THE BEST OF SCOTTISH BOOKS

A killer stalks the streets of Leeds. Every man is a suspect. Every woman is at risk. But in a house on Cleopatra Street, women are fighting back.It?s the eve of the 1980s. PC Liz Seeley joins the squad investigating the murders. With a violent boyfriend at home and male chauvinist pigs at work, she is drawn to a feminist collective led by the militant and uncompromising Rowena. There she meets Charmaine ? young, Black, artistic, and fighting discrimination on two fronts.As the list of victims grows and police fail to catch the killer, women across the north are too terrified to go out after dark. To the feminists, the Butcher is a symptom of wider misogyny. Their anger finds an outlet in violence and Liz is torn between loyalty to them and her duty as a police officer. Which way will she jump?Ajay Close combines the tension of a police procedural with the power and passion of the women?s lib movement. By turns emotional, action-packed and darkly funny, What Doesn?t Kill Us reveals just how much the world has changed since the 1970s ? and how much it hasn?t.

Aonghas MacNeacail (1942?2022) was a major Scottish writer from Skye. He composed poetry, songs, journalism, scripts, librettos and translations. Among Gaelic-speakers he was known as Aonghas Dubh ? Black Angus. Among his many accolades, he won the 1997 Stakis prize for Scottish Writer of the Year, and also received the Saltire Society’s Premiere Award for contribution to the arts in 2005. His New & Selected Poems, ‘Laughing at the Clock / Déanamh Gáire Ris A’ Chloc’, was published by Polygon in 2012.Aonghas grew up in a croft in Uig, on Skye. His first encounter with the English language was at school: while Aonghas spoke Gaelic at home, English was his language of education, and the first language that he wrote poetry in. While studying at Glasgow he became part of Philip Hobsbaum’s famous Glasgow Group of creative writers, alongside Tom Leonard, Liz Lochhead, James Kelman and Alasdair Gray. He became involved with the Poetry Society while working as a housing officer in London: he later became the writer in residence at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the Gaelic college on Skye, and this reinvigorated his desire to write in Gaelic also. Latterly Aonghas became famous as a Gaelic-language writer, though in fact he composed work in all three native languages of Scotland. He was a founding member of the Scottish Poetry Library.’beyond’ is a posthumous collection of his English-language poems, edited by his widow, Gerda Stevenson with Colin Bramwell.

The town was once a hub of industry. A place where men toiled underground in darkness, picking and shovelling in the dust and the sleck. It was dangerous and back-breaking work but it meant something. Once, the town provided, it was important, it had purpose. But what is it now?Brothers Alex and Brian have spent their whole life in the town where their father lived and his father, too. Still reeling from the collapse of his personal life, Alex, is now in his middle age, and must reckon with a part of his identity he has long tried to mask. Simon is the only child of Alex and had practically no memory of the mines. Now in his twenties and working in a call centre, he derives passion from his side hustle in sex work and his weekly drag gigs.Set across three generations of South Yorkshire mining family, Andrew McMillan’s short and magnificent debut novel is a lament for a lost way of a life as well as a celebration of resilience and the possibility for change.

The town was once a hub of industry. A place where men toiled underground in darkness, picking and shovelling in the dust and the sleck. It was dangerous and back-breaking work but it meant something. Once, the town provided, it was important, it had purpose. But what is it now?Brothers Alex and Brian have spent their whole life in the town where their father lived and his father, too. Still reeling from the collapse of his personal life, Alex, is now in his middle age, and must reckon with a part of his identity he has long tried to mask. Simon is the only child of Alex and had practically no memory of the mines. Now in his twenties and working in a call centre, he derives passion from his side hustle in sex work and his weekly drag gigs.Set across three generations of South Yorkshire mining family, Andrew McMillan’s short and magnificent debut novel is a lament for a lost way of a life as well as a celebration of resilience and the possibility for change.

The border between Scotland and England is rich in history. It has been the site of battles, treaties, castles and crossroads. It is also a place where both countries display their nationalism: Saltires flying in the north, the Cross of St George to the south. But it can also be a lens through which to look at the changing history and identities of these two countries. Alistair Moffat is a life-long borderer and the ideal guide on this one-hundred-mile journey. We begin just north of the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed. Already the battlelines have been drawn – the town having been grabbed by the English from Berwickshire in 1482 and never given back. From here we will head west as our tour travels backwards and forwards through history. In all, we will walk through eight centuries before we reach journey’s end at the mouth of the River Sark.

Between Britain is a history book, a travelogue, a personal reminiscence and a gently prodding examination of national identity. But above all it is a celebration of a place and the people who live there.

The border between Scotland and England is rich in history. It has been the site of battles, treaties, castles and crossroads. It is also a place where both countries display their nationalism: Saltires flying in the north, the Cross of St George to the south. But it can also be a lens through which to look at the changing history and identities of these two countries.Alistair Moffat is a life-long borderer and the ideal guide on this one-hundred-mile journey. We begin just north of the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed. Already the battlelines have been drawn – the town having been grabbed by the English from Berwickshire in 1482 and never given back. From here we will head west as our tour travels backwards and forwards through history. In all, we will walk through eight centuries before we reach journey’s end at the mouth of the River Sark.Between Britain is a history book, a travelogue, a personal reminiscence and a gently prodding examination of national identity. But above all it is a celebration of a place and the people who live there.

Full-cast BBC adaptations of Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s classic Scottish novel and its sequel – plus a bonus programme about the story’s evocative settingScottish writer Lewis Grassic Gibbon is best-known for A Scots Quair, a trilogy of novels comprising Sunset Song, Cloud Howe and Grey Granite that are considered to be among the most important works of the 20th century Scottish Renaissance. Featured here are the BBC Radio dramatisations of the first two novels, as well as a special documentary feature exploring the landscape and legacy of Sunset Song.Sunset Song – Set in north-east Scotland before and during the First World War, this moving adaptation tells the story of Chris Guthrie, a farmer’s daughter growing up in the crofting village of Kinraddie. With a domineering father and a mother worn out by childbirth, Chris’s upbringing is painful, and she is torn between her love of the land and her dream of becoming a teacher. When she falls in love with Ewan Tavendale, she decides to remain on the farm – but the outbreak of war brings devastating change to her family and community… Starring Lesley Hart as Chris Guthrie.Cloud Howe – The Great War is over, and Chris is starting a new life with her husband. When she and her family move to the mill town of Segget in Aberdeenshire, they find themselves embroiled in the small town’s epic class struggle during the run-up to the General Strike. Amy Manson stars as Chris, with Robin Laing as Robert.Sunset Song: Return to the Mearns – On the 75th anniversary of Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s death, Mark Stephen and Euan McIlwraith explore the Mearns, asking how the people who live there regard the landscape today and whether Gibbon’s masterpiece Sunset Song lives on.First published 1932 (Sunset Song) and 1933 (Cloud Howe)Sunset SongChris Guthrie – Lesley HartJohn Guthrie – Liam BrennanJean Guthrie – Bridget McCannWill Guthrie – Gordon BrandieMistress Munro – Estrid BartonLong Rob – Matthew ZajacChae Strachan – Douglas RussellKirsty Strachan – Shonagh PriceMargot Strachan – Sally ReidEwan Tavendale – Finn den HertogRev Colquohoun – Fraser SivewrightRev Gibbon – Keith HutcheonDramatised by Gerda StevensonDirected by David Ian NevilleFirst broadcast BBC Radio 4, 15-22 March 2009Cloud HoweChris – Amy MansonRobert – Robin LaingElse – Pearl ApplebyDalziel – Liam BrennanAlec – Philip CairnsJock – Stephen DuffyEwan – Roderick GilkisonLeslie – Ralph RiachAke – Iain RobertsonMiss M’Askill – Wendy SeagerMowat – Nick UnderwoodDramatised by Donna FranceschildDirected by Kirsty WilliamsFirst broadcast BBC Radio 4, 25 January-1 February 2015Sunset Song: Return to the MearnsPresented by Mark Stephen and Euan McIlwraithFirst broadcast BBC Radio Orkney, 6 February 2010© 2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

In Feminine Gospels, Carol Ann Duffy draws on the historical, the archetypal, the biblical and the fantastical to create various visions ? and revisions ? of female identity. Simultaneously stripping women bare and revealing them in all their guises and disguises, these poems tell tall stories as though they were true confessions, and spin modern myths from real women seen in every aspect ? as bodies and corpses, writers and workers, shoppers and slimmers, fairytale royals or girls-next-door.?Part of Duffy?s talent ? besides her ear for ordinary eloquence, her gorgeous, powerful, throwaway lines, her subtlety ? is her ventriloquism . . . From verbal nuances to mind-expanding imaginative leaps, her words seem freshly plucked from the minds of non-poets ? that is, she makes it look easy? Charlotte Mendelson, Observer

During WW2 there was a rumour that German spies were landing by parachute in Britain, dressed as nuns…Conradin Muller was an unusual spy. He was recruited in Hamburg in June 1943, much against his will, and sent on his first, and only, mission in late September that year. He failed to send a single report back to Germany, and when the War came to an end in May 1945, he fell to his knees and wept with relief.From a highly reluctant German spy who is drawn to an East Anglian nunnery as his only means of escape, to the strange tale of one of the Cambridge spy ring’s adventures with a Russian dwarf, these are Alexander McCall Smith’s intriguing and typically inventive stories from the world of espionage.’Spy-masterful storytelling’ Sunday Post’Delightfully old-fashioned and prudent of prose, McCall Smith unspools his tales’ Daily Mail'[Adds] another treasure to McCall Smith’s already glittering library’ New York Journal of Books

When Edwin, Delaney?s boss at the Cracked Spine bookstore, leaves town on secret business, Delaney is called upon to guide his yearly literary tour around Edinburgh. But on the first night of the tour, at the inn where the tour group is staying, the inn manager falls – or is pushed – off the roof of the inn, and killed. Then, one of the tour members disappears, leaving a trail of puzzles in her wake.In a race against the clock, Delaney sets out on the expedition of her life, following clues around Edinburgh to get to the bottom of this mystery. Exploring sights from Greyfriars Bobby to the Royal Mile to the Sir Walter Scott Monument, she’ll have to put the pieces together quickly, or the bookstore’s survival could be on the line… as well as her own.

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2023 FOR FINANCIAL TIMES, TIME, VULTURE, LIT HUB, GOODREADS, RUMPUS, BUSTLE, READER’S DIGEST and moreBoth vilified and venerated, wolves abound through cultural folklore and literature. In this hauntingly lyrical and unflinching inquiry, Erica Berry untangles these depictions – alongside her own research of the wolf and experience as a woman – to try to understand how we navigate terror, vulnerability and violence in our fragile, often dangerous world.Luminously wise and unusually brave, Wolfish will stay with you long into the night.

It’s New Year’s Eve and there’s trouble on the timeline. Elle is sent on an urgent trip to the 31st of December 1999, the eve of the new millennium, where Millennia’s on the rampage. She aims to reinvent herself as a malevolent millennial by taking on Time itself.Can Millennia change the past to destroy the future? It can’t be left to chance. It’s up to Elle and The Infinites to save the world. And with the very nature of time at stake, they’ll have unexpected help from friends in high places.It’s the final countdown. And it starts now . . .

There are no easy choices when the dark clouds gatherDI Shona Oliver?s past and present collide when James McGowan, her ex-classmate ? now a famous actor ? comes to the area to make a Robert Burns biopic. Shona is tasked with keeping him safe during filming on an isolated island in the Solway Firth, and her job is made much harder when a dead man wearing James?s coat is found on the beach in suspicious circumstances. It seems someone wanted James out of the picture.Meanwhile, Shona has her hands full at home too; her husband is on trial for a crime he claims he did not commit, but if he speaks out he risks his wife and their teenage daughter coming to harm. Can Shona keep her head above the waves and protect those around her?A compulsive, atmospheric crime thriller set in Scotland, perfect for fans of Val McDermid, Ann Cleeves and Neil Lancaster.

England, 1716. The only certainty in a thief?s life? is death.Christopher Templeton is a lawyer whose conscience troubles him. He knows many of the secrets of The Fellowship, the shadowy group profiting from the civil unrest in the nation, and has intimated to the Company of Rogues that he is willing to share them.The problem is, he has vanished. Jonas Flynt ? thief, gambler, killer ? still recovering from a duel with death upon the frozen Thames, is tasked with finding him.The trail takes him from the dark slums of London to a quiet village in the north of England, where all is not as it seems. But while he hunts for the missing man, someone else may be stalking him? someone with murder in their heart.The new gripping historical mystery from the author of An Honourable Thief, longlisted for the McIlvanney Prize 2023. Perfect for fans of Abir Mukherjee, Craig Russell and S.G. MacLean.

Penguin Readers is an ELT graded reader series for learners of English as a foreign language. With carefully adapted text, new illustrations and language learning exercises, the print edition also includes instructions to access supporting material online.Titles include popular classics, exciting contemporary fiction, and thought-provoking non-fiction, introducing language learners to bestselling authors and compelling content.The eight levels of Penguin Readers follow the Common European Framework of Reference for language learning (CEFR). Exercises at the back of each Reader help language learners to practise grammar, vocabulary, and key exam skills. Before, during and after-reading questions test readers’ story comprehension and develop vocabulary.Penguin Readers Level 1: Treasure Island, a Level 1 Reader, is A1 in the CEFR framework. Short sentences contain a maximum of two clauses, introducing the past simple tense and some simple modals, adverbs and gerunds. Illustrations support the text throughout, and many titles at this level are graphic novels.Jim Hawkins is sailing on a ship with his friends. They are looking for treasure. But pirates are looking for the treasure too!Visit the Penguin Readers websiteExclusively with the print edition, readers can unlock online resources including a digital book, audio edition, lesson plans and answer keys.

Biodynamics grew out of Rudolf Steiner’s Agriculture Course, a series of lectures he gave in 1924. It is now an inspirational worldwide movement bringing a uniquely holistic, organic agriculture to farms, vineyards and gardens.In this concise and fascinating history, Bernard Jarman, former Director of the Biodynamic Agricultural Association for the UK, charts the development of biodynamics in Britain following its arrival in 1928 through to the present day.Jarman presents engaging personal portraits of biodynamic pioneers, including Daniel Dunlop, George Adams, Lili Kolisko, Marna Pease and Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, showing how their lives and perspectives shaped the movement.The Biodynamic Movement in Britain also examines key moments, such as the split in the Anthroposophical Society that led to two rival biodynamic organisations in the 1930s and 40s, the flourishing of the wider organic movement in post-war Britain, and addresses the challenges posed at the start of the twenty-first century by genetically modified crops. It describes early discoveries, including research that led to the development of the Maria Thun Biodynamic Calendar, and later initiatives, such as Community Supported Agriculture.Illustrated with photographs from the Biodynamic Agricultural Association archive, this book provides a welcome overview for members of the biodynamic community, offering the future of this vital movement a fascinating and grounding knowledge of its own past.

A beautiful memoir, travelogue and meditation on stone by artist and stone mason Beatrice Searle.?A magnificent book? Alex Woodcock?Exceptional? Kerri Andrews?Luminous? SpectatorAt the age of twenty-six, artist and Cathedral stonemason Beatrice Searle crossed the North Sea and walked 500 miles along a medieval pilgrim path through Southern Norway, taking with her a 40-kilogram Orcadian stone.Fascinated with the mysterious footprint stones of Northern Europe and the ancient Greco-Roman world, stones closely associated with travellers, saints and the inauguration of Kings, she follows in their footsteps as her stone becomes a talisman, a bedrock and an offering to those she meets along the way.Stone Will Answer is an unusual adventure story of journeys practical, spiritual and geological, of weight and motion, and an insight into a beguiling craft.

Written originally in 1936?38 by Admiral Cumberlege as a record of his life, Salt Horse was never published. The original manuscript has been expertly edited and made readable in terms of language to a modern audience. It now comprises chapters on Cumberlege?s naval career in the RN and Royal Australian Navy and also on the 1922?38 period when he lived year-round on two large sailing craft, cruising the coasts of France and Spain.Cumberlege writes with some verve. He has strong views, made numerous friends wherever he and his second wife Nora went, and lived a spirited, irreverent and fortunate existence in peace and war. Some of his stories (for instance, about WW1 in New Guinea, or about his 1905 lunch in Gibraltar as a young officer with Kaiser Wilhelm II) are historic and eye-catching. In many ways, the book describes a world, and a way of life, that has disappeared for ever.Salt Horse is complemented with a timeline, family tree and Introduction which trace Cumberlege?s background. An Afterword takes his life story from 1938?63 when he died. The numerous black-and-white images and short footnotes bring many of the people mentioned in the text to life.

A WATERSTONES BEST BOOK OF 2023: NATURE AND TRAVELFor thousands of years, our ancestors held a close connection with the landscapes they lived in. Seeking that lost connection, James Canton takes us on a journey across ancient England: from stone monuments to sacred groves, places of pilgrimage and sites of religious worship.Grounded invites us to step away from our modern world, to rekindle the wonder and awe in the places we live in, to discover the history and meaning encoded into the land – if only we take the time to look.

This funny and beautifully observed book pulls together humorous stories, funny quotes, quips and anecdotes about this small but remarkable country.While the Scots are proud of their friendly reputation, loud about their many contributions to the world ? such as whisky, penicillin and television ? and fiercely protective of Scottish delicacies such as haggis and Irn Bru, they are also celebrated for their famously dry and dark humour.Featuring wit and wisdom from writers such as Armando Iannucci, Compton Mackenzie, Stanley Baxter and Neil Munro, this light-hearted book celebrates Scottish wit at its best while looking at the culture, folklore, politics and sport that make up Scotland.