atmospheric and addictive new thriller from one of Britain’s best-loved writers.

Three’s a crowd. Especially when one of them ends up dead…
A dark, addictive story of obsession, rivalry, and the thin line between infatuation and obsession

‘It’s not the blood that gives away the fact that he’s dead; it’s the eyes. You never notice someone blinking, but it’s so obvious when they stop’

When university student Louise moves in with her friend Cat, she can’t believe her luck.

In her eyes, Cat is perfect – she’s rich, gorgeous, enigmatic and sexy, and the only person who has ever persuaded Henry, who doesn’t do commitment, into a monogamous relationship.

Life in Cat and Henry’s orbit is never dull, but when a night in for the three of them ends up in bed, Louise is confronted with the true nature of their relationship, and has nowhere to hide when Cat asks for help getting out.

Louise would do anything for Cat, even if what Cat asks terrifies her.

Because for Louise, the only thing worse than doing what Cat is asking, is losing her completely . . .