THE BEST OF SCOTTISH BOOKS

International bestselling author The Hebridean Baker shares stories and adventures alongside his best selection of recipes yet. Be whisked away to his island home where he brings delightful dishes to fill your kitchen with Hebridean Hygge. With songs, stories and beautiful photography that will inspire your next visit to the Hebrides.

Fàilte! I’m Coinneach, and this is my Hebridean home…

In my kitchen, flavours become stories, bakes become family favourites and recipes are shared with friends from across the islands. Join me where the rolling hills of the Hebrides meet the rolling pins of my kitchen! For this book, I travelled from Islay, via Barra, Uist, Berneray and Harris before arriving home to Lewis. I’ve shared recipes and stories that have been handed down through the generations, bakes that celebrate the flavours of Scotland and simple dishes that you can whip up from your store cupboard ingredients.

The Hebridean Baker at Home is filled with comforting cakes and bakes from his Double Dram Cake to Marmalade Shortbread, Fern Cake to Ecclefechan Tarts. Alongside delicious, hearty savoury dishes, including Leek Bread & Butter Pudding and Salmon Wellington, which are served up with a chapter full of Celtic recipes and signature Christmas bakes.

Fasten your apron, switch the oven on, and prepare to embark on an adventure that will transport you to the heart of the Hebrides from your very own kitchen. Welcome to my home. Welcome to my kitchen.

Laana returns to her small hometown following the death of her grandmother and becomes obsessed with the local ghost story of Carolyn Hayward. Who was she? Why does every reference or local memory of her give conflicting information about her life, work, and the circumstances of her death?

Laana’s research takes her on a whirlwind journey through her hometown’s history and reconnects her with old friends, prompting her to reflect on her own story and the ways she was and wasn’t there for those in her life.

Deliciously Gothic and fiercely feminist, Every Version Ends in Death is an anti-ghost story that forces us to reflect on grief, memory, death, hauntings, and ultimately how women’s stories are told.

In 1916 a young woman, Rahvaema, leaves the forest community where she grew up, and sets off for a century-long adventure whose struggles and sufferings she could never have imagined. She becomes a campaigner for her Surelik language and culture, and in doing this she expands her horizons and is paradoxically drawn away from the language she loves and wants to defend. The novel confronts the personal costs of political activism and questions our ability to mould our future rationally and morally, whilst also suggesting that we have no choice but to attempt just that. A fortuitous coincidence of events allows her to establish an autonomous republic for her people, the Surelikud, but power brings not only opportunities but also compromises and betrayals. She lives too long and thus she lives to see her achievements crumble. The novel has has many themes, but the way progress is used or abused in order to worsen the living conditions of humanity is the primary one. Rahvaema is the first-person narrator but her ideas about progress are not necessarily the author’s, but would be understandable in someone coming from her background.

In the second volume in the Scottish Photographic Artists series, David Williams provides a vivid biographical account of his creative development, identifying pivotal influences including an abiding, evolving interest in nonduality. He outlines key moments in a calling that saw him propelled from a career as a musician, to a vocation as an acclaimed photographic artist. Williams’ essay is complemented by an appreciation of his work by Tom Normand, the photo-historian and author of Scottish Photography – a history. Academic and critical comments on his work expand the appreciation of Williams’ oeuvre.

A glorious gallery of photographs and photographic projects, allows you to step inside Williams’ world and to appreciate its complexity and passion. This beautiful book is full of creative imaginings and philosophical meditations that will reward repeated visits.

Something has walked the floors of the Ormen for over a century.

Something that craves revenge…

1901. On board the Ormen, a whaling ship battling through the unforgiving North Sea, Nicky Duthie awakes. Attacked and dragged there against her will, it’s just her and the crew – and they’re all owed something only she can give them.

1973. Decades later, when the ship is found still drifting across the ocean, it’s deserted. Just one body is left on board, his face and feet mutilated, his cabin locked from the inside. Everyone else has vanished.

Now, as urban explorer Dominique travels into the near-permanent darkness of the northernmost tip of Iceland, to the final resting place of the Ormen’s wreck, she’s determined to uncover the ship’s secrets.

But she’s not alone. Something is here with her. And it’s seeking revenge…

Doon Mackichan is best known for her comedy characters in the hugely popular Brass Eye, Smack the Pony and Toast of London – but throughout her career there are parts she’s refused to take and stereotypes she’s challenged to find more empowered characters.

The Feisty Feminist. The Hot Lesbian. The Desperate Cougar.

In My Lady Parts, Doon shares her experience on stage, screen and in real life, examining how our culture still expects women to adhere to certain stereotypes – and punishes those who don’t. Doon looks at the stories we are telling and asks: what do these roles we give women tell us about their value in the society we live in? How do we hold our heads up without fear and say no to those that objectify us?

The Deranged Mother. The Stupid Tart. The Hag.

This is a courageous, vulnerable and empowering account of being a woman in an industry that has been exposed for its deep-rooted sexism. It is, above all, a call to reflect on – and radically rework – the implications such attitudes have for future generations.

Recently bereaved Jamie is staying at a rural steading in the heart of Scotland with his actor boyfriend Alex. The sudden loss of both of Jamie’s parents hangs like a shadow over the trip. In his grief, Jamie finds himself sifting through bittersweet memories, from his working-class upbringing in Edinburgh to his bohemian twenties in London, with a growing awareness of his sexuality threaded through these formative years. In the present, when Alex is called away to an audition, Jamie can no longer avoid the pull of the past: haunted by an inescapable failure to share his full self with his parents, he must confront his unresolved feelings towards them.

In spare, evocative prose, Allan Radcliffe tells a wistful coming-of-age story and paints a tender portrait of grief in all its complexities.

A Greenhorn Naturalist in Borneo is about natural history, travel in the tropics, life sciences, and adventure, with the environment always in mind. It chronicles the nine years the author spent with his family on that equatorial island. The book’s humorous style never detracts from the focus on the science, the island of Borneo and its natural wonders.

The story begins in 2007 on top of a garage in Taiwan, where the author kept a greenhouse filled with hundreds of carnivorous tropical pitcher plants. In August of the same year, he attended a conference on these plants in Borneo and met them in the wild for the first time. This triggered an obsession with the island’s legendary rainforest fauna and flora, and he decided to move to Borneo with his family for easier access to the jungle. In a tone reminiscent of Bill Bryson, Douglas Adams, and Gerald Durrell – funny, self-deprecating, but always satisfying for the science-minded reader – A Greenhorn Naturalist in Borneo documents the Breuer family’s adventures with Borneo’s enormous biodiversity: flying snakes, venomous primates, parachuting frogs, pangolins, king cobras, orangutans, masters of mimicry and camouflage, the world’s rarest lizard and the world’s longest snake.

And these are just a fraction of the life forms the reader will meet. Adventure lurks behind every trail bend: toddler-sized monkeys terrorize night hikers, bearded jungle pigs hunt stray dogs, a giant python almost gets stepped on, and other encounters of the ‘not so funny when it happened’ kind. The reader will also meet the people inhabiting the island, such as Asia’s last rainforest nomads, quaint government officials, and former headhunting tribes that still proudly display their trophies above their fireplaces. Inevitably, the author’s life in Borneo also led to first-hand insight into the island’s environmental tragedy caused by decades of severe over-exploitation, a recurring topic throughout the book.

A Greenhorn Naturalist in Borneo puts the reader in a front-row seat to marvel at nature’s wonders in all their magnificence visiting places unknown and creatures unheard of; and it is also an invitation to consider the state of the planet, to take it seriously, and to act before it’s too late.

Winner of the James Berry Poetry Prize

Marjorie Lotfi’s award-winning debut collection is a book of two halves, each a meditation on the idea of home, both the places we start and end up in our lives. Spanning a childhood in Iran dislocated by revolution, through years as a young woman in America, to her current home in Scotland, these poems ask what it means to come from somewhere else, what we carry with us when we leave, and how we land in a new place and finally come to rest.

Do you sometimes wake from dreaming with an unease you find difficult to shake? Is there one recurring nightmare that haunts you? Or do dreams bring you welcome relief from your waking life?

We spend around a third of our lives asleep, so it’s understandable that dreams have been intriguing and troubling humans for millennia. Some believe our dreams to be an expression of hidden desires, a cathartic release for our unconscious mind, or even crucial insights or predictions we can’t access while awake. Whatever their functions, our dreams are worth paying attention to. Yet with the demands and diversions of each day, it can be hard to find time to reflect on them.

This compact volume approaches dreaming with a mindful eye, asking us to spend time reflecting on our dreams to help us decipher their secrets and discover what our nighttime unconscious could reveal about our daily lives, needs and desires.

Interpreting Dreams is both an invitation to pay more attention to our dreams, and a toolkit for unlocking their hidden meanings. By bringing awareness to the time we spend dreaming, we can learn to become more present and fulfilled in our daily lives, and perhaps even alleviate some of our most persistent anxieties.

ALL WE HAVE IS THE STORY collects fifty years of interviews, both published and unpublished, revealing James Kelman’s thinking on a breadth of topics from writing and literature to class and race to sports and philosophy.

A summer that will change lives forever

The Highlands, 1881

A boy seeking a father…
A girl seeking treasure…
A writer seeking a story…

When Robert Louis Stevenson sketches a map to amuse his stepson Sam, it sets them off on the adventure of a lifetime.

While Stevenson is inspired to write his first great story, Sam has a treasure hunt of his own to pursue, guided through the hidden forests and dangerous glens of the Cairngorms by the mystical Jen Hawkins.

Finding Treasure Island is the missing memoir of Sam Osbourne, which reveals his part in the birth of the greatest adventure story written.

“Outstanding … among the most important books about whisky ever written.” Charles MacLean

Bringing together landscapes, geology, history, people and their whisky, and addressing the key role of peatlands in mitigating climate change, Peat and Whisky: The Unbreakable Bond is a love letter to Scotland and the unique substance that forms part of the DNA of Scotch whisky.

Through epic journeys around Scotland and back in time, Mike Billett dives deep into the science and stories of ancient peatlands and bogs, capturing the spirit of places where whisky has been distilled for centuries. He sheds light on how peat imparts its distinctive aroma and flavour to the world’s finest single malts. He looks back to tradition and heritage, as well as forward to a future in which the dark matter will remain part of the recipe for liquid gold, while at the same time becoming an increasingly precious living sponge for atmospheric carbon. He takes us to places where the bond between peat and whisky is growing around the world.

Whether you’re a whisky connoisseur, a lover of Scotland’s environment and beautiful landscapes, an armchair traveller or a history buff, this unforgettable book will deepen your appreciation for the land itself and help you to understand the profound connection between peat and the unmistakable character of uisge beatha, the water of life.

S. G. MacLean returns to the world of Damian Seeker, but Cromwell is dead and Charles Stuart restored to the throne. Men who supported the Protector must be hunted down as traitors. Perfect for fans of Robert Harris and Andrew Taylor.

‘S. G. MacLean can make any historical period sing with life’ Antonia Hodgson

By the summer of 1660 the last remnants of the Republic have been swept away and the Stuarts have been restored under their king, Charles II. A list of regicides believed to be involved in the death of Charles I is drawn up. Gruesome executions begin to take place and the hunt intensifies for those who have gone into hiding at home or abroad.

Although not a regicide, staunch Republican Damian Seeker is on a list of traitors to the king. Royalist spy, Lady Anne Winter, is employed to find evidence of guilt or innocence among the names on this Winter List. Seeker has fled England but his beloved daughter Manon remains, married to Seeker’s friend, the lawyer Lawrence Ingolby, and living in York.

As the conduit to her father and to others on the Winter List and surrounded by spies and watchers, Manon lives in constant danger and fear of discovery. One of those spies is closer than even she could have imagined.

In Already, Too Late, Carl MacDougall, one of Scotland’s most accomplished and celebrated literary writers, presents a memoir of extraordinary vividness and honesty. Hugely personal and revealing, MacDougall not only recreates a world that increasingly fades from our collective memory, but tells, with remarkable recall and a forensic eye, the heart-breaking story of his traumatic first decade.

Being a Rambling Man was what I always wanted to be, to live the way I damn well pleased. I’ve met the weirdest and most wonderful people who walk the Earth, seen the most bizarre and the most fantastic sights – and I’ve rarely come across something I couldn’t get a laugh at. I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad trip. Well, apart from in the 1970s, but that’s a whole other story . . .

When Billy set out from Glasgow as a young man he never looked back. He played his banjo on boats and trains, under trees, and on top of famous monuments. He danced naked in snow, wind and fire. He slept in bus stations, under bridges and on strangers’ floors. He travelled by foot, bike, ship, plane, sleigh – even piggy-backed – to get to his next destination.

Billy has wandered to every corner of the earth and believes that being a Rambling Man is about more than just travelling – it’s a state of mind. Rambling Men and Women are free spirits who live on their wits, are interested in people and endlessly curious about the world. They love to play music, make art or tell stories along the way but, above all, they have a longing in their heart for the open road.

In his joyful new book, Billy explores this philosophy and how it has shaped him, and he shares hilarious new stories from his lifetime on the road. From riding his trike down America’s famous Route 66, building an igloo on an iceberg in the Arctic, playing elephant polo (badly) in Nepal and crashing his motorbike (more than once), to eating witchetty grubs in Australia, being serenaded by a penguin in New Zealand, and swapping secrets in a traditional Sweat Lodge ritual in Canada, Rambling Man is a truly global adventure with the greatest possible travel companion.

A fully illustrated and authoritative guide to herbology by Catherine Conway-Payne, the Course Director for the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh’s Herbology diploma. A full guide to numerous herbology recipes, best practise and history. Organised by season. Fully illustrated with both photography and artwork showing plants in the wild and the end results of numerous recipes.

Winter festivals in Scotland have been going on for a very long time—at least 10,000 years, in fact, which means that they predate traditional Christmas celebrations by some eight millennia! Scots have always loved to party when the days are cold and the nights are long. But what was the basis for all this seasonal merrymaking, and exactly what makes a Scottish Christmas so unique? And wasn’t Christmas illegal in Scotland for 400 years?

In this book, thought to be the first on the subject, popular culture researcher Dr Tom Christie and archaeologist Dr Murray Cook take a look at how Christmas and other winter festivals have been celebrated, banned and reborn throughout Scotland’s long history. As well as considering the cultural impact of Christmas on Scotland over the centuries, the authors also meander into yuletide myths and legends as well as the food, the literature and many little-known facts along the way.

In the modern age, Christmas has started to have an increasing impact on the popular culture of Scotland, and the book delves into how this celebration has been portrayed across different media such as TV, film, music, computer games and more. On top of all that, Scotland’s Christmas also highlights a series of the worst festive seasons ever to be experienced in fair Caledonia through the years—and as you will read, there’s a fair bit of competition for that infamous title over the ages, from Sir William Wallace to Bonnie Prince Charlie and beyond.

So get ready to discover exactly when Scotland discovered Santa Claus (and vice-versa), why the Wulver is arguably the country’s least conventional festive hero, how Edinburgh influenced Charles Dickens’s creation of Ebenezer Scrooge, where the country’s first deep-fried mince pie was produced, and so much more besides. But whatever else you do, avoid the dreaded Chimney Demon at all costs—it might end up scorching more than your Christmas stocking on the fireplace!

Scotland’s Christmas includes a foreword by actor, comedian, writer and presenter Sanjeev Kohli.

Discover the wonderful world of birdwatching with wildlife cameraman Hamza Yassin – as seen on BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing.

Journey along with Hamza as he recounts stories of his birdwatching adventures and shares tips and tricks in this beautifully illustrated guide for beginning birders. With practical advice and personal anecdotes, you will learn how to get started in birdwatching and hone your identification skills to become an experienced twitcher.

Whether you need a companion on your next expedition or simply wish to dip in and out as you learn more, Be a Birder is fit for every purpose, and encourages us all to discover the joy of birdwatching. Inside you will learn how to quickly identify birds, what different bird behaviour means, the most useful birding equipment to take and the best places to see the most exciting birds, wherever you are.

Whether you’re spotting common garden birds or hoping to catch sight of the more obscure, Be a Birder invites us all to stop, step outside and listen, and open our eyes to the beauty of these incredible creatures. With Hamza as your guide, you will be able to build your birdwatching confidence and push yourself further afield to find new feathered wonders.

At its inception, the ‘Little Black Dress’, designed by Coco Chanel, was radically modern: a masculine-inspired, anti-traditionalist female attire – yet it has remained a wardrobe staple for almost a century. Bringing together international scholars, curators and fashion writers, this volume explores how black’s paradoxical meanings have made the LBD simultaneously expressive of respect and rebellion, sophistication and dissident sexualities, piety and perversion. The book also looks at the smart technologies which are responding to the demand for the fashion industry to be more aware of sustainability.