THE BEST OF SCOTTISH BOOKS

It’s never too late to follow your dreams…

Twenty years ago, Abigail Patterson put her promising tennis career on hold to have her baby son, Robbie. But after a wild card entry to Wimbledon, she suddenly finds herself swept up in a world she thought she’d left behind – and against all odds, she’s winning!

Yet as those long-buried dreams of lifting the sparkling silver trophy on centre court inch closer, Abi knows that it’s only a matter of time before the press start digging into her past and uncover the secret she’s kept hidden for so long.

The stakes are raised, but this time nothing – and no one – is going to stand in her way. But could the greatest comeback of all time destroy everything she’s sacrificed to protect?

From the presenter of BBC One’s Scotland from the Sky

You scramble up over the dunes of an isolated beach. You climb to the summit of a lonely hill. You pick your way through the eerie hush of a forest. And then you find them. The traces of the past. Perhaps they are marked by a tiny symbol on your map, perhaps not. There are no plaques to explain their fading presence before you, nothing to account for what they once were – who made them, lived in them or abandoned them. Now they are merged with the landscape. They are being reclaimed by nature. They are wild history.

In this book acclaimed author and presenter James Crawford introduces many such places all over the country, from the ruins of prehistoric forts and ancient, arcane burial sites, to abandoned bothies and boathouses, and the derelict traces of old, faded industry.

Iona Abbey Kitchen, run by two cooks and powered by volunteers, provides nourishing food for the Iona Community’s weekly guests.

It aims to serve tasty, colourful, healthy, mainly vegetarian meals, many of which are reflected in this cookbook where Anja Jardine, Abbey Cook for over 17 years, has collected people’s favourites. Easy to cook at home, these recipes won’t just fill a hole in your stomach, but will also nourish your soul. Includes (often with vegan, gluten-free and dairy-free alternatives) soups, salads, numerous vegetarian main courses, fish and seafood, meat, sandwich spreads, bread, sweet treats, drinks and – as many Abbey guests will affirm – the best porridge ever.

In this book Anja draws on her own childhood on the other side of the Iron Curtain, to remind us that food should never be taken for granted.

In Britain now, an increasing number of people are living in poverty – with poor housing, low income, unaffordable fuel bills and more and more families going hungry.

The cheapest food on offer in the supermarkets is often the least nutritious.

But who can blame those who buy it? So, living with austerity that’s the result of government policies, one reaction is rage at unfairness – but another (which you will find here) is a celebration of simple nutritious food which is affordable.

Born into a family of successful pilots, Morag is used to flying high. But when a tragic accident above the clouds grounds her, could the future she’d always imagined be suddenly out of reach?

When she receives a call telling her that her beloved grandfather has been taken ill, Morag leaves her fast-paced life in London to return home to the tranquil Scottish Highlands. With her grandfather out of action, Morag has no choice but to take over flying the local route in his rickety old plane, ferrying locals across the beautiful islands of the archipelago.

But as the weather takes a dramatic turn, Morag is forced to crash-land on a remote island and suddenly finds herself far from civilisation and all alone. Then she discovers Gregor, the gruff and reclusive ornithologist taking care of the island for the season. Though the pair don’t see eye to eye, Morag is forced to seek shelter at his cabin and it seems the pair are stuck together until help arrives. However long that may be . . .

As she awaits rescue, might Morag discover that a remote Scottish island, cut off from real-life, is exactly the place she needs to be?

Liturgical and practical resources from Iona Community members, friends and others designed to create more awareness and understanding about mental health.

‘I have never known anyone who hasn’t experienced a mental health problem at one time or another. So to me this book is simply about being human. There are worship resources for services on mental health here, but I think a lot of the resources could, should be used in any worship service. And I hope some of it – the beautiful gutsy poems and powerful reflections – is used well beyond church. Much of it comes from the edge anyway …’
From the Introduction

Redeeming Our Cracks is a book about seeing beauty in brokenness and strength in vulnerability. 

You come,
walking among
the brittle fragments
of our broken lives,
gathering up every sharp shard,
to fashion
a new and beautiful
mosaic.

Kellan MacInnes really wants to get away. Newly divorced, HIV positive, flat broke and with a house full of Airbnb guests driving him crazy, he badly needs to find himself again. Inspired by the little known poet and pioneer of wild swimming Brenda G. Macrow, who quit London for the Scottish Highlands in the summer of 1946, Kellan takes the night train north. Accompanied only by a cantankerous and flatulent Labradoodle, Kellan follows in Macrow’s footsteps and sets off in search of the hill lochs of Kintail. Hoping to find his ‘single self’ again on the way, he plans to wild swim all 28 hill lochs within the boundary of the Parish of Kintail. Only being Scotland, half the time it’s too cold to swim, even in July, so he just washes his face or has a paddle!

The book is multi-faceted and there are many different layers to the story. As Kellan tackles the challenge of wild swimming – or at least wild paddling – the hill lochs of Kintail, he recalls scenes from the disintegration of his marriage, some funny, some poignant, some shocking.

Meanwhile a parallel narrative about Macrow’s summer in Scotland in 1946 is told in flashbacks from ‘Kintail Scrapbook’, the book Macrow wrote about her time in Kintail.

The Wild Swimmer of Kintail also contains practical information for those wishing to take on the challenge of wild swimming the 28 high-altitude hill lochs of Kintail.

Far more than a mere travelogue, much more than simply nature writing, The Wild Swimmer of Kintail tells the story of the end of a gay relationship as well as being a deeply perceptive account of what it is like being a writer. Laugh out loud in some places, painfully honest in others, The Wild Swimmer of Kintail is a life-affirming tale about the healing power of wild swimming.

With his dying breath, Hamlet asks Horatio to tell his true story. Chris Rush has taken up the narrative where Shakespeare bids it farewell.

A dark and sometimes humorous reworking of the Bard’s most famous play. one by one the characters who live in the Prince of Denmark’s world, give a very different take on the events centring on Elsinore.

With refreshing originality, Christopher Rush breaks down the barriers between history, drama and psychology to present the reader with a richly complex inner world, which takes us from the disintegrating reality inside Hamlet’s head to the rebellious turbulence underlying Ophelia’s demure surface.

If you thought you understood Hamlet before, think again.

12 decades, 9 lives, 1 cat

Early morning, 1902. In a gloomy Edinburgh tenement, Eilidh the charlady tips coal into a fire grate and sets it alight. Overhearing, a cat ambles over to curl up against the welcome heat.

This is to be the cat’s last day on earth. But he is going to return… as The Ghost Cat, a spirit-feline destined to live out his ghostly existence according to the medieval proverb of “The Cat with Nine Lives” – For Three He Plays, For Three He Strays, For Three He Stays.

Follow The Ghost Cat as he witnesses the changes of the next two centuries as he purrs, shuffles and sniffs his way through the fashion, politics and technological advances of the modern era alongside the ever-changing inhabitants of an Edinburgh tenement. As we follow our new spirit-feline friend, this unique story unearths some startling revelations about the mystery of existence and the human condition and provides a feel-good read full of charm for any fan of history, humour and fur-ridden fun.

In her first Carcanet collection, Lesley Harrison looks north to the sea, the heat of the land at her back. In inventive arrangements of sound and page, Harrison meditates on whale hunts, lost children, cities seen and remembered, and the sound of the gamelan in the Gulf of Bothnia.

Everyone’s favourite Wee Granny is back with her magic bag, and Emily and Harry are desperate to see what she’s got inside it today.

It’s the day of the school ceilidh, and they have to pick up last-minute supplies before the celebrations and dancing can begin. But things don’t go smoothly — they miss their bus and then a flood closes the road. Does Wee Granny have something in her magic bag to save the day?

This brilliant follow-up to the hugely popular Wee Granny’s Magic Bag, starring a tartan Mary Poppins, offers a wonderful mix of colourful illustrations and an engaging story with surprises on every page!

Being paid to explore sounded like a dream job.

From Norway to Madagascar, by campervan, taxi, boat and small plane, Amelia Dalton hunted down remote archipelagos, deserted beaches and tiny local museums to create expedition holidays with a difference. On the way she was abandoned on an unpopulated island and escaped a hotel fire – and worse.

Pages from my Passport is a memoir of adventures, disasters and occasional triumphs, all infused with Amelia’s unquenchable enthusiasm.

Mary is the great-niece of Victor Frankenstein. She knows her great uncle disappeared in mysterious circumstances in the Arctic but she doesn’t know why or how…

The 1850s is a time of discovery and London is ablaze with the latest scientific theories and debates, especially when a spectacular new exhibition of dinosaur sculptures opens at the Crystal Palace. Mary, with a sharp mind and a sharper tongue, is keen to make her name in this world of science, alongside her geologist husband Henry, but without wealth and connections, their options are limited.

But when Mary discovers some old family papers that allude to the shocking truth behind her great-uncle’s past, she thinks she may have found the key to securing their future… Their quest takes them to the wilds of Scotland, to Henry’s intriguing but reclusive sister Maisie, and to a deadly chase with a rival who is out to steal their secret…

Benny and his robot friends are back with a fantastic new adventure in this third book in the award-winning One Button Benny picture book series – this time there is a very unhappy dinosaur to contend with.

It’s Friday and that means it’s party time in robot town. Benny and his friends decide they need a bit more “robot dancing” practice before the big night. They bounce and boogie, jump and twirl, then disaster strikes when they tumble into a huge sinkhole and come face to face with a large angry dinosaur, who is not happy about being woken up.

Will Benny have to press his “Emergency Button”? Can they escape being crushed and eaten by the dinosaur? Will they make it back in time for the party?

With beautiful retro-style illustrations by award-winning illustrator Chloe Holwill-Hunter, this is a story about friendship, working together, coping with problems and the uniqueness of us all as individuals.

From acclaimed poet Nadine Aisha Jassat comes a gripping mystery… “Grandma Farida is losing her memory – but I’m going to help her remember a huge secret.”

Twelve-year-old Nyla’s dad died when she was four, or that’s what she’s been told. So when Grandma Farida insists she saw him in the supermarket, Nyla wonders if she is ‘time-travelling’ again – the phrase she uses when Grandma forgets.

But when Grandma asks Nyla to find her dad and bring him home, Nyla promises that she will.

As Nyla sets out on her journey, she hopes that uncovering the past will help her to understand the mystery at the heart of her family … and to work out who she is.

A page-turning verse novel about memory and identity, and a bond that soars above all else.

Ellis’s life has crumbled without warning. Her boyfriend has fallen in love with someone else, her job’s insecure, her bank account’s empty and she has a mouthful of unreliable teeth. Forced back to her childhood home, there is little in the way of comfort. Her mum is dating a younger man (a dentist, no less) and is talking of selling the house, her sister, Lana, is furious all the time, and a distant cousin has now arrived from the States to stay with them.

During a long, hot Edinburgh summer, Ellis’s world spins out of control. She’s dogged by toothache, her ex won’t compensate her for the flat and somehow she’s found herself stalking his new lover on Facebook.

Will Ellis realise before it’s too late that the bite she was born with is worth preserving?

Jamesina Ross is long finished with men. But one night a stranger seeking lodgings knocks on the door of her tenement flat. He doesn’t recognise her, but she remembers him at once. Not that she plans to mention it. She has no intention of trusting anyone enough to let herself be vulnerable again.

A lifetime ago Jamesina Ross was bent on becoming a writer. She had a facility with words. She made up songs about the Highland glen where she lived and the kin who had worked that land for generations. When her community was threatened with eviction, she gave voice to that too. The women stood together, defiant and determined, but Jamesina’s music was no match for one of the most brutal confrontations of the Highland Clearances.

Jamesina has borne the disfigurements of that day ever since, on her face and inside her head. It marked the end of a life of promise and the beginning of a very different one. Her lodger thinks that if she would only dare to open the past, she might have the chance of a future.

A beautiful exploration of unlooked-for love in later life, its contrariness and its awkward, surprising joys, this is a story about resilience, memory, resurrection – and those parts of who we are that nobody can take away.

In an island community facing extinction, can hope rise stronger than grief?

Sisi de Mathilde lives on a remote island in the Indian Ocean. With the seas rising, the birth rate plummeting and her community under threat, she works as a scientist, reporting on local climate conditions to help protect her island home. But her life is thrown into turmoil when she finds herself newly widowed and unexpectedly pregnant.

When a group of outsiders arrive and try to persuade her community to abandon the island, Sisi is caught between the sacred ‘old ways’ of her ancestors and the possibilities offered by the outside world. As tensions rise and the islanders turn on one another, Sisi must fight to save her home, her people and her unborn child.

Churches are all around us. Their steeples remain landmarks in our towns, villages and cities, even as their influence and authority has waned. They contain art and architectural wonders – one huge gallery scattered, like a handful of jewels, across these isles.

Award-winning writer Peter Ross sets out to tell their stories, and through them a story of Britain. Join him as he visits the unassuming Norfolk church which contains a disturbing secret, and London’s mighty cathedrals with their histories of fire and love. Meet cats and bats, monks and druids, angels of oak and steel. Steeple Chasing, though it sometimes strikes an elegiac note, is a song of praise. It celebrates churches for their beauty and meaning, and for the tales they tell. It is about people as much as place, flesh and bone not just flint and stone. From the painted hells of Surrey to the holy wells of Wales, consider this a travel book . . .with bells on.

 

A MISSING PERSON MYSTERY LIKE NO OTHER

 

I am not gone. Mum is not gone. We are here. We are hidden.

A father who is trying to rescue his lost wife.

Their child, desperately searching the wild forests and dangerous mountains of the Scottish Highlands, not knowing what’s out there.

An abandoned cottage in the remote wilderness, filled with thousands of confusing, terrifying handwritten notes.

And a dark, looming voice who threatens to destroy everything…

In Another Word for Home is Blackbird, Catherine Wilson Garry examines the nature of solace and escapism from grief and loss. Through retracing her personal losses, people-watching, magpies and olive oil offer small moments of transformational joy. Objects and belongings are also given a poetic power: binoculars, shoes, books and flowers help bring the deceased back to life – both in memory and on the page. Wilson Garry explores grief and loss on a wider, political scale, including examinations of climate change, industrial action, isolation – advocating for a world where happiness thrives.