THE BEST OF SCOTTISH BOOKS

‘Beautiful and uplifting’ Davina McCall

‘So inspiring, so heartfelt … the way Donna writes is beyond beautiful.’ Lisa Snowdon

Uplifting inspiration from the Sunday Times bestselling author of I Wish I Knew

Wild Hope is Donna Ashworth’s powerful new collection of wisdom to help us find hope, peace, self-acceptance and inspiration on the days we feel worn down, helpless or sad. Written with love and understanding, Donna reminds us that amidst our daily struggles and constant outpourings of bad news we have so much to hope for, and that every one of us can play a part, big or small, in making the world a better place.

With poems such as ‘That Thing You Do’, ‘Through the Ringer’ and ‘Rope Ladder’, Donna helps us to remember that most people in this world are good, and that acts of kindness and love within our individual spheres of influence, however small, all contribute to a better future. She also gently guides us, no matter how busy or overburdened we may be, to practice better self-care and self-acceptance.

Hope exists when nothing else can. On the darkest of days Wild Hope will help you find more light.

Now hard to believe, Eilean Donan Castle was once one of the largest castles in the west Highlands, known to have featured seven towers, the remains of which lie buried on the island. This book provides a refreshed view of the lost medieval guise of the castle, of its 13th-century origins and form, and of who was responsible for building it, allowing the castle to be positioned accurately in the complex dynamics of powerholding and display of the earls of Ross and associated militarised kindreds of the west Highlands during six centuries of change up to the castle’s destruction in 1719.

A new history and the details of the below-ground archaeology allow us to see the lost medieval castle in our mind’s eye 500 years after it vanished. Focusing on the wealth of archaeological material unearthed during the campaign shows the castle hosted master craftspeople including goldsmiths, shipwrights and hereditary swordsmiths. Exquisite personal items, decorative mail armour and weapons, musical instruments, gaming pieces, imported pottery and animal bones bring the castle and its inhabitants back to life.

An ancient land with a turbulent past and haunting landscape, Scotland’s material culture stretches back to the time of ancient Roman incursions north of Hadrian’s Wall and includes Viking raids, wars with England, and clan wars that still stir the blood today. Now, remnants of the country’s history can be found in every corner of this dramatic land, from the thinly inhabited Western Isles to the remote Highlands and the fishing ports of the North Sea coast.

In Abandoned Scotland, discover the ramshackle sanatorium of Glen O’Dee Hospital; see the rusting, neglected rides and rollercoasters of the Loudoun Castle Theme Park, closed after a fatal accident in 2007; quake at the site of New Slains Castle, Cruden Bay, said to be haunted by soldiers and mermaids; venture underground into the massive labyrinth of Cults Limestone Mine, which attracts treasure hunters and potholers, despite the dangers; explore Cramond Ghost Island, and the massive World War II teeth created to block the Firth of Forth in case of invasion; and see one of the country?s many ruined castles, including the 14th century Castle Stalker, set on a tidal islet on Loch Laich, or the atmospheric Buchanan Castle, set close to Loch Lomond.

Illustrated with 180 photographs, Abandoned Scotland provides a fascinating pictorial exploration of the little-known corners of this glorious country.

‘Brilliant! The Institution is a harrowing, nonstop story that will grab you from the first page and not let go. Helen Fields is a master of suspense. You’ll consume it in one sitting.’ – International bestselling sensation JEFFERY DEAVER

They’re locked up for your safety

.Now, you’re locked in with them.

Dr Connie Woolwine has five days to catch a killer.

On a locked ward in the world’s highest-security prison hospital, a scream shatters the night. The next morning, a nurse’s body is found and her daughter has been taken. A ransom must be paid, and the clock is ticking.

Forensic profiler Dr Connie Woolwine is renowned for her ability to get inside the mind of a murderer. Now, she must go deep undercover among the most deranged and dangerous men on earth and use her unique skills to find the girl – before it’s too late.

But as the walls close in around her, can Connie get the killer before The Institution gets her?

A claustrophobic, haunting crime thriller that will keep you up at night, perfect for those who couldn’t put down The Sanatorium and Amy McCulloch’s Breathless.

Readers never want to leave The Institution!

‘Terrifyingly brilliant and an absolute must-read for those who enjoy dark psychological thrillers.’

‘A very dark and exciting read. If you want to stay up all night, love serial killers or just want a strong female heroine , The Institution is for you!’

‘What a story! It gripped me right from the start of the opening chapter. Wow!’

The Lost Flock is the story of the remarkable and rare little horned sheep, known as Orkney Boreray, and the wool-obsessed woman who moved to one of Scotland’s wildest islands to save them.

It was Jane Cooper’s passion for knitting that led her to discover the world of rare-breed sheep and their wool. Through this, Jane uncovered the ‘Orkney Borerary’ – a unique group within the UK’s rarest breed of sheep, the Boreray, and one of the few surviving examples of primitive sheep in northern Europe.

As her knowledge of this rarest of heritage breeds grew, she took the bold step to uproot her quiet suburban life in Newcastle and relocate to Orkney, embarking on a new adventure and life as farmer and shepherd.

Jane was astonished to find that she was the sole custodian of this lost flock in the world, and so she began investigating their mysterious and ancient history, tracking down the origins of the Boreray breed and its significance to Scotland’s natural heritage.

From Viking times to Highland crofts and nefarious research experiments in Edinburgh, this is a so-far untold real-life detective story. It is also the story of one woman’s relentless determination to ensure a future for her beloved sheep, and in doing so revealing their deep connection to the Scottish landscape.

An unforgettable story of a heritage breed and the importance of its existence.

James VI and I has long endured a mixed reputation. To many, he is the homosexual King, the inveterate witch-roaster, the smelly sovereign who never washed, the colourless man behind the authorised Bible bearing his name, the drooling fool whose speech could barely be understood. For too long, he has paled in comparison to his more celebrated – and analysed – Tudor and Stuart forebears. But who was he really? To what extent have myth, anecdote, and rumour obscured him?

In this new biography, James’s story is laid bare, and a welter of scurrilous, outrageous assumptions penned by his political opponents put to rest. What emerges is a portrait of James VI and I as his contemporaries knew him: a gregarious, idealistic man obsessed with the idea of family, whose personal and political goals could never match up to reality. With reference to letters, libels and state papers, it casts fresh light on the personal, domestic, international, and sexual politics of this misunderstood sovereign.

Tha an dàn fada cumasgta Mo Shearmon a’ dèiligeadh ri iomadh cuspair agus a’ gabhail a-steach iomadh ìomhaigh, gach uair mar choltas air na th’ aig am bàrd ri ràdh agus an dòigh air an canar e. ’S e dàn cluicheach, aincheartach, amasgaidh a th’ ann, gun fhios sam bith aig an leughadair càit’ an tèid a stiùireadh no dè tha dol a’ leantainn. Sna dàintean goirid eile nochdaidh faireachdainnean, àiteachan is pearsannan diofraichte, càirdean is nàimhdean còmhla, anns an fhradharc Eòrpach a tha àbhaisteach ann an obair Crìsdean MacIlleBhàin.

The long medley Mo Shearmon treats a range of topics and images as likenesses for what the poet has to say and how he goes about saying it. It’s a playful, mischievous, unpredictable poem where readers can never tell what is coming next or where they will be led, a totally new departure for Gaelic in the twenty-first century. The shorter poems accompanying it deal with different emotions, places and people, friends, enemies and memories, always from the European perspective which is characteristic of Christopher Whyte’s poetry.

The laugh-out-loud summer read you need in your life, from bestselling author Sophie Gravia.

Zara Smith is FINALLY in a healthy relationship… so why can’t she stop thinking about her ex?

The shocking news of the summer is that Tom – the ex Zara always thought would never settle down – is ENGAGED to beloved actress and all-natural beauty Quinn Foxx. They’re throwing a star-studded engagement party in Italy, and Zara is invited.

She isn’t planning to go until she finds an old note from Tom that shows their feelings for each other were once mutual. And she needs to know – does he still feel the same way? And, just like that, Zara’s on a plane to Milan to crash the most talked-about engagement of the year!

After all this time, could this be the moment Zara’s been waiting for… or the biggest mistake of her life?

Steven is one unlucky closeted sixth former. Whenever he has a strong emotion, be that happiness or sadness, weird things happen. Like, potentially dangerous things. Recently, he kissed another boy for the first time and . . . the boy’s head literally exploded. Steven flees to the miserable town of Grunsby-on-Sea, determined not to hurt anyone else with his “Emomancy”.

With a best friend as determined as Freya, it is impossible to stay hidden for long though, especially when she realises Steven might be in danger after a mysterious organisation called DEMA start asking questions about him. Where Freya goes, her boyfriend Marcus and American friend Troy soon follow. Together, they are determined to find out more about this organisation and what “neutralising” someone like Steven might mean.

By chance, Steven meets a handsome stranger who claims to share his powers and who offers to teach Steven how to control them. But who is he in relation to DEMA? What on earth happened to make Grunsby-on-Sea so lethargic a town? And can you really trust a charismatic stranger you meet in a café bathroom?

Fasten your seatbelts for a flight across the Highlands and Islands of Scotland with Shona the Vet and her trusty wee dog Jock. Travel with them as they head to Spey Bay to help a dolphin in distress, or across to Portree to patch up a Puffin with a broken wing. This fun new first adventure has been written and illustrated by Catherine Stables who is a vet, living and working near Aberdeen. Her story helps children understand some of the challenges facing Scotland’s wildlife. Suitable for pre and early school children this is a lovely rhyming read, perfect for bedtimes or to be an inspiration for activities and learning.

The electrifying crime novel featuring DS Saul Anguish from the award winning author, Fiona Cummins, author of Into the Dark and Rattle.

Every one of them has a dark secret

The Family: After a year they want to forget, the Hardwicke family set out to the Scottish Highlands for a much needed holiday.

The Crimes: They are about to cross paths with Missy and Fox, a violent and dangerous young couple hell-bent on infamy, their love story etched in blood and a dark past which must be uncovered.

The Detective: As the clock ticks down, Detective Saul Anguish is on the hunt to find the couple before more lives are lost.

The Mother: who will be forced to make an impossible decision.

It’s mid-September, a heatwave has descended on the parched hills of LA and Private Detective Philip Marlowe is called to the Montgomery estate, an almost mythic place sitting high on top of Beverly Hills. Wealthy twenty-two-year-old Chrissie Montgomery, set to inherit an enormous fortune, is missing.

She’s a walking target, ripe for someone to get their claws into. Her dying father, along with his sultry bottle blonde girlfriend, wants her found before that happens. They’ve hired Anna Riorden, Marlowe’s nemesis, too. The search takes them to the roughest neighbourhoods of LA through dive bars and Skid Row. And that’s before he finds the body at The Brody Hotel. Who will get to her first, Marlowe, Anne, or the men chasing her fortune? And does she want to be found?

Margaret Bryce has been having a hard time since dying in 2014.

In a place beyond, we join Margaret as she revisits her life, from her Aberdeen prefab childhood to the birth of her twin girls, through Thatcher’s Britain, the Piper Alpha oil rig disaster, Australia’s Black Summer bushfires, the death of Princess Diana and the COVID pandemic. But something isn’t quite right. Margaret is trying to remember, but also fighting to forget.

A Country of Eternal Light will take you on a journey like no other. It is an utterly original, bitingly funny and poignant novel about life, death, what we choose to remember – and what we’d do anything to forget.

In Fat Girl Best Friend, Sarah Grant takes the reader on a pop culture voyage which encompasses Bridgerton, The DUFF, Encanto, Orange is the New Black, Pitch Perfect, Pride and Prejudice, Shrek, Star Wars, Stranger Things, The Vicar of Dibley, to name but a few.

We all want to live our lives with oodles of Main Character Energy, but for some of us, we just don’t look like your average entertainment thin Leading Lady.

While we live in an age of body positivity, we are not seeing that reflected in the cinema or on our television screens. From Fat Monica to Fat Amy, plus size women in film and television are a rare commodity, and if we see ourselves represented at all, it’s not a pretty picture. We’re either the pitied bully victim or the empty, sympathetic and disposable best friend.

Through the lens of Female Friendship, Fat Girl Best Friend dives into the treatment of plus size women in film and television, and goes looking for that Main Character Energy we all know we deserve.

With his sixtieth birthday looming, Colin Renton decides that it’s time to escape office life and focus on achieving some of his unfulfilled goals.

He embarks on a year-long adventure that takes him from the busy streets of Edinburgh to the traffic-free roads, sodden fields and dusty paths of Europe’s winemaking regions. He laces up his running shoes and joins thousands of fellow athletes in races that test him over various distances, degrees of difficulty and levels of seriousness. His schedule, which culminates with a marathon debut, takes him to places he would otherwise not have visited.

On his travels, he seeks out local wines that deserve a place in a carefully chosen twelve-bottle case, a process that throws up some fascinating insights and introduces him to a vintage crop of engaging characters.

The crossover between running and wine uncorks a tale of endurance, curiosity and discovery, told in an accessible style and served up with a splash of local colour and a drop of wry humour.

The frank, funny fiction debut collection from Josie Long, the award-winning comedian and broadcaster

From a comic mastermind comes this brilliant collection of stories.

Three teenagers believe they are witches.
A woman defaces a local billboard.
A bored landlord tries to influence his son’s best friend.
A cul-de-sac WhatsApp group discusses eggs at length.
A heavily pregnant woman finds a way to time travel and a girl discovers joy on a stolen bicycle …

Each tale paints a life in miniature and offers an escape chute from the mayhem of modern life.

When Joe and Roisin join their group of friends for a weekend away, it’s a triple celebration – a birthday, an engagement and the launch of Joe’s new crime drama on TV.

But when Roisin sees secrets she shared with Joe play out on the TV screen, she knows that between us means nothing at all.

Roisin finds herself searching for clues to the truth – about her life, their history, and the man she thought she loved. And it’s then that Roisin finds the most unexpected plot twist of them all. Among those same old friends, there’s a surprising potential for new beginnings . . .

By the glittering shores of the Mediterranean, two families gather for the wedding of the year.

Carina is marrying her childhood sweetheart, Giorgio. He isn’t the person she thinks he is.

Hollywood starlet Edie is the dazzling bridesmaid. She’s hiding something that could destroy her best friend.

Mother-of-the-bride Philippa is stunned by the arrival of a lover from her past. Can her marriage survive?

As the guests gather under the azure skies of the Amalfi coast, scandal and intrigue are waiting to be revealed, and one of the guests will do anything to hide the truth …

“I rode back down the hill to the athlete’s village. Some of Team Scotland had been watching on the big screen and I arrived to hugs of congratulations. I went inside for a shower and ceremoniously dropped my heart rate monitor into the bin. It was the first day of the rest of my life.”

A little before 1.30 p.m. on Sunday 21 July 2013, Lee Craigie crossed the finish line at Cathkin Braes in the southern outskirts of Glasgow several minutes ahead of her nearest competitor to become the British cross-country mountain bike champion. Lee’s win was the culmination of seven years of training and sacrifice, but it marked the beginning of the end of her competitive career; less than a year later, at the same venue, this time representing her native Scotland at the Commonwealth Games, she crossed the line and quit professional bike racing for good.

Lee Craigie is one of Scotland’s great bike racers, yet she has accomplished much more since retiring. In Other Ways to Win she tells her story of growing up near Glasgow and discovering the freedom of cycling – skipping French lessons and heading off into the Campsie Fells to see just how far she could ride. These teenage adventures established cycling as the thread which would run through her life – not only through her racing life and into a new life of two-wheeled adventure, but also through the positive impact she would have on the lives of others, particularly encouraging other women through her work with the Adventure Syndicate. Written with breathtaking honesty, she recounts epic adventures along the Tour Divide, Silk Road and the Highland Trail 550, and examines themes of friendship, loss, identity and the power of the outdoors – and, of course, cycling.

Lee Craigie’s story is a welcome reminder that there is more than one way to win at cycling ? and life.

Andy Bollen has created a treasure trove of Scottish football exhibits that ranges from Jimmy Johnstone’s oar to Aggie the tea lady’s trolley. Learn why Puskas and Socrates should have been Scottish, the versatility of the pie and Napoleon’s links to Bovril and explore all the wonders of the game north of the Border – from Arthur Montford to the phone-in, Think Tanks, Buckfast, vanishing cream for referees, Twitter, VAR technology and flares (pyrotechnics, not 1970s attire).

Filled with snappy and humorous chapters, take a nostalgic trip down memory lane, succinct versions of famous stories and a great many more entertaining stories covering everything you need to know about Scottish football, and its players, its critics, the fans and the followers.