Mairi Kidd – författare

"A work of fiction that is both a potent portrait of early 19th-century Edinburgh but also a story about female agency or the lack of it. The result is a compelling, painful, haunted piece of work." THE HERALDWATERSTONES SCOTTISH BOOK OF THE MONTH AUGUST 2025Up the close and down the stair, meet the women of Burke and HareEdinburgh, 1828. Two women - one rich, one poor - must navigate life against a frenzied backdrop of medical discovery, mob mayhem, and murder.Susan's sheltered life as the wife of Robert Knox, a wealthy anatomist, is a far cry from Helen's perilous existence in the Old Town slums with her lover William Burke.Yet as people begin disappearing, these two different women face the same impossible choice. Should they protect what they have or tell the truth about what they know?Discover the notorious serial killings of Burke and Hare, told for the first time through the eyes of women whose stories reveal the depths of the human heart.COMING OCTOBER 2025 - Poor Creatures - Unearth the fascinating story of Mary Shelley: the mind which birthed Frankenstein's monster...PRAISE FOR THE SPECIMENS"Beguiling and atmospheric" HEAT MAGAZINE"A fresh, feminine take on the horrors of Scotland's most notorious serial killers" SALLY MAGNUSSON"Gruesomely gripping, this story will stay with you for a long time" SUE LAWRENCE"Mairi Kidd holds a lantern up to the brutality of women's lives in Burke, Hare and Knox's Edinburgh" LUCY RIBCHESTER

From 1563 to 1736 Scotland put thousands of women to death for witchcraft. Their supposed crimes have much to tell us about attitudes to women in the past, and in the present day. This book introduces sixteen women who lost their lives or lived in the long shadow of the persecutions.'Witches' who, like MARGARET AITKEN, confessed, implicated others, even aided the hunters before they were burned.Nonconforming women like MARY MACLEOD, who saw their reputations tarnished when they did not bend to society's expectations.Creatures of the imagination, like Robert Burns's NANNY, who embody deep-seated associations between womanhood and the occult.Weaving fiction with the facts where these are known, We Are All Witches invites the reader to explore the forces at work in one of the darkest episodes of Scotland's history and consider their echoes in the present day.

A complete collection of Scottish fairy tales, mythsand legends, bound in a beautiful new edition. From the mysterious cat-faced lady whose magicallows a servant girl to attenda prince's ball, to the princesswho meets an enchanted frog;From ogres and hooded crows,to faery bagpipers and shape-shifting monsters... Bringing together 18 Scottish fairy tales, myths and legends.Beautiful new edition of retellings - including Scottish versionsof some recognisable classics, such as Cinderella and The FrogPrince, as well as other home-grown magical myths and legendsLovely shiny foil highlights on the cover make this a perfectgift

Throughout history, Scottish women have broken the rules with attitude.WILLIAMINA FLEMING reached for the stars and took Harvard by storm.MARY SOMERVILLE challenged prejudice to claim the title 'scientist' for women.EFFIE GRAY knew the power of language to name and shame bullies and belittlers.AGNES RANDOLPH stood up to a siege and owned every minute of it like a boss.Inspirational and fierce in every sense, these sisters will fire you up to face your own modern-day dilemmas with serious style.'I loved these powerful, moving and inspiring stories about women and sisterhood. I know so many activists and change-makers who will connect with this brilliant book and I can't wait to share it with the women in my life.' DAISY BUCHANAN

"A work of fiction that is both a potent portrait of early 19th-century Edinburgh but also a story about female agency or the lack of it. The result is a compelling, painful, haunted piece of work." THE HERALDWATERSTONES SCOTTISH BOOK OF THE MONTH AUGUST 2025Up the close and down the stair, meet the women of Burke and HareEdinburgh, 1828. Two women - one rich, one poor - must navigate life against a frenzied backdrop of medical discovery, mob mayhem, and murder.Susan's sheltered life as the wife of Robert Knox, a wealthy anatomist, is a far cry from Helen's perilous existence in the Old Town slums with her lover William Burke.Yet as people begin disappearing, these two different women face the same impossible choice. Should they protect what they have or tell the truth about what they know?Discover the notorious serial killings of Burke and Hare, told for the first time through the eyes of women whosestories reveal the depths of the human heart.COMING OCTOBER 2025 - Poor Creatures - Unearth the fascinating story of Mary Shelley: the mind which birthed Frankenstein's monster...PRAISE FOR THE SPECIMENS"Beguiling and atmospheric" HEAT MAGAZINE"A fresh, feminine take on the horrors of Scotland's most notorious serial killers" SALLY MAGNUSSON"Gruesomely gripping, this story will stay with you for a long time" SUE LAWRENCE"Mairi Kidd holds a lantern up to the brutality of women's lives in Burke, Hare and Knox's Edinburgh" LUCY RIBCHESTER

"A work of fiction that is both a potent portrait of early 19th-century Edinburgh but also a story about female agency or the lack of it. The result is a compelling, painful, haunted piece of work." THE HERALDUp the close and down the stair, meet the women of Burke and HareEdinburgh, 1828. Two women - one rich, one poor - must navigate life against a frenzied backdrop of medical discovery, mob mayhem, and murder.The home Helen shares in the slums of the Old Town with her lover William Burke could hardly be more different from Susan''s dreams of an affluent existence as the wife of Robert Knox, one of the foremost anatomists of the day. But as people begin disappearing, these two very different women face an impossible choice. Should they protect what lives they have or tell the truth about what they know?This is the story of the notorious serial killings of Burke and Hare, told for the first time through the eyes of two very different women, whose stories explore the depths of the human heart in a perilous, vulnerable world.PRAISE FOR THE SPECIMENS"Beguiling and atmospheric, this is as much an engrossing character study as a bold reimagining of the infamous anatomy murders." HEAT MAGAZINE"A fresh, feminine take on the horrors of Burke and Hare and their complicit Edinburgh anatomists" SALLY MAGNUSSON"Gruesomely gripping, this story will stay with you for a long time, its characters so well developed, you fear you might bump into one in a dark Edinburgh close" SUE LAWRENCE"Mairi Kidd holds a lantern up to the brutality of women''s lives in Burke, Hare and Knox''s Edinburgh. She draws a fine thread between women''s bodily experiences now and then, and her voice is so authentic I felt as if I was there" LUCY RIBCHESTER

The worst monsters are the human kind . . . Dundee, 1812. Isabel Baxter awaits the arrival of Mary Godwin, a girl of fierce intelligence and grand passions, sent north to recover from a mysterious ailment. The Baxter family home, nestled in woodland by the river Tay, seems the perfect retreat. But The Cottage is a place of secrets, and Mary is no ordinary guest.As the girls grow closer, their friendship becomes all-consuming, haunted by memory, fuelled by feverishcreativity, and shadowed by something monstrous.Inspired by true events, this is an immersive reimagining of the young Mary Shelley before she became theauthor of Frankenstein. A story of girlhood, obsession, and the birth of a literary legend.Years before Frankenstein, this is a story of emerging womanhood and literary intrigue, exploring the many monsters in young Mary Shelley's life. From the bestselling author of Waterstones Scottish Book of the month, the Specimens, Poor Creatures is perfect for fans of Stacey Halls, Sara Sheridan and Ambrose Parry.'Makes the historical feel present and urgent' - ZOE VENDITOZZI

The worst monsters are the human kind . . . Dundee, 1812. Isabel Baxter awaits the arrival of Mary Godwin, a girl of fierce intelligence and grand passions, sent north to recover from a mysterious ailment. The Baxter family home, nestled in woodland by the river Tay, seems the perfect retreat. But The Cottage is a place of secrets, and Mary is no ordinary guest.As the girls grow closer, their friendship becomes all-consuming, haunted by memory, fuelled by feverishcreativity, and shadowed by something monstrous.Inspired by true events, this is an immersive reimagining of the young Mary Shelley before she became theauthor of Frankenstein. A story of girlhood, obsession, and the birth of a literary legend.Years before Frankenstein, this is a story of emerging womanhood and literary intrigue, exploring the many monsters in young Mary Shelley's life. From the bestselling author of Waterstones Scottish Book of the month, the Specimens, Poor Creatures is perfect for fans of Stacey Halls, Sara Sheridan and Ambrose Parry.'Makes the historical feel present and urgent' - ZOE VENDITOZZI

The worst monsters are the human kind . . . Dundee, 1812. Isabel Baxter awaits the arrival of Mary Godwin, a girl of fierce intelligence and grand passions, sent north to recover from a mysterious ailment. The Baxter family home, nestled in woodland by the river Tay, seems the perfect retreat. But The Cottage is a place of secrets, and Mary is no ordinary guest.As the girls grow closer, their friendship becomes all-consuming, haunted by memory, fuelled by feverishcreativity, and shadowed by something monstrous.Inspired by true events, this is an immersive reimagining of the young Mary Shelley before she became theauthor of Frankenstein. A story of girlhood, obsession, and the birth of a literary legend.Years before Frankenstein, this is a story of emerging womanhood and literary intrigue, exploring the many monsters in young Mary Shelley's life. From the bestselling author of Waterstones Scottish Book of the month, the Specimens, Poor Creatures is perfect for fans of Stacey Halls, Sara Sheridan and Ambrose Parry.'Makes the historical feel present and urgent' - ZOE VENDITOZZI

The worst monsters are the human kind . . . Dundee, 1812. Isabel Baxter awaits the arrival of Mary Godwin, a girl of fierce intelligence and grand passions, sent north to recover from a mysterious ailment. The Baxter family home, nestled in woodland by the river Tay, seems the perfect retreat. But The Cottage is a place of secrets, and Mary is no ordinary guest.As the girls grow closer, their friendship becomes all-consuming, haunted by memory, fuelled by feverishcreativity, and shadowed by something monstrous.Inspired by true events, this is an immersive reimagining of the young Mary Shelley before she became theauthor of Frankenstein. A story of girlhood, obsession, and the birth of a literary legend.Years before Frankenstein, this is a story of emerging womanhood and literary intrigue, exploring the many monsters in young Mary Shelley's life. From the bestselling author of Waterstones Scottish Book of the month, the Specimens, Poor Creatures is perfect for fans of Stacey Halls, Sara Sheridan and Ambrose Parry.'Makes the historical feel present and urgent' - ZOE VENDITOZZI

From the bestselling author of Waterstones Scottish Book of the Month The Specimens comes a new historic novel set during the Scottish witch trials filled with confessions and betrayal.Rural Scotland, 1629. Amidst the bogs and oat fields, children are going missing, and others seem to have fallen under a malevolent spell. When a young serving girl is imprisoned on suspicion of witchcraft, it falls on healer and midwife Mòrag to uncover the truth behind the matter.However, investigation only raises more questions, and soon a violent truth comes to light which threatens to upend local life. As tensions in the community reach a fever pitch, allegiances shift, lives unravel, and Mòrag struggles to save the life of an innocent girl. But in a village gripped by fear and paranoia, this may demand the greatest sacrifice of all.

From the bestselling author of Waterstones Scottish Book of the Month The Specimens comes a new historic novel set during the Scottish witch trials filled with confessions and betrayal.Rural Scotland, 1629. Amidst the bogs and oat fields, children are going missing, and others seem to have fallen under a malevolent spell. When a young serving girl is imprisoned on suspicion of witchcraft, it falls on healer and midwife Morag to uncover the truth behind the matter.However, investigation only raises more questions, and soon a violent truth comes to light which threatens to upend local life. As tensions in the community reach a fever pitch, allegiances shift, lives unravel, and Morag struggles to save the life of an innocent girl. But in a village gripped by fear and paranoia, this may demand the greatest sacrifice of all.

The daughter of a warrior-king seeks induction into the wonders of the written word; a grieving widow refuses to part from her husband's heart; a modern-day seal wife loses the one magical object that could free her to return to her own life.Drawing on years of research into chronicles, ballads, manuscripts, and the half-remembered lore of Scotland's past, Mairi Kidd brings to life women both historical and imagined, their voices resonant with courage, cunning, and rebellion. Whether confronting the constraints of marriage, the dangers of clan feuds, or the injustices of the law, these characters refuse to be mere footnotes in the tales of men. This unforgettable collection draws together nine new short stories of survival, rebellion, and magic by the acclaimed author of The Specimens and Poor Creatures, Mairi Kidd.

Incredible stories of the great Scots who changed the world we live in. Let the lives of these artists, explorers, poets, philosophers and engineers inspire YOU!DID YOU KNOW THAT...WILLIAMINA FLEMING was an astronomer who discovered hundreds of stars?ALEXANDER FLEMING won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his discovery of penicillin?ELSIE INGLIS set up hospitals all across Europe to treat over 200,000 soldiers? (Have you seen her on a £50 note?)ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON'S family of engineers built more than 100 lighthouses? PRAISE for STRONG BRAVE TRUE:“A wonderfully colourful, fun-packed, characterful introduction to the famous and not-so-famous Scots who made their mark on history . . . A must-have for any young historian or true Scot! Loved it!” – PHILIP ARDAGH, Roald Dahl Funny Prize-winning author“Who wouldn’t want to be Scottish after reading this splendid book?” – ROSS COLLINS, Prize-winning author of The Elephantom