THE BEST OF SCOTTISH BOOKS

Dream deeply. Rise up strong. Change is coming…

‘Instantly immersive and compelling, rich and strange, human and humane, and most of all inspiring … an extraordinary story.’ Lee Child

From the bestselling author of mythic, page-turning, world-building thrillers comes this present-day story of three generations thrown to the forefront of a political crisis and the uprising that follows. Virtual and real violence stalk the family’s every move, yet between them their skills include digital mastery, political edge and roots sunk deep into the old, wild myths of the land. In the combination of these they might just find the key to the transformation they yearn for…

As Lan lies dying, she makes a promise that binds her long into the beyond. Fifteen years later, her teenage granddaughter, Kaitlyn, triggers an international storm of outrage that unleashes the rage of a whole betrayed generation. For one shining fragment of time, the world is with her. But then the backlash begins and soon she and those closest to her find themselves facing the wrath of the old establishment, who will use every dirty trick in the book to fight them off. Watching over the growing chaos is Lan, who taught them all to think independently, approach power sceptically and dream with clear intent. She knows more than one generation’s hopes are on the line. Nothing less than the future of humanity stands in the balance.

Grand in scope, rich in courageous characters who breathe new life into ancient wisdom, here is a dream of a better future: the story of a world we’d be proud to leave to our children and their children and on, generations down the line.

“This is a novel filled with love―not only Keedie’s love for Addie but McNicoll’s for young neurodivergent people everywhere, and the brilliant and brave Keedie will inspire those children to be proud of who they are.” The Bookseller

Set in Juniper five years before A Kind of Spark comes a powerful coming-of-age story from award-winning author Elle McNicoll.

As Keedie and her twin Nina approach their fourteenth birthday, they seem to only be growing further apart. Keedie instead feels drawn to, and fiercely protective of, their quiet younger sister Addie – who on the surface is the opposite of loud and fiery Keedie, but in fact they have more in common than anyone knows.

“A brilliant story of kindness, justice and just a little bit of revenge. Brash, bold and furious, just like Keedie herself.” Lizzie Huxley-Jones

In a fractured dystopic future, the child Rue finds solace in the garden of a mysterious community. Rue has lost identity, family, home and people to war. Too much has happened for Rue to trust others, but connection with the rest of the living world is not lost. Adulthood requires a courageous journey through a landscape of despair, yet ultimately Rue finds hope of regeneration from unexpected sources.

I realised that the struggle in Indonesia was very important as it concerned the destiny of over 70 million people. I knew that if the struggle for Independence failed, the western world would be equally to blame. Tom Atkinson

Merdeka (Indonesian; Malaysian): ‘independent’ or ‘free’. ‘Merdeka’ became Indonesia’s national battle-cry and salute during its fight for independence from the Dutch Empire in the 1940s.

Indonesia: a state formed of over 17,000 islands, Indonesia was under Dutch control for nearly 200 years until it declared independence in 1945 under President Sukarno.

In this book Chris Moorhouse recounts the extraordinary, previously unwritten saga of Tom Atkinson – a soldier, political speechwriter, farmer, hotelier, and publisher. At the heart of Indonesia’s 1940s struggle for independence, Tom played an important role in spreading the truth of what was happening in Indonesia around the world, helping to liberate the nation from centuries of colonial rule. Stationed in Indonesia immediately after World War II with the raf, he founded the Indonesian Information Bulletin, paving the way for his tenure as President Sukarno’s speechwriter for over a decade.

Merdeka weaves a poignant narrative, merging political commentary and a captivating love story, shedding fresh perspectives on a nation’s genesis.

When evil stalks the land, who can you trust?

Francis Hilton is distraught at the death of his father. They weren’t close, but now Fran must face the consequences of Andrew Hilton’s decision to bring his daughter up as a son. Torn between her desire to be herself and the freedom and power he has as a man, Fran feels desperately alone.

But he has more to worry about as the north of England braces itself for the arrival of Scottish raiders in the aftermath of the battle of Bannockburn. Dread turns to horror, however, when a monstrous figure is seen in the hills above Hilton and a grotesque offering is left in Warcop, three miles away. As violence and murder soon follow, it seems that Adam Fotheringill – a local man killed escaping from Bannockburn – has returned from the dead to wreak revenge. But for what?

With the threat from the Scots a priority for the authorities, Fran, Will Warcop, the local priest, and a motley band of Hilton’s young people set out to deal with the Revenant. As they move closer to the truth, Fran finds friendship and even love. But when the truth is finally revealed, it threatens to tear them all apart.

‘Jenni Daiches has astonishingly re-created a lost world… I wept and laughed and wished I had written it.’ MIRIAM MARGOLYES

About the book

Rosa Roshkin is five years old when her family are murdered in a pogrom and she is forced to leave behind everything she knows with only a suitcase of clothes and her father’s violin.

An epic generational novel about womanhood and Judaeo-Scottish experience across two World Wars, the creation of Israel and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Jenni Daiches’s Somewhere Else explores today’s most difficult and urgent questions, not least of which: how to find identity in displacement.

When evil stalks the land, who can you trust?

Francis Hilton is distraught at the death of his father. They weren’t close, but now Fran must face the consequences of Andrew Hilton’s decision to bring his daughter up as a son. Torn between her desire to be herself and the freedom and power he has as a man, Fran feels desperately alone.

But he has more to worry about as the north of England braces itself for the arrival of Scottish raiders in the aftermath of the battle of Bannockburn. Dread turns to horror, however, when a monstrous figure is seen in the hills above Hilton and a grotesque offering is left in Warcop, three miles away. As violence and murder soon follow, it seems that Adam Fotheringill – a local man killed escaping from Bannockburn – has returned from the dead to wreak revenge. But for what?

With the threat from the Scots a priority for the authorities, Fran, Will Warcop, the local priest, and a motley band of Hilton’s young people set out to deal with the Revenant. As they move closer to the truth, Fran finds friendship and even love. But when the truth is finally revealed, it threatens to tear them all apart.

Joshua dies on his birthday.

Joshua dies the day he is born.

Joshua lives for three hours.

Joshua is alive.

Rodge Glass’s nephew Joshua died the same day he was born, from a blood condition they both share.

This book charts the five years around Joshua’s life and death to tell the story of Rodge’s attempts to make sense of this loss. Having spent a lifetime using reading and writing to both hide from and face the world, Joshua in the Sky serves as a kind of reckoning, asking the questions: whose life deserves to be remembered? And how?

Brought to you by Penguin.

In his most exhilarating novel yet, Britain’s greatest storyteller transports you from the vibrant streets of sixties London to the sun-soaked cobbles of Cadiz and the frosty squares of Warsaw, as an accidental spy is drawn into the shadows of espionage and obsession.

Gabriel Dax is a young man haunted by the memories of a tragedy: every night, when sleep finally comes, he dreams about his childhood home in flames. His days are spent on the move as an acclaimed travel writer, capturing the changing landscapes in the grip of the Cold War. When he’s offered the chance to interview a political figure, his ambition leads him unwittingly into a web of duplicities and betrayals.

As Gabriel’s reluctant initiation takes hold, he is drawn deeper into the shadows. Falling under the spell of Faith Green, an enigmatic and ruthless MI6 handler, he becomes ‘her spy’, unable to resist her demands. But amid the peril, paranoia and passion consuming Gabriel’s new covert life, it will be the revelations closer to home that change the rest of his story. . .

‘Sheer, truly brilliant storytelling. He has probably written more classic books than any of his contemporaries’ Daily Telegraph

‘If it’s true escapism you’re after, William Boyd can always be relied upon to transport the reader from reality’ Vogue

‘A master storyteller’ Observer

© William Boyd 2024 (P) Penguin Audio 2024

Winner 2014 Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize

Longlisted: International Dublin Literary Award 2016

Sunday Herald Book of the Year 2014

Elderly, Egypt-mad twins Isis and Osiris find their neglected English lives disturbed to catastrophic effect by the arrival of American Anarchist, Spike

New from Lesley Glaister, winner of the Somerset Maugham, Betty Trask and Yorkshire Post Author of the Year prizes

‘This tale of imprisonment and neglect explores our passion for nostalgia, with hints of Dodie Smith’s darker side. An excellent read that pulls at the heart as well as the head.’ – Victoria Clark, The Lady

‘Eerily atmospheric Little Egypt, made me shudder; certain passages were read through half-closed eyes, the way you watch grisly scenes in a film – desperate to know what happens, but not wanting to disturbing images imprinted on your mind.’ – Rosemary Goring, The Herald

Little Egypt was once a well-to-do country house in the north of England. Now it’s derelict and trapped on a small island of land between a railway, a dual carriageway and a superstore, and although it looks deserted it isn’t. Nonagenarian twins, Isis and Osiris, still live in the home they were born in, and from which in the 1920s their obsessive Egyptologist parents left them to search for the fabled tomb of Herihor – a search from which they never returned. Isis and Osiris have stayed in the house, guarding a terrible secret, for all their long lives until chance meeting between Isis and young American anarchist Spike, sparks an unlikely friendship and proves a catalyst for change.

‘I was gripped by the story from start to finish, finding it a perturbing, poignant and, in places, a darkly humorous read.’ – Amazon.co.uk

This enormously accomplished novel took twenty years to come to fruition: it is well worth the wait – buy your copy now.

He left for university… and never came back

Arran went missing in Edinburgh twenty years ago. The last time his parents saw him he was withdrawn and on edge where he’d once been happy and carefree. Still searching for their son, they turn to their last hope, true crime podcaster Cal Lovett.

Cal begins looking for answers, but is distracted by his sister’s murder trial. He’s so close to getting the justice Margot deserves. Can he finally leave the past – and Margot – behind?

As Cal unearths disturbing evidence about Arran’s fate, he suspects the young man’s close-knit group of university friends are keeping secrets to protect each other. It seems old loyalties don’t die easily. But they can’t all stay silent forever?

An unputdownable crime thriller perfect for fans of Jane Casey, Cara Hunter and Neil Lancaster.

Occupying the southernmost part of the largest of the Western Isles, Harris boasts some of the most ruggedly beautiful and unspoilt landscape in Scotland.

In this book, Bill Lawson, who has lived on Harris for many years, not only introduces the reader to the events that have shaped the island’s history, but also dips into the local legends, traditions and tales, as well as his own personal reminiscences. The result is a unique insight into Harris and the life and industry of its people through the ages.

‘There is no greater authority on the history of Harris and Lewis alive than Bill Lawson’ – The Herald

Set in 1960s Glasgow, The Dear Green Place is an absorbing portrait of the struggles and conflicts of a young working-class hero and would-be novelist Mat Craig whose desire to define himself as an artist creates social and family tensions.

This classic of Scottish twentieth-century literature is an absorbing and moving story, with vivid descriptions of the city around Mat; it remains as authentic and relevant nearly fifty years on.

Hannah Lavery’s Unwritten Woman is a bold and lavish call for us to see the woman in the stories we read and tell ourselves.From her search for the story, in her home city, Edinburgh, through her chilling re-telling of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Jekyll & Hyde, elevating the women in that classic tale from being written between the lines, to the woman of colour, shouting from the sidelines of our cultural landscape.

This collection is a visceral depiction of the difficult love between a father and son and what happens when that love is lost. In his debut, Thomas Stewart examines the death of his father whilst exploring questions of grief, guilt, mental health, identity, sexuality and masculinity.

As these poems unfold a hallway of mirrors is created, with father-son relationships from art, cinema and Welsh mythology expanded and rethought. From Space Jam to The Mabinogion, The Babadook to Ivan the Terrible, this collection grapples what it means to be a father, a son and a self. Subverting the notions of gender, Stewart addresses the damage of old stereotypes, the passage of generational trauma and questions how we might change.

Here, father and son yearn, kill, retreat, die, grieve, turn to stone, are brought back from the dead. Here, sunflowers compete in fashion contests, bees nestle in beards, apple seeds birth ragged-robins. Here, suns give license to grief, witches rest in the crib and moths lead the way to the dead. At its core, Real Boys explores the crushing weight of grief and how we might just live with it.

Whether you take the high road or the low road, Scotland is yours to explore with Rick Steves! Inside Rick Steves Scotland you’ll find:

– Fully updated, comprehensive coverage for spending a multi-week trip exploring Scotland

– Rick’s strategic advice on how to get the most out of your time and money, with rankings of his must-see favorites

– Top sights and hidden gems, from the wild beauty of Orkney Islands and the Hebrides to cozy corner pubs in Edinburgh

– How to connect with local culture: Chat with experts on the Speyside Whisky Trail, cheer on the locals at a Highland Games event, or try authentic haggis

– Beat the crowds, skip the lines, and avoid tourist traps with Rick’s candid, humorous insight

– The best places to eat, sleep, and relax with a dram of scotch

– Self-guided walking tours of lively neighborhoods and historic sites

– Detailed neighborhood maps and a fold-out regional map for exploring on the go

– Useful resources including a packing list, a phrase book of Scottish slang, a historical overview, and recommended reading

– Complete, up-to-date information on Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling, St. Andrews, the Scottish Highlands, Oban, Mull, Iona, Staffa, Glencoe, Fort William, Inverness, Loch Ness, Pitiochry, Balmoral Castle, the Isle of Skye, Wester Ross, the Orkney Islands, and more

Make the most of every day and every dollar with Rick Steves Scotland.

Spending less time in Scotland? Hit the highlights with Rick Steves Best of Scotland.

The Scottish Highlands are at the most northerly extreme of mainland Britain. The region was once a place of turmoil and bloodshed, of clan warfare and royal misadventure. Now the Highlands are somewhere to explore at leisure. It is a place rich in history, a land of hills and craggy mountains, of secluded coves and sandy beaches, and appealing towns and villages.

With this book as your guide, meet Felicity, a large and friendly puma; learn the rules of Shinty, a unique and popular Highland sport; sit in the shade of Europe’s oldest living tree; take a turn around the Devil’s Elbow, if you dare; find yourself at the very centre of Scotland; visit a fairy village; take a stroll around an impossible garden; and shake it all about at the Earthquake House.

Written by someone who loves the Scottish Highlands whatever the weather, this book will help you explore this wonderfully beautiful region.

Get closer to Scotland with DK Eyewitness

A road trip on the North Coast 500. Whisky tasting in the Scottish Highlands. Days of festival fun in Edinburgh. Scotland offers enough bucket-list experiences to fill a lifetime. Whatever your dream trip involves, this DK Eyewitness travel guide is the perfect companion.

Our updated guide brings Scotland to life, transporting you there like no other travel guide does with expert-led insights, trusted travel advice, detailed breakdowns of all the must-see sights, photographs on practically every page, and our hand-drawn illustrations, which take you inside the country’s buildings and neighbourhoods.

You’ll discover:- our pick of Scotland’s must-sees and top experiences- beautiful photography and detailed illustrations, taking you to the heart of Scotland- the best spots to eat, drink, shop and stay- detailed maps and walks which make navigating the region easy- easy-to-follow itineraries- expert advice: get ready, get around and stay safe- colour-coded chapters to each part of Scotland- a lightweight format, so you can take it with you wherever you go

Want the best of Scotland in your pocket? Try Top 10 Scotland.

In his most exhilarating novel yet, Britain’s greatest storyteller transports you from the vibrant streets of sixties London to the sun-soaked cobbles of Cadiz and the frosty squares of Warsaw, as an accidental spy is drawn into the shadows of espionage and obsession.

Gabriel Dax is a young man haunted by the memories of a tragedy: every night, when sleep finally comes, he dreams about his childhood home in flames. His days are spent on the move as an acclaimed travel writer, capturing the changing landscapes in the grip of the Cold War. When he’s offered the chance to interview a political figure, his ambition leads him unwittingly into a web of duplicities and betrayals.

As Gabriel’s reluctant initiation takes hold, he is drawn deeper into the shadows. Falling under the spell of Faith Green, an enigmatic and ruthless MI6 handler, he becomes ‘her spy’, unable to resist her demands. But amid the peril, paranoia and passion consuming Gabriel’s new covert life, it will be the revelations closer to home that change the rest of his story. . .

‘Sheer, truly brilliant storytelling. He has probably written more classic books than any of his contemporaries’ Daily Telegraph

‘If it’s true escapism you’re after, William Boyd can always be relied upon to transport the reader from reality’ Vogue

‘A master storyteller’ Observer

In his most exhilarating novel yet, Britain’s greatest storyteller transports you from the vibrant streets of sixties London to the sun-soaked cobbles of Cadiz and the frosty squares of Warsaw, as an accidental spy is drawn into the shadows of espionage and obsession.

Gabriel Dax is a young man haunted by the memories of a tragedy: every night, when sleep finally comes, he dreams about his childhood home in flames. His days are spent on the move as an acclaimed travel writer, capturing the changing landscapes in the grip of the Cold War. When he’s offered the chance to interview a political figure, his ambition leads him unwittingly into a web of duplicities and betrayals.

As Gabriel’s reluctant initiation takes hold, he is drawn deeper into the shadows. Falling under the spell of Faith Green, an enigmatic and ruthless MI6 handler, he becomes ‘her spy’, unable to resist her demands. But amid the peril, paranoia and passion consuming Gabriel’s new covert life, it will be the revelations closer to home that change the rest of his story. . .

‘Sheer, truly brilliant storytelling. He has probably written more classic books than any of his contemporaries’ Daily Telegraph

‘If it’s true escapism you’re after, William Boyd can always be relied upon to transport the reader from reality’ Vogue

‘A master storyteller’ Observer