Scotland Street Press – förlag

These three plays, composed between 1994 and 2004 are linked by the theme of war: actual, remembered or threatened. They are all tragicomic and each written for a strong female lead.

Errant Blood is a literary crime thriller by a startling new Scottish writer. The story follows Eamon Ansgar, war veteran and reluctant young laird of Duncul Castle, as he uncovers a plot involving people-trafficking, big pharma, the green energy boom, crypto-archaeology and the Latvian mafia during a rain soaked winter in the Scottish Highlands. The book explores some of our most troubling contemporary issues with a relentless pace, intricate plot, memorable characters and an epic finale. It is the first in series set in and around the Highland village of Duncul.

“I can see the disgust on the face of one neighbor when Jack, the farmer, asked to lend a man, produced a land girl.”Mona Macleod worked in Kirkubrightshire during the second World War, providing the skilled labour needed on farms before mechanization. The girls were given heavy agricultural work in fields, with animals, carrying hundred weight sacks, sawing wood, felling trees, filling up rat holes. It was a tough way to grow up, but this illustrated memoir provides a record of a time when women faced the rigorous physical challenges involved in winning the war at home.

A collection of 154 sonnets reflecting on love, death, marriage and economic theory, each taking its inspiration from Shakespeare's 154. These poems have wit and a kick coming from a middle-aged woman in the middle of Scotland in the twenty-first century.

Hector is an 11-year-old boy living near Edinburgh with his great auntie Robbo who is in her eighties. A woman calling herself his step-mother arrives from England and Hector and Auntie Robbo realise that they have to run away. The chase leads all over the north of Scotland, narrowly escaping police and the authorities, adopting three homeless children on the way.Originally refused publication in London because it was deemed critical of the English, Auntie Robbo was first published in the U.S. in 1940. After success in print it was taken on by Constable in 1959 and later was published in India, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark and Germany.

Firkin and the Grey Gangsters is a collection of four tales in which animals are the heroes.Firkin and the Grey Gangsters was in 1936 a metaphor for the fear of takeover by corporate America – Firkin is a young red squirrel who leads his people in a battle against a horde of grey squirrelinvaders from America. Firkin speaks in Scots.The Sheep who wasn’t a Sheep is about the thoughts going through the head of a sheep, swimmingbetween one Outer Isle and the other.The White Drake is a farmyard drake in Perthshire learning about flying.

Five children escape from a Children’s Home, run away and steal a boat, which they sail around the Outer Hebrides.The book had a huge print run from London Methuen, but their warehouses were bombed in 1940 in Paternoster Row; 5 million books were lost in the fires caused by tens of thousands of incendiary bombs. Consequently, there were very few copies in circulation. This is the resurrection of a successful children’s adventure story.

Sitting by her window with a glass of cranberries in sugar syrup bought from a woman in the market who assured her they came from Karelia, she muses “Perhaps they have some other kind of effect when you eat them. Spiritual maybe? So I eat and wait for the Karelian cranberries to work their magic on me.” Skarynkina is impelled to spend the last of her money on a trip to Krakow to meet Czeslaw Milosz but never finds his address, so he remains to her an idol like Elvis Presley dressed in gold lame. Each story has a charm and imaginative flight of its own.

‘North-east the Firth, a braceletmerging with mist; south-westthe Pentlands, sharply defined.Directly opposite, the Castle.A sudden gust makes me losemy footing. Gulls slip past,eyeing us disdainfully.’– from From Arthur’s SeatThe history and character of Edinburgh infuse every piece in Stewart Conn’s new collection. Stewart’s poems, paired with John Knight’s beautifully detailed illustrations evoke the spirit of the city and its unique aspects. Knight’s pieces are not simply illustrative. The poems and illustrations complement and enhance each other, showing us how the essence of the city infuses every stone.

A virulent disease carried by foxes is spreading across Europe. In London an urgent cull is underway, spearheaded by Frank Smith, the young master of the Hyde Park Hunt. But for Britain's paranoid Prime Minister, fox flu is a chance to foist the ultimate in surveillance technology on an unsuspecting population: the Mulberry Tree system, secretly bought from the Chinese.When biochemist Christophe Hardy discovers the conspiracy, he finds himself caught up in a chase which starts in Beijing and ends in Northumbria involving animal rights activists, a beautiful female missionary, high-society Chinese assassins, and the world most innovative catering venture, the Pu Dong Pudding Company.

‘I had only one eye, I was hungry and cold, yet I wanted to live… so that I could tell it all just as I’ve told you.’ - From Zofia Nalkowska’s Medallions (1947).Witness to two world wars and Poland’s struggle for independence, Zofia Nalkowska’s commitment to recording all is her gift to European literature. Her own story of love affairs, family loyalty and survival is remarkable in itself. Yet, her determination to record others’ truth, however painful, ties her fate to a nation whose battle for identity is both brutal and romantic. Her most renowned work, Medallions, a collection of short stories, exposes and restores dignity to people reduced, through Nazi occupation, to burnt out ghettos and guillotined heads heaped ‘like potatoes’. In contrast, as a keen and visionary observer of beauty, Nalkowska is innovative in exploring motherhood’s psychological imprint and the blurred boundaries of male and female relationships. Drawing on her own background as a poet and Polish Studies graduate, Jenny’s Robertson’s literary biography celebrates the achievements of a pioneering writer whose love of life not only propelled her to fame, but gave her the courage to witness atrocity. In doing so, Nalkowska’s life and writing reflect and inform Europe's cultural heritage.

Christian Small lived and painted in West Linton for over 60 years. Her work was of remarkable quality and range in many different media. Her choice of subjects was wonderfully imaginative: pears on a window sash, an armchair with slippers, her paint box – all so evocative of her life. Her landscapes were drawn from around the village, their colour and draftsmanship brilliantly capturing the countryside she loved: wind-bent trees, pale green grasses and the rolling Pentland Hills.Woven in and out of the paintings are poems by Gerda Stevenson, and Christian’s thoughts in prose as imagined with poignant eloquence by her daughter Jenny Alldridge – an unusual blend of word and image telling the unique story of a prolific and gifted artist

‘The crossbill is a bonny birdAn she sings wi a guid Scots tongueJip-jip-jipA’ll gie ye gipGin ye meddle wi me nor ma young’As a result of his travels across the North American continent in the eighteenth century Alexander Wilson pioneered the science of ornithological writing and illustration, becoming an inspiration for most of the ornithological works which followed.This new book celebrates the artwork of Alexander Wilson by reproducing his illustrations alongside new poems in Scots by Hamish MacDonald, looking at the habits, habitats, and characteristics of birds.

The masterful English debut of Alhierd Bacharevic, a new voice from BelarusAlicia and her brother Avi are imprisoned in a camp on the edge of a forest where children are trained to forget their language through therapy, coercion, drugs, and larynx surgery. The Leid (or Belarusian language) is considered a sickness to be cured and replaced by the only pure form of language, the Lingo (Russian). A contemporary Hansel and Gretel adventure, the children escape into the forest and end up in even greater danger... A feat of translation, Bacharevic’s story is brilliantly rendered into English and Scots from Russian and Belarusian.

Against the frightening backdrop of World War II, a young Scottish woman took ten children by ship through the waters of the Atlantic from Scotland to South Africa, where she set up a home for them called Bairnshaven. An unusual portrayal of motherhood, nuclear family and love, Marjorie's story comes to life through diary pages, letters, telegrams and photographs. This true story is a fresh take on the role that women played during the war, highlighting the strength and courage shown, and focusing on hope and unconditional kindness.

This explosive collection of poems documents life as a daughter trying to support her artist father who is overseas struggling with dementia and drug addiction during a pandemic. Interspersed with the frantic cycle of overdoses, escapes from care, disappearances and urgent international phone calls are moments of reflection on her father's artwork and her seaside surroundings.

George Heriot, jeweller to King James VI and I, moves with the Court from Edinburgh to London to take over the English throne. It is 1603. Life is a Babel of languages and glittering new wealth. The Scottish court speaks Danish, German, Middle Scots, French and Latin. King James gives Shakespeare his first secure position, and to calm the perfidious religious tensions, he commissions his translation of the Bible.George becomes wealthier than the king as he creates a fashion for hat jewels and mingles with Drummond of Hawthornden, Ben Johnson, Inigo Jones and the mysterious ambassador Luca Von Modrich... However both king and courtier bow before the phenomenal power invested in their wives.

The long-awaited sequel to 'Errant Blood' , a second crime thriller set in the Scottish Highland village of Duncul. Eamon's new found happiness is shattered by the type of murder that the government doesn't want to believe happens anymore. Detective Maclean thinks he has the killer, but something worse than a body has been found beneath the waters of The Minch, something that should never have been brought to the surface, and now its not just TV crews that are watching the village.

These poems reflect a journey from a past delineated by racism, trauma and violence towards a present life of peace and intense natural beauty. Permeated with nostalgia and loss; songs of an immigrant community alienated in their own land, but pierced with fierce hope, faith in redemption, and a determination that we should all belong.

Elizabethan Secret Agent: The Untold Story of William Ashby (1536-1593) is the biography of William Ashby, Elizabethan intelligence agent and diplomat who served as ambassador to Scotland during the Spanish Armada crisis. It provides a fresh social, political and foreign policy insight from the perspective of a gentleman spy who took part in some of the most important events of his time. Much of the book is focused on the Anglo-Scottish geo-political relationship during the decade of 1580-1590, with its machinations and bizarre background stories. Prior to Ashby’s ambassadorial appointment, he served as a senior ‘intelligencer’ for Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth’s spymaster.

Andreea is thirteen and looking forward to taking part in a Romanian dance performance on a trip to Paris with her friends. However she skips school one day and gets in a car with a boy she doesn't know. They have a terrible crash which leaves her paralysed from the neck down. At thirteen she is forced to confront the feeling of losing her entire reality in just one moment. This is the story of the operations, the hospitals, the friendships, the long long waits, the pain, the horror at her new appearance, and the discovery of what it means to be courageous. She shares her inner journey, which led her to re-evaluate what really matters and which is bound to make us reflect on how much we do take for granted in our own lives.

"The stories have a steely rectitude and an uncompromising determination to face down humiliation and inequality...economical, moral and compassionate."—The GuardianDilys Rose has been compared to Katherine Mansfield. Stories include one of two musicians in an airport watching a bombing of the home town they have left; restless teenagers running riot during lockdown, with disastrous consequences. In others Albert Einstein's reputation grows, as does his absence as a father; a cantankerous ninety-nine year old contributes to the chaos of a night ward. Rose conjures the essence of a situation with insight, economy and dark wit, and vividly presents an uncompromising view of the world where everyone is searching but few find what they hope for. Each story vividly creates the inner world of a compelling yet disparate cast of characters, and these brief glimpses into the lives of others leave a lasting afterglow.

Creative genius, war artist, adventurer, lover. These are just some of the words that can be used to describe Aberdeenshire-born painter and printmaker James McBey (1883-1959). McBey was a Scottish superstar amongst the creative spirits that fuelled the Etching Revival of the late nineteenth century and Etching Boom of the early twentieth century, and in an historical context, was the acknowledged heir to Whistler and Rembrandt. But after his death in Tangier, Morocco, in 1959, his renown as one of Britain’s most accomplished artists – who took the art world by storm – faded from public consciousness. Born illegitimately in the tiny parish of Foveran, Aberdeenshire, in the late Victorian era, he was brought up by his blind mother and elderly grandmother amid the rigid Presbyterian confines of Scotland’s north-east. Tragedy, dreary work as a bank clerk and a craving for success on his own terms all precipitated his leaving Aberdeen to live the life of an artist in London where he quickly became one of the most-talked about creatives of his generation. At the heart of this biography – the first ever to be published on McBey – is his time as a war artist in the Middle East during the Great War – where he would meet and paint T. E. Lawrence – his many love affairs, marriage to the beautiful American, Marguerite Loeb, and his enduring passion for Morocco. Drawing on his many diaries and letters and artistic creations, this is the story of one man who – clever, kind, intrepid, dashing, insecure and flawed – triumphed against the odds.

George Heriot, jeweller to King James VI and I, moves with the Court from Edinburgh to London to take over the English throne. It is 1603. Life is a Babel of languages and glittering new wealth. The Scottish court speaks Danish, German, Middle Scots, French and Latin. King James gives Shakespeare his first secure position, and to calm the perfidious religious tensions, he commissions his translation of the Bible.George becomes wealthier than the king as he creates a fashion for hat jewels and mingles with Drummond of Hawthornden, Ben Johnson, Inigo Jones and the mysterious ambassador Luca Von Modrich... However both king and courtier bow before the phenomenal power invested in their wives.

This is a triumph. A love letter to the ghosts of Edinburgh. I feel its hand upon my shoulder. – Sara SheridanAs a writer of fiction, I found myself itching to lift some of these characters from the page into the fertile fields of my own imagination. – Val McDermidAnyone who loves Edinburgh and is fascinated by its private histories will be entranced by this book. – The Scotsman About the book10 Scotland Street – the story of an Edinburgh home and its cast of booksellers, silk merchants, sailors, preachers, politicians, cholera and coincidence and its widespread connections over two centuries across the globe.

The second book in The Empress Irini Series, charting the extraordinary rise to power of Irini of Athens. Irini’s conniving mother-in-law, her five jealous step-brothers, and her own husband, Co-Emperor Leon, threaten Irini’s safety in Constantinople. She summons Abbess Thekla, her knife-wielding friend, to bring her sharp wits and courage to get Irini safely through childbirth in the Great Palace. Thekla owes Irini her life and thus her loyalty but she is staggered by Irini’s powerful ambitions which far exceed being docile wife and mother. Can Thekla survive Irini’s vengeful nature and the bloody aftermath of Irini’s ruthless ambition? More from the Empress Irini SeriesBetrothal and BetrayalSeizing Power

‘It's a terse account of painful experience, prison, bewilderment; hugely atmospheric and extremely funny – full of dry wit and small biting observations.’ - Anna Vaught‘Maxim Znak's message is that wry humour and humanity trump the cruel absurdities of the regime (...) These stories, one hundred of them, none longer than three pages, have echoes of early Chekhov, Zoshchenko and Samuel Beckett’ - Michael PursThe 100 tales in Zekameron are based on the 14th Century Decameron, but Znak is closer to Beckett than to Boccaccio. Banality and brutality vie with the human ability to overcome oppression. Znak’s stories in different voices chart 100 days in prison in Belarus today. The tone is laconic, ironic; the humour dry. The stories bear witness to resistance and self-assertion and the genuine warmth and appreciation of fellow prisoners.

‘A combination of all that is best in memoir, biography and history.’ – Caroline Moorehead'In this remarkable book... Jauncey has performed the great service of reminding us of a wonderful figure from Scotland’s recent history.' – Alexander McCall SmithIt would be impossible to invent Don Roberto today – a fantastic combination of Don Quixote and Sir Gawain, Indiana Jones and the Lone Ranger. He was so multi-faceted, so complex, that every chapter in his story reveals some new and contradictory aspect of his personality. He is best known as the co-founder, with Keir Hardie, of the Scottish Labour Party, and later as the founding president of the Scottish National Party. But in a long and extraordinary life he was many other things besides.

What’s the Difference… Between Me and You? is a highly original picture book filled with delicate, characterful drawings and an important central message: everyone is different, and difference is exciting. Like Charlie Mackesy’s international bestseller, The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse, Christina Findlay’s What’s the Difference will delight young and old readers alike, with its fun illustrations and witty, rhyming couplets. Taking us on an enchanting journey from The Scottish Highlands to Parisian cafés, Kew Gardens to Minnesota, this book celebrates diversity in all of its various forms.