THE BEST OF SCOTTISH BOOKS

The twenty-fourth book in the multi-million copy bestselling and perennially adored No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series.

If you are the founder and Managing Director of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency you may expect complete strangers to approach you with their problems when they see you having dinner with your husband in a peri-peri restaurant. And if you are Precious Ramotswe, you are a kind and helpful person who will be willing to take on a quest to find the relatives of a man who, many years ago, left the country for the uncertainties and dangers of a distant conflict.

While that is going on, though, there may be other things that claim your attention – such as the shocking news that a club that calls itself the Cool Singles Evening Club is encouraging married men to pretend to be single and meet women under false pretences. Who can be behind such a distasteful venture? Mma Ramotswe shows great tact in dealing with this situation, and avoids harm to the innocent.And all the time, she and her assistant, Grace Makutsi, are getting on with their normal lives – which, of course, include birthdays and the buying of birthday presents. A new dress makes a fine present, but not if, when being tried on, it splits in a way that is thought to be irreparable. Mma Potokwani has dealt with situations far worse that, and in dealing with this local emergency she shows her characteristic wisdom. At the end of the day, disaster is averted. Life in Botswana, that far and lovely country of the title, continues smoothly, which is what Mma Ramotswe and her friends want – and most certainly deserve.

The twenty-fourth book in the multi-million copy bestselling and perennially adored No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series.If you are the founder and Managing Director of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency you may expect complete strangers to approach you with their problems when they see you having dinner with your husband in a peri-peri restaurant. And if you are Precious Ramotswe, you are a kind and helpful person who will be willing to take on a quest to find the relatives of a man who, many years ago, left the country for the uncertainties and dangers of a distant conflict.While that is going on, though, there may be other things that claim your attention – such as the shocking news that a club that calls itself the Cool Singles Evening Club is encouraging married men to pretend to be single and meet women under false pretences. Who can be behind such a distasteful venture? Mma Ramotswe shows great tact in dealing with this situation, and avoids harm to the innocent.And all the time, she and her assistant, Grace Makutsi, are getting on with their normal lives – which, of course, include birthdays and the buying of birthday presents. A new dress makes a fine present, but not if, when being tried on, it splits in a way that is thought to be irreparable. Mma Potokwani has dealt with situations far worse that, and in dealing with this local emergency she shows her characteristic wisdom. At the end of the day, disaster is averted. Life in Botswana, that far and lovely country of the title, continues smoothly, which is what Mma Ramotswe and her friends want – and most certainly deserve.

?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.

?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.

Salt is a vital commodity. For many centuries it sustained life for Scots as seasoning for a diet dominated by grains (mainly oats), and for preservation of fish and cheese.

Sea-salt manufacturing is one of Scotland’s oldest industries, dating to the eleventh century if not earlier. Smoke- and steam-emitting panhouses were once a common sight along the country’s coastline and are reflected in many of Scotland’s placenames. The industry was a high-status activity, with the monarch initially owning salt pans. Salt manufacture was later organised by Scotland’s abbeys and then by landowners who had access to the sea and a nearby supply of coal. As salt was an important source of tax revenue for the government, it was often a cause of conflict (and military action) between Scotland and England. The future of the industry – and the price of salt for consumers – was a major issue during negotiations around the Union of 1707.

This book celebrates both the history and the rebirth of the salt industry in Scotland. Although salt manufacturing declined in the nineteenth century and was wound up in the 1950s, in the second decade of the twenty-first century the trade was revived. Scotland’s salt is now a high-prestige, green product that is winning awards and attracting interest across the UK.

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.

Morris Magellan wakes one morning to find himself stuck in a corporate job and living the suburban dream with a wife and two children, except this dream feels like a nightmare. Out of his depth and starting to drift from reality, we meet Morris at the precipice. Bit by bit he is losing his struggle with addiction – he just doesn’t know it yet. His only solace and escape from suburban family life and corporate duties is music and alcohol. His life is soundtracked with symphonies and concertos, every note, and every drink, carries him from moment to moment hoping to salvage something of himself before that too slips from his grasp.

Harrowing but compellingly written, with humour and compassion, The Sound of My Voice is a stylistic masterpiece that presents conflict between a man’s cowardice and cruelty, and a desperate attempt to recover his humanity.

Fully-dramatised adaptations of all 60 Sherlock Holmes stories, brought to life with a full cast of actors, sound effects and music

‘A remarkable undertaking… applauding them, and particularly Clive Merrison’s Holmes, made my hands sore’ The Times

Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary detective Sherlock Holmes and his dear friend Dr Watson are among the most enduringly popular fictional characters ever created. Their adventures have been dramatised countless times on radio, TV and film, but until BBC Radio 4 took on the challenge in 1989, no-one had ever attempted to adapt all sixty stories.Beginning with A Study in Scarlet and concluding with The Hound of the Baskervilles, their epic project took over 8 years to complete – and this landmark collection contains the extraordinary result of their labours. Here is the world’s first ever fully-dramatised Sherlock Holmes canon: 56 short stories and 4 novels, all made by the same team of directors, producers, dramatists and leading actors, and packed with the high production qualities of a film or TV drama that set it apart.Starring one of radio’s great double acts, Clive Merrison and Michael Williams, as Holmes and Watson, and with guest stars including Brian Blessed, Judi Dench, Maurice Denham, Andrew Sachs, Peter Davison, Robert Glenister and Harriet Walter, this definitive collection contains over 48 hours of enthralling listening.

Also included is a bonus interview with Adrian Conan Doyle about his father, Sir Arthur, and some fascinating behind-the-scenes revelations from the series’ head writer, Bert Coules, about the making of the radio adaptations.

Cast

Sherlock Holmes – Clive Merrison

Dr John Watson – Michael Williams

Mrs Hudson – Anna Cropper/Mary Allen/Joan Matheson/Judi Dench/

Inspector Gregson – John Moffatt

Inspector Lestrade – Donald Gee/Stephen Thorne

Mary Morstan/Mary Watson – Moir Leslie/Elizabeth Mansfield/Hannah Gordon

Irene Adler – Sarah Badel

Inspector Jones – Nigel Carrington

Colonel Moran – Fraser Kerr/Frederick Treves

Mycroft Holmes – John Hartley

Professor Moriarty – Michael Pennington

Production credits

Written by Arthur Conan Doyle

Dramatised by Bert Coules with David Ashton, Michael Bakewell, Roger Danes, Robert Forrest, Denys Hawthorne, Gerry Jones, Peter Ling, Vincent McInerney and Peter Mackie

Produced and directed by Ian Cotterell, David Johnston, Patrick Rayner and Enyd Williams

Musicians: Alexander Balanescu, Leonard Friedman, Richard Friedman, Michael Haslam, Ian Humphries and Abigail Young

Contents

A Study in Scarlet

The Sign of the Four

The Hound of the Baskervilles

The Valley of Fear

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

A Scandal in Bohemia

The Red-Headed League

A Case of Identity

The Boscombe Valley Mystery

The Five Orange Pips

The Man with the Twisted Lip

The Blue Carbuncle

The Speckled Band

The Engineer’s Thumb

The Noble Bachelor

The Beryl Coronet

The Copper Beeches

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

Silver Blaze

The Yellow Face

The Stockbroker’s Clerk

The Gloria Scott

The Musgrave Ritual

The Reigate Squires

The Crooked Man

The Resident Patient

The Greek Interpreter

The Naval Treaty

The Final Problem

The Return of Sherlock Holmes

The Empty House

The Norwood Builder

The Dancing Men

The Solitary Cyclist

The Priory School

Black Peter

Charles Augustus Milverton

The Six Napoleons

The Three Students

The Golden Pince-Nez

The Missing Three-Quarter

The Abbey Grange

The Second Stain

His Last Bow

Wisteria Lodge

The Cardboard Box

The Red Circle

The Bruce-Partington Plans

The Dying Detective

The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax

The Devil’s Foot

His Last Bow

The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes

The Illustrious Client

The Blanched Soldier

The Mazarin Stone

The Three Gables

The Sussex Vampire

The Three Garridebs

The Problem of Thor Bridge

The Creeping Man

The Lion’s Mane

The Veiled Lodger

Shoscombe Old Place

The Retired Colourman

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between November 1989 and March 1995© 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

After being sacked from his high-power executive job, Morris now has nothing to lose. He is free – sort of. Determined to devote what time he has left to creating music, his lifelong dream, he returns to his childhood home, ‘to kickstart his life once more – and this time get it right!’ Very soon, however, things start going wrong. Very wrong. Not only does his past catch up with him, but the future that is rushing towards him becomes more threatening by the day. Old bad habits creep back in again. Then he meets Jess.

Upbeat, laugh-out-loud funny, this compelling novel, set in the Borders, swinging sixties London and present-day Edinburgh, touches on music, Scottish independence, love in later life and, most of all, how to make the most of one’s life before it is too late.

Six years after Brexit, it can feel like we’re still having the same conversations.

This is the explainer we need to move on.

And we do need to move on, because in the meantime so much has changed. The economic realities that are making the UK less competitive, less productive and less well-off are ever more obvious – and more and more people are finding out the Brexit they were sold was based on falsehoods and fantasy.

So what exactly went wrong with Brexit?

In this book, Peter Foster dispels the myths and, most importantly, shows what a better future for Britain after Brexit might look like. With clear-headed practicality, he considers the real costs of leaving the EU, how we can recover international trust in the UK, how to improve cooperation and trade with our neighbours, and how to begin to build the Global Britain that Brexit promised but failed to deliver.

The politicians won’t talk about it, so we need to.

South-West Scotland, 2010. Air-traffic controller Helena’s baby is born with unexplained paralysis. Faced with an unforgiving medical establishment, she turns to the Jewish grandmother she never knew, unfolding the past in search of answers.

Berlin, 1937. Single mother and kitchen hand Dora struggles in a city growing increasingly hostile, with questions being asked of bloodlines and identity. Will she always be alone? And how long will she and her daughter be able to call this home?

Based on extensive research into Eleanor Thom’s lost family history, Connective Tissue is a story of migration, motherhood, and our need to know the people and places that make us.

Small but spectacular, this country offers bucket-list experiences in abundance.

Whether you want to explore Edinburgh Castle, drive the North Coast 500, or sample ancient malts, your DK Eyewitness travel guide makes sure you experience all that Scotland has to offer. Famed for its majestic mountains, moody moorlands and tranquil lochs, this richly varied hinterland is a joy for outdoor enthusiasts. Meanwhile, urban Scotland offers cutting-edge art galleries, lively nightlife and a flourishing food scene.

Our updated guide brings Scotland to life, transporting you there like no other travel guide does with expert-led insights, trusted travel advice, detailed breakdowns of all the must-see sights, photographs on practically every page, and our hand-drawn illustrations which place you inside the country’s iconic buildings and neighbourhoods. We’ve also worked hard to make sure our information is as up-to-date as possible following the COVID-19 outbreak.

You’ll discover our pick of Scotland’s must-sees, top experiences and hidden gems; the best spots to eat, drink, shop and stay; detailed maps and walks which make navigating the country easy; easy-to-follow itineraries; expert advice: get ready, get around and stay safe; colour-coded chapters to every part of Scotland, from Edinburgh to Glasgow, Southern Scotland to the Highlands and Islands; a lightweight format, so you can take it with you wherever you go

Touring the UK? Try our DK Eyewitness Great Britain. Want the best of Scotland in your pocket? Try our DK Eyewitness Top 10 Scotland.

Small but spectacular, this country offers bucket-list experiences in abundance.

Whether you want to explore Edinburgh Castle, drive the North Coast 500, or sample ancient malts, your DK Eyewitness travel guide makes sure you experience all that Scotland has to offer. Famed for its majestic mountains, moody moorlands and tranquil lochs, this richly varied hinterland is a joy for outdoor enthusiasts. Meanwhile, urban Scotland offers cutting-edge art galleries, lively nightlife and a flourishing food scene.

Our updated guide brings Scotland to life, transporting you there like no other travel guide does with expert-led insights, trusted travel advice, detailed breakdowns of all the must-see sights, photographs on practically every page, and our hand-drawn illustrations which place you inside the country’s iconic buildings and neighbourhoods. We’ve also worked hard to make sure our information is as up-to-date as possible following the COVID-19 outbreak.

You’ll discover our pick of Scotland’s must-sees, top experiences and hidden gems; the best spots to eat, drink, shop and stay; detailed maps and walks which make navigating the country easy; easy-to-follow itineraries; expert advice: get ready, get around and stay safe; colour-coded chapters to every part of Scotland, from Edinburgh to Glasgow, Southern Scotland to the Highlands and Islands; a lightweight format, so you can take it with you wherever you go

Touring the UK? Try our DK Eyewitness Great Britain. Want the best of Scotland in your pocket? Try our DK Eyewitness Top 10 Scotland.

Liz Lochhead is one of the leading poets writing in Britain today. Her debut collection, Memo for Spring (1972), was a landmark publication. Writing at a time when the landscape of Scottish poetry was male dominated, hers was a fresh, new voice, tackling subjects that resonated with readers – as it still does. Her poetry paved the way, and inspired, countless new voices including Ali Smith, Kathleen Jamie, Jackie Kay and Carol Ann Duffy.

Still writing and performing today, more than fifty years on from her first book of poetry, Liz Lochhead has been awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry and was Scotland’s second modern Makar, succeeding Edwin Morgan.

This pioneering account of Modern Spiritualism in late 19th and early 20th-century Scotland is a compelling history of the international movement’s cultural impact on Scottish art. From spirit-mediums creating séance art to mainstream artists of the Royal Scottish Academy, this exposition reveals for the first time the extent of Spiritualist interest in Scotland.

With its interdisciplinary scope, Modern Spiritualism and Scottish Art combines cultural and art history to explore the ways in which Scottish art reflected Spiritualist beliefs at the turn of the 20th century. More than simply a history of the Spiritualist cause and its visual manifestations, this book also provides a detailed account of scepticism, psychical research, and occulture in modern Scotland, and the role that these aspects played in informing responses to Spiritualist ideology.

Utilising extensive archival research, together with in-depth analyses of overlooked paintings, drawings and sculpture, Michelle Foot demonstrates the vital importance of Spiritualist art to the development of Spiritualism in Scotland during the 19th century. In doing so, the book highlights the contribution of Scottish visual artists alongside better-known Spiritualists such as Arthur Conan Doyle and Daniel Dunglas Home.

In 1830, the little Hebridean island of Lismore was one of the granaries of the West Highlands, with every possible scrap of land producing bere barley or oats. The population had reached its peak of 1500, but by 1910, numbers had dwindled to 400 and were still falling. The agricultural economy had been almost completely transformed to support sheep and cattle, with ploughland replaced by the now familiar green grassy landscape.

With reference to documentary sources, including Poor Law reports, the report of the Napier Commission into the condition crofters in the Highlands and Islands, as well as local documents and letters, this book documents a century of emigration, migration and clearance and paints an intimate portrait of the island community during a period of profound change. At the same time, it also celebrates the achievements of the many tenants who grasped the opportunities involved in agricultural improvement.

The northern parish of Assynt boasts some of the most spectacular scenery in Britain. The mountains of Quinag and Suilven dominate a very varied landscape with wild, white hills inland and a complex, intricate moorland to the west. Here, rocky crags, boggy flows, innumerable lochs and burns, stretch to a coast of equal variety with long fjords, high cliffs and sandy beaches. Close to many of the crofting townships are dense areas of native woodland.

In this book, Robin Noble, who has been intimately involved with this corner of the north-west Highlands of Scotland his whole life, celebrates its rugged beauty and shares many intimate encounters with the resident wildlife – including, golden eagles, otters, badgers and pine martens – which surrounded his cottage in its wooded glen under the “long mountain” of Quinag.

Assynt is also well known for its important role in the history of community land ownership, and Robin describes too his deep involvement with those who live there. He learned much from the old generation of shepherds and crofters whom he got to know in the 1960s, as well as from their children and incomers in later decades, and shared with them the challenges of living in a remote, fragile community.

It’s 1963. The year of the Profumo scandal, the Great Train Robbery, the rise of teenage consumerism and sexual emancipation, and Kennedy’s assassination . . . and the birth of Beatlemania, the pop revolution that transformed the slate-grey, post-war years of austerity into a Day-Glo landscape.

In the beginning, The Beatles were a band of brothers who really did make Britain twist and shout. This is the unprecedented story of the Beatles’ remarkable journey from Liverpool dance hall favourites to becoming the biggest band in the world in the space of just twelve rollercoaster months. From playing to fewer than twenty people in January in the remote Scottish Highlands to being met by a tsunami of screams from 10,000 fans at London Airport in November. From being bottom-of-the-bill after-thoughts to making royalty blush at a frenzied London Palladium.

It was a year lived at breakneck pace. Two number one albums, four number one singles, almost 300 gigs, countless radio and TV sessions and the astonishing transformation of four lives into something less ordinary.

Six years after Brexit, it can feel like we’re still having the same conversations.

This is the explainer we need to move on.

And we do need to move on, because in the meantime so much has changed. The economic realities that are making the UK less competitive, less productive and less well-off are ever more obvious – and more and more people are finding out the Brexit they were sold was based on falsehoods and fantasy.

So what exactly went wrong with Brexit?

In this book, Peter Foster dispels the myths and, most importantly, shows what a better future for Britain after Brexit might look like. With clear-headed practicality, he considers the real costs of leaving the EU, how we can recover international trust in the UK, how to improve cooperation and trade with our neighbours, and how to begin to build the Global Britain that Brexit promised but failed to deliver.The politicians won’t talk about it, so we need to.

The dead talk. To the right listener, they tell us all about themselves: where they came from, how they lived, how they died – and who killed them. Forensic scientists can unlock the mysteries of the past and help justice to be done using the messages left by a corpse, a crime scene or the faintest of human traces.

Forensics uncovers the secrets of forensic medicine, drawing on interviews with top-level professionals, ground-breaking research and Val McDermid’s own experience to lay bare the secrets of this fascinating science. And, along the way, she wonders at how maggots collected from a corpse can help determine time of death, how a DNA trace a millionth the size of a grain of salt can be used to convict a killer and how a team of young Argentine scientists led by a maverick American anthropologist uncovered the victims of a genocide.

In her crime novels, Val McDermid has been solving complex crimes and confronting unimaginable evil for years. Now, she’s looking at the people who do it for real, and real crime scenes. It’s a journey that will take her to war zones, fire scenes and autopsy suites, and bring her into contact with extraordinary bravery and wickedness, as she traces the history of forensics from its earliest beginnings to the cutting-edge science of the modern day.