Meeting Robert Louis Stevenson is in the timing

Featuring in his third book, Tom Afflick is Philip Caveney’s time-travelling adventurer and this time he meets famous author Robert Louis Stevenson. Can Tom persuade him to publish Treasure Island or will the Plague Doctor succeed in thwarting him? Caveney has succeeded in telling Tom’s most dangerous story yet and readers will be on the…

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Writer Ian Rankin joins the Super Power Agency

ebus author Ian Rankin shared some of his love of literacy with a group of Scots schoolchildren yesterday. He was supporting the Super Power Agency, which has been helping schools across Edinburgh since 2016, with projects designed to boost reading and writing skills and encourage creativity. Ian Rankin was the first of the writers to…

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Celebrating the nation’s micro-distilleries

Distillation is a sort of magic that involves taking humble grains and turning them into wonderfully intoxicating spirits. Industrialisation has sucked the magic from the trade but the micro-distiller exists to keep the dream alive. This book explores 75 artisan micro-distilleries – their history, where you can buy their produce and, most importantly, what it…

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Celebrating the Gaelic experience

A forgotten and marginalised culture, the Gaelic experience is exposed as it was, is and all it might be. Written in both English and Gaelic, Shore to Shore, is an anthology of Gaelic raps, secular poems and aphorisms artistically and vividly bringing the Gaelic world to life. Descendants of Gaels now reside in every corner…

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A historical novel that’s so intense it feels real

Rosemary Goring’s powerful sequel to her critically acclaimed debut After Flodden is set in the tumultuous borderlands of Scotland and England. Dacre’s War is a story of personal and political vengeance at the heart of the power struggle. It has been a decade since the battle at Flodden and the unrest is rife in the…

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A handy guide to Scotland’s monsters and creatures

From unicorns and dragons to the Ghillie Dhu and Morag of Morhobhar, The Book of Beasties: A Scottish Bestiary of Old is a beautifully illustrated gift book certain to inspire innocently belief-filled questions from children. Posing as the long-lost sketchbook of The Great Clan Chief seems inauthentic but despite this the book maintains a certain…

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When gambling debts lead to a kidnapping

Middle-class parents Victoria and Nicholas Foulkes are distraught when their children are kidnapped against Nicholas’ gambling debts. Penniless and desperate, the couple turn to crime as a way to raise the ransom. Can they save their children before time runs out? New talent Smith delivers a fast-paced page turner in this brilliant and believable debut…

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One of Scotland’s oldest books to go on show

One of the first ever works to be printed in Scotland will go on display at the National Library of Scotland at Kelvin Hall on St Andrew’s Day (Saturday 30 November). This copy of the Aberdeen Breviary will be returning to Glasgow for the first time since it was used by Nicholas Ferguson and other…

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The Scots who hunted for seabirds to eat

At one stage the sea-bird was commonplace on the Scottish dinner plate; from the puffin to the cormorant. Every year, ten men from Ness on the northern tip of Lewis sail the perilous voyage to Sula Sgeir, and for a fortnight they live and hunt baby gannets on this remote rock. Murray tells their story,…

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New book marks the Cairngorms National Park

A year of inspirational writing about life and nature in the Cairngorms National Park has been captured in a new book, which is being launched today (Thursday 21 November). Shared Stories – A Year in the Cairngorms is an anthology exploring how people and nature thrive together. The works have been compiled by the Cairngorms…

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