THE BEST OF SCOTTISH BOOKS

A city on the brink of civil war. A madman pulling the strings.
A family is found butchered in a dismal room in the Rookery, London’s poorest district. Not even their small children are left alive.

Most of the authorities pay scant attention, except for Thiefmaster General Jonathan Wild. Intrigued by this development, Colonel Nathaniel Charters tasks his most trusted operative, Jonas Flynt, with discovering why.

When another family is murdered just as brutally, Flynt uncovers evidence of a simmering conflict between rival gangs, with Wild seemingly desperate to keep a lid on the slaughter.

The question for Flynt is how deep is his new friend The Admiral, a gang leader, involved, and is he capable of killing innocents? Or is there someone else in London, more dangerous and more deranged, with blood on their hands?

A scintillating serial killer thriller set amidst the dirt and grime of Georgian London, the next thrilling instalment in the McIlvanney longlisted Company of Rogues series.

From Maggie O’Farrell, the multi award-winning author of Hamnet, and the stunning imagination of Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini, comes a hopeful and powerful new book, based on Maggie’s own experience on living with a stammer.

Sisters Bea and Min couldn’t be any more different – Bea is neat and tidy; Min is messy and mucky. Together, they are a perfect pair because Min loves to chat and Bea loves to listen. And in their happy differences, they share the attic room at the top of their very tall, narrow house. Then, one day, as Min is chatting, her tongue feels suddenly locked. The words forming in her mouth never make it out. Some days later, still struggling to speak, she sees the most extraordinary thing at her shoulder in a mirror … a creature, a thing, seizing the words as they rise to her lips, and cramming them into its mouth. Min continues to struggle with her stammer – how can she truly be herself, when she cannot do what she loves most: chat! Bea is the only one who truly sees, and understands, her. Together, they go on a journey of discovery – what IS this creature? – and they find not quite a solution, but a way to make peace with themselves and to love and embrace what makes each of them different.

It was the twelfth night of the winter feasts
and giant yule logs had burned without cease . . .

Seeking refuge from a snowstorm, a nameless traveller is welcomed into an ancient hall to warm their bones and fill their stomach, if they will hear the stories of three wise men and judge whom amongst them tells the truth.

What follows are three tales of despair and devotion, of indigence and immortality. A lovelorn youth plies the object of his affections with golden rings, partridges and pear trees. An elderly man, tired of life, finds himself having cheated death and quite unsure of what to do next.

An enchanting festive poem from Carol Ann Duffy, former Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, and adorned with gorgeous illustrations, Three Wise Men is the perfect festive gift for the poetry lover in your life.

‘Tis the season to solve a mystery… a dazzling murder mystery from the bestselling author of Murder at Holly House.

A case shrouded in secrets.
It’s just before Christmas, 1953. Frank and Juggers are investigating a puzzling murder in the remote village of Uthley’s Bay. A fisherman has been found dead on the beach, with a stocking wound tight round his throat.

A festive mystery for one and all.
Hundreds of pairs of stockings, in neat cellophane bags, soon wash up on the shore. A blizzard cuts off Frank and Juggers from help, and the local innkeeper is murdered. Any remaining Christmas cheer goes up in smoke as the villagers refuse to talk, leaving the two detectives chasing false leads in the snow.

A winter wonderland with no escape.
To make matters worse, Frank can’t stop thinking about stockings. Why does everyone seem to be enjoying strangely high standards of hosiery, even beneath their oilskins? Who is the sinister man snooping around their hotel? And how can they solve the murder when everyone in the village is a suspect?

‘Racist’, ‘Slave Trader’ and ‘Rapist’ were just some of the phrases that were directed towards Scotland’s national poet during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. Whilst Robert Burns has been revered for his evocative poetry and passionate advocacy for social justice, did his actions match his words?

Through meticulous research and a compelling narrative, Clark McGinn examines Burns’ connections to the transatlantic slave trade, highlighting the paradoxes and moral conflicts during the poet’s time. The book does not shy away from uncomfortable truths, presenting a nuanced portrait that challenges readers to reconcile Burns’ literary genius with the ethical ambiguities of his time.

Burns and Black Lives is an essential read for those interested in the intersections of literature, history and social justice, offering a profound re-examination of one of Scotland’s most iconic figures.

‘Here are over a hundred recipes for all the ways I like to eat, from small snacky bites to brunches, big meaty feasts to sumptuous puddings. Some are simple, some a little more challenging, but they’re always about celebrating Scottish produce and the pleasure of sharing food with friends and family.

At the end of each chapter is a seasonal dinner party menu, thoughtfully designed so it’s easy to make a showstopper meal that everyone can relax and enjoy, including the chef.’

Celebrate the best of spring with Asparagus and Roast Chicken Hollandaise or Trout and Spring Vegetable Galette, or imagine summer feasting tables laid with Lamb Rack, Labneh and Sweetheart Cabbage and Chilled Rice Pudding. The gamey flavours of autumn include Mallard Rillettes and Whole Roasted Partridge, and as the nights draw in for winter, turn to Roberta’s signature Braised Beef and Caramelised Onion Pie or her Chocolate Fudge Cake of dreams, served with malt chocolate custard.

Love, Loyalty and Loss Admidst Scotland’s Jacobite Uprising.

In June 1745, the news that Prince Charles Edward Stuart has landed on Eriskay reaches the quiet glen of Tullynessle, Aberdeenshire. Charles Gordon, Laird of Terpersie, and Walter Syme, the parish minister, must make a decision – will they support the Jacobite army in seizing the throne of Britain and restoring it to the House of Stuart? Charles Gordon rushes to the Prince’s banner. The Rev Walter Syme, recently widowed, decides to remain in Tullynessle to look after his family and to support his parishioners.

Meanwhile, in the Brabant, Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, is watching events in Scotland with impatience.

As Charles Gordon’s commitment to the Stuarts leads him to Culloden field, Walter Syme is making plans to marry the young housekeeper at the manse. Although the paths of these men are very different, the lives of their two families become increasingly entwined.

In the end of the day, will there be a price to pay? This is a carefully researched historical novel which ponders the effects of the 1745 Jacobite uprising on the people of Scotland.

Anns an Ògmhios 1745, tha muinntir gleann sìtheil Thulach Neasail, Siorrachd Obar Dheathain, a’ cluinntinn na naidheachd gu bheil am Prionnsa Teàrlach Eideard Stiùbhart air tighinn gu tìr an Èirisgeigh. Feumaidh an t-uachdaran Teàrlach Gòrdanach agus am ministear Ualtar Syme, banntrach le triùir nighean, roghainn a dhèanamh. An toir iad an taic do na Seumasaich ann a bhith a’ glacadh Crùn Bhreatainn?

Aig an aon àm air tìr-mòr na Roinn Eòrpa, tha Uilleam Augustus, Diùc Chumberland, a’ cumail sùil gheur air an ar-a-mach Sheumasach, mì-fhoighidneach gus am faigh e an sàs anns a’ chòmhraig.
Chan fhada gus am bi saoghal nan Gòrdanach agus nan Symes air a thilgeadh bun os cionn.

A man gasping for water at the dawn of humanity.

A eunuch finding love for the first time.

A woman, who dresses as a man, in Hitler’s Berlin.

A Renaissance artist in love with a slave.

All these lives exist inside the brain of dying man, Darius Colvin.

After waking up in hospital following a car crash paralysed from the neck down, and with no memory of the events leading up to his accident, Darius finds his life has been saved by an experimental drug. But the drug has unexpected side effects. It warps time and space, catapulting Darius through a labyrinth of memories that are not his own. As his recall grows wilder, his sanity is questioned. No-one believes him except Lexie Song, a doctor harbouring a secret of her own. Together, they embark on a surreal exploration that leads to revelations that transcend the limits of human experience. But, as the past lives reveal clues to a centuries-old mystery, they remain blissfully unaware of the dangers that are gathering around them in the present.

A varied group of characters in an increasingly dystopian world have to deal with ‘deep fakes’ distorting their very sense of reality.

In a world drowning in a deluge of falsehoods, “Fake Fish” confronts the insidious rise of false news, and unmasks the far-reaching consequences that extend beyond mere headlines. With an unflinching gaze, this novel exposes the alarming impact of deceit on a global scale, as personal and national reputations crumble, and the very fabric of truth is torn apart.

As the story unfolds, the characters navigate the treacherous landscape of a society where nothing can be trusted. “Fake Fish” is a timely exploration of the fragility of reality in an age where truth is being swallowed by technology.

A fascinating and revealing new biography of Mary Queen of Scots in captivity.

For almost two decades before her or execution at Fotheringhay Castle in 1587, Mary, Queen of Scots was a prisoner. From her chambers, she wrote countless letters, many encrypted using complex ciphers to prevent her communications from being intercepted. In this way, she used language to exert her will and her influence, even while incarcerated.

More than 400 years after Mary’s death, the discovery of further encoded letters has led to renewed interest in the breadth of her encrypted correspondence in captivity.

In Captive Queen: The Decrypted History of Mary, Queen of Scots, historian and expert on Mary’s correspondence Dr Jade Scott draws on hundreds of Mary’s letters and those sent to her, to paint a vivid portrait of one of history’s most compelling figures. She interrogates Mary’s complex relationships with friends and enemies throughout her imprisonment, illuminating her strategic expertise and bringing Mary’s captivity to life as never before.

The fabric of Dorothy K. Haynes’ weird fiction is truly the stuff of nightmares, where horrors cruel and mundane are interwoven with threads of dark fairy folklore and twisted witchcraft to deliver heady supernatural thrills.

In this new collection, Haynes expert Craig Lamont presents the essential classics of her strange storytelling alongside rarities from obscure anthologies and magazines – and several stories exhumed from the family archive which have never been published before.

Featuring illustrations by Mervyn Peake from the Library’s collections, this volume knits the irresistible pull of Haynes’ unique brand of the uncanny with a rare opportunity to discover new material from one of the great weavers of Scottish horror.

Robert Burns is Scotland’s best known and most influential poet; yet his political legacy also ranks amongst the most contentious. His ambiguous verse, oscillating between patriotic odes, egalitarian lines and royalist songs, lends itself to interpretations from across the political divide. Blending political history and literary studies, this book explores this contested legacy of ‘Scotland’s National Bard’. It follows the transformations of Burns’s image throughout the late modern era, as revolutionaries, nationalists and avant-garde writers co-opted Burns’s myth to subvert their country’s social and constitutional order. From Great War unionism to 1940s socialism and contemporary nationalism, the examination of Burns’s tempestuous afterlives sheds light on the ongoing Scottish question. Overall, it reminds us that poetry is a very shifting ground on which to build a national identity.

Why are feet so hot? Why did feet show up in poetry written during a medieval outbreak of gonorrhoea? When Jesus washed his disciples’ feet, what kind of love was he showing? What do different cultures tell us about feet? How did early sexologists convince us that loving feet is deviant? These are just some of the questions explored through this history of toe-botherers. With his trademark curiosity, Zmith time-travels through sex archives, online forums and millennia of art, exploring why even common fetishes are seen as weird. His essays take care to remove shame and disgust from foot fancying, inviting readers to dip a toe into our deepest desires. From Tarantino films to Bible stories, Renaissance paintings to OnlyFans, Solemates is the rich, messy, and often surprising history of our love of an overlooked body part, climaxing in an argument for pleasure.

Nature poetry has been redefined through the centuries, shapeshifting through the major upheavals of our relationship with the landscapes, plants and non-human species with whom we share the earth. As our environment is destabilised and threatened by the climate crisis, we can once again find new meanings, causes for hope and catalysts for action in these poems.

Arranged by season – and full of surprises – this anthology shows the vast breadth of writing on the natural world, and challenges homogenous ideas of what a nature poet can look like. The choices in this anthology see beloved poets celebrated alongside new and emerging writers, whose voices echo the urgency of the crisis we now face. Together, they show what we have in common across countries and centuries: an undeniable kinship with nature, and a fierce will to protect it.

HAIRAN is a new anthology of poetry by Iranian women, compiled in the face of violent attacks on life and liberty that began with the death of Mahsa Amini in Tehran in September 2022. Amini was arrested and killed in police custody for not covering enough of her hair in public. ‍ Here are 75 poems from a diverse cross-section of contemporary Iranian voices, accompanied by ‘hair portraits’ taken by the poets. ‍ Alongside Sobati and Sarhandi-Williams, HAIRAN was edited by Sepideh Jodeyri, Sepideh Kouti, Anna Krasnowolska, Anahita Rezaei, and Abbas Shokri.

‘Gavin has not married me in church with stained glass saints looking down in judgement and me wearing shop-bought jewellery that will soon become tarnished. He has not married me on paper, inking out scribbled signatures as if I am a woman to acquire on hire purchase and he a man too busy read the fine print. He has married me with all of this: a marriage of minds and souls, conceived in the beating heart of nature where we share one consciousness and one calling. One otter, most important of all. Instead of white lace, we have rowan blossom. Instead of pungent florist bouquets, we have a flourishing carpet of wildflowers.’

‘If hate were love, if love were hate, it could not make our tale untold’

Divorced and living apart from her two children as she strives against the odds to carve out a career in 1940s London, poet Kathleen Raine is initially unimpressed when she meets Gavin Maxwell, a would-be portrait painter struggling to recover from a recent breakdown. Nevertheless, the pair soon bond over childhood memories and a profound love of nature, epitomised by a mysterious vision they share of a rowan tree.

When Gavin confides that he is ‘more of a man’s man’, Kathleen remains determined that their connection can survive. They share a cottage in the wildest reaches of the West Highlands, where they care for Gavin’s beloved pet otter Mij and for each other. But when tragedy strikes, love soon turns to hate, and Kathleen finds herself being written out of her own life.

Inspired by the true story of Kathleen Raine and Gavin Maxwell’s ‘some-requited’ love, Remember the Rowan illuminates their extraordinary relationship and shines a light on the woman behind Ring of Bright Water.

Despite the hardships Kathleen faced in her relationship with Gavin, she went on to become a well-respected and successful poet.

A gothic tale of family, the legend of the selkies – shapeshifting mythological creatures – and a young woman who is offered an impossible choice.

The only daughter in a family of Scottish seal-hunters, Kier Sealgair is becoming a burden. She cannot kill, and the family are facing hard times now that her father is ailing.

On the neighbouring cliffs stands Erskine Manor, home to a mysterious and wealthy family. Servants arrive in town to buy supplies, but the family is never seen, and waves of rumour spread in the struggling small-town community.

Then, one day, after a chance encounter, Lady Erskine finds Kier and offers her a bargain that could save Kier’s father and change the town’s impending fate. But questions remain. Who lives in the five towers of the manor? Is the Lord of the house alive? And are the children of the manor even human, or are the tales of spine-toothed monsters who roam the grounds true?

A period gothic tale of legends, secrets and monsters in the deep, weaving myth and folklore, The Bone Diver is perfect for fans of Jenni Fagan, Sarah Waters and Sarah Perry.

The Author is a trained nurse and her medical knowledge and caring disposition helped form the bedrock of the relationship. It was a relationship that began in the early 1980s when May Hooper and Alasdair Gray met at a party in the West End of Glasgow and when Alasdair Gray, clearly attracted by May Hooper’s striking good looks, asked if he could draw or paint her. At a following portrait session the two realised that they enjoyed each other’s company, that this was more than just an artist/model relationship and the friendship took off and was to last for 39 years until Alasdair Gray’s death in 2019.

The book tells stories of long walks together, of a visit to the Edinburgh Book Festival, of trips to the cinema, of outings to the Scottish countryside, of Alasdair Gray’s work on murals in Glasgow and in Dunfermline (when he was working with May Hooper’s partner, Robert, as his assistant). Conversations and events taking place in the course of their times together are described, sometimes showing connections with books to be written by Alasdair Gray. What is described is sometimes in the general nature of personal friendships, sometimes out of the ordinary, sometimes bizarre and eccentric, always entertaining and always throwing light on the character of this Scottish artist.

Although when they first met they each lived in different parts of the city of Glasgow, quite distant from each other, they were later to become near-neighbours in the West End of the city. The memoir describes the events which led to Alasdair Gray’s hospitalisation and how May Hooper, of her own volition and acting out of deep-seated love and admiration, became the person who organised his home care when he was confined to a wheelchair. The memoir alludes to Alasdair Gray’s relationships with his own next-of-kin and describes how May Hooper was to take on what was in effect an unofficial power of attorney to ensure that his final years were spent in the way that he himself wanted.

Katy’s story is first and foremost a musical, family memoir. Both parents come with their own lives immersed in the Scottish music scene of the 1980s – Katy enmeshed in everything that was Edinburgh-based C86 indie pop, while her bandmate and future husband, Douglas MacIntyre, embraced the Scottish post-punk era.

At the turn of the century, just as the the couple’s musical projects are in the midst of a creative overload, children start to appear at an alarming rate. Six years and five children later, SandFest was born – raising thousands of pounds over the next decade for Down’s Syndrome charities.

A family. Functioning. JUST – music is always there to save the day. At the centre of this family saga is the indomitable spirit of middle child, Matilda, whose Down Syndrome is, in equal parts, challenging and an amazing gift within the family dynamic!

In part, with the raw and unflinching honesty Katy tells of her encounters with the medical profession and educational authorities, which can be described as alternating between difficult and wonderful.

At heart, this is the story of a family’s love of music and how it has provided purpose, forged relationships and created harmony in every aspect of their lives … with Matilda in the middle.

‘Unnad’ Indigenous is the latest offering from renowned Lewis artist, Calum Angus MacKay. Having been described as “set to become a star” in 1994, he hasn’t disappointed.

In this book, containing over 100 photographs of his work both old and new, he details the circumstances behind each piece and what they mean to him. This collection of his work highlights his journey through life and art dealing with grief, death, family, history and community.

This book, written in both Gaelic and English, offers the reader an insight into some of Calum Angus’ remarkable work and his awareness of what is in us all.

Calum Angus MacKay, broadcaster, programme maker and artist, combines a crofting life in the Western Isles with a career in Gaelic broadcasting and his activities as a photographer.

His photographs make reference to local history and folklore without being nostalgic or sentimental. A creative career spanning some 30 years across television and radio. Having had his first book, Isolate, published in 1999, ‘Unnad’ Indigenous is well worth the wait.

With Foreword from writer and broadcaster Muriel Gray and over 100 photographs of Calum Angus’ work, ‘Unnad’ Indigenous will be thoroughly enjoyed by many.