This extraordinary novel charts the thrilling progress of one of the greatest but least-known journeys of exploration.

Football Haiku contains over 100 three-line poems from a wide variety of contributors which have been printed on T-shirts.

A Polygon newcomer, Sam Meekings presents thoughtful, light and earthy poetry. Each poem a fleeting moment that demands a long pause of reflection and moves off once again leaving a pensive smile.

Labanotation is a wonderful idea: take the greatest World Cup goal ever, the infamous Archie Gemmill goal from the 1978 Scotland v. Netherlands game, and transform it into dance.

A short story collection, capturing the lives of council estate dopeheads, single parents, awkward young men and lonely old women.

Today Tomorrow is a celebration of the life and work of poet George Bruce, bringing together all the poems from previous collections, uncollected poems previous to Sea Talk (1944) and uncollected poems after the publication of Pursuit:
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'From its blood-stained opening, the latest chapter in the tumultuous life of DS Alice Rice proves a compelling read,' - Scottish Field

A new thrilling novel carefully laiden with mystery, deception and murder in which Alice Rice finds herself hunting a killer.

A powerful novel set in the twelfth century that explores universal questions aligned with the concepts of guilt, goodness and personal sacrifice.

Wish I Was Here represents the diversity of languages, dialects and cultures in contemporary Scotland.

Valerie Gillies' vibrant new collection takes us on a journey across Scotland, exploring the inhabited landscape and the wild places.

The second in a new series of McLevy books, Fall from Grace revolves around the terrible Tay Bridge disaster.

Has Pearce finally found his match? A time-served Edinburgh hard man, Pearce is still recovering from the recent loss of his mother in a stabbing incident in a post office robbery. He’s invited by the dysfunctional Baxter family to protect their pregnant 16-year-old daughter from Wallace, her 26-year-old husband, a man with a penchant for killing family pets.

Writing Scotland is a major eight-part television series, made by Hopscotch Films, written and presented by Carl MacDougall and scheduled to be broadcast on BBC2 Scotland and BBC4 in 2004.

Has Pearce finally found his match? A time-served Edinburgh hard man, Pearce is still recovering from the recent loss of his mother in a stabbing incident in a post office robbery. He’s invited by the dysfunctional Baxter family to protect their pregnant 16-year-old daughter from Wallace, her 26-year-old husband, a man with a penchant for killing family pets.

The second in a new series of McLevy books, Fall from Grace, revolves around the terrible Tay Bridge Disaster.

A firebomb attack at a Plummer property thrusts Innes into the spotlight as he saves a child from the burning building. But when Plummer enlists his help to track down the arsonists, Innes finds himself dealing with more than the ENS and his rapidly overwhelming codeine addiction. Manchester needs a hero and Callum Innes is the closest it has.

The Curewife is the winner of the Dundee Book Prize 2002 and is the story of Grissel Jaffray, the last woman to be burnt as a witch in Dundee.

Hamish Henderson was one of the most significant figures in the cultural life of Scotland during the twentieth century; a man of extraordinary intellectual versatility and a committed humanitarian.

Justified Sinners is an archaeology of counter-culture in Scotland 1960-2000, featuring poetry, prose, polemic, letters, documents and fragments, from the Holy Loch and Project Sigma to the Demarco Gallery, Beltane and K Foundation.

A collection of Ian Stephen's short stories with recipe-poems and children's drawings, Mackerel & Creamola is a rich portrayal of contemporary life in the Hebrides, drawing on the author's deep knowledge of sea lore.

Specially commissioned stories from some of our country’s best contemporary writers and startling new voices.

A Pulitzer Prize-winning Civil War novel set in the third summer of the war. Robert Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia slips across the Potomac to begin the invasion of the North.

Alastair Reid is one of Scotland’s foremost literary figures but his work is currently out of print in the UK. The bulk of his prose has long been unavailable, so this wide-ranging new collection of prose will present a fresh and comprehensive overview of his achievements, and will appeal to existing fans and new readers.

With an introduction by Andrew O'Hagan.

The bulk of Alastair Reid's poetry has long been unavailable, so this wide-ranging new collection of poetry, translations and thoughts on the art of translation will present a fresh and comprehensive overview of his achievements and will appeal to existing fans and new readers.

With an introduction by Douglas Dunn.

The rivalry of two cousins results in treachery, betrayal and a desperate struggle for survival. With an introduction by Tam Dalyell.

Regarded by many critics as one of the finest historical novels ever written, Midwinter tells the tale of Alastair Maclean, confidant of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, who embarks on a secret mission to raise support for the Jacobite cause in the west of England. With an introduction by Stuart Kelly.

Buchan’s favourite of all his novels, Witch Wood deals with the hypocrisy that can lie beneath god-fearing respectability. The book is set in the terrifying times of the first half of the seventeenth century when the Church of Scotland unleashed a wave of cruelty and intolerance. Minister Sempill witnesses devil worship in the ’Witch Wood’ and is persecuted. With an introduction by Allan Massie.

Buchan skilfully weaves the story of young clerk Peter Pentecost, who has a claim to the throne, and a tale of intrigue against King Henry VIII, where ’under the blanket of the dark all men are alike and all are nameless’. With an introduction by Robert Hutchinson.

This is the first edition of Allan Guthrie's debut novel which won The Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award in 2007.

A stunning historical novel, as engaging as it is meticulously researched, that will appeal to fans of James Robertson, Magnus Mills and Hilary Mantel.

Set among the tenements and bedsits of Glasgow, James Kelman’s first collection of short stories shine a light on the exploits of young and old.

This collection, written with irony and great tenderness, confirmed James Kelman’s status as one of the most significant writers in the UK, and remains as powerful, relevant and truthful as it was in the early 1980s.

James Kelman provides a brilliantly executed, uncompromising slice of Glasgow life – an intelligent, funny and humane novel. First published by Polygon in 1984.    

It’s criminal up north ... Cal Innes is fresh out of Strangeways, playing PI and running from a past muddied with ties to local gang lord ‘Uncle’ Morris Tiernan. When Tiernan tells him to track down a rogue casino dealer ...

With the barbed-wire leash of parole freshly clipped from his throat and his Private Investigation business an unpleasant memory, Cal Innes is looking forward to continuing his job as caretaker at Paulo’s Lads’ Club. But a prodigal boxer, Liam, needs someone to go with him to his first major amateur tournament in Los Angeles. That someone is Cal . . .

Failed PI businessman, Cal Innes, babysits prodigal amateur boxer, Liam, on his first major tournament in Los Angeles. It soon turns into something more sinister, as rumours of a rigged competition fly around. As Cal’s codeine habit and Liam’s temper grow out of control, the City of Angels doesn’t seem quite so heavenly.

This novel is a light interlude within the Leithen Stories series – an evocative look at the hunting, shooting and fishing lifestyle in Highland Scotland.

The second exciting installment of Nury Vittachi’s ’The Feng Shui Detective Novel’ Series!

Nury Vittachi’s debut Polygon novel. Primarily set in Hong Kong, this highly enjoyable read delves into the mysterious underworld of vegan terrorism that only a Feng Shui master can resolve.

The complete life work of Agnes Owens in short stories - everything from Gentlemen of the West, Lean Tales, People Like That and 14 brand new unpublished stories.

When people in Edinburgh need to borrow money, they go to Cooper. When they don’t pay it back, they get a visit from Joe Hope.

It’s criminal up north . . .  Cal Innes is fresh out of Strangeways, playing PI and running from a past muddied with ties to local gang lord ‘Uncle’ Morris Tiernan . . .

Polygon relaunches James Kelman’s backlist with four classic titles – Not Not While The Giro, The Busconductor Hines, A Chancer and his very first short story collection, An Old Pub Near The Angel in 2007. Each book features a new afterword in which the mature author reflects on his work and its development. 
    

A-format edition of the first novel from Allan Guthrie, one of crime fiction’s toughest new writers.    

The explosive follow-up to Two-Way Split.

Kenneth Buthlay’s edition of A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle is widely considered to be the best edition of all and provides extensive commentary and notes, taking the reader through MacDiarmid’s complex and often opaque use of language.

A thriller in the vein of Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose, this novel contains startling revelations that have been concealed for centuries, drawing on original papers discovered in the Vatican archives. First published to great controversy in Italy in 2002, Imprimatur was boycotted by the Italian press and publishing world. Despite this, the novel has gained European bestseller status.

This is the extraordinary story of Theoderic the Goth, a man who rose to the equal of Emperors, who raised his people to a pinnacle of power and wealth. It is a story that spans Europe, from the intrigues and wiles of Constantinople to the battlefields of the future France, from North Africa to the Balkans.

Gordon Legge's second novel, the hugely entertaining follow-up to In Between Talking About the Football.

The small seaside town of Lunderston is the setting for these thirteen entertaining tales from Robin Jenkins.

The newest and most talented of Scottish writers have plumbed their depths, creating a set of demons for a modern age. The range of visions and voices collected in this book – all investigating the heart of darkness, all written with a chilling skill – are enough to confirm Scotland as one of the most imaginative homes of world Gothic.

Karen MacKenzie’s tiny ambitions are knocked off-course when she finds herself in the arms of Charlie McGuigan, a man 26 years her senior who hasn’t had a date in a decade and who initiates her in the ways of hard drinking, heavy smoking and surreal hangovers.

Since its first publication in 2001 Boyracers has established itself as a contemporary Scottish cult classic. It is a totally fresh, savvy and supremely honest take on being young, naive and hopeful, and on the pains of living life at hyperspeed in a mad pop-culture world. It is fast, pacey, fun and witty, providing a caustic look at what has passed for culture in the last decade.

Winner of 2007 Dundee International Book Prize

As a child Arabella Cordon idolises her Father, but his enthusiasm is reserved for steam engines, motorcycles and Margaret Thatcher.

On the day Thatcher comes to power, Arabella’s life changes irrevocably. Alone and adrift in London, she takes a job as a striptease artist in Soho. She is determined to leave the past behind but her identity and survival seem inextricably linked to her childhood and the question of what a father is.

Classic style never goes out of fashion. Since Coco Chanel invented it in 1926, the little black dress has become every woman’s wardrobe staple. Fifteen women of varied backgrounds offer a colourful range of views on the little black dress, all tailored by Susie Maguire into a simply stunning and elegant collection.

The Pearl-fishers is a classic love story and the master storyteller’s last novel.

The first in the McLevy series, this is wonderfully evocative detective fiction, based in dark, violent, Victorian Edinburgh.

When factory owner Bernard Morton fires him from his first job, Harry Glass protests by impulsively going off with Morton’s car and the intriguing Mrs Morton.

Early fifth century, Europe, and two old friends, now bitter rivals, face each other on the battlefield. Attila, leader of the Huns, is confronted by Aetius, the last of the great Roman generals. In the epic battle that ensues, the stakes for Attila and Artius could not be higher as the fate of both their empires hangs in the balance.

Poverty Castle is an absorbing work of contrasts and subtle irony centred around an idealistic family in Argyll. A compelling novel, it deals with human nature and the socialism of industrial Glasgow.

Robin Jenkins returned to the Far East in the 1950s for Leila, a tender love story involving a Scottish teacher, Andrew Sandilands, and Leila, the exotically beautiful daughter of a local politician.

A moving and satisfying blend of tragedy and comedy, Blood Hunt, Gunn’s second last novel, has a powerful message – the triumph of love over anger and of the unending renewal of nature. It is a masterly novel by a writer in full maturity.

Featuring prosperous Scots lawyer and MP Sir Edward Leithen - often considered John Buchan's alter ego - The Power-House is a classic thriller!

Sick Heart River is both John Buchan’s most powerful novel and his last, with perhaps the most autobiographical of his characters.    

'The narrative drive of his thrillers is unsurpassed.' - Evening Standard

Brond is a high-octane page-turner, full of political intrigue, a tale of evil and exploitation in the nightmarish landscape of a Glasgow where nothing is as it seems. Lindsay’s writing is formidable and at its most thrilling and most unpredictable here.    

In Kidnapped (1886) and later fiction such as The Master of Ballantrae (1888), Stevenson examined some of the extreme and contrary currents of Scotland’s past, often projecting a dualism of both personality and belief. This dualism is most famous in Kidnapped, whose two central characters are David Balfour, a Lowland Whig, and Alan Breck Stewart, a Highland Jacobite.   

Limited to only 1,200 copies, this beautifully crafted book contains two-colour illustrations throughout and comes in a sumptuous hardback slip case taking McCall Smith’s best-selling novel to new heights of reading.

Numbered and signed by both the author and illustrator.

This book draws together an authoritative selection of all the writings needed to begin discovering the full story of Hamilton Finlay’s early work, his themes, preoccupations and vision of the philosophical transformed by the everyday.

In this, his first novel (1972), George MacKay Brown recreates a week in the life of an island community as they come to terms with the destructiveness of a sinister military/industrial project, Operation Black Star.

This collection of eleven stories demonstrates the full range of George MacKay Brown’s literary talent.

This gripping novel, first published in 1960, helped confirm Robin Jenkins as one of the most outstanding novelists of his generation. Set in Afghanistan, it was written shortly after his return from his two-year period in Kabul, and his experiences there add an unmistakeable ring of authenticity to his descriptions of this mysterious and remote country. Some Kind of Grace is a terrible warning of what outside interference can do to a country. Throughout the book Jenkins’ sympathy is with a people sacrificed on the altar of dogma and convenience by the great powers of East and West.

Jo Falla, the author of the critically acclaimed Blue Poppies, has followed up his earlier triumph with a brilliant new novel set in the shimmering deserts of western Sudan.

Thorfinn Ragnarson is the daydreaming son of a tenant farmer, avoiding both work and school despite the best efforts of family, friends and neighbours. Instead, the boy dreams up elaborate historical fantasies of himself as a Viking traveller, a freedom-fighter for Bonnie Prince Charlie and the colleague of a Falstaffian knight who participates in the Battle of Bannockburn.

A startingly original tragicomedy based around a fictional Tibeto-Jewish refugee community in London.

A truly original work of fiction that falls perfectly between Buddha Da by Anne Donovan and The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho – unconventional and inspiring.

This is Brian Hennigan’s debut novel and it has currently being adapted for film by director David Mackenzie.

This marvellous historical novel, based on an intimate knowledge of the historical background and a perceptive understanding of human nature, is wonderful to read as fiction, as adventure, and as a history of people in the grip of exploitation and oppression. It is undoubtedly a masterpiece from one of Scotland’s greatest writers.

An inspired study of human nature, The Missionaries charts a voyage of self-discovery for Andrew Doig, a university student who finds himself embroiled in a passionate debate over his defence of the inhabitants of St Sollas.  

Escalator is Michael Gardiner’s stunning fiction debut. Sparsely written and beautifully observed, these stories resist cliché and overstatement, and refuse to judge their subjects, presenting a compelling glimpse under the skin of an enigmatic country.

Told fully in Highland dialect, The Green Isle of the Great Deep is a both a wonderful Scottish parable and a warning of the dangers of power and its abuse.

The first in the McLevy series, this is wonderfully evocative detective fiction, based in dark, violent, Victorian Edinburgh.

A classically told adventure that brings fourteenth-century Italy vividly to life, this will appeal to fans of Bernard Cornwell and Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose.

A new thriller from a hugely popular crime writer that will grip and satisfy his many fans. My Life as a Man begins with a nation in the grip of anti-war fever, and ends with an old man’s discovery that life can still surprise him.

A Calendar of Love is George Mackay Brown’s first collection of short stories set in Orkney.

Three internationally bestselling authors write three interlinking stories focused on Edinburgh.

Mildred Kigali is quite certain. Charity Mupanga, widowed proprietor of Harrods International Bar (and Nightspot), believes her old friend. Mildred insists that after leading the impromptu conga, knitting-needles in her hands, at the end of the Kireba Sewing Circle’s monthly knees-up at Harrods, she had returned the needles to their usual place. And while she has to admit that the memory of someone born during East Africa’s Great Flood of 1932 might not be entirely reliable, she has no doubt that the two paw paws have also gone missing.        

A Scots Quair, is Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s most renowned work, and has become a landmark in Scottish literature.

Abdul Wahab, an Afghan science teacher, is eagerly anticipating the arrival of his British fiance, Laura Johnstone, in the capital of his home country. Having met while Abdul was a student at Manchester University, the couple are eager to settle down in Isban. However, Abdul is not the only one interested in Miss Johnstone’s arrival.

The Sardana Dancers is an intriguing and compassionate novel about the interweaving lives of a variety of characters who are caught up in a sort of sardana – a Catalan dance performed for pleasure and as a symbol of unity.

First published in 1946, The Drinking Well is part of a Polygon series of Neil M. Gunn republications. Iain Cattanach lives happily in a small tight-knit Highland village, but his self-sacrificing mother has other plans for him.

The Island of the Women is George Mackay Brown’s posthumously published collection of short stories, released in 1998, two years after the author’s death.

Butcher’s Broom is Neil Gunn’s epic recreation of the Highland Clearances of the nineteenth century, when great changes swept through the country and its people.

Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s classic adventure story offers a dreamlike vision of prehistoric life and opens up new vistas to the imagination. This is a classic science-fiction tale from the 1930s, with an introduction by Ian Campbell.

This new edition of Dream State has been completely revised, updated and expanded to take account of new work by the existing contributors and to usher in thrilling new talents.

A welcome reissue of a book that has reprinted 8 times and sold more than 20,000 copies.

The Colour of Black and White is Liz Lochhead’s first collection of poems for more than a dozen years, and, for her, the most important since the award-winning Dreaming Frankenstein and Collected Poems in 1984.

Welcome reissue of a book that has reprinted 5 times and sold more than 10,000 copies.

Ronald Frame’s deceptively gentle writing spins a taut web of desire, betrayal and loss as his characters play out their roles in the intimate and claustrophobic amphitheatre of Carnbeg.

Northern Lights presents George Mackay Brown’s writings on many of the places, people, legends and seasons that formed his vision and work.

From the great Scottish renaissance poet William Dunbar, Burns, Scott and Stevenson, to some of Scotland’s newest poetry by Robin Robertson and Stewart Conn, this book presents a choice of the finest poems about Edinburgh through the centuries. This selection includes some rare poems by forgotten masters, and includes well-loved writers like Spark, Crichton Smith and Norman MacCaig. 

Originally published in 2000 by Polygon to mark the 250th anniversary of Fergusson’s birth, this new edition contains all Fergusson’s finest poems in both Scots and English, and features a new introductory essay, revised orthography, a substantial section of notes and a glossary.        

Spare, compelling and beautifully constructed, Kenneth White's poetry lies at the heart of his work, and this book is the first collection to show the full sweep of his vision from his earliest work to the present day.

Robert Garioch was one of Scotland's most distinctive poetic voices. Born in Edinburgh in 1909, he was educated at the university there, and subsequently embarked on a teaching career, writing poetry in his free time.

Rhona Rauszer has had a long and varied life, but she has always been drawn back to her ancestral homeland, Skye, the setting of these stories.

Following on from the same author’s On Scottish Ground, this book shows Kenneth White on his tracks outside Scotland, before zooming in on his return.

How should we mark great occasions? With great words. Those seeking memorable words for their ceremonies of marriage or commitment, or simply want to take delight in an anthology of love poems, will find in this collection old favourites and brand new poems.

This selection of stories, poems and memoirs is a wonderful literary celebration of St Andrews, exploring the multiple facets of its life and history.

This is a selection of contemporary and classic Scottish poems on this subject, in Scots, English and Gaelic with appropriate translations and glossaries.

This restorative collection of Scottish poems will help readers and listeners to accept a loss and celebrate a life, whether at formal religious or secular ceremonies, or at quiet personal commemorative service.

Selected Work of Marion Angus celebrates the legacy of Marion Angus, (1865-1946) one of Scotland’s finest lyric poets.

A Time to Keep is George Mackay Brown’s second volume of short stories inspired by both ancient and modern life on the island of Orkney.

’Part of the trilogy, A Scots Quair, Sunset Song is a book about change, war, politics and, above all else, what it means to be Scottish.’ - Nicola Sturgeon, MSP

The Thistle is the unlucky local football team of Drumsagart, a drab industrial town in Lanarkshire. When the team’s luck begins to change, the whole town unites to support them.

Published to coincide with the quincentenary of Buchanan’s birth in 2006. Here, for the first time ever, Polygon presents a selection of Buchanan’s work, translated and accompanied by the work

Well-known names and talented new writers are all to be found in this volume of the very best entries to one of Britain’s biggest and most prestigious short story competitions – The Scotsman and Orange Short Story Award 2006.

Winter Tales is a superb collection of tender and compassionate tales, focussing on light and darkness, winter and its festivals, by one of the greatest story-tellers of the 20th century.

The Book of St Andrews juxtaposes poems, stories and memoirs with scant regard to chronological order, but in the confidence that each contribution, lively in its own right, may also enhance the others. Here are specially written stories by Meaghan Delahunt, A. L. Kennedy, and Sarah Hall; new poems by Seamus Heaney, Paul Muldoon, and Don Paterson; memoirs by Kay Redfield Jamison and Ian Rankin.

’Banks is the real thing,’ - Marcel Berlins, The Times

The biggest race riot in Manchester’s history and his brother’s death have left PI Callum Innes a physical and emotional wreck. He’s about to leave his newly established agency to partner Frank Collier when the word comes through that his erstwhile nemesis Mo Tiernan has gone missing.

"From its blood-stained opening, the latest chapter in the tumultuous life of DS Alice Rice proves a compelling read," - Scottish Field

When the body of a retired sheriff is discovered in his grand house in the New Town of Edinburgh, Detective Sergeant Alice Rice finds herself hunting his killer. This is linked with wind-farm developers - with millions of pounds at stake. When Alice thinks she's finally solved the mystery, the sheriff's wife is also killed - is it a double murder?

'The unpleasant, unlovely social underbelly of Edinburgh is seen in all its horror ... thoroughly recommended,' - Dorothy L. Sayers Society

Partly inspired by the real-life killings of prostitutes in Ipswich, this third Alice Rice mystery sees the detective in the hunt for a serial prostitue murderer and explores the hidden world where sex is bartered for money and drugs.

For a limited time these signed copies of Love Over Scotland, the third novel in Alexander McCall Smith's popular Scotland Street series, is available to buy exclusively through our website.

This is the extraordinary story of Theoderic the Goth, a man who rose to the equal of Emperors, who raised his people to a pinnacle of power and wealth. It is a story that spans Europe, from the intrigues and wiles of Constantinople to the battlefields of the future France, from North Africa to the Balkans.

A historical crime novel set in sixteenth century St Andrews involving the academic cloister and the Protestant church.

South Africa, 1900. After his father dies, nineteen-year-old David Crawfurd is sent off to South Africa to earn his living as a storekeeper in the back of beyond. A strange encounter on the journey suggests that dark deeds and treacherous intrigues are afoot - all bound up with the mysterious primeval kingdom of Prester John.

When Anthony Lammas, minister of the Kirk and Professor of Logic at St Andrews University, leaves his home town for London on business, he little imagines that within two days he will be deeply entangled in a web of mystery and intrigue.

Features stories including 'A Working Mother', 'For the Love of Willie Owens', 'Bad Attitudes' and 'Jen's Party'.

Partly inspired by the real-life killings of prostitutes in Ipswich, Gillian Galbraith’s third novel explores a hidden world where sex is bartered for money and drugs.

'The unpleasant, unlovely underbelly of Edinburgh is seen in all its horror ... thoroughly recommended,' - Dorothy L. Sayers Society

Alice Rice is brought in to investigate the murders of two terminally-ill men. Are their killings coincidence? Or is there a serial killer with a mission to get rid of the sick and infirm?

A historical crime novel set in sixteenth century St Andrews involving the academic cloister and the Protestant church.

From the author of Hue & Cry comes an exciting new mystery. Hew Cullan moves to Edinburgh to finish his legal studies, but is thrown off track when the corpse of a girl is discovered on a St. Andrew's beach. As he begins a desperate search to find the killer, he is lead closer and closer to home.

The spectacular conclusion to the Last Orders at Harrods trilogy. Fans of Alexander McCall Smith will love Michael Holman's charming and entertaining novels.

When seven-year-old Amanda Chapman is admitted to hospital with acute renal failure, her parents are in despair. Their hope is renewed when Amanda is accepted for treatment in a pioneering, state-of-the-art dialysis unit in an exclusive private hospital in Glasgow, but behind the lavish hospital corridors, private rooms and friendly staff lies something much more sinister. Dr Dunbar goes undercover to find out.

When a traveller dies on a flight back to London from Africa, Ebola virus seems to be the reason. However, other victims in the UK are dying of the same illness and there seems to be no link. As politicians equivocate and scientists attempt to find a cause, Dr Steven Dunbar begins to question his own belief in medicine.

’Drummond's writing happily bears comparison with [Alasdair] Gray's brand of Gothic fantasy,' - Times Literary Supplement'

In Novgorod, a decaying Russian Imperial town south of St Petersburg, in August 1833, two travellers meet in a dilapidated inn. During a pleasant evening together, they are alerted by an ancient resident of the town to the presence of a dying ‘foreign’ man, holed up in an abandoned tumbledown lodge. The pair go to investigate, and find a retired British army officer lying in squalor, surrounded by the memories of his life of dissipation. Invited by the old nurse to watch over the dying man’s last hours, all four of them relate stories from their past as they wait for the inevitable.

With customary charm and deftness, Alexander McCall Smith has given us another instalment to this popular series that is as clever, witty and as delightful as the rest. Bertie, Angus Lordie and his gold-toothed dog Cyril star alongside the familiar cast of favourites, as we follow their daily pursuit of a little happiness.

July, 1700, Rome. Atto Melani mingles with other high-ranking guests at the villa of Cardinal Spada. Despite being there to celebrate the Cardinal’s nephew’s wedding, the main topic of conversation is the grave illness of the Pope and the approaching demise of Charles II. Melani, keen to see the French king ascend the Spanish throne, sets in motion a grandiose conspiracy that will plunge him into a world of secret languages, religious sects, forged Royal wills and Europe into war.

Introduced by Hew Strachan, Mr Standfast is the third of five Richard Hannay thrillers. Brigadier-General Richard Hannay is recalled from active service on the Western Front and tasked with a secret mission to catch a dangerous German agent who is at large in Britain.

The fifth, last and most unusual of the Hannay books, The Island of Sheep is part thriller and part meditation on nature. Accompanied by two friends Hannay sets out to protect the family by finishing a feud that goes back thirty years to a hilltop in Rhodesia.

Introduced by Christopher Hitchens, this is the fourth of the five Richard Hannay novels.

Hannay is living peacefully in the Cotswolds with his wife family until three separate visitors tell him of three children being held hostage by a secret kidnapper.

‘A powerful and mesmerizing novel, both mythic and intimate . . . a great accomplishment of imagination, insight and lyricism,’ - Amy Tan

The Kitchen God, a Chinese deity, has been challenged by the Jade Emperor to fathom the workings of the human heart. In the course of his quest, he follows the life of Jinyi and his wife Yuying, from their youth until their old age.