Reviews

There really is no stopping Alexander McCall Smith, with the release of his latest novel, The Joy and Light Bus Company. This is the 22nd installment in the internationally beloved No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series is equally as brilliant as the previous editions. Mma Ramotswe is wary of her husband’s potential business venture and is…

The Survival of the Crown is hefty tome that is definitely one for the history scholar, rather than the casual reader. This is volume two, and the concluding part of Stedall’s heavily researched history of Mary, Queen of Scots, offering a detailed contribution to our understanding of this most significant period in the history of…

You are not alone in wondering how one goes about filtering through a million years to form an articulate narrative. Yet Neil Oliver achieves this incredibly succinctly and with rare wit. Travelling through space and time on a whistlestop tour of the world, Oliver offers a tangible array of moments which give an invaluable and…

The Lindsays of Balcarres spans a century of photographs from an ancient Scottish family. The book began with the rediscovery of some old dusty photograph albums one wet afternoon at the home of the author’s late father in Fife. The photographs, which begin at the birth of photography in the 1840s, unravel a family narrative…

Esteemed writer Alexander McCall Smith brings us a new and exciting enigma. Set in the unusual location of Ceylon just before WWII, it follows the story of a ‘pavilion in the clouds’ – the place where a confrontation between suspicious governess Miss White, and protagonist Bella’s parents leads to a gunshot being fired. Years later,…