THE BEST OF SCOTTISH BOOKS

Berlin, 1948. A city besieged. A boy reaches for the sky.

Otto Hartmann would do anything to be a pilot. With Berlin blockaded by the Soviets, the Americans fly to the rescue and Otto’s captivated by the matinee-idol pilots dropping chocolate for the city’s hungry kids. But never mind the Hershey bars – he wants to be up there with them.

Now Otto has to choose between those he loves or flying from a ruined city where danger lurks around every corner. And nobody is who they seem, but children are battling to survive in a desperate war-torn city.

The next exciting adventure for Uncle Pete and TM sees them prepare for an Arctic expedition to get Berg, the little polar bear, back to his family. Gathering together their snow gear, they fit skis on the plane and head north with Berg. When they arrive where the family were last seen, the snow has melted and there is no sign of the bears. A passing whale tells the team they have been captured and taken off in a very sinister looking black ship. There is excitement aplenty, with wooden squirrel helicopters, tunnels, bears in disguises, evil animal hunters and a daring rescue. And so, the third quest for Uncle Pete and TM begins. The third title in the thrilling magical, fantasy adventure series for six- to nine year- olds. Written by award-winning writer and journalist David C Flanagan, featuring line drawings and illustrations by Will Hughes, with his quirky Quentin Blake-like style. This hilarious new adventure takes Uncle Pete and his fearless female sidekick, TM, on an incredible Arctic adventure, with themes of determination, collaboration, ingenuity, kindness and acceptance.

A tender and poignant debut of the redemptive power of unexpected friendship.

In an old-fashioned fishing community on Morecambe Bay, change is imperceptibly slow. Treacherous tides sweep the quicksands, claiming everything in their path.

As a boy, Arthur had followed in his father’s and grandfather’s footprints, learning to read the currents and shifting sands. Now retired and widowed, though, he feels invisible, redundant. His daughter wants him in a retirement home. No one listens to his rants about the newcomers striking out nightly onto the bay for cockles, seemingly oblivious to the danger.

When Arthur’s path crosses Suling’s, both are running out of options. Barely yet an adult, Suling’s hopes for a better life have given way to fear: she’s without papers or money, speaks no English, and chased by ruthless debt collectors. Her only next step is to trust the old man.Combining warmth and suspense and recalling a true incident, The Bay tells a tender story about loneliness, confronting prejudice, and the comfort of friendship, however unlikely – as well as exposing one of the most pressing social ills of our age.

These locomotives were introduced to British Rail in 1956 and were initially allocated to Eastfield Depot in Glasgow and Haymarket Depot in Edinburgh. They became known as Type 2s and were used for both passenger and freight services. In later years the Class 26 fleet became dedicated to various coal workings in the Ayrshire area. A number of Class 27 locos were later converted for push-pull operation on the busy Glasgow Queen Street?Edinburgh service from 1971 and lasted until 1980.This book covers all three classes from the BR era through to privatisation and beyond. All classes carried out sterling work all over Scotland and some are now preserved at various heritage lines throughout Scotland.

You’ve cracked the superhuman mystery and can give superpowers to six different people around the world. Who do you choose? The world’s greatest and most ambitious superhero comic needs the world’s greatest comic book artists. Step forward Frank Quitely, Travis Charest, Olivier Coipel and an international line-up of superstars introducing all the characters from the brand-new Netflix sensation. Collects THE AMBASSADORS #1-6

‘Uplifting and moving’ BBC RADIO 2′

A meditation on connection between humans and animals, and the homes we make in wild places. I was completely immersed’ Katherine May

Catherine Munro transforms her life when she moves to Shetland to study the hardy ponies who call this archipelago home. Over the course of her first year, she is welcomed into the rhythms and routines that characterise life at the edge of the world.

When faced with personal loss, Catherine finds comfort and connection in the shared lives of the people, animals and wild landscapes of Shetland. The Ponies at the Edge of the World is a heartfelt love letter to the beauty and resilience of these magical ponies and their native land. This is a stunning book on community, hope and finding home.

This is the story of Herb la Fouche, of St Julien, Ontario, a fictional town just over the Quebec border. It is the story of how Herb, a good, quiet and unassuming man, a chemistry teacher, comes up with a unique invention and ends up on the Caribbean island of Martinique. There he meets and marries Celine, the divorced sister of the local police chief, Alphonse Charbonneau. Herb’s life amounts to very little, but in this marriage he at last finds happiness and a certain nobility. All around are people whose voices are louder, their actions ostentatious, but it is the quiet life of Herb La Fouche that ultimately triumphs.

This engagingly crafted novel, about the nobility of an ordinary life, is written with considerable substance and gravity. With characteristic charm and grace, The Love Story of Herb la Fouche is unashamedly feel-good with plenty of humour, tinged with poignancy.

Marshall feels the need to escape because things are so tough at home. Rory is just happy it’s the first day of the summer holidays. While out on their bikes they stumble across a long-forgotten underground bunker at the edge of the woods. This is the den, and going down inside will stretch their friendship to its limits. There will be rivalry and betrayal, but can wrecked relationships be saved before the summer has even begun?

The essential teenage guide to tackling anxiety, from award-winning well-being expert Nicola Morgan, author of the bestselling Blame My Brain

Anxiety is on many teenager’s minds – it’s the word they use most often when they talk about their mental health. Award-winning author and teenage brain expert Nicola Morgan is here to help, with this practical guide to help young people understand their anxiety and cope with the challenges of modern life. Based on the latest science, No Worries is packed with advice to help teenagers master the best tricks and hacks to stay firmly in control of worries and embrace calm. From understanding how anxiety works, to building strategies to calm the body and mind, this essential guide equips young people with the tools to tackle their worries and live brilliantly.

?Horror opened me up to new possibilities for survival ? I saw power in freakery and transgression and wondered if it could be mine.?The relationship between horror films and the LGBTQ+ community? It?s complicated. Haunted houses, forbidden desires and the monstrous can have striking resonance for those who?ve been marginalised. But the genre?s murky history of an alarmingly heterosexual male gaze, queer-coded villains and sometimes blatant homophobia, is impossible to overlook. There is tension here, and there are as many queer readings of horror films as there are queer people.Edited by Joe Vallese, and with contributions by writers including Kirsty Logan and Carmen Maria Machado, the essays in It Came from the Closet bring the particulars of the writers? own experiences, whether in relation to gender, sexuality, or both, to their unique interpretations of horror films from Jaws to Jennifer?s Body.Exploring a multitude of queer experiences from first kisses and coming out to transition and parenthood, this is a varied and accessible collection that leans into the fun of horror while taking its cultural impact and reciprocal relationship to the LGBTQ+ community seriously.

If Ruth had stayed on leave, none of it might have happened. An astronomer working at the Maurice Frazer Observatory, Ruth Russell is enjoying her time in Rome.

That is until Charles Digham, top fashion photographer and Ruth’s lover, has his camera stolen and the thief ends up a headless corpse in the zoo park toletta. The enigmatic Johnson Johnson, in Rome to paint a portrait of the Pope, is on hand to unravel the mystery.

But as Johnson and Ruth begin the search for clues it soon becomes clear that more is at stake than the secrets of a couture house ? something far more deadly.

Iona Lee’s debut collection charts the journey of the writer, artist and performer into adulthood. Written in a unique voice, Iona playfully toys with thematic devices in this entertaining exploration of art and artifice, absence and impermanence, truth and tale telling. Characterised by a deep love of language, its music and its magic, these poems reflect on memory, the future and other hauntings. Wittily observed, this collection is an attempt to connect the stars into tidy constellations, and to join the tiny, inchoate dots of self into something traceable and translatable.

Humorous and self-aware, gentle and philosophical, Anamnesis is written in the knowledge that in telling one’s life-story, one creates it.

Be that guy … the one who steps us, speaks out and creates positive change

Have you ever been in a room where there’s a loud guy making inappropriate comments, cracking jokes that only he thinks are funny, or leering at the girls in the room? You can feel it in the room, right? That guy, is causing a lot of tension and giving lads everywhere a bad name.

This is an audiobook about how not to be that guy. It’s an audiobook about getting comfortable calling out bad behaviour. And it’s an audiobook that will help you feel confident navigating the modern minefield of relationships and interacting with girls, while being the guy that makes girls feel safe, heard, and respected. Because that’s the guy everyone needs right now.

From flirting with disaster and staying in the friend zone, to porn, locker-room talk, consent and inappropriate behaviour, this is a non-accusatory handbook for young men who are fed up of that guy, and who want to be The Good Guy – the one that everyone wants to have around.(P) 2023 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Marshall feels the need to escape because things are so tough at home. Rory is just happy it?s the first day of the summer holidays. While out on their bikes they stumble across a long-forgotten underground bunker at the edge of the woods. This is the den, and going down inside will stretch their friendship to its limits. There will be rivalry and betrayal, but can wrecked relationships be saved before the summer has even begun?

‘Hungry Beat is the story of an all-too-brief era where the short-circuiting of that industry seemed viable. But hell, the times were luminous as was the music these artists made. The songs and many of the players remain, and here they tell their story and lick their wounds’ Ian Rankin

The immense cultural contribution made by two maverick Scottish independent music labels, Fast Product and Postcard, cannot be underestimated. Bob Last and Hilary Morrison in Edinburgh, followed by Alan Horne and Edwyn Collins in Glasgow helped to create a confidence in being Scottish that hitherto had not existed in pop music (or the arts in general in Scotland). Their fierce independent spirit stamped a mark of quality and intelligence on everything they achieved, as did their role in the emergence of regional independent labels and cultural agitators, such as Rough Trade, Factory and Zoo.

Hungry Beat is a definitive oral history of these labels and the Scottish post-punk period. Covering the period 1977-1984, the book begins with the Subway Sect and the Slits performance on the White Riot tour in Edinburgh and takes us through to Bob Last shepherding the Human League from experimental electronic artists on Fast Product to their triumphant number one single in the UK and USA, Don’t You Want Me. Largely built on interviews for Grant McPhee’s Big Gold Dream film with Last, Hilary Morrison, Paul Morley and members of The Human League, Scars, The Mekons, Fire Engines, Josef K, Aztec Camera, The Go-Betweens and The Bluebells, Hungry Beat offers a comprehensive overview of one of the most important periods of Scottish cultural output and the two labels that changed the landscape of British music.

‘Lin Anderson is one of Scotland’s national treasures’ Stuart MacBride’

Forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod has become one of the most satisfying characters in modern crime fiction’ Daily Mail

A remote shoreline. A lethal killer. As lone visitors disappear from the rural northwest of Scotland, campsites are becoming crime scenes. The Wild Coast is a chilling thriller from Lin Anderson.

When forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod is brought in to analyse a shallow grave on Scotland’s west coast, she is disturbed by a bundle of twigs crafted into a stickman and left in the victim?s mouth.

Then, when a young woman is reported missing from a nearby campsite with another sinister figurine left in her van, it seems that someone is targeting wild campers. An idyllic coastline known for providing peace and serenity, now the area is a hunting ground.

As her investigation proceeds, Rhona is forced to reconsider her closest bonds. Rumours of sexual assault offences by serving police officers are circling in Glasgow, which may include her trusted colleague DS Michael McNab. Could it be true, or is someone looking to put him out of action?

All the while a young woman’s life is on the line and the clock is ticking . . .

‘Lin Anderson is one of Scotland?s national treasures’ Stuart MacBride’Forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod has become one of the most satisfying characters in modern crime fiction’ Daily MailA remote shoreline. A lethal killer. As lone visitors disappear from the rural northwest of Scotland, campsites are becoming crime scenes. The Wild Coast is a chilling thriller from Lin Anderson.When forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod is brought in to analyse a shallow grave on Scotland?s west coast, she is disturbed by a bundle of twigs crafted into a stickman and left in the victim?s mouth.Then, when a young woman is reported missing from a nearby campsite with another sinister figurine left in her van, it seems that someone is targeting wild campers. An idyllic coastline known for providing peace and serenity, now the area is a hunting ground.As her investigation proceeds, Rhona is forced to reconsider her closest bonds. Rumours of sexual assault offences by serving police officers are circling in Glasgow, which may include her trusted colleague DS Michael McNab. Could it be true, or is someone looking to put him out of action?All the while a young woman?s life is on the line and the clock is ticking . . .

‘When I was a child in Scotland, I was fond of everything that was wild, and all my life I’ve been growing fonder and fonder of wild places and wild creatures.’

John Muir was eleven when he and his family left Scotland in 1849 to build a new life on a homestead in the vast wilderness of Wisconsin. Written in simple yet beautiful prose, we see Muir’s delight as he discovers and observes the landscape and wildlife around him, as he recalls his childhood and reveals himself as a master of natural description.

Acclaimed historian Alistair Moffat sets off in the footsteps of the Highland clans. In thirteen journeys he explores places of conflict, recreating as he walks the tumult of battle. As he recounts the military prowess of the clans – surely the most feared fighting men in western Europe – he also speaks of their lives, their language and culture before it was all swept away. The disaster at Culloden in 1746 represented not just the defeat of the Jacobite dream but also the unleashing of merciless retribution from the British government which dealt the Highland clans a blow from which they would never recover.

From the colonisers who attempted to “civilise” the islanders of Lewis in the sixteenth century through the great battles of the eighteenth century – Killiekrankie, Dunkeld, Sheriffmuir, Falkirk and Culloden – this is a unique exploration of many of the places and events which define a country’s history.

Edinburgh was founded as a royal burgh by David I in the early twelfth century, though there had been a settlement on what became Castle Rock for centuries before that. King David is also thought to be responsible for the city’s oldest building, a chapel built in honour of his mother, Queen Margaret, who was later declared a saint.

Churches of Edinburgh looks at the city’s churches, from this earliest surviving example to the award-winning Chapel of Saint Albert the Great, which opened some 900 years later. It tells their stories, discusses their architecture and points out their notable features, as well as outlining the important part that some of Edinburgh’s churches have played in major events in Scottish history such as the Reformation or the National Covenant.

The churches featured include, among many others, the ruined thirteenth-century abbey that was once a meeting place for the Scottish Parliament, the church that retains a seat for Queen Victoria and the one that has its own canal boat. There is also the story of the fifteenth-century church that was demolished in 1848 but was later partially rebuilt elsewhere, and that of the important artworks that lie hidden beneath the paintwork of another city church.

This fascinating picture of an important part of the history of Edinburgh over the centuries will be of interest to all those who live in or are visiting Scotland’s capital city.