THE BEST OF SCOTTISH BOOKS

A stunning new reissue edition of Excession – a space opera of stunning power and awesome imagination from Iain M. Banks, one of the most important and influential writers in modern science fiction.Two and a half millennia ago, the artifact appeared in a remote corner of space, beside a trillion-year-old dying sun from a different universe. It was a perfect black-body sphere, and it did nothing. Then it disappeared.Now it is back.Praise for the Culture series’Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution’ Independent on Sunday’Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future’ Guardian’Jam-packed with extraordinary invention’ Scotsman’Compulsive reading’ Sunday TelegraphThe Culture series:Consider PhlebasThe Player of GamesUse of WeaponsExcessionInversionsLook to WindwardMatterSurface DetailThe Hydrogen SonataThe State of the ArtOther books by Iain M. Banks:Against a Dark BackgroundFeersum EndjinnThe AlgebraistAlso now available:The Culture: The Drawings – an extraordinary collection of original illustrations faithfully reproduced from sketchbooks Banks kept in the 1970s and 80s, depicting the ships, habitats, geography, weapons and language of Banks’ Culture series of novels in incredible detail.

A stunning new reissue edition of Inversions – a space opera of stunning power and awesome imagination from Iain M. Banks, one of the most important and influential writers in modern science fiction.In the winter palace, the King’s new physician has more enemies than she at first realises. But then she also has more remedies to hand than those who wish her ill can know about.In another palace across the mountains, in the service of the regicidal Protector General, the chief bodyguard, too, has his enemies. But his enemies strike more swiftly, and his means of combating them are more traditional.Spiralling round a central core of secrecy, deceit, love and betrayal, Inversions is a spectacular work of science fiction, brilliantly told and wildly imaginative, from an author who has set science fiction alight.Praise for the Culture series’Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution’ Independent on Sunday’Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future’ Guardian’Jam-packed with extraordinary invention’ Scotsman’Compulsive reading’ Sunday TelegraphThe Culture series:Consider PhlebasThe Player of GamesUse of WeaponsExcessionInversionsLook to WindwardMatterSurface DetailThe Hydrogen SonataThe State of the ArtOther books by Iain M. Banks:Against a Dark BackgroundFeersum EndjinnThe AlgebraistAlso now available:The Culture: The Drawings – an extraordinary collection of original illustrations faithfully reproduced from sketchbooks Banks kept in the 1970s and 80s, depicting the ships, habitats, geography, weapons and language of Banks’ Culture series of novels in incredible detail.

A stunning new reissue edition of the third Culture novel from Iain M. Banks – one of the most important and influential writers in modern science fiction.The man known as Cheradenine Zakalwe was one of Special Circumstances’ foremost agents, changing the destiny of planets to suit the Culture through intrigue, dirty tricks or military action.The woman known as Diziet Sma had plucked him from obscurity and pushed him towards his present eminence, but despite all their dealings she did not know him as well as she thought.The drone known as Skaffen-Amtiskaw knew both of these people. It had once saved the woman’s life by massacring her attackers in a particularly bloody manner. It believed the man to be a burnt-out case. But not even its machine intelligence could see the horrors in his past.Praise for the Culture series:’Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution’ Independent on Sunday’Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future’ Guardian’Jam-packed with extraordinary invention’ Scotsman’Compulsive reading’ Sunday TelegraphThe Culture series:Consider PhlebasThe Player of GamesUse of WeaponsExcessionInversionsLook to WindwardMatterSurface DetailThe Hydrogen SonataThe State of the ArtOther books by Iain M. Banks:Against a Dark BackgroundFeersum EndjinnThe AlgebraistAlso now available:The Culture: The Drawings – an extraordinary collection of original illustrations faithfully reproduced from sketchbooks Banks kept in the 1970s and 80s, depicting the ships, habitats, geography, weapons and language of Banks’ Culture series of novels in incredible detail.

A stunning new reissue edition of The State of the Art – a collection of short stories of stunning power and awesome imagination from Iain M. Banks, one of the most important and influential writers in modern science fiction.The first ever collection of Iain M. Banks’s short fiction, this volume includes the acclaimed novella, The State of the Art. This is a striking addition to the growing body of Culture lore, and adds definition and scale to the previous works by using the Earth of 1977 as contrast. The other stories in the collection range from science fiction to horror, dark-coated fantasy to morality tale. All bear the indefinable stamp of Iain Banks’s staggering talent.Praise for the Culture series’Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution’ Independent on Sunday’Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future’ Guardian’Jam-packed with extraordinary invention’ Scotsman’Compulsive reading’ Sunday TelegraphThe Culture series:Consider PhlebasThe Player of GamesUse of WeaponsExcessionInversionsLook to WindwardMatterSurface DetailThe Hydrogen SonataThe State of the ArtOther books by Iain M. Banks:Against a Dark BackgroundFeersum EndjinnThe AlgebraistAlso now available:The Culture: The Drawings – an extraordinary collection of original illustrations faithfully reproduced from sketchbooks Banks kept in the 1970s and 80s, depicting the ships, habitats, geography, weapons and language of Banks’ Culture series of novels in incredible detail.

Following the first volume of Bill Hare’s exploration Scottish Artists, Scottish Artists in an Age of Radical Change, this new volume, Scottish Art and Artists in Historical and Contemporary Context will expand on the invaluable contribution to the cultural development of modern and contemporary Scotland.

Joan Eardley, Alan Davies, the Boyle Family, Ken Currie, Anthony Hatwell, Doug Crocker, Jack Knox, Lys Hansen, William Turnbull, Iain Robertson, Douglas Gordon and John Kennedy – are just some of the artists who Bill Hare explores in both their historical and contemporary contexts. From body politics to the Athenian way to Scottish artists in Venice, this book will reveal the importance and intellectual power this generation of Scottish artists have had over decades of time through a compilation of in-depth essays and interviews.

A stunning new reissue edition of Against a Dark Background – a space opera of stunning power and awesome imagination from Iain M. Banks, one of the most important and influential writers in modern science fiction.Sharrow was once the leader of a personality-attuned combat team in one of the sporadic little commercial wars in the civilisation based around the planet Golter. Now she is hunted by the Huhsz, a religious cult which believes that she is the last obstacle before the faith’s apotheosis, and her only hope of escape is to find the last of the apocalyptically powerful Lazy Guns before the Huhsz find her.Her journey through the exotic Golterian system is a destructive and savage odyssey into her past, and that of her family and of the system itself.Praise for the novels of Iain M. Banks:’Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution’ Independent on Sunday’Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future’ Guardian’Jam-packed with extraordinary invention’ Scotsman’Compulsive reading’ Sunday TelegraphBooks by Iain M. Banks:Consider PhlebasThe Player of GamesUse of WeaponsExcessionInversionsLook to WindwardMatterSurface DetailThe Hydrogen SonataThe State of the ArtAgainst a Dark BackgroundFeersum EndjinnThe AlgebraistAlso now available:The Culture: The Drawings – an extraordinary collection of original illustrations faithfully reproduced from sketchbooks Banks kept in the 1970s and 80s, depicting the ships, habitats, geography, weapons and language of Banks’ Culture series of novels in incredible detail.

A stunning new reissue edition of Feersum Endjinn – a space opera of stunning power and awesome imagination from Iain M. Banks, one of the most important and influential writers in modern science fiction.Count Sessine is about to die for the very last time…Chief Scientist Gadfium is about to receive the mysterious message she has been waiting for from the Plain of Sliding Stones…And Bascule the Teller, in search of an ant, is about to enter the chaos of the crypt . . .And everything is about to change . . .For this is the time of the encroachment and, although the dimming sun still shines on the vast, towering walls of Serehfa Fastness, the end is close at hand. The King knows it, his closest advisers know it, yet sill they prosecute the war against the clan Engineers with increasing savagery.The crypt knows it too; so an emissary has been sent, an emissary who holds the key to all their futures.Praise for the novels of Iain M. Banks:’Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution’ Independent on Sunday’Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future’ Guardian’Jam-packed with extraordinary invention’ Scotsman’Compulsive reading’ Sunday TelegraphBooks by Iain M. Banks:Consider PhlebasThe Player of GamesUse of WeaponsExcessionInversionsLook to WindwardMatterSurface DetailThe Hydrogen SonataThe State of the ArtAgainst a Dark BackgroundFeersum EndjinnThe AlgebraistAlso now available:The Culture: The Drawings – an extraordinary collection of original illustrations faithfully reproduced from sketchbooks Banks kept in the 1970s and 80s, depicting the ships, habitats, geography, weapons and language of Banks’ Culture series of novels in incredible detail.

A stunning new reissue edition of The Hydrogen Sonata – a space opera of stunning power and awesome imagination from Iain M. Banks, one of the most important and influential writers in modern science fiction.The Scavenger species are circling. It is, truly, the End Days for the Gzilt civilisation.An ancient people, organised on military principles and yet almost perversely peaceful, the Gzilt helped set up the Culture ten thousand years earlier and were very nearly one of its founding societies, deciding not to join only at the last moment. Now they’ve made the collective decision to follow the well-trodden path of millions of other civilisations: they are going to Sublime, elevating themselves to a new and almost infinitely more rich and complex existence.Amid preparations though, the Regimental High Command is destroyed. Lieutenant Commander (reserve) Vyr Cossont appears to have been involved, and she is now wanted – dead, not alive. Aided only by an ancient, reconditioned android and a suspicious Culture avatar, Cossont must complete her last mission given to her by the High Command. She must find the oldest person in the Culture, a man over nine thousand years old, who might have some idea what really happened all that time ago.It seems that the final days of the Gzilt civilisation are likely to prove its most perilous.Praise for the Culture series’Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution’ Independent on Sunday’Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future’ Guardian’Jam-packed with extraordinary invention’ Scotsman’Compulsive reading’ Sunday TelegraphThe Culture series:Consider PhlebasThe Player of GamesUse of WeaponsExcessionInversionsLook to WindwardMatterSurface DetailThe Hydrogen SonataThe State of the ArtOther books by Iain M. Banks:Against a Dark BackgroundFeersum EndjinnThe AlgebraistAlso now available:The Culture: The Drawings – an extraordinary collection of original illustrations faithfully reproduced from sketchbooks Banks kept in the 1970s and 80s, depicting the ships, habitats, geography, weapons and language of Banks’ Culture series of novels in incredible detail.

A stunning new reissue edition of Matter – a space opera of stunning power and awesome imagination from Iain M. Banks, one of the most important and influential writers in modern science fiction.In a world renowned within a galaxy full of wonders, a crime within a war. For one man it means a desperate flight, and a search for the one – maybe two – people who could clear his name. For his brother it means a life lived under constant threat of treachery and murder. And for their sister, it means returning to a place she’d thought abandoned forever.Only the sister is not what she once was; Djan Seriy Anaplian has become an agent of the Culture’s Special Circumstances section, charged with high-level interference in civilisations throughout the greater galaxy.Concealing her new identity – and her particular set of abilities – might be a dangerous strategy. In the world to which Anaplian returns, nothing is quite as it seems; and determining the appropriate level of interference in someone else’s war is never a simple matter.Praise for the Culture series’Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution’ Independent on Sunday’Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future’ Guardian’Jam-packed with extraordinary invention’ Scotsman’Compulsive reading’ Sunday TelegraphThe Culture series:Consider PhlebasThe Player of GamesUse of WeaponsExcessionInversionsLook to WindwardMatterSurface DetailThe Hydrogen SonataThe State of the ArtOther books by Iain M. Banks:Against a Dark BackgroundFeersum EndjinnThe AlgebraistAlso now available:The Culture: The Drawings – an extraordinary collection of original illustrations faithfully reproduced from sketchbooks Banks kept in the 1970s and 80s, depicting the ships, habitats, geography, weapons and language of Banks’ Culture series of novels in incredible detail.

A stunning new reissue edition of Look to Windward – a space opera of stunning power and awesome imagination from Iain M. Banks, one of the most important and influential writers in modern science fiction.It was one of the less glorious incidents of a long-ago war.It led to the destruction of two suns and the billions of lives they supported.Now, eight hundred years later, the light from the first of those ancient mistakes has reached the Culture Orbital, Masaq.The light from the second may not.Praise for the Culture series’Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution’ Independent on Sunday’Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future’ Guardian’Jam-packed with extraordinary invention’ Scotsman’Compulsive reading’ Sunday TelegraphThe Culture series:Consider PhlebasThe Player of GamesUse of WeaponsExcessionInversionsLook to WindwardMatterSurface DetailThe Hydrogen SonataThe State of the ArtOther books by Iain M. Banks:Against a Dark BackgroundFeersum EndjinnThe AlgebraistAlso now available:The Culture: The Drawings – an extraordinary collection of original illustrations faithfully reproduced from sketchbooks Banks kept in the 1970s and 80s, depicting the ships, habitats, geography, weapons and language of Banks’ Culture series of novels in incredible detail.

A stunning new reissue edition of The Algebraist – a space opera of stunning power and awesome imagination from Iain M. Banks, one of the most important and influential writers in modern science fiction.It is 4034 AD. Humanity has made it to the stars. Fassin Taak, a Slow Seer at the Court of the Nasqueron Dwellers, will be fortunate if he makes it to the end of the year.The Nasqueron Dwellers inhabit a gas giant on the outskirts of the galaxy, in a system awaiting its wormhole connection to the rest of civilisation. In the meantime, they are dismissed as decadents living in a state of highly developed barbarism, hoarding data without order, hunting their own young and fighting pointless formal wars.Seconded to a military-religious order he’s barely heard of – part of the baroque hierarchy of the Mercatoria, the latest galactic hegemony – Fassin Taak has to travel again amongst the Dwellers. He is in search of a secret hidden for half a billion years.But with each day that passes a war draws closer – a war that threatens to overwhelm everything and everyone he’s ever known.Praise for the novels of Iain M. Banks:’Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution’ Independent on Sunday’Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future’ Guardian’Jam-packed with extraordinary invention’ Scotsman’Compulsive reading’ Sunday TelegraphBooks by Iain M. Banks:Consider PhlebasThe Player of GamesUse of WeaponsExcessionInversionsLook to WindwardMatterSurface DetailThe Hydrogen SonataThe State of the ArtAgainst a Dark BackgroundFeersum EndjinnThe AlgebraistAlso now available:The Culture: The Drawings – an extraordinary collection of original illustrations faithfully reproduced from sketchbooks Banks kept in the 1970s and 80s, depicting the ships, habitats, geography, weapons and language of Banks’ Culture series of novels in incredible detail.

A stunning new reissue edition of Surface Detail – a space opera of stunning power and awesome imagination from Iain M. Banks, one of the most important and influential writers in modern science fiction.It begins in the realm of the Real, where matter still matters.Lededje Y’breq is one of the Intagliated, her marked body bearing witness to a family shame, her life belonging to a man whose lust for power is without limit. Prepared to risk everything for her freedom, her release, when it comes, is at a price, and to put things right she will need the help of the Culture.It begins in the realm of the Real. It begins with a murder.And it will not end until the Culture has gone to war with death itself.Praise for the Culture series’Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution’ Independent on Sunday’Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future’ Guardian’Jam-packed with extraordinary invention’ Scotsman’Compulsive reading’ Sunday TelegraphThe Culture series:Consider PhlebasThe Player of GamesUse of WeaponsExcessionInversionsLook to WindwardMatterSurface DetailThe Hydrogen SonataThe State of the ArtOther books by Iain M. Banks:Against a Dark BackgroundFeersum EndjinnThe AlgebraistAlso now available:The Culture: The Drawings – an extraordinary collection of original illustrations faithfully reproduced from sketchbooks Banks kept in the 1970s and 80s, depicting the ships, habitats, geography, weapons and language of Banks’ Culture series of novels in incredible detail.

It is time to bin – once and for all – the nonsense that Gaelic was never spoken in Glasgow. In fact, Glasgow’s place-names tell us that Gaelic has been spoken in Glasgow for around a thousand years. Showcasing new research from the University of Glasgow, this illustrated guide to Glasgow’s Gaelic namescape reveals how place-names are a key to unlocking Glasgow’s hidden past and takes the reader on a journey of discovery the length and breadth of this great modern city ? from Yoker in the west to Daldowie in the east, via Boclair, Carmunnock and many other places in between.

The truth about Glasgow’s past, present and future dispels myths and throws up countless surprises about Glasgow’s deep Gaelic roots.

Margaret Tait (1918-1999) was a pioneering filmmaker for whom words and images made the world real. In ‘documentary’, she wrote, real things ‘lose their reality … and there’s no poetry in that. In poetry, something else happens.’ If film, for Tait, was a poetic medium, her poems are works of craft and observation that are generous and independent in their vision of the world, poems that make seeing happen.

Sarah Neely, Lecturer in Film at the University of Stirling, draws on Tait’s three poetry collections, her book of short stories, her magazine articles and unpublished notebooks to make available for the first time a collection of the full range of Tait’s writing. Her introduction discusses Tait as filmmaker and writer in the context of mid-twentieth-century Scottish culture, and a comprehensive list of bibliographic and film resources provides an indispensible guide for further exploration.

‘Brigid writes with warmth and appreciation of communities that she knows and loves, and she inspires us to explore them’ – Rick Stein

‘Whenever I am talking to customers about the NC500, I always recommend your book for the wonderful photographs and all the extra information it contains’ – David Duguid, Picaresque Books

This is the essential guide to the north of Scotland, on a route which begins in Inverness, weaves westwards to Applecross and then northwards towards Torridon. From Ullapool it leads to the most northerly points in Britain, passing by Caithness and John o’ Groats before heading south again through Dingwall and to Inverness.

In addition to stunning mountains, moors, lochs and beaches, the route also features exquisite towns and villages, castles, distilleries, breweries, natural wonders and wildlife.

Brigid Benson, who knows the road intimately, divides the route into manageable chunks, suggesting where to discover history, observe wildlife, meet great local characters, shop at quirky stores, taste outstanding food, drink in friendly bars and cafes, stand in awe of amazing sights, and recommending places to picnic, swim, surf, walk and stargaze. And great places to camp and stay. She also draws attention to potential pitfalls, offering useful advice on single-track roads, fuel, car problems, planning realistic itineraries, and much more.

Stunning, full-colour landscape photography features throughout, and a full list of photographs can be found on page 229 for your reference.

Can a killer ever be on the side of justice?

In 1983, Professor Robert Balfour was found floating in Airthrey Loch at the heart of Stirling University’s campus. His death was deemed a tragic accident but there were other, darker rumours. The death of a politics professor allegedly linked to the armed wing of the Scottish Liberation Brigade was always going to attract conspiracy theories.

But that’s all they were. Theories. Until now.

To mark the 40th anniversary of his father’s death, Jonathan Rodriguez has travelled back to Stirling – and he’s brought a camera crew with him. Rodriguez is convinced his father’s death was no accident – and that at least one of the killers wore a uniform. Desperate to make the problem go away, DCI Malcolm Ford turns to Connor Fraser for help. And then another body is found at nearby Bannockburn.

On the trail of a double killer, Connor is forced to confront dark truths about the meaning of justice. And those truths may just break his heart – or stop it, for good.

Praise for Neil Broadfoot:

‘Tense, fast-moving and bloody. Broadfoot’s best yet’ Mason Cross

‘A true rising star of crime fiction’ Ian Rankin

‘Beautifully crafted . . . There’s no filler, no exposition, just action, dialogue and layering of tension that’ll hold you breathless until the very end’ Helen Fields

‘Wonderfully grisly and grim, and a cracking pace’ James Oswald

‘A frantic, pacy read with a compelling hero’ Steve Cavanagh

LONGLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR NATURE WRITINGSHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKS ARE MY BAG READERS AWARD FOR NON-FICTIONTHE TIMES / WATERSTONES TOP 10 BESTSELLERA BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR THE INDEPENDENT, STYLIST, RHS, GARDENS ILLUSTRATED and more

Women have always gardened, but our stories have been buried with our work. Alice Vincent is on a quest to change that: to understand what encourages women to go out, work the soil, plant seeds and nurture them, even when so many other responsibilities sit upon their shoulders. To recover the histories that have been lost among the soil and to understand women’s lives, their gardens and what the ground has offered them.

Wise, curious and sensitive, Why Women Grow follows Alice in her search for answers, with inquisitive fronds reaching and curling around the intimate anecdotes of others.

This highly accessible and enjoyable guide is full of practical and fascinating information about how to enjoy whisky.

All whisky styles are covered, including (just whisper it) blends. Along the way a good few myths are exploded, including the idea that whisky has to be taken neat. In ‘What to Drink’, world-renowned expert Dave Broom explores flavour camps – how to understand a style of whisky – and moves on to provide extensive tasting notes of the major brands, demonstrating whisky’s extraordinary diversity. In ‘How to Drink’, he sets out how to enjoy whisky in myriad ways – using water and mixers, from soda to green tea; and in cocktails, from the Manhattan to the Rusty Nail. He even looks at pairing whisky and food.Whisky: The Manual is a spirited, entertaining and no-nonsense guide, dispelling the mysteries of whisky and unlocking a whole host of exciting possibilities for this magical drink.

A striking debut exploring the power of identity, community and the Scottish working class. This coming-of-age story is an incisive look at young masculinity and the way even the most fraught childhood is not without hope.

Neither Finlay or Banjo can remember the last time they had a hug. Against all odds, 18-year-old Finlay has begun his nursing degree at Glasgow University. But coming straight from the care system means he has no support network. How can he write essays, focus on his nursing placement and stop himself from falling in love when he’s struggling to even feed himself? Meanwhile, 17-year-old Banjo is trying to settle into his new foster family and finish high school, desperate to hold down his job and the people it contains. But his anger and fear keep boiling over, threatening his already uncertain future.

Underpinning everything is what happened three years ago in their group care home, when Finlay and Banjo were as close as brothers until they stopped speaking. If these boys want to keep hold of the people they love, they have to be able to forgive one another. More than this, they must find a way to forgive themselves.

Rory is an unusual sort of dragon – he would rather hide than go hunting and he would far rather eat a tasty bicycle than a juicy princess.

In this first book in the Snack Dragon series, Rory bites off more than he can chew when he steals a bike and accidentally kidnaps the princess who owns it. Now both their kingdoms are in danger and they must team up to save them – but what hope do they have, when they can’t even agree on what (or who) is for lunch?

A magical adventure story for children aged 6+, with themes of resilience, teamwork and sustainability.

Rory And The Snack Dragons is the first book in a brand new chapter book series for 6 to 9 year-olds. This funny, magical story from debut author Louisa MacDougall is about about the unlikely friendship between Rory, a dragon outcast who likes to eat bicycles, and Flora, a plucky princess who loves to ride them.