POLYGON NEW TITLES 2019
Polygon publishes a range of quality fiction, poetry, music, current affairs and classics – our centenary editions of Muriel Spark’s novels drew much praise and attracted contributions from acclaimed writers such as Ali Smith, William Boyd and Louise Welsh. In 2019, Polygon will have thrilling new crime from the No.1 Audible bestseller Denzil Meyrick, and compelling novels from prize-winning Sheena Kalayil and Sandra Ireland, a rising star in both the UK and international markets. Our music list continues to thrive and we’ll mark the 50th anniversary of the break-up of the Beatles with And in the End, which includes previously unpublished testimony from friends and witnesses of the Fab Four’s final days. And one of the world’s favourite writers, Alexander McCall Smith, will continue to delight the many fans of his Scotland Street series with The Peppermint Chronicles.
The full company is comprised of a number of imprints:
Polygon New Titles | Alexander McCall Smith
The Second Worst Restaurant in France ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH Paul Stewart’s new project, The Philosophy of Food in Six Easy Chapters, is not going well. Beginning to worry that it will never be written Paul calls on the aid of his cousin, Chloe, who suggests a radical course of action. She has taken a six-month lease on a house in a French village not far from Poitiers and invites him to join her there and get the book finished in peace. He needs no second bidding and it is not long before he escapes to France. ISBN: 9781846974212 Price: £14.99 | Publication: 09 May 2019 Format: 216 x 138mm D-hbk | Extent: 256pp ePub: 978178885XXXX Rights: EL UK & Commonwealth exc. NA
Features the returning protagonist of the bestselling My Italian Bulldozer (14,000 hardbacks sold) Alexander McCall Smith’s books have sold over 25 million copies and been translated into 46 different languages He will be touring the UK on publication, and his events and festival appearances always sell out
Once there, however, Paul finds his fortunes tangled up with the fate of one eating establishment in the village: the infamous Second Worst Restaurant in France . . .
ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH was a professor of medical law at the University of Edinburgh, but gave up the position to concentrate on his writing. He is now the author of the highly successful No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, the Isabel Dalhousie series, the Scotland Street series as well as numerous stand-alone novels and story collections.
A 44 SCOTLAND STREET NOVEL
ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH Once more, we catch up with the delightful goings-on in the fictitious 44 Scotland Street from Alexander McCall Smith . . . Bertie and the gang return for another series of heart-warming, laugh-out-loud escapades in Edinburgh’s favourite street. Told with all of McCall Smith’s customary charm and deftness, this will be your perfect summer read.
ISBN: 9781846974830 Price: £16.99 | Publication: 11 July 2019 Format: 216 x 138mm D-hbk | Extent: 256pp ePub: N/A Rights: EL UK & Commonwealth exc. NA
ALSO AVAILABLE THE GOOD PILOT PETER WOODHOUSE ISBN: 9781846974533 £8.99 Pbk
The thirteenth novel in the 44 Scotland Street series, the longest running seriel novel in the world, returning after a year hiatus Serialisation starts in the Scotsman in spring 2019
TRAINS & LOVERS ISBN: 9781846973956 £7.99 Pbk
CHANCE DEVELOPMENTS ISBN: 9781846973703 £7.99 Pbk
Over 150,000 copies sold of this wonderful series
Polygon New Titles | Alexander McCall Smith
The Peppermint Tea Chronicles
Polygon New Titles | Crime & Mystery
Pianos and Flowers A COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES
ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH A picture can paint a thousand words, but what about a vintage photograph?
ISBN: 9781846975240 Price: ÂŁ12.99 | Publication: 07 November 2019 Format: 198 x 129mm B-hbk | Extent: 192pp ePub: 978178885XXXX Rights: EL UK & Commonwealth exc. NA
A delightful compendium of short stories inspired by images in the renowned photographic archive of The Sunday Times AMS’s previous collection of short stories Chance Developments, all centred around the theme of Love, has sold over 10,000 copies This beautifully produced deluxe edition will include the images which inspired each story and will make the perfect Christmas gift
In 2015 Alexander McCall Smith wrote a book entitled Chance Developments: Unexpected Love Stories, in which he imagined the stories behind five chancedupon black and white photographs. Who were those people, why were they smiling, what made them sad? He so enjoyed the experience that when The Sunday Times generously offered him access to their early 20th century photograph archive he jumped at the opportunity.
Polygon New Titles | Fiction
The Far Side of the Night RISING DRAGON 3
JAN-PHILIPP SENDKER During a trip to China, Paul and Christine experience the nightmare of every parent: their four-year-old son is threatened with kidnap. The only safe place for the family is the US embassy in Beijing, but they are two thousand miles away, with the police searching frantically for them, and all airports, train stations and major roads under surveillance. They’ll have no chance without help from strangers, but who will be willing to risk their lives for them?
ISBN: 9781846974175 Price: £8.99 | Publication: 07 February 2019 Format: 198 x 129mm B-pbk | Extent: 320pp ePub: 9781788850216 Rights: EL UK & Commonwealth exc. NA
JAN-PHILIPP SENDKER was the American correspondent for Stern from 1990 to 1995, and its Asian correspondent from 1995 to 1999. The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, his first novel, was an international bestseller, and he’s the author of A Well- Tempered Heart, Whispering Shadows and its sequel Dragon Games.
By the author of The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, which has been a bestseller across the globe, selling over 1 million copies This is the final book in the Rising Dragon series, which has been translated into 13 languages Previous titles in the series have enjoyed great acclaim – Whispering Shadows was a World Book Night title, and has sold over 10,000 copies in the UK
Polygon New Titles | Crime & Mystery
A Breath on Dying Embers A D.C.I. DALEY THRILLER
DENZIL MEYRICK When the luxury cruiser, hastily renamed Great Britain, berths in Kinloch harbour, the pressure is on DCI Jim Daley. The UK Government are taking a highpowered group of businessmen and women on a tour of the British Isles, golfing and seeing the sights, as part of a push for global trade. But when one of the crew goes missing, and an elderly local ornithologist disappears, will the pressure become too great? ISBN: 9781846974755 Price: ÂŁ8.99 | Publication: 11 July 2019 Format: 198 x 129mm B-pbk | Extent: 400pp
Daley faces a life and death struggle, and ghosts from his past, but is this his last throw of the dice?
ePub: 9781788852050 Rights: EL UK & Commonwealth exc. NA
This massively popular series has over half a million sales and has been published in the US and Germany The seventh of these compelling crime novels, packed with authentic police procedure, plot twists and gritty humour Each novel works as a standalone thriller as well as part of a series
DENZIL MEYRICK worked as a police officer, distillery manager, freelance journalist, and company director. He is originally from Campbeltown in Argyll, but now lives with his wife Fiona on Loch Lomondside.
Polygon New Titles | Crime & Mystery
Thunder Bay DOUGLAS SKELTON When reporter Rebecca Connolly is told of Roddie Drummond’s return to the island of Stoirm she senses a story. Fifteen years before he was charged with the murder of his lover, Mhairi. When he was found Not Proven, Roddie left the island and no one, apart from his sister, knew where he was or what he was doing. Now he has returned for his mother’s funeral – and it will spark an explosion of hatred and violence. Defying her editor’s wishes, Rebecca joins forces with local photographer Chazz Wymark to dig into the secrets surrounding Mhairi’s death, and her mysterious last words of Thunder Bay. ISBN: 9781846974371
'He has crafted an emotionally truthful tale and delivered it in a lyrical style that places him among Scotland’s top cadre of crime writers' – Louise Fairbairn, Scotsman
DOUGLAS SKELTON was born in Glasgow. He has been a bank clerk, tax officer, taxi driver (for two days), wine waiter (for two hours), journalist and investigator. He has written eleven true crime and Scottish criminal history books but now concentrates on fiction.
Price: £8.99 | Publication: 07 March 2019 Format: 198 x 129mm B-pbk | Extent: 320pp ePub: 9781788851787 Rights: World All Languages
An exciting and atmospheric crime thriller set on a fictionalised Scottish island, with a strong female protagonist Douglas Skelton is an experienced true crime writer with real investigative experience His previous fiction title Open Wounds (2016) was longlisted for the prestigious McIlvanney Award
Polygon New Titles | Crime & Mystery
Murder in the Merchant City ANGUS McALLISTER Annette Somerville, a young single mother, earns her living in a high-class Glasgow sauna parlour, scrupulously keeping her respectable home life separate from her professional activities. During a series of murders in the city, seemingly unconnected, Annette realises that all of the victims have been regular customers. No one else seems interested, and her boss makes it clear that going to the police will cost Annette her job. But Annette’s new boyfriend, a former customer of the sauna, could be the murderer’s next victim. ISBN: 9781846974717 Price: £8.99 | Publication: 07 February 2019 Format: 198 x 129mm B-pbk | Extent: 288pp ePub: 9781788851749
Can Annette continue to keep her two lives separate, or are they destined to violently clash?
Rights: World All Languages
From the author of the selfpublished cult bestseller Close Quarters, which was a word-ofmouth success with sales of 4,000 copies through Bookscan This new book is a murder mystery set in 1990s Glasgow’s Merchant City, the place where ancient and modern, rich and poor, exist side-by-side
ANGUS McALLISTER worked as a solicitor and university professor, and is now retired. For many years he wrote academic books and articles, as well as fiction. He is the author of the bestselling Close Quarters, and he lives in Glasgow.
Polygon New Titles | Crime & Mystery
The End of the Line GILLIAN GALBRAITH After the death of leading haematologist Professor Anstruther, antiquarian book dealer Anthony Sparrow is tasked with clearing out his mansion of its books and papers. He soon begins to question the real circumstances of the old man’s death: was he in fact murdered, and if so, who was responsible? The answer might be found in the personal diaries and letters which Sparrow unearths. But as he closes in on the answer, the perspective suddenly shifts and everything that he was sure about dissolves into darkness and shadows.
ISBN: 9781846974779 Price: ÂŁ8.99 | Publication: 09 May 2019 Format: 198 x 129mm B-pbk | Extent: 192pp ePub: 9781788851916 Rights: World All Languages
GILLIAN GALBRAITH spent seventeen years as an advocate specialising in medical negligence and agricultural law cases. She has since published 7 bestselling crime novels. She lives in the country near Kinross with her husband and daughter.
The first in a brand new series from popular crime author Gillian Galbraith, featuring antiquarian book dealer Anthony Sparrow Her previous Alice Rice and Father Ross mysteries have garnered a loyal fanbase and sales of over 80,000 copies Central to the plot is the UKwide enquiry into the bloodcontamination scandal of the 1970s to 1990s, a regularly news-leading topic
Polygon New Titles | Fiction
The Unmaking of Ellie Rook SANDRA IRELAND A single phone call from halfway across the world is all it takes to bring her home . . . ‘Ellie, something bad has happened.’ Desperate to escape her ‘kid from the scrapyard’ reputation, Ellie Rook has forged a new life for herself abroad, but tragedy strikes when her mother, Imelda, falls from a notorious waterfall connected to a local legend.
ISBN: 9781846974823 Price: £8.99 | Publication: 11 July 2019 Format: 198 x 129mm B-pbk | Extent: 208pp ePub: 9781788851879
Ellie is forced to confront some disturbing truths about the family she left behind and the woman she has become. Can a long-dead Pictish queen hold the key to Ellie’s survival? And how far will she go to right a wrong?
Rights: World All Languages
Third novel from critically acclaimed Sandra Ireland A scintillating psychological thriller where past and present violently collide This contemporary tale explores themes of patriarchal power, coercion and emotional abuse, set against the backdrop of an ancient Scottish folktale
SANDRA IRELAND began her writing career as a correspondent on a local newspaper. In 2013 she was awarded a CarnegieCameron scholarship to study for an MLitt in Writing Practice and Study at the University of Dundee, graduating with a distinction in 2014. Her work has appeared in various publications and women’s magazines. She is the author of Beneath the Skin (2016) and Bone Deep (2018).
Polygon New Titles | Fiction
The Wild Wind SHEENA KALAYIL In 1978, aged twelve, Sissy Olikara was living with her parents and baby brother on a school campus, on the outskirts of Lusaka. But much has changed since her childhood in Zambia: she is now a translator, based in the United States. Looking back, Sissy remembers the gentle routine her family enjoyed, before a series of events disrupt the balance. The region is also in transition, with Rhodesia to the south and Mozambique to the east both embroiled in internal wars, and when a civilian plane is shot down, the political repercussions begin to spill into the daily lives of Sissy and her family.
ISBN: 9781846974915 Price: ÂŁ8.99 | Publication: 06 June 2019 Format: 198 x 129mm B-pbk | Extent: 256pp ePub: 9781788852210 Rights: World English Language
SHEENA KALAYIL was born in Zambia in 1970 where her parents were teachers seconded from Kerala, India. She arrived in the UK aged eighteen and, after graduating, worked all over the world. She has a doctorate in Linguistics and teaches at the University of Manchester. She lives near Manchester with her husband and two daughters.
Third novel from award-winning author Sheena Kalayil An emotional roller-coaster charting the course of a family as their world is pushed and pulled by emotion, religion, and war Her debut novel The Bureau of Second Chances won the Writers' Guild Best First Novel Award in 2018 and she was shortlisted for the Edward Stanford Prize for Fiction with a Sense of Place
Polygon New Titles | Classic Detective Fiction
Hag’s Nook A GIDEON FELL MYSTERY
JOHN DICKSON CARR The Starberth family governed the nowabandoned Chatterham prison for many years, and each male heir must spend the night of his twenty-fifth birthday there, alone, overlooking the hanging site of Hag’s Nook.
ISBN: 9781846974946 Price: £8.99 | Publication: 11 July 2019 Format: 198 x 129mm B-pbk | Extent: 192pp ePub: 9781788852067 Rights: EL UK & Commonwealth exc. NA
Hag’s Nook is the first Gideon Fell mystery (published in 1933) Gideon Fell is one of the greatest detectives of the Golden Age John Dickson Carr remains the master of the impossible lockedroom murder
After a chance encounter on a railway platform, Dorothy Starberth and young American graduate Tad Rampole fall in love. Rampole is here in rural Lincolnshire to see Gideon Fell. The following day, Dorothy’s brother is found dead of a broken neck, just as his father and grandfather before him. Ingeniously plotted and packed with atmosphere, Hag’s Nook will not disappoint mystery lovers.
JOHN DICKSON CARR was born in 1906 in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, the son of a lawyer. His first novel, It Walks by Night, was published in 1930. Two years later, he moved to England with his English wife; thereafter he became a prolific author and became a master of the locked-room mystery. He died in 1977 in South Carolina.
A SIR HENRY MERRIVALE MYSTERY
JOHN DICKSON CARR Rita Wainwright’s love affair with Barry Sullivan is flamboyant enough to deserve a dramatic ending, so when the pair of them vanish over a cliff one rainy night, leaving a farewell note for Rita’s husband, no one doubts that it is a case of suicide – except for Doctor Luke, one of the few people who genuinely liked her. Sir Henry Merrivale – the fabulous ‘H.M.’ – is staying in the area, having his portrait painted as a Roman senator. Although confined to a chair with an injured toe, this does not stop him getting about – occasionally in toga and laurels – and solving what is too much for the sharp-eyed doctor.
ISBN: 9781846974939 Price: £8.99 | Publication: 11 July 2019 Format: 198 x 129mm B-pbk | Extent: 224pp ePub: 9781788852074 Rights: EL UK & Commonwealth exc. NA
ALSO AVAILABLE
John Dickson Carr writing under the pseudonym Carter Dickson, the master of the locked room murder An ingenious mystery first published in 1943 by Penguin
THE CASE OF THE CONSTANT SUICIDES ISBN: 9781846974595 £8.99 Pbk
The Case of the Constant Suicides under Polygon has already sold over 2,000 copies
Polygon New Titles | Classic Detective Fiction
She Died a Lady
Polygon New Titles | Short Stories
Dark Encounters A COLLECTION OF GHOST STORIES
WILLIAM CROFT DICKINSON INTRODUCTION BY ALISTAIR KERR
ISBN: 9781846975134 Price: £7.99 | Publication: 10 October 2019 Format: 198 x 129mm B-pbk | Extent: 224pp ePub: 9780857909503 Rights: World All Languages
William Croft Dickinson’s classic Scottish ghost stories back in print after more than 30 years Will appeal to fans of M.R. James and H.P. Lovecraft Features a rare story – ‘The MacGregor Skull’ – which was the last story every written by the author and posthumously serialised in the Scotsman in 1963
Dark Encounters is a collection of classic and elegantly unsettling ghost stories first published in 1963. A spine-tingling collection, these tales are set in the brooding landscape of Scotland, with an air of historic authenticity – often referring to real events, objects and people. From a demonic text that leaves its readers strangled to the murderous spectre of a feudal baron, this is a crucial addition to the long and distinguished cannon of Scottish ghost stories. For those who seek out the unnerving, the unknown and the unexplainable, Dark Encounters is guaranteed to raise the hair on the back of your neck. WILLIAM CROFT DICKINSON CBE (28 August 1897 – May 1963) was an English historian, a leading expert in the history of early modern Scotland and an author of both children’s fiction and adult ghost stories. ALISTAIR W. J. KERR studied History and Law at the University of Edinburgh and later became a civil servant. He is the author of Betrayal: The Murder of Robert Nairac GC (Cambridge Academic, 2015).
Polygon New Titles | Poetry
Moder Dy ROSEANNE WATT
‘The old Shetland fishermen still speak with something like reverence of the forgotten art of steering by the moder dy (mother wave), the name given to an underswell which it is said always travels in the direction of home’ Written in English, interspersed with Shetlandic dialect throughout, this eagerly awaited debut collection from Shetland poet Roseanne Watt contains profound, assured and wilfully spare poems that are built from the sight, sound and heartbeat of the land as much as from the sea. In rigorously controlled, concise, and vivid language Watt offers glimpses of the landscape alongside which we find the most complex and mysterious of human experiences.
ISBN: 9781846974878 Price: £8.99 | Publication: 09 May 2019 Format: 198 x 129mm B-pbk | Extent: 64pp ePub: N/A Rights: World All Languages
ROSEANNE WATT is a poet, filmmaker and musician from Shetland. She is currently poetry editor for The Island and was the winner of the 2015 Outspoken Poetry Prize (Poetry in Film) and runner-up in the 2018 Aesthetica Creative Writing Award. She lives and works in Edinburgh.
Winner of the Edwin Morgan Poetry Prize 2018 (for unpublished collections by poets under 30) The author’s work has appeared in The Irish Pages, Northwords Now, Gutter and These Islands, We Sing (Polygon, 2011) A fresh new voice in Scottish poetry
Polygon New Titles | Poetry
Black Cart JIM CARRUTH Almost eighteen years in the making, this collection is a love poem to a rural community in Scotland. The freshness of its language brings the daily grind, its joys and harsh realities, to vivid life; its final elegies form a moving testament to a lost generation of family, friends, farmers and farms. 'Carruth’s poetry is important to Scotland' Douglas Dunn
ISBN: 9781846975127 Price: £8.99 | Publication: 06 June 2019 Format: 198 x 129mm B-pbk | Extent: 96pp
'It is a quiet, beautiful collection, poems punctuated by the names of fields, of grasses, and of disused dairy farms. I trust every word' Gillian Clarke
ePub: N/A Rights: World All Languages
This is the first collection in a trilogy; the follow up is Bale Fire, also published by Polygon
ALSO AVAILABLE
Jim Carruth is also the author of Killochries which has sold over 1,500 copies KILLOCHRIES ISBN: 9781846974625 £8.99 Pbk
Polygon New Titles | Poetry
Bale Fire JIM CARRUTH
Bale Fire is a book in three cycles. The first explores the darker side of communities in decline. The middle is a transposition of elements and characters of the Odyssey to a Scottish hill farm and its neighbours. The final part looks at the idea of harvest and loss. Jim Carruth offers here both a celebration and an elegy. The poems in this collection address the themes of our time: war, friendship, honesty, violence, humanity and love.
ISBN: 9781846975004 Price: ÂŁ8.99 | Publication: 06 June 2019 Format: 198 x 129mm B-Pbk | Extent: 96pp ePub: N/A Rights: World All Languages
JIM CARRUTH has won both the James McCash poetry competition and the McLellan Poetry Prize and was awarded a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship in 2009. He was chosen as one of the poets showcased in Oxford Poets 2010. In 2014 he was appointed Poet Laureate of Glasgow. He is also the author of Killochries (Polygon, 2018).
Jim Carruth is Glasgow’s Poet Laureate His work has been shortlisted for the Saltire Society Scottish Poetry Book of the Year, the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry Prize and the Fenton Aldeburgh Prize
Polygon New Titles | Poetry
Hamish Henderson COLLECTED POEMS
EDITED BY COREY GIBSON This book pushes at – and often transgresses – the boundaries between high modernist poetics and popular folk song; between the profound and profane; between works of individual artistic endeavour and the mass of stubborn ephemera ascribed to ‘anon’.
ISBN: 9781846974861 Price: £12.99 | Publication: 07 November 2019 Format: 216 x 138mm Demy-hbk | Extent: 256pp ePub: N/A Rights: World All Languages
The first collected poems since 2000, published to coincide with Hamish Henderson’s centenary year This is the first such collection carried by a major Scottish publishing house and will feature several previously unpublished pieces In its editorial principles it is faithful to Henderson’s commitment to what he called ‘the carrying stream’ of the oral folk tradition
This collection also advocates for a broader appreciation of Henderson’s literary legacy through explaining the continuum of radical emancipatory politics that might be plotted throughout: from the juvenilia, through the modernist war poetry of the 1940s, the soldiers’ songs, the recreated ballads or ‘muckle sangs’, the translations, the rousing anthems, and the late meditative, self-reflexive lyrics.
COREY GIBSON is Lecturer in TwentiethCentury Scottish Literature at the University of Glasgow. He is the author of The Voice of the People: Hamish Henderson and Scottish Cultural Politics (Edinburgh University Press, 2015). His writing and research is focused on the radical literary imagination in Scotland.
Polygon New Titles | Poetry
Tools of the Trade POEMS FOR NEW DOCTORS
EDITED BY SAMUEL TONGUE & LESLEY MORRISON Being a doctor is a privilege; it is also very demanding and can be stressful, and to be able to look after others, we need to look after ourselves. We offer you this little book of poetry, Tools of the Trade, as a friend to provide inspiration, comfort and support as you begin work. Tools of the Trade includes poems by poetdoctors Iain Bamforth, Rafael Campo, Glenn Colquhoun, Martin MacIntryre and Gael Turnbull. It is a gift from the medical community to future colleagues graduating from Scotland’s Medical Schools.
SAMUEL TONGUE is Project Co-ordinator at the Scottish Poetry Library. His first pamphlet is Hauling-Out (Eyewear, 2016) and his second, Stitch, is forthcoming with Tapsalteerie. LESELY MORRISON is a retired GP, now writing and contributing to radio, with a longstanding belief that the humanities can and should be used to cast light on medical education and practice. She works with medical students at the University of Edinburgh and uses this book as a tool for teaching.
ISBN: 9781846974885 Price: £6.99 | Publication: 06 June 2019 Format: 156 x 110mm pbk | Extent: 96pp ePub: N/A Rights: World English Language
Features poems by Wendall Berry, Douglas Dunn, Robert Burns, Hugh MacDairmid, Seamus Heaney and Edwin Morgan as well as specially commissioned new poems Features a new introduction by Adam Kay, author of This is Going to Hurt Co-publication between Polygon and the Scottish Poetry Library
Polygon New Titles | Music
And in the End THE LAST DAYS OF THE BEATLES
KEN McNAB This is the story of the last acrimonious days of the Beatles, a final chapter reconstructing for the first time the seismic events of 1969, the year that saw the band reach new highs of musical creativity and new lows of internal strife. By 1969, violence and vindictiveness had replaced the Beatles’ own mantra of peace and love, and Vietnam and the Cold War had supplanted hope and optimism. And just as the decade foundered on the altar of a cold, harsh reality, so too did the Beatles. ISBN: 9781846974724 Price: £16.99 | Publication: 20 March 2019 Format: 234 x 156mm R-hbk | Extent: 320pp Illustrations: b/w throughout ePub: 9781788851770
In the midst of this rancour, however, emerged the disharmony of Let It Be and the ragged genius of Abbey Road, their incredible farewell love letter to the world.
Rights: World All Languages
Journalist and lifelong Beatles fan Ken McNab charts, month by month, how the tapestry that once bound the Fab Four together slowly unravelled throughout 1969 Includes new and exclusive interviews and many untold stories from friends, engineers, photographers and eye-witnesses Ken McNab’s previous book on the Beatles, The Beatles in Scotland, sold over 5,000 copies through Bookscan
KEN McNAB is a lifelong Beatles fan and well-respected journalist with Scotland’s Evening Times. He lives in Glasgow with his wife and children.
Polygon New Titles | Music
Harlem 69 THE FUTURE OF SOUL
STUART COSGROVE In 1969, among Harlem’s Rabelaisian cast of characters are bandleader King Curtis, soul singers Aretha Franklin and Donny Hathaway, and drug peddler Jimmy ‘Goldfinger’ Terrell. By the end of the year Harlem is gripped by a heroin pandemic and the death of a 12-year-old child sends shockwaves through the USA, leaving Harlem stigmatised as an area ravaged by crime, gangsters and a darkly vengeful drug problem. ISBN: 9781846974748 Price: £9.99 | Publication: 11 April 2019 Format: 198 x 129mm B-pbk | Extent: 288pp Illustrations: colour throughout ePub: 9781788850254 Rights: World All Languages
STUART COSGROVE was a fanzine writer on the northern soul scene before joining the black music paper Echoes, as a staff writer. He became media editor with the NME and a feature writer for a range of newspapers and magazines. He is the author of Detroit 67, Memphis 68 and Young Soul Rebels.
The previous book, Memphis 68, won the Penderyn Music Prize 2018 This story takes the reader through the dramatic events of that year amid the most vibrant black community in America and the hive of Black Power New in paperback, Harlem 69 brings Stuart Cosgrove’s epic sixties trilogy to a dramatic conclusion
Polygon New Titles | Non-Fiction
The Great Pretender NICK PERRY ‘Give me three years and we’ll be millionaires,’ Nick challenged his longsuffering family in 1980, when cash was king. ‘I’ve got an idea that’s going to take us to the top.’ That idea? Creating the most convincing antique replicas ever made. You name it, he replicated it for the wheeler-dealers chasing the dream. When Nick and his crew reached the rarefied circles of the London art world he realised he could be dangerously out of his depth. ISBN: 9781846974700 Price: £8.99 | Publication: 09 May 2019 Format: 198 x 129mm B-pbk | Extent: 256pp
This is the unlikely and often hilarious story of where nothing but enthusiasm and self-belief can take you.
Illustrations: b/w throughout ePub: 9781788851923 Rights: World All Languages
A hilarious and enthralling account of the trading of replica antiques in London’s fine art circles Nick’s first book, Peaks and Troughs was featured on BBC Radio 2 Book Club The public is fascinated by the art world – BBC1’s Fake or Fortune is one of the channel’s highest-rated shows, drawing audiences of 5 million each week, while Antiques Road Show is now in its 40th series
NICK PERRY was educated at Parkstone Sea Training School before leaving for London where he worked for ATV Television. He travelled around Europe moving from job to job until he came into money and on impulse he bought a hill farm in North Wales. He lives with his wife Arabella in the Wiltshire countryside.
Polygon New Titles | Non-Fiction
A Whole Scene Going On THE INSIDE STORY OF PRIVATE EYE, THE POP REVOLUTION AND LONDON IN THE SWINGING SIXTIES
BARRY FANTONI A Whole Scene Going On covers Barry Fantoni's working – and sometimes not working – life from his first sell-out oneman show in 1963 to the point in the late Sixties when the swinging decade merged into the political unrest of the Seventies. From teaching the Sex Pistols how to draw at Croydon Art School and writing a song for Marianne Faithfull to finding a harmonium for Paul McCartney and his lifelong friendship with Ray Davies of the Kinks, Barry’s account of the Sixties is a wry and observational gem. BARRY FANTONI attended the prestigious Slade School of Fine Art and was a figure in the 1960s pop art movement, along with contemporaries such as Sir Peter Blake and David Hockney. Alongside his Private Eye work, he was the diary cartoonist for the Times between 1983 and 1991. He lives in Turin.
ISBN: 9781846974892 Price: £16.99 | Publication: 05 September 2019 Format: 216 x 138mm Demy-hbk | Extent: 256pp ePub: 9781788852401 Rights: World English Language
An insider’s look at that most swinging and revolutionary of decades, and Barry's encounters with Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Dusty Springfield and many, many more Barry won Male TV Personality of the Year in 1966 for his show, A Whole Scene Going Huge media interest expected, author Q&As and promotion with Private Eye
Polygon New Titles | Non-Fiction
Words Fail Me TERESA MONACHINO In this new edition of the bestselling Words Fail Me, Teresa Monachino rounds up and breaks down a variety of unruly words: words lacking in integrity, misleading words that do not mean what they say, words that mean more than they say, words with inconsistent pronunciation or spellings that are just plain cruel!
ISBN: 9781846975233
Using striking and witty graphic design the author demands answers to such troublesome questions as, why is abbreviation such a long word, does monosyllabic really need five syllables and why is lisp so hard to say if you have one?
Price: ÂŁ9.99 | Publication: 10 October 2019 Format: 177 x 129mm hbk | Extent: 144pp Illustrations: colour throughout ePub: 9781788852340 Rights: UK & Commonwealth exc.
Teresa Monachino’s Words Fail Me has been a regular feature in Private Eye since 2012 In this new book Teresa uses imaginative typography to highlight tricky words, illogical spellings, misleading pronunciation and other quirky characteristics of the English language Full colour throughout, it will make a fascinating and beautiful gift
TERESA MONACHINO is a graphic designer whose work touches many design disciplines from exhibition and branding to books, packaging and digital media. She studied at the Chelsea School of Art in London, graduating in 1990, and now runs her own independent studio.
Polygon New Titles | Non-Fiction
The Silent Traveller in Edinburgh CHIANG YEE Chiang Yee was, in his own words, ‘dazzled’ by the Scottish capital. From the Meadows to Princes Street, from Arthur’s Seat to Calton Hill and Edinburgh Castle, he paints an unforgettable picture of the city and its people in the 1940s. Writing with wry humour, he broadens our perspective of familiar sights and customs, introduces us to Confucian philosophy and Chinese poetry, corrects cultural misconceptions, and encourages us to appreciate life. ISBN: 9781846974816 Price: £9.99 | Publication: 06 June 2019 Format: 198 x 129mm B-pbk | Extent: 256pp Illustrations: colour throughout ePub: 9780857901385 Rights: UK & Commonwealth exc. NA
CHIANG YEE the self-styled ‘Silent Traveller’ was a Chinese poet, author, painter and calligrapher. His Silent Traveller series spanned a dozen cities across three continents.
Scotland’s capital city seen through the unique gaze of ‘The Silent Traveller’ Chiang Yee writes with humour and warmth from an outsider’s perspective - seeing things differently than local tradition dictated
Polygon Reissues | Music
Lee Brilleaux: Rock 'n' Roll Gentleman ZOË HOWE Lee Brilleaux, the charismatic star of proto-punk R&B reprobates Dr Feelgood, was one of rock’n’roll’s greatest frontmen. But he was also one of its greatest gentlemen – a class act with heart, fire, wanderlust and a wild streak.
ISBN: 9781846974960 Price: £9.99 | Publication: 06 June 2019 Format: 198 x 129mm B-pbk | Extent: 272pp
The Feelgoods, with Lee Brilleaux and Wilko Johnson at the helm, charged into London, grabbed the pub rock scene by the throat and sparked a revolutionary new era, proving that you didn’t have to be middle class, wearing the ‘right clothes’ or living in the ‘right place’ to succeed.
Illustrations: Colour throughout ePub: 9780857902641 Rights: EL UK & Commonwealth (exc. NA)
Published with the blessing of Lee’s widow Shirley, this is an exhilarating, eye-opening collection of exclusive stories, memories and unseen drawings and images Worldwide fan base, including 15,000 Dr Feelgood Facebook fans, Jools Holland, Paul Weller and the Sex Pistols This book will be treasured by Dr Feelgood fans and many more
ZOË HOWE is a music author whose books include the acclaimed Typical Girls? The Story of the Slits, ‘How’s Your Dad?’ Living in the Shadow of a Rock Star Parent, British Beat Explosion: Rock n’ Roll Island, and Dr Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson’s memoir Looking Back at Me. She lives in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex.
Polygon Reissues | Music
Barbed Wire Kisses: The Jesus and Mary Chain Story ZOË HOWE Musically, culturally and in terms of sheer attitude, The Jesus and Mary Chain stand alone. Their seminal debut album Psychocandy changed the course of popular music, and the band continue to enchant and confound. This fierce, frank and often funny tale begins in the faceless new town of East Kilbride, near Glasgow, at the dawn of the 1980s with two chronically shy brothers, Jim and William Reid, listening to music in their shared bedroom. What follows charts the formation of The Jesus and Mary Chain.
ISBN: 9781846974977 Price: £9.99 | Publication: 06 June 2019 Format: 198 x 129mm B-pbk | Extent: 304pp Illustrations: colour throughout ePub: 9780857901385 Rights: EL UK & Commonwealth (exc. NA)
PRAISE FOR ZOË HOWE 'Zoe Howe is one of our finest music biographers... In the case of Lee Brilleaux, she has undoubtedly done us a great service as this is a book that needed to be written about the iconic frontman of one of the most influential British bands of all time' – Dave Jennings, Louder Than War 'Barbed Wire Kisses adroitly charts the Mary Chain's career. . . It's engaging throughout, but the chapters on the myth-making early years [ - ] leap especially vigorously off the page' – Record Collector
Essential for fans of the band as well as those interested in 1980s pop, rock and indie music Told in the words of the band members and their associates for the first time, this book is a vibrant, no-punches-pulled account with rare and unseen images Sales of over 5,000 copies
Polygon Reissues | Music
Some People Are Crazy THE JOHN MARTYN STORY
JOHN NEIL MUNRO Described by Empire Magazine as 'Britain's best ever blues singer', John Martyn was one of rock music's last real mavericks. Despite chronic addiction to alcohol and drugs, he produced a string of matchless albums. Loved by fans and critics, loathed by ex-wives and managers, he survived the music business he despised for forty years.
ISBN: 9781846974984 Price: ÂŁ9.99 | Publication: 04 July 2019 Format: 198 x 129mm B-pbk | Extent: 288pp Illustrations: 12pp col & b/w plates ePub: 9780857900067
This book documents his upbringing in Glasgow and rise through the Scottish and London folk scenes of the 1960s, his many career highs and lows, and his friendships with the great lost souls of British rock music, Nick Drake and Paul Kossoff.
Rights: World All Languages
This definitive biography includes interviews with Martyn, his lovers and fellow musicians, and rare unseen photographs Includes a foreword by Ian Rankin Martyn received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2008 ceremony
JOHN NEIL MUNRO was born in Campbeltown and raised in Stornoway. He studied Modern and Economic History at Glasgow University then completed a postgraduate journalism course in Cardiff during the late 1980s. He is also the author of Lust for Life!
Polygon Reissues | Music
The Sensational Alex Harvey JOHN NEIL MUNRO Glasgow-born Alex Harvey's career began in the 1950s when he won a competition to become Scotland's answer to Tommy Steele. He was a devoted family man but in front of an audience he became an unforgettable entertainer – courageous, provocative and intense. The Sensational Alex Harvey Band eventually became one of the most exciting live acts of the 1970s, taking in Jacques Brel, rock and vaudeville. But Harvey's life offstage was beset by tragedy and alcoholism: his brother, Les, was electrocuted on stage; his manager and friend Billy Fehilly was killed in a plane crash; eventually, with his band in tatters, Alex sank into a sea of alcohol, finally succumbing to a fatal heart attack while waiting for a ferry from Belgium in 1982, the day before his 47th birthday.
PRAISE FOR JOHN NEIL MUNRO 'This well-researched biography shows slow-motion car crashes played out against real artistic achievement' – Q Magazine ‘If Trainspotting was the book that deserved to sell more copies than the Bible, then Lust for Life! is its “Greatest Story Ever Told". A good, absorbing read, which restates the importance of the Trainspotting stage play’ – Herald
ISBN: 9781846970887 Price: £9.99 | Publication: 04 July 2019 Format: 198 x 129mm B-pbk | Extent: 256pp Illustrations: 12pp b/w plates ePub: 9780857901521 Rights: World All Languages
The truly sensational story of Alex Harvey, one of the craziest, most creative and most charismatic frontmen of all time Features interviews with Harvey’s widow, ex-band members and close friends and 12 pages of photos Celebrity fans included David Bowie, Nick Cave, John Lydon
Polygon Reissues | George MacKay Brown
Greenvoe Greenvoe, the tight-knit community on the Orcadian island of Hellya, is under threat. A whole cast of characters are vividly brought to life in this sparkling mixture of prose and poetry. ISBN: 9781846975059 Price: £8.99 | Publication: 06 June 2019 Format: 198 x 129mm B-pbk | Extent: 256pp ePub: N/A Rights: UK & Commonwealth exc. NA
The Golden Bird These two long stories are set in Orkney and in a period, the last quarter of the nineteenth century, when the pattern of island life, little changed since Viking times, was beginning to be threatened. ISBN: 9781846975080 Price: £8.99 | Publication: 06 June 2019 Format: 198 x 129mm B-pbk | Extent: 272pp ePub: N/A Rights: UK & Commonwealth exc. NA
Vinland Vinland follows the turbulent life of Ranald Sigmundson, a young boy born into the Dark Ages when Orkney was torn between its Viking past and its Christian future. ISBN: 9781846975097 Price: £8.99 | Publication: 06 June 2019 Format: 198 x 129mm B-pbk | Extent: 272pp ePub: N/A Rights: UK & Commonwealth exc. NA
Magnus Magnus is George Mackay Brown’s tour de force – his most poetic and innovative book, a unique exploration of the eternal questions of guilt, goodness and personal sacrifice. ISBN: 9781846975066 Price: £7.99 | Publication: 06 June 2019 Format: 198 x 129mm B-pbk | Extent: 192pp ePub: N/A Rights: UK & Commonwealth exc. NA
By the time of his death in 1996 George Mackay Brown was recognised as one of the great writers of his time and country. This is his remarkable autobiography. ISBN: 9781846975110 Price: £8.99 | Publication: 06 June 2019 Format: 198 x 129mm B-pbk | Extent: 192pp ePub: N/A Rights: UK & Commonwealth exc. NA
Beside the Ocean of Time In this beautiful and haunting novel, Brown’s lyrical descriptions and gift for local colour capture, as ever, the mythdrenched magic of his native islands. ISBN: 9781846975103 Price: £8.99 | Publication: 06 June 2019 Format: 198 x 129mm B-pbk | Extent: 208pp ePub: N/A Rights: UK & Commonwealth exc. NA
Time in a Red Coat Bestowed at birth with two gifts, an ivory flute and a bag of silver and gold coins, a young girl wanders through time. She is destined to pursue the dragon of war. ISBN: 9781846975073 Price: £7.99 | Publication: 06 June 2019 Format: 198 x 129mm B-pbk | Extent: 160pp ePub: N/A Rights: UK & Commonwealth exc. NA
An Orkney Tapestry A unique look at Orkney through a poet’s eye, An Orkney Tapestry is a celebration of its people, language and place. Published to celebrate 50 years since its first publication. ISBN: 9781846974809 Price: £8.99 | Publication: 10 October 2019 Format: 198 x 129mm B-pbk | Extent: 208pp ePub: N/A Rights: UK & Commonwealth exc. NA
Polygon Reissues | George MacKay Brown
For the Islands I Sing
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