Scotland Islands

Alistair Moffat tells the extraordinary story of the Highlands in the most detailed book ever written about this remarkable part of Scotland. This is the story of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland as it has never been told before. From the formation of the landscape millions of years ago to the twenty-first century, it brings to life the events and the people who have shaped Highland history, from saints, sinners, and outlaws to monarchs, clan chiefs, and warriors.

Fairies, Banshees, Changelings, Brownies, Kelpies, enchanted livestock, and more are investigated by a renowned folklorist and minister in 19th-century Scotland. Superstitions regarding subjects like funerals, suicides, and murders are explored, as are tales of augury, premonitions, divination, dreams, prophecies, spells, and the Devil—all collected entirely from testimonials made directly to the author by residents of places like the isles of Mull and Skye, Islay, Kintyre, the Hebrides and the Highlands.

In 1773, 63-year-old literary giant Samuel Johnson joined James Boswell, a 32-year-old Scottish lawyer, on an historic horseback expedition across the Scottish Highlands to the Western Islands. The unlikely duo's travelogue records their fascinating conversations and encounters with great wit and incredible detail. Johnson, one of the 18th century's most celebrated writers, provided an elegant and stately account of everything from Loch Ness's medicinal waters to Scotland's puzzling lack of trees.

Initially published in 1775, A Journey to the Western Isles recounts a three-month trip to upper Scotland that Samuel Johnson undertook with James Boswell a couple of years previously. During their adventure, they discover a novel culture, stunning landscapes and welcoming locals – all described in Johnson's captivating prose.

Bettina Selby, traveller and explorer decided to spend a long summer idyll re-visiting the far flung islands of the Outer Hebrides. With an 'all-terrain' bicycle and a small tent she sets out on a leisurely tour following forgotten tracks and byways into deserted corners. She finds that neither wild weather, nor midges, nor even a sprained ankle can dampen her enthusiasm for this fascinating threatened habitat. Her interest in the people of the islands, their history and traditions is equally strong and the pages are filled with a range of characters from those whose families have crofted ...

Deep in the abyss of Loch Ness, a forty-year-old secret is waking up. High school English teacher Isla McKenna knows the old rules of the loch: show respect, stay off the water after dark, and never mock the deep. But when billionaire Julian Croft builds Serenity Point Lodge—a modernist glass palace—directly over the water, he disturbs a territorial titan that has been studied, enhanced, and imprisoned for decades. Marine biologist Dr. Rowan Cade arrived chasing acoustic phantoms, but he found a biological nightmare. The "accident" that claimed an elite guest was no slip; it was a ...

The betrayal of those closest burns most of all.... Hoping for a fresh start, an English family moves to the remote Shetland islands, eager to give their autistic son a better life. But when a young nanny's body is found hanging in the barn beside their home, rumors of her affair with the husband spread like wildfire. As suspicion and resentment of the family blazes in the community, Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez is called in to investigate. He knows it will mean his boss, Willow Reeves, returning to run the investigation, and confronting their complex relationship.

An Island Wedding has descriptive copy which is not yet available from the Publisher...

*THE #2 BESTSELLING SCOTTISH CRIME EBOOK* *SHORTLISTED FOR THE McDERMID DEBUT AWARD 2024* *SHORTLISTED FOR THE BLOODY SCOTLAND DEBUT PRIZE 2024* *LONGLISTED FOR SCOTLAND’S NATIONAL BOOK AWARD – FIRST BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024* Midwinter in Orkney. Six hours of daylight. A race against time to...

Young orphan and heir David Balfour is victimized by his miserly Uncle Ebenezer, who has him kidnapped and sold into slavery on a ship bound for the Carolinas. But a shipwreck frees David, who then meets David Break, a Scotsman returning from political exile. Together, they witness a murder, and when suspicion falls on them, they undertake a dangerous journey across the Scottish Highlands.

A strange group of people have descended on the small island of West Uist. Camped out in the grounds of the Castle, they are preparing to celebrate the summer solstice. Museum curator Finley McNab becomes suspicious of the cult-like group, and when he challenges them it seems his investigations could be deadly....Inspector Torquil McKinnon is called in to keep an eye on the group. Are they innocent pagan worshippers? Or is something more sinister going on behind the scenes? As the day of the solstice draws ever nearer, whispers of murder are on the horizon....

1940: When the island of Guernsey is invaded by the Nazis, two sisters are determined to rebel in any way they can. But when forced to take in a German soldier, they are shocked to find a familiar face on their doorstep. 2016: Two generations later, Lucy returns to Guernsey after the death of a distant cousin. As she prepares the old family house for sale, Lucy discovers a box of handwritten notes, one word standing out: resistance. Lucy’s search for the author will uncover the story of a forgotten sister who vanished from the island one night, never to be seen again.

From the New York Times bestselling author of the Agatha Raisin television series, travel to the Scotland Highlands with a classic Hamish Macbeth cozy mystery. All Hamish Macbeth wants is a quiet life in his peaceful home in the Highland village of Lochdubh. But when his newly-assigned constable...

'Meticulously researched and beautifully told . . . a wonderfully satisfying read' – Santa Montefiore The Sunday Times Bestselling Historical Fiction Summer on St Kilda – a wild, remote Scottish island. In the 1930s, two strangers from drastically different worlds meet . . . Wild-spirited...

The happy, tranquil, traditional way of life on the remote, little Scottish island of Skran far out in the Firth of Clyde is threatened with unwanted upheaval along with an environmental disaster by big business. Can Bonnie and Clive Sutherland help prevent it or will money speak. Drams, Jams and Scams follows on from where our previous book Daydream Believers left off. Drams are the moonshine peatreek that is illicitly distilled on the island, that they are continually being offered. The jams are what they get into when they encounter tight spots; including ghosts, a mysterious station ...

The Hebridean Baker has a global following and with nearly 10 million views of his recipe and lifestyle videos on TikTok. His unique style and wholesome and delicious traditional Scottish bakes have won him fans around the globe and now, in The Hebridean Baker, Coinneach shares both his fabulous recipes and fascinating stories of island life, offering a true taste of Scotland's wild and windswept Outer Hebrides.

RICHARD ADAMS meets GEORGE ORWELL in this story of a colony of rats living on an island under the world-famous Forth Rail Bridge. Ruled over by an Inner Circle of evil fat rats, and in fear for their lives, a group of lowly Watchers attempts to brave the stormy waters and scale the giant bridge in a bid for freedom. But celebrations for the bridge's centenary are about to begin... Will they make it? A story of oppression overcome, fierce loyalty, dreams and devastation. Grisly to the end, but with heart. You'll never look at those little islands in the same way again.

'A wonderfully satisfying read: love, passion, drama, violence, menace and peril, and characters you fall in love with' – Santa Montefiore An Island full of secrets . . . Summer, 1929. Mhairi MacKinnon is in need of a husband. As the eldest girl among nine children, her father has made it...

Judgement is in the eye of the beholder Adrian Harvey, London wine merchant, has lost the Christmas spirit. Someone is stalking him, stealing his post and vandalising his shop. When the police question him after an anonymous tip-off, he's more than anxious. He's scared. And who is that nun? Long time neighbour and friend DI Beatrice Stubbs is dispatched to Germany to investigate a series of apparently related art thefts, so Adrian seizes the chance to flee the city. He follows her to Hamburg to do some Christmas shopping and visit his ex. Yet the stalker is still on his heels. While ...

Ronald Mackay’s sympathetic observation of people, places and events are evident in each of these 31 stories. He writes with humor and gravity, tenderness and compassion, optimism and joy. Each story treats us to a place where he has lived and worked, from Scotland to Spain, Mexico to Argentina, Romania to India. Some stories deal with fleeting occurrences, others with abiding uncertainties; some are biographical, others offer insights into the intimacies of people different from us, yet deeply similar. They show what it takes to pluck triumph from defeat, and joy from anguish; how order,...