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Pure Mania is set in an almost fictional anarcho-punk milieu around the squats and council estates of East London. This trashy adventure story takes the form of a blatantly falsified tour of eighties youth trends. It's a pastiche of the fiction published by New English Library during the 1970's. MARX CHRIST AND SATAN UNITED IN STRUGGLE * * Pure Mania is a pulp tragicomedy set in London's punk and skinhead scene at a time when both ready to blow the British Isles to hell * * SEXUAL PERVERSION AT ITS VERY WORST * * PURE MANIA is published in Hardback 9781914090660 / Original paperback 9781914090776 / and quality eBook 9781914090943

We have all worked for, or are working at Bully, Inc. An unforgiving workplace environment where the tyranny of the few is allowed to pollute the work experience of the many.It costs. From the estimated £20 billion lost to the economy alone each year in the UK to the day in day out rat-on-a-wheel drudgery and fear.In this game-changing book, author Peter Burnett dissects the phenomenon of Workplace Bullying ― which impacts one in three of the workforce. He offers a road map out of this infectious 21st Century workplace malaise. A malaise that stretches from the smallest offices to the Houses of Parliament ― itself charged with legislating on behaviour in the workplace ― to the boardrooms of the very biggest global players.BULLY, INC. shows how as a society we are now using technology to bully and how media itself can be charged as guilty in its preoccupation with celebrities ― visible in their own workplaces.BULLY, INC. answers your fundamental questions about workplace bullying:* What is and what is not bullying at work?* Why am I the target?* Why and how do bullies get away with it?* What role do bystanders play?BULLY INC. is the definitive guide to neutralising and eliminating the bully in your workgroup.If you''re working at BULLY, INC. right now this book will help you.BULLYING affects one in three of the work force. Right now you are probably sharing an office with at least one person whose work life is being terrorised and dreads the everyday work experience. The economic cost of this is put at £20 billion per annum. Why? Because an unhappy, dysfunctional workplace is an inefficient one.BULLY, INC. reveals:* The range of health ailments associated with bullying at work impacting both mental and physical health;* The strategies for coping with bullying and ultimately routes to eliminating it altogether;* The identity of a major UK employer with a global footprint as a template for how to structure work relationships and how by offering a receptive and connected working environment bullying is virtually eliminated;* How new thinking about bullying controversially frames the bully as much as a target, as the bullied;* How one generation in particular has got it right in terms of their tolerances of bullying behaviours and how they are on course to neuter the issue for society generally;* How bullying permeates showbiz in the phenomenon of ''Bullytainment'' - where some celebs find themselves subject to online trolling which in extreme cases has caused some to consider taking their own lives.

The absurd, the grotesque, Thomas Clapperton, hypochondriac, egomaniac, Scotsman, misanthrope, misogynist, menagerie keeper ... has a date.His romantic rendezvous is with the girl across the road, Trudy Otter. Although Trudy only has an incestuous eye for her brother, Rex.The most dysfunctional of all beings rub against each other in the desperate search for human happiness in John Herdman''s gothic miserene, Clapperton.Also in this volume, The Devil and Dr Tuberose. The equally unbalanced Dr Marcus Tuberose battles legless infantry of demons until he finally confronts the devil himself, embodied in the family dog of his blessed colleagues. A tale of transgressive madness from the master of the Scottish Gothic, John Herdman.Two tales of the mania, derangement and the psychopathy peculiar to the Caledonian Antisyzygy. Brace yourself for hilarity, ridicule and an exquisite dose of oddity.ALSO IN THIS EDITION: Complete Herdman Bibliography, spanning six decades of creative output."Perhaps in the very combination of opposites — what either of the two Thomases, of Norwich and Cromarty, might have been willing to call "the Caledonian antisyzygy" — we have a reflection of the contrasts which the Scot shows at every turn... we need not be surprised to find that in their literature the Scots present two aspects which appear contradictory. Oxymoron was ever the bravest figure, and we must not forget that disorderly order is order after all." G. GREGORY SMITH, Scottish Literature: Character and Influence"I was struck by Herdman''s wry, philosophical bent, his acute sense of place and perception and anguish at the plight of the human condition .... But despite the pitch darkness and seriousness of his themes, Herdman is an appealing writer, with a clipped, laconic and lugubrious wit, capable of swiftly etching a scene .... goodness knows why John Herdman is not much better known than he is." Alan Taylor, The Sunday Herald"Herdman''s writing is a feat of great wit and invention." Scotland on Sunday"It is a tribute to Herdman''s writing that he evokes so many writers without ever seeming to imitate them .. the quality of Herdman''s fantastic imaginings commands respect." Christopher Whyte"John Herdman skilfully treads a vertiginous edge between satiric comedy and high seriousness." The Scotsman

WARNING! Contains moderate bloody violence against slavers and plantation owners!This pioneer vampire tale from 1819 spills revenge-cold blood as its narrator leads us through high gothic terror to radical outrage on the subject of slavery, reaching a blood-soaked conclusion dripping with ''biting'' polemic vilifying the bankers who caused the economic recession of that same year.An anti-capitalist horror fable from 200 years ago, The Black Vampyre vilified the worst financial predation the capitalist world would ever see, decades before Karl Marx ― the enslavement of Africans in the New World.One dead man said no! And this is his story.The Black Vampyre; A Legend of St. Domingo tells the affrighting tale of a slave who is resurrected as a vampire after being killed by his owner; the slave seeks revenge by stealing the owner''s son and marrying the owner''s wife. The anonymous writer D''Arcy sets the story against the conditions that led to the Haitian Revolution.First published in chapbook form in New York in 1819, this emancipatory tale from literary New York in the 1810s arguably dates the birth of horror as know it!This edition features a new introduction as well as extensive notes and a guide to literary allusions.

Distributed free in Edinburgh''s bars and bookshops the One O''Clock Gun began in 2004 as a thought provoking, ballsy and often irreverent paper that initially appeared with a humble few followers.Today, over fifteen years later, The Gun is an Edinburgh institutution.Distributed from handmade wooden boxes, the One O''Clock Gun appears to be an A4 sheet but in fact folds out to a double-sided A2 broadsheet, both sides crammed with stories poems and illustrations.Although the Gun began with a handful of writers penning their stories under pseudonyms, it wasn''t long before amateur and professional authors alike were attracted, and slowly as its reputation grew, submissions came in from farther afield.CONTRIBUTORS: Andy Anderson; Raymond Bell; Don Birnam; Graham Brodie; Robin Cairns; Angus Calder; Paul Carter; Reggie Chamberlain-King; Sandy Christie; Michael Conway; Gav Duvet; Keith Farquhar; Craig Gibson; Peter Burnett; Alasdair Gray; Rodge Glass; Martin Hillman; Gavin Inglis; Robert Alan Jamieson; Will Lawson; Jenny Lindsay; Barry McLaren; Steve McLellan; James Mooney; Marc Phillips; Karl Plume; Jim Ritchie; Suhayl Saadi; Eoin Sanders; Cathy Scrutton; Andrew Smith; Robin Vandome; Kevin Williamson; Andrew J Wilson; Ross Wilson; Kirsti Wishart; James Wood

John Herdman''s masterpiece of the modern Scottish Gothic appears in print from Leamington Books, with a new introduction from the author.Black humour and even blacker lives collide in a tale of love and murder on an old Borders family estate. In a grotesque story told from two perfectly contrasting angles we find the arrogant genius, Frank, known as ''Superbo'', and his hated brother Hubert.Raw and immoral, Imelda is a puzzle, mocking the reader in its quest for answers. Murder and madness this way lie―but who if anyone is to be believed in unpicking the deadly secrets behind the birth of cousin Imelda''s child?An assured masterpiece from Scotland''s greatest living chronicler of the dark side, Imelda, first published in 1993 became an instant classic of Scottish letters.

Eddie Gibbons'' fourth full length collection, WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT YOU, is a poetry book like no other.Playful, thoughtful, inventive, and much larger than your average slim volume What They Say About You was shortlised in poetry for Scottish Book of the Year.Eddie Gibbons was born in Liverpool, but lives in Scotland. He was a winner at the Inaugural Edwin Morgan poetry prize at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2008.The poetry in What They Say About You covers love, family life, glorious wordplay and celebrations of Eddie''s beloved Liverpool Football Club.

Written entirely in East coast Scots A Working Class State of Mind, the debut book by Colin Burnett, brings the everyday reality and language of life in Scotland to the surface.Colin's fiction takes themes in the social sciences and animates them in vivid ethnographic portrayals of what it means to be working class in Scotland today.Delving into the tragic exploits of Aldo as well as his long time suffering best friends Dougie and Craig, the book follows these and other characters as they make their way in a city more divided along class lines than ever before.

Wild, experimental and nihilistic, The Sinner was published just months after the death of its author, Stuart MacGregor who was killed in a motor accident in Jamaica in 1973.Denis Sellars, the self-serving narrator is a restless, suicidal folksinger and would-be novelist. The City of Edinburgh is his love ― his enemies are the forces of progress which seek to make commercial the art and music of Scotland.Rob Sellars, his twin, is a successful folk artiste and has succeeded where Denis has failed; but with the might of right on his side, Denis decides between favour ― wider success as an artist ― and the raging dark side of himself.Strikingly personal and unflinching in its portrayal of a man dealing head on with the brutal impulses of the id, The Sinner is the story of a man dedicated to defending grassroots music and literature, even if it comes to violence.Combining amazing moments of passion with a suicidal and godless fervour The Sinner is a novel of despair, forever coming to terms with itself, and capturing the literary and folk scene of Edinburgh, circa. 1970, like no other work has ever done."The fight is between the slick and poppy folk-music that is earning London producers a fortune, and preserving the purity of the folk-music of the travelling communities of Scotland for future generations. Sellars makes it clear that this is the sort of music people have bled over and the living owe a debt to their ancestors to ensure only the song is passed on in its purest form, not the celebrity of the singer. The battleground is the bodies, ears and minds of those involved, so naturally the novel shows how fealty to a cause or person can be tested to breaking point."From Richie McCaffery''s Introduction to The Sinner

Poems and lyrics from free-flowing Glasgow writer Jim Ferguson ― poet, novelist, dissenter, teacher and performer.Jim''s loose, kinetic and improvisational rhythms are drawn from Scots speech and the ebb and flow of consciousness itself.With a sometimes gentle, sometimes psychotic candour, and a weird pleasure all of its own, Jim''s voice shares politics, dreams and the surreal effects of globalism on the individual. "If it wasn''t so Kafkaesque, it would be Orwellian."Jim Ferguson is a poet, pamphleteer and novelist based in Glasgow. Born in 1961, Jim has been writing and publishing since 1986 and is a Creative Writing Tutor at Glasgow Kelvin College.

"I''m a woman. I support them. I''m bisexual. I support them. I''m a feminist. I support them. I endure regular abuse for being trans. I support them. I am called a "poof" by the unenlightened. I support them. My name is Lesley, and I'm a woman ― that is to say that I am human, just like you, and you like me."A meditation on the passing of time, a declaration that life, love and poetry are defined by time, are all about time and timing.Here are love poems, life poems, elegies, aubades, odes, existential solitude poems, prose poems, joyous poems of fleeting human pleasures, poems compassionate, sanguine and witty, poems delicate with vulnerability, urgent poems on survival over time.*These are powerful, moving and accomplished poems that speak to all humanity, written by a certain woman documenting her uncertain becomings over time.Whatever the certainties of those enforcing it or of those of us willingly or unwillingly defined by it, the category ''woman'' has always been uncertain.''One is not born a woman'', Simone de Beauvoir observes, ''one becomes one''.But what is it to be deeply certain of an urgent calling to womanhood all of one''s life yet violently excluded from such a becoming?What is it to win through?

Written entirely in East coast Scots A Working Class State of Mind, the debut book by Colin Burnett, brings the everyday reality and language of life in Scotland to the surface.Colin's fiction takes themes in the social sciences and animates them in vivid ethnographic portrayals of what it means to be working class in Scotland today.Delving into the tragic exploits of Aldo as well as his long time suffering best friends Dougie and Craig, the book follows these and other characters as they make their way in a city more divided along class lines than ever before.

A delicious study in paranoia from the master of the modern Scottish Gothic.Ghost-writer Leonard Balmain finds himself drawn into an unwanted complicity with the dark revelations unfolding within that of his subject ― the mysterious Torquil Tod.When Tod's tale turns into murder and sexual betrayal, Leonard realises he knows too much and is in danger of ending up on the very pages of Tod's turbulent history.Black magic, sacrificial murder and cannibalism collide in an uneasy voyage towards, and from beyond, the grave."A dark, cautionary tale, utterly compelling and charged with Herdman's unwavering sense of irony and his sharp satirical bite."Brian McCabe, The Scotsman."A story of deception and betrayal, of obsession and confused identities, but more importantly it is Herdman's best novel."Carl MacDougall, The HeraldBlack magic, sacrificial murder and cannibalism collide in an uneasy voyage towards, and from beyond, the grave.Brian McCabe, The Scotsman ."A powerful evocation of the uncanny psychological bonding between ghost biographer Leonard Balmain and his elusive and sinister subject, Torquil Tod..... Herdman captures very clearly the tone of the dramatic monologues of Hogg and Stevenson, while managing to maintain a contemporary resonance."Douglas Gifford, Books in Scotland"Hogg's and Stevenson's manic private memorists meet the postmodernist theories they anticipated. Cleverly, Ghostwriting investigates the paradoxes of narrative itself ... The novel wears its intellectual sophistication lightly."Gavin Wallace, Chapman

"In place of happy love, lonely pain. In place of motherhood, disease. Misery and shame, child. Medicine and surgery, and never any possibility of any child for me."First published in her magazine The Forerunner, Charlotte Perkins Gilman''s The Crux is an emotive tale on the nuances of female independence, social expectation and love in early 20th century America.Following an all-female group who move west to open a boarding house for men, The Crux focuses on the experience of Vivian ― and her desire for the undesirable. Deeply in love with Morton, a charismatic young man infected with both syphilis and gonorrhoea, Vivian''s expected journey through her ''marriage'' years is abruptly turned upside down.Torn by her personal intuition, the advice provided by her female companions and the knowledge that Morton will never give her healthy children, Vivian is faced with a permanent choice ― to forfeit love for the benefit of future generations.Balancing female and male perspectives on illness, personal preservation and nationalism, The Crux tracks Vivian''s path through heart break, emotional development and female camaraderie.As an allegory for Gilman''s own branch of utopian feminism, The Crux is a story of sacrifice and partnership deliberation within the framework of 20th century disease hysteria, eugenic ideology and developing modernism.Often omitted from her writing canon, The Crux is an integral aspect to understanding not only Gilman''s own writing ― but the history of feminism as a whole."The Crux is essentially a seminar in biological, feminine and social correctness. As stated in the original Forerunner publication, the novel was intended for a specific set of people - young and impressionable women primarily, followed by men and anyone else willing to listen. The Crux, in its barebones, is a nationalist parable for all of America to heed."from Ambrose Kelly''s new introduction to The Crux* * *Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860 – 1935) was an American humanist, novelist, writer of short stories, poetry and nonfiction, and a lecturer for social reform. She was a utopian feminist and served as a role model for future generations of feminists because of her unorthodox concepts and lifestyle.

Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in June 2016, and seldom in recent years has it been more richly deserved.That a song writer''s lyrics should be regarded as literature was an idea at which many were surprised.Others have felt that to isolate the lyrics of a song from its musical context is unreal. Ultimately that is true: a song is an indefeasible whole, an inseparable marriage of words and music which achieves its overall emotional effect by that symbiosis and not otherwise.Yet it can also be said that the two components can be separately considered as two elements in the artist''s creative utterance, and discussed as such.The evidence of Dylan''s manuscripts supports the view that in writing his lyrics his way of going about things is not always widely different from that of a poet.Bob Dylan commented on the Nobel Prize in Literature which was awarded to him "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition": "When I first received this Nobel Prize for Literature, I got to wondering exactly how my songs related to literature. I wanted to reflect on it and see where the connection was."Voice Without Restraint, refers to and is from the song "I dreamed I saw St Augustine" on John Wesley Harding, and is a phrase chosen to evoke the full-blooded commitment to his artistic utterance which is the hallmark of Bob Dylan''s voice – in all senses.

The memories I had built exploded. As the debris landed, my mind grasped at the facts.The Broken Pane is about loss and family, when families are broken. Finding yourself in the pieces of memory. About a young woman and her search for answers.In her early twenties, Tam rushes to her childhood flat only to be confronted by a tragic discovery. Anchored by the weight of family lore, she struggles to come to terms with her loss. As her life spirals, she sets off to find the one person who may hold the answers: her mother. Tam''s travels take her far from a home which was more broken than she had ever realised.Walking the line between reliable memory and unreliable narrator,Charlie Roy''s debut novel invites you to consider whether you are shaped by your past ― or if you shape your past yourself?

A serial killer''s obsession with the preservation of beauty sees him return to stalk the streets of Penzance in the summer of 2019. It''s 23 years since his first victims went missing, setting DI Brandon Hammett on the hunt for the Sleeping Beauty Killer.A beautiful woman is being held captive in an unknown location.Although not physically injured, she is manacled to a chair in a darkened, sinister dining room. Her captor is polite but menacing. Her female companions silent spectators.When a glass box is found in Prussia Cove, containing a conch and the ear of a missing beauty, a murder investigation is launched.Is the Sleeping Beauty Killer back? Or is this a copycat killing?What''s clear is an evasive, clever killer is at large, presenting DI Brandon Hammett with a deadly race against time."A dark and sinister hunt for a serial killer had me hooked from the first page."Dreda Say Mitchell"Assured and intriguing, Fairest Creatures is a novel that will grip you from the first page and hold you to the last."William Ryan, author of the Captain Korolev books."I loved this novel with its unusual viewpoints and characters. It raced along with a great pace taking the reader with it. It was easy to invest in the main characters; they were so well-drawn and rounded. I even found myself feeling sorry for the killer! This is a great debut novel from a writer I can''t wait to read again. Highly recommended."Judi Daykin, author of the DS Sara Hirst novels.

In a dead-beat coastal town in North East Scotland, seventeen-year-old Malky Campbell is desperate to help his pregnant and heroin addicted girlfriend.DI Stark, a middle-aged detective, alarmed by the rise of teenage crime in Port Cawdor, uncovers the operations of a county line gang that are flooding the area with drugs and engaging in a vicious turf war with a local family.Malky has just started working on his family''s trawler with his cousin Johnny, when their boat pulls up Johnny''s brother in its nets. The rest of the crew, the tightly-knit community and the police start to suspect that the cousins are responsible for his death.With his brother dead, Johnny inherits the family trawler, which he plans to use to smuggle drugs into the country for the county line gang, giving him enough money to start a new life.Ewan Gault''s debut, The Sound of Sirens is a tough, modern crime novel, presenting the complexities of young life in a town at the end of the line.''The Sound of Sirens reads like Irvine Welsh blended with Ian Rankin. A fast paced and darkly addictive crime story, exploring what it means to be young, male and on the peripheries of 21st century Scotland.''G. R. Halliday, author of Dark Shadows and From the Waters''Beautifully and darkly written, The Sound of Sirens is redolent with the reek of the boats and ports of the North East coast, and the stench of crime. Ewan Gault''s writing perfectly shows the hardship of life at sea, and disaffected youth struggling to survive on dry land, where the only escape is addiction.''Mark Leggatt, author of The Silk Road and The London Cage''A gritty, murderous crime novel? A Bildungsroman? A scathing indictment of wasted youth in contemporary Scotland? This excellent page turner is all of these and more, and is guaranteed to please to the last breath.''Craig Gibson, One O''Clock Gun

Published to mark John Herdman's 80th birthday in 2021.Writers, academics, publishers and literary figures from Britain, Europe and North America came together to celebrate Scottish novelist and critic, John Herdman.The cast of Not Dark Yet are John Herdman''s contemporaries and friends, his students and readers.This celebration of John Herdman is witness to the strength of admiration that exists for this Scottish writer''s work, a body of writing that extends over a period of seven decades.And seven decades is impressive — especially for a man who is only just turning eighty.

Digital Hypnotherapy is a new approach to hypnotherapy along with detailed, working examples, appropriate for anyone familiar with a smart-phone or tablet.This method comprises a sequence of visualisations the model for which most people are already intimately familiar– our own mobile phone.The approach presented in this hypnotherapy toolkit is a metaphorical framework which younger clients in particular, whatever the depth of their knowledge of literature, traditional fairy tales or myth, would find easy to visualise, understand and accept.Seven full scripts are presented within this volume each dealing with a specific problem or ailment. The scripts are infinitely adaptable. The general idea of 'updating one's internal apps' should work with almost any problem and there is sufficient material within this volume for anyone to create their own personalised 'Updating Apps' scripts simply by editing the material they find here to suit their clients'' issues.The ''Updating Apps Modules'' chapter breaks the scripts down into their constituent parts providing a step-by-step methodology for this purpose.Advice and instructions on how to read or deliver these scripts are also provided along with links to online recordings of examples of speaking to both the conscious and unconscious minds simultaneously - delivering an overt message to the conscious mind along with the more important but covert subtext for the unconscious mind to follow, digest and implement.Inductions and deepeners are included and each of the full scripts is provided with two exductions, "Wake up!" and "Go to sleep..." The "Go to sleep..." exductions are provided should you wish to record the scripts either for yourself or your client to listen to before sleeping.

Every poet has a drawerful of rejection letters.The poems in Roughly Speaking by Eddie Gibbons have for many years - some since as long ago as 1980 - lived in the shadows of their siblings who went on to have wildly exciting lives in Eddie''s published poetry collections.Roughly Speaking is Eddie Gibbons'' fifth volume of poetry and contains both new and rejected poems. Though some of the works included in Roughly Speaking have had brief moments of infamy in poetry magazines the majority have never seen the bright light of public acceptance, their prime achievement to date being the collection of rejection slips.To keep these overlooked orphans company there is a small band of brand new poems ― although the readers will have to make up their minds which is which.WHAT THEY SAID ABOUT HIM:"This particular selection would not be a good fit for our coming edition."The OFI Press" Unfortunately, we will not be accepting your work this time."Ink, Sweat & Tears"However, we do not feel the work is quite right for the magazine."Atrium"Eddie''s boundless capacity for forging a funny and poignant poetic language from common speech makes everyday things shine."Seán Bradley"Eddie can be formally elegant, devastatingly iconoclastic, and is a master of everything he puts his pen to."Anna Crowe"None of the work you sent is suitable for our magazine."Obsessed With Pipework"Eddie''s poems should be on the national curriculum."Kirsty Gunn* * *Eddie Gibbons was born in Huyton, Liverpool. He moved to Scotland in 1981. His first collection Stations of the Heart was published in 1999, when he was fifty.In 2008, he was a prize winner in the inaugural Edwin Morgan International Poetry Competition. His fifth collection, What They Say About You, was shortlisted for the Scottish Poetry Book of the Year award, 2011.A regional judge for the Faber / Ottakars National Poetry Competition, Eddie has been a guest reader at the Berlin British Council, Stanza International Poetry Festival, Dundee Literary Festival, Aberdeen University''s WORD festival, and the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

A young man, tired of life and love, indifferent to the people and world around him, takes up a room in a Parisienne boarding house.Noises from the adjoining room draw his attention to a hole in the wall, and he observes its occupants through it.He becomes obsessed with the individual episodes of human life that play out before his eyes; love, adultery, incest, childbirth, death, thievery and betrayal. Through his voyeurism, the unnamed narrator becomes an omniscient godlike character, observing the room''s inhabitants in their most private and naked moments. The hole becomes a window to the very soul of humanity and the human condition.But as with Prometheus, his godlike powers come at a cost.

In October 2007, writers Mike Small and Kevin Williamson launched Bella Caledonia at the Radical Book Fair in Edinburgh. Since then, Bella has consistently explored ideas of self-determination and offered Scotland''s most robust and insightful political commentary.In the run up to Scottish independence referendum, international interest grew and Bella Caledonia had more than 500,000 unique users a month, with a peak of one million in August ― and since then has been given multiple awards recognising it as one of the top 10 political blogs in the UK.This anthology, curated by Mike Small, is a flavour of Bella''s output over these 14 years ― the editor''s pick.Bella is aligned to no political party and sees herself as the bastard child of parent publications too good for this world; from Calgacus to Red Herring, from Harpies & Quines to the Black Dwarf.Under Mike''s editorship, Bella has developed a ''Fifth Estate'' as a way of disrupting the passive relationship of old media, creating something more active and appropriate for the 21st century ― it''s about concentration of ownership, and bringing together radical coverage with cultural analysis. Hence the plethora of wide-ranging voices in this anthology, each representing outlier viewpoints in contemporary society ― novelists, poets, bloggers and journalists publishing in non-mainstream media outlets, and the social media.*"Bella Caledonia has been a flagship for progressive thought in Scotland, providing a platform for informed and creative writing, advocating a progressive and independent nation fit for the future."Stuart Cosgrove"Bella has been to be a constant thorn in the side of the powerful voices who would prefer that conventional wisdom went unchallenged, that awkward questions went unasked, and bold solutions went unheard."Peter Geoehgan* The Contributors:Andy Wightman • Alan Bissett • Brian Quail • George Rosie • Kathleen Jamie • Peter Arnott • Scott Hames • Laura Easton Lewis • Meaghan Delahunt • AL Kennedy • Alistair Davidson • Alastair McIntosh • Katie Gallogly-Swan • Max Macleod • Caitlin Logan • Irvine Welsh • Paul Tritschler • Chloé Farand • Abi Lightbody • Pat Kane • Adam Ramsay • Rory Scothorne • Alison Phipps • Jamie Maxwell • Amna Saleem • Neil Cooper • Dougie Strang • Mairi McFadyen • Christopher Silver • George Gunn • Stuart Christie • George Kerevan • Iain MacKinnon • Dougald Hine • Cait O''Neil McCullagh • Raman Mundair • Gerry HassanAbout The Editor:Mike Small is a writer, journalist, author and publisher. He has written for the Guardian, Sunday Herald, Sunday National, Open Democracy, Variant, Lobster and Z Magazine. He is currently working on a biography of Patrick Geddes and a history of Scottish Anarchism. He has edited Bella Caledonia since 2007.

Edition #1 of Novella Expressfeaturing:• Albertine by Laurence Klavan• Little Apples by Ricky Monahan Brown• Black Cat and the Japanese Umbrella by Lowri LarsenNovella Express is a hybrid book / periodical series publishing novellas submitted from around the world.CONTRIBUTING TO EDITION #1Ricky Monahan Brown suffered a massive haemorrhagic stroke in 2012. Doctors gave him a one-in-twenty chance of a good outcome, where a ''good outcome'' would be surviving in a non-vegetative, non-plegic state. The resulting survival memoir, Stroke: A 5% Chance of Survival, became one of The Scotsman''s Scottish Nonfiction Books of 2019. Ricky''s short fiction has been widely published, including in 404 Ink literary magazine and the Dublin Inquirer. The live literature and music series he co-founded, Interrobang?! won the Saboteur Award for the Best Regular Spoken Word Night in Britain for 2017. A stroke awareness ambassador for the British Heart Foundation, Ricky lives in Edinburgh with his wife and their son.Lowri Larsen is a writer based in Wales. She was awarded a first-class honours MA from University College Dublin. She was awarded a grant from Literature Wales to write this novella. The novella "Black Cat and The Japanese Umbrella" was longlisted for The Reflex Press Novella Award.Laurence Klavan wrote the story collection, "''The Family Unit'' and Other Fantasies," published by Chizine. An Edgar Award-winner, he received two Drama Desk nominations for the book and lyrics of "Bed and Sofa," the musical produced by the Vineyard Theater in New York and the Finborough Theatre in London. His graphic novels, "Brain Camp" and "City of Spies," co-authored with Susan Kim, were published by Chizine, and their YA fiction series, "Wasteland," was published by Harper Collins. His Web site is laurenceklavan.com.

Edition #2 of Novella Expressfeaturing:• The Hardest Winter by Carole Hamilton• Heaven Burns by Jen McGregor• Just Like Him To Die by Douglas BrutonNovella Express is a book series publishing novellas submitted from around the world.CONTRIBUTING TO EDITION #2:Carole Hamilton writes stories which often focus on individuals who live in the fringes of our societyJen McGregor is a playwright who specialises in using horror tropes to explore painful experiences, and will tell anyone who holds still long enough about her journey from gothic heroine to monster.Douglas Bruton has won many prizes for his short fiction. His children''s novel, The Chess Piece Magician was published by Floris Books (2009); his literary fiction debut, Mrs Winchester''s Gun Club, was published by Scotland Street Press (2019); and Blue Postcards, longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2022, was published by Fairlight Books (2021).THE NOVELLAS IN EDITION #2:THE HARDEST WINTER by Carole HamiltonThe Hardest Winter by Carole Hamilton is a beautifully and realistically drawn novella, showing the hardships of farming life in Scotland today.Fiona and Drew live and work on a Scottish cattle farm. Beauty contrasts with the never ending chores and muck.Fiona is suffocated by the monotony of the endless tasks both in the farmhouse and outside. The continual preparation of meals, cleaning, feeding calves and helping with farm chores leaves her exhausted.Birth and death infiltrate her life till the harshest of winters with painful circumstances arrive. With this adversity there is always hope of a new future just as winter will always turn to spring.The ritual of the farming year, ploughing, planting and harvesting are linked to love, loss and new life. Fiona''s life is caught in this exquisite and intricate web.HEAVEN BURNS by Jen McGregorHeaven Burns is a historical novella, dramatizing one of the most barbarous practices prevalent in Restoration Scotland.It is 1662 and Scotland suffers a scourge of witches. What else could explain the wars, the plagues, the storms?Runaway housewife Isobel has a duty to do, acting as clerk to John Dixon, the finest witchpricker in the country. She''s sure it''s what God wants her to do. She''s sure she can keep her growing feelings for Dixon in check.When a stranger appears telling wild tales of stolen names and false identities, Isobel''s loyalty is put to the test. Is the stranger telling her of a great wrong to be put right, or sent from Hell to thwart the witch hunts?JUST LIKE HIM TO DIE by Douglas BrutonJust Like Him To Die by Douglas Bruton tells of the last days of Dylan Thomas as he lies unconscious and dying far from his Welsh home in a hospital bed in New York''s Saint Vincent Hospital.Dylan Thomas was a womanizer, a drunk, a bad husband, parent and friend, but Just Like Him To Die makes an effort to redeem him.In this new novella from Douglas Bruton, Dylan Thomas remembers ― albeit imperfectly ― episodes from his life which he transmutes these into gentle Under-Milk-Wood-like stories which are full of fun and word-play pyrotechnics.Weaving in and out of the poet''s thoughts and recollections are the voices of those gathered around him at the end. At the poet''s death, everyone forgives Dylan Thomas his failings and remembers only the soft and the warm and the good things about him.Just Like Him To Die is subtitled ''a short novel for voices'' which mirrors the subtitle for Under Milk Wood: (a play for voices)

In this book you will find a collection of Carla''s poetry written over a lifetime up until now.This book of poetry has been a labour of love. The collection is an expression of love, lust, reality and surrealism, written from the heart.The poems are a direct result of the way Carla Woodburn views life and expresses the situations around her. Inspiration is taken from everyday occurrences and Carla likes to think she''s used alchemy to transform these situations into a beautiful collection of poetry hailing from Scotland.A joyful and funny collection of poetry that can be enjoyed by adults and poetry lovers around the globe. This collection is a lifetime''s work of Carla''s and is lovingly dedicated to Carla''s family.

Edition #3 of Novella ExpressA New Dawn for the Novellafeaturing:• Bluebird by Sonia Hadj Said• Between the Virgin and the Sea by Cath Barton• Dear FIN by Andrea Layne BlackNovella Express is a book series publishing novellas submitted from around the world.CONTRIBUTING TO EDITION #3:Bluebird starts on a morning that the protagonist believes to be the end of her life.An immigrant from Eastern Europe, the narrator has spent the last ten years thriving to be a writer or a journalist in London and failing on every front.In a bid to try and save herself, she takes a month off from her catering job and takes us down memory lane of experiences of being a young immigrant woman as well as a struggling artist. Minimum-wage jobs, unpaid internships, school certificates, rented rooms in dangerous-feeling areas, nightlife, rejections, family expectations: these are all entwined in her inner monologue as she fights for her own life before time runs out.Without sentimentality, Sonia Hadj Said''s captivating novella records the casual cruelties of life and its fleeting moments of human connection and tenderness as an immigrant woman attempts to reconcile herself to the world around her.Cath Barton''s melancholic novella Between The Virgin and the Sea is set in an unnamed city which has fallen off the map of the world, and is accessible now only by sea.Violence has broken out in the city and the people, fearing that the church is involved, pray instead at roadside shrines.The story tells the events of a day at the end of which the white statue of the Virgin which stands on a hill overlooking the city may ― or may not ― come to life to restore peace to its people. Central to the story and living in the barrios is a boy called Tag, the things of which he dreams and the maps he draws.Set in a surreal and changing city, in which pizza delivery is carried out by donkey, and nothing may be what it seems, Between the Virgin and the Sea explores themes of childhood and coming of age.A captivating blend of magical realism, tender comedy, and literary experimentation, Between the Virgin and the Sea is a captivating portrait of urban life quite unlike any other.Andrea Layne Black''s LGBQT novella Dear FIN tells the story of Jack Wilson, a young man mourning his beloved dog, on the eve of his 17th birthday and the six-year anniversary of the tragic death of his parents, as he struggles with friends, family, sexuality, and his troubled feelings in the small coastal community of Old Riverdam.Dear FIN creates the dazzling, funny, and raw world of a troubled teenager; coming of age; coming out; coming to terms; and coming together with new friends and loves.The narrator Jack is an instant friend to the reader, too ― and Jack will make you look at life more differently than ever before.A book that dives deep into the pressures of how mental health and loss can take a toll on your life, Dear FIN is a fun heart-pounding novella that looks at coping with loss.To read Dear FIN is to step with Jack as he struggles with friends, family, sexuality, and his troubled feelings in the small coastal community of Old Riverdam. A funny and charismatic tale from Canada, Dear FIN is a satisfying and thoughtful novella, within which the reader can unusually participate.Published by Leamington Books, Edinburgh