THE BEST OF SCOTTISH BOOKS

In the beginning there was fear.
White-hot, nerve-shredding fear.
Terrifying premonitions of deaths.
And then they started…
The Murmurs…

On the first morning of her new job at Heartfield House, a care home for the elderly, Annie Jackson wakens from a terrifying dream. And when she arrives at the home, she knows that the first old man she meets is going to die.

How she knows this is a terrifying mystery, but it is the start of horrifying premonitions … a rekindling of the curse that has trickled through generations of women in her family – a wicked gift known only as ‘the murmurs’…

With its reappearance comes an old, forgotten fear that is about to grip Annie Jackson.

And this time, it will never let go…

A compulsive gothic thriller and a spellbinding supernatural mystery about secrets and small communities, about faith, courage and self-preservation, The Murmurs is a startling and compulsive read from one of Scotland’s finest authors…

IT’S 1960 AND A CRIME WAVE IS ABOUT TO EXPLODE

Alan McInnes is a young and ambitious police constable dreaming of a career in the CID, far from the backwater village of Barloch, and nourishing wistful visions of marrying his girlfriend.

One night, on patrol, he surprises a young local couple enjoying a private moment. But from this innocent encounter, there are tragic developments, with smuggled cargo, gangster intimidation, hidden family secrets, jealousy, revenge and murder.

Barloch looks and feels like the real thing, vibrant and alive with beauty. MacArthur writes with confident familiarity and affection for the people and communities of 1960s Scotland.

Barloch has the feel of a Pinewood studio movie shot in sharp black and white.

Former investment banker Johan Golding – Joe to his friends – is the newest member of the Hartley and Edwards Investigations team. And he’s thrilled to be shadowing Kitt Hartley, librarian-turned-top sleuth, and her right-hand woman Grace Edwards; even if it means adjusting to the low-level madness that seems to reign in the Hartley and Edwards offices.

But Joe finds himself thrown in at the deep end when a man known as Ralph Holmes goes missing on the outskirts of Carlisle. Police are refusing to investigate, as his disappearance seems voluntary, but his niece, Carly Lewis, is determined to find out what really happened.

As Kitt, Grace and Joe begin to investigate, they deduce there might be more to this disappearance than meets the eye. Drawn into a web of international conspiracies and possible murder, they need to find out who Ralph Holmes really was – and who he was working for. In their most dangerous case yet, the team are in a race against the clock to uncover the truth, before anyone else gets hurt . . .

Even death needs company…

The Skelf women are recovering from the cataclysmic events that nearly claimed their lives. Their funeral-director and private-investigation businesses are back on track, and their cases are as perplexing as ever.

Matriarch Dorothy looks into a suspicious fire at an illegal campsite and takes a grieving, homeless man under her wing. Daughter Jenny is searching for her missing sister-in-law, who disappeared in tragic circumstances, while grand-daughter Hannah is asked to investigate increasingly dangerous conspiracy theorists, who are targeting a retired female astronaut … putting her own life at risk.

With a body lost at sea, funerals for those with no one to mourn them, reports of strange happenings in outer space, a funeral crasher with a painful secret, and a violent attack on one of the family, The Skelfs face their most personal – and perilous – cases yet. Doing things their way may cost them everything…

Tense, unnerving and warmly funny, The Opposite of Lonely is the hugely anticipated fifth instalment in the unforgettable Skelfs series, and this time, danger comes from everywhere…

You could have saved her. 

Sure as the tide against his Highland shores, the refrain beats into Constable Angus ‘Dubh’ MacNeil’s mind. For years it has haunted him, accompanied by the faces of those he could not save—the Burned Man, the Strangled Woman, the Drowned Boy. All witnesses to a secret he cannot share and a gift he now refuses to embrace.

You could have saved her. The refrain drives Angus to the seashore at dawn, where a girl lies on the unblemished sand. She wears a green cloak and cradles a corps creadha, a Highland voodoo doll. She has suffered a ritualistic, three-fold death—her head bludgeoned, her throat cut, and symbolically drowned.

It is Faye Chichester, daughter of an American billionaire whose mission to reintroduce wolves to the Highlands has embroiled the village of Glenruig. But even as media and police swarm the area, that refrain—you could have saved her—echoes in all Angus’s thoughts. For he carries a burden, a blessing, a curse, a secret—dà-shealladh, the second sight of Gaelic lore.

Gills MacMurdo, noted folklorist, academic, and Angus’s oldest friend, confirms what the dà-shealladh is warning. Just as Faye’s death was three-fold, so must the murder victims fulfil the ancient pattern. More will die, unless Angus does what he must—close his eyes and see.

Two years into a devastating flu pandemic, food shortages are critical. The streets are full of angry protestors objecting to the government’s proposed rationing.

Carlotta Carmichael MSP is busy organising a meeting of international Virus ministers. When a lorryload of food for her ministerial dinner gets hijacked, she calls on the unwilling assistance of the North Edinburgh Health Enforcement Team to track down its missing driver. While the lorry proves easy to find, the identity of the dead young woman in its hold is less easy to establish.

Everyone’s hungry. Everyone’s scared. And the Health Enforcement Team are driving blind.

 

A little girl throws up Gloria-Jean’s teeth after an explosion at the custard factory; Pax, Alexander, and Angelo are hypnotically enthralled by a book that promises them enlightenment if they keep their semen inside their bodies; Victoria is sent to a cursed hotel for ailing girls when her period mysteriously stops. In a damp, putrid spa, the exploitative drudgery of work sparks revolt; in a Margate museum, the new Director curates a venomous garden for public consumption.

In Grudova’s unforgettably surreal style, these stories expose the absurdities behind contemporary ideas of work, Britishness and art-making, to conjure a singular, startling strangeness that proves the deft skill of a writer at the top of her game.

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.