Polygon New Titles Spring 2017 by Birlinn Limited

CONTENTS

FICTION

Alexander McCall Smith – Scotland Street 12 Sheena Kalayil – The Bureau of Second Chances Charles E. McGarry – The Ghost of Helen Addison Denzil Meyrick – Well of the Winds Helen Fitzgerald – Bloody Women Helen Fitzgerald – The Devil’s Staircase Jane Menczer – An Unlikely Agent Gregory Dowling – The Four Horsemen Shirley McKay – Hue & Cry Shirley McKay – Fate & Fortune

NON-FICTION

Tom Doyle – Captain Fantastic: Elton John’s Stellar Trip Through the Seventies Alan Taylor – Travels With My Aunt: A Memoir of Muriel Spark

POETRY

A 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

N 14 15

Kenneth Steven – Deirdre of the Sorrows Robert Fergusson – Selected Poems: edited & introduced by James Robertson

16 17

NEW IN PAPERBACK

CLASSICS

Alexander McCall Smith – Chance Developments: Unexpected Love Stories Zoe Howe – Lee Brilleaux: Rock’n’Roll Gentleman Nick Perry – Peaks and Troughs: In at the Deep End, High in the Hills

Robert Louis Stevenson – Kidnapped & Catriona Robert J. Harris – The Thirty-One Kings: The Return of Richard Hannay John Buchan – The Richard Hannay Adventures George Mackay Brown – Hawkfall George Mackay Brown – Beside the Ocean of Time George Mackay Brown – A Calendar of Love George Mackay Brown – The Island of the Women

18 19 20

21 22 23 24 25

POLYGON NEW TITLES SPRING 2017

ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH

ISBN 9781846973826 Price £16.99 Format 216 x 138mm D-hbk Rights UK & Commonwealth (exc. NA) Publication 27 July 2017 Extent 256pp

SCOTLAND STREET 12 Alexander McCall Smith WHEN HEAVY SNOW CUTS Once more, we catch up with the delightful goings-on in the fictitiousOFF 44 Scotland Street from Alexander McCall Smith ... KINTYRE, DCI JIM DAWith customary and deftness, Alexander McCall Smith LEY charm AND DS BRIAN SCOTT gives us another instalment in this popular series, now running in its twelfth season in the Scotsman, it the ARE ASSIGNED TOmaking PROTECT longest running serial novel ever. THEIR ILLUSTRIOUS VISITORS. What trials are in store for Bertie and the gang this year? AS AN ANCIENT SOCIETY EMERGES FROM THE BLIZZARDS, AND ITS CREATION, THE RAT STONE, REVEALS GRISLY SECRETS, GHOSTS OF THE PAST COME TO HAUNT THE SHANNONS. AS THE CURSE DECREES, DEATH IS COMING – BUT FOR WHOM AND FROM WHAT?

ALSO AVAILABLE

The Bertie Project 9781846973598 £16.99 hbk

Fiction

The Revolving Door of Life 9781846973284 £16.99 hbk

Alexander McCall Smith is one of the world’s most prolific and most popular authors. After the publication of his highly successful No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, which has sold over twenty-five million copies, he devoted his time to the writing of fiction and has seen his various series of books translated into over forty-six languages and become bestsellers throughout the world. These include the 44 Scotland Street novels, first published as a serial novel in the Scotsman, the Isabel Dalhousie novels, the Von Igelfeld series and the Corduroy Mansions novels.

SHEENA KALAYIL

THE BUREAU OF SECOND CHANCES Sheena Kalayil ‘Is going back the only way to start again?’ After more than thirty years in London, recently-widowed Thomas Imbalil returns to India. He spends his first months in uncluttered isolation in his house overlooking the Arabian Sea, in a small fishing village in Kerala. But when he agrees to look after his friend’s business, Chacko’s Optical Store, he meets and befriends Rani, the young assistant. Before long he discovers that Rani is using the store to run an intriguing side-business. He agrees to turn a blind eye to her operations until his friend returns, but this discovery makes him restless, and reminds him of the loneliness he is feeling and which lies ahead of him. ISBN 9781846973925 Price £8.99 Format 198 x 129mm B-pbk Rights WAL exc. North America Publication 01 June 2017 Extent 304pp

Rani also reveals herself as a much more complex individual than he had first imagined, and while he had envisaged a quiet re-acquaintance with his homeland, Thomas finds himself becoming more and more entangled with the lives of those around him. For fans of Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things and Deborah Moggach’s The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel this is an evocative tale of life and morality in contemporary India

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 now teaches at the University of Manchester and is currently completing a doctorate in Linguistics. She lives near Manchester with her husband and two daughters.

Fiction

CHARLES E. McGARRY

ISBN 9781846973796 Price £7.99 Format 198 x 129mm B-pbk Rights World All Languages Publication 06 July 2017 Extent 256pp

THE GHOST OF HELEN ADDISON HEAVY SNOW CUTS A LeoWHEN Griffin Mystery OFF KINTYRE, DCI JIM DACharles E. McGarry LEY AND DS BRIAN SCOTT This is the first in a brand new series of murder mysteries ASSIGNED TO PROTECT featuring ARE a truly unique protagonist and touches of the supernatural. THEIR ILLUSTRIOUS VISITORS. Leo Griffin is not your average private detective. An avowed AS ANCIENT SOCIETY gourmet and wineAN connoisseur, he enjoys the pleasures of life to the hilt in the splendid isolation of his West End apartment. FROM THE BLIZOrdinarily,EMERGES his most pressing concerns involve which vintage of wine to pair with the finest organic steak, but at times he ZARDS, AND ITS CREATION, has more unsettling concerns: encounters of the spectral kind. THE RAT STONE, When Leo reads about the ritualistic murder of aREVEALS young woman in rural Argyll he decides to help the police. He arrives at a GRISLY SECRETS, GHOSTS OF brooding, majestic landscape in the grip of winter and meets a host of strange and colourful characters who congregate in COME TO HAUNT and aroundTHE the LochPAST Dhonn Hotel – including the ghost of the victim. THE SHANNONS. AS THE Frustrated by forces of evil summoned up by the killer, at first DECREES, DEATH Leo fails toCURSE make headway, and his intemperance wears thin IS the patience of his allies and the police. Cast out and close FOR WHOM to despair,COMING Leo must draw on – all BUT his powers to unmask the murderer before he himself becomes the next victim. AND FROM WHAT?

ALSO AVAILABLE

The Road to Lisbon 9781909715394 £7.99 pbk

Fiction

Charles E. McGarry lives in Glasgow where he was born and bred, although he spent several years living in London and Edinburgh. He has played in bands, is widely travelled and graduated from Glasgow University in 1994 with an honours degree in History and Politics. He currently works as a newspaper page designer and sub-editor, having formerly been a business analyst for British Telecom. He is the co-author of The Road to Lisbon (Arena, 2016).

DENZIL MEYRICK

WELL OF THE WINDS A D.C.I. Daley Thriller Denzil Meyrick Kinloch, 1945. A man is brutally stabbed to death on a lonely beach. Seventy years later an island postman discovers that an entire family have vanished without trace.

ISBN 9781846973727 Price £8.99 Format 198 x 129mm B-pbk Rights English Language (UK & Commonwealth) Publication 13 April 2017 Extent 384pp

Fighting to cope with the loss of a close colleague and the collapse of his family life, Jim Daley is once again thrust into the fray. With his long-time partner Brian Scott and the new superintendent Carrie Symington, he investigates the family’s disappearance and makes a disturbing discovery in the basement of their farmhouse. As they delve further into the circumstances surrounding the missing family the unfortunate Kinloch officers unleash the full force of a vengeful conspiracy that will stop at nothing to protect itself. The sleepy Hebridean island becomes a battleground, and Jim Daley and his companions are in the eye of the storm. Praise for the series: ‘Touches of dark humour, multi-layered and compelling’ – Daily Record ‘The right amount of authenticity ... gritty writing ... most memorable’ – Herald ‘Universal truths ... an unbuttoned sense of humour ... Engaging and eventful’ – The Wall Street Journal

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After studying politics, 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. 9781846973215 £8.99 pbk

9781846972881 £8.99 pbk

9781846973154 £8.99 pbk

9781846973406 £8.99 pbk

Fiction

HELEN FITZGERALD

ISBN 9781846971594 Price £7.99 Format 198 x 129mm B-pbk Rights WAL exc. Holland & Germany Publication 11 May 2017 Extent 256pp

BLOODY WOMEN Helen Fitzgerald New Edition WHEN HEAVY SNOW CUTS OFF KINTYRE, DCI JIM DAReturning to Scotland to organise her wedding, Catriona is overcome with the AND jitters. She DS decides to tie up loose ends LEY BRIAN SCOTT before settling permanently in Tuscany, and seeks out her exboyfriends.ARE Only problem is, they all end up TO dead and Catriona ASSIGNED PROTECT is the prime suspect. THEIR ILLUSTRIOUS VISITORS. ‘It’s not often you come across a thriller that is as funny as it is scary ... a brilliant additionANCIENT to the genre’ – Lovereading AS AN SOCIETY ‘A writer to EMERGES be reckoned with’ – Doug Johnstone, The Herald FROM THE BLIZ‘Funny, moving, horrifying and compelling’ ZARDS, AND ITS CREATION, – Times Literary Supplement THE RAT STONE, REVEALS ‘Bloody Women is delicious, ingenious, inventive and mordantly GRISLY funny’ SECRETS, GHOSTS OF – Donna Moore, author of Go to Helena Handbasket THE PAST COME TO HAUNT ‘In any given reading year you are blessed to read many good books, a few great ones and occasionally an original. An author THE SHANNONS. AS THE or a book that is steadily creating their own genre; doing their own thing.CURSE Helen Fitzgerald is one of those originals, carving IS DECREES, DEATH out her own territory, and that has to be respected’ – Brian Lindenmuth, Spinetingler– BUT FOR WHOM COMING AND FROM WHAT?

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The Devil’s Staircase 9781846971495 £7.99 pbk

Fiction

Helen Fitzgerald is the second youngest of thirteen children. She grew up in the small town of Kilmore, Victoria, Australia, and studied English and History at the University of Melbourne. Via India and London, Helen came to Glasgow University where she completed a Diploma and Masters in Social Work. She worked as a criminal justice social worker for over ten years, most of it in HMP Barlinnie, where she helped to prepare serious offenders for release.

HELEN FITZGERALD

THE DEVIL’S STAIRCASE Helen Fitzgerald New Edition Bronny, a young Australian, finds herself down and out in London. She’s a sweet girl who has spent her teenage years in a fearful, cautious bubble. She’s never taken drugs, had sex or killed anyone. Within six weeks she’s done all three. A group of backpackers break into an abandoned London townhouse seeking a rent-free life of debauchery. But Bronny keeps being woken by scary noises coming from the basement. She thinks it’s her imagination. It isn’t ... ‘A scary and stylish slice of urban noir’ – The Independent

ISBN 9781846971495 Price £7.99 Format 198 x 129mm B-pbk Rights WAL exc. Holland & Germany Publication 11 May 2017 Extent 224pp

‘Ramps up both the comedy and the horror to almost epic proportions, managing to combine a hilarious coming-of-age romance with extremely violent serial-killing nastiness, all in just over 200 blisteringly readable pages’ – Sunday Herald ‘Brilliant, shocking and unputdownable’ – Sydney Morning Herald ‘Lovely, sparse, elegant writing, highly original plot and everbuilding tension make this book irresistable. There’s sex, drugs and rock n’ roll, a whiff of true evil and a scream-out-loud finale. Wow!’ – Australian Women’s Weekly Helen Fitzgerald’s novels have sold over 12,000 copies.

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Bloody Women 9781846971594 £7.99 pbk

Fiction

JANE MENCZER

ISBN 9781846973802 Price £8.99 Format 198 x 129mm B-pbk Rights World English Language Publication 18 May 2017 Extent 400pp

AN UNLIKELY AGENT Jane Menczer WHEN HEAVY SNOW CUTS London, 1905. Margaret Trant lives with her ailing, irascible mother in aOFF dreary boarding house in St John’s pair KINTYRE, DCIWood. JIMTheDAhave fallen on hard times, with only Margaret’s meagre salary from a ramshackle import-export keeping them LEY AND DScompany BRIAN SCOTT afloat. ARE ASSIGNED TO PROTECT When a stranger on the tram hands her a newspaper open at the recruitment page, Margaret spots an advertisement that THEIR ILLUSTRIOUS VISITORS. promises to ‘open new horizons beyond your wildest dreams!’. After a gruelling she finds herself in aSOCIETY new position AS interview, AN ANCIENT as a secretary in a dingy backstreet shop. But all is not as it seems; she EMERGES is in fact working forFROM a highly secret branchBLIZof the THE intelligence service, Bureau 8, whose mission is to track down and neutralise a ruthless band of anarchists known as the ZARDS, AND ITS CREATION, Scorpions. THE RAT STONE, REVEALS Margaret’s guilty love of detective fiction scarcely prepares her for the GRISLY reality of true criminality, and her journey of selfSECRETS, GHOSTS OF discovery forms the heart of this remarkable novel, as she discovers in herself PAST resourcefulness, courage, TO independence THE COME HAUNT and the first stirrings of love. THE SHANNONS. AS THE CURSE DECREES, DEATH IS COMING – BUT FOR WHOM AND FROM WHAT? Jane Menczer was born in Winchester and now lives in Cambridge. She has worked in a West End theatre, as a nanny, as a waitress, and as a bookseller. Working with Germaine Greer on her dissertation awakened an interest in all the talented and heroic woman from other eras who have been overlooked or forgotten, and directly influenced the creation of the character of Miss Trant. Jane currently teaches drama at a comprehensive school near Cambridge.

Fiction

GREGORY DOWLING

THE FOUR HORSEMEN Gregory Dowling After reluctant spy Alvise Marangon is arrested in a tavern brawl, he is summoned to meet the Missier Grande, head of the city’s powerful secret service. Rather than being expelled from the city, he is coerced into a top-secret investigation of the mysterious death of one of the service’s agents and the existence of a mysterious secret society. Formed by four rakish noblemen, it is known as the Four Horsemen and dates back to the Ottoman Empire. As Alvise delves into the case, he finds all the hallmarks of assassination and corruption, and is soon profoundly out of his depth and on the run. This is the sequel to the bestselling Ascension.

ISBN 9781846973727 Price £8.99 Format 198 x 129mm B-pbk Rights English Language (UK & Commonwealth) Publication 06 July 2017 Extent 384pp

Praise for Ascension ‘Blends a laconic, amused style informed by American detective literature with a profound knowledge of Venetian geography and history. Stylish, clever and gripping’ – The Times, Historical Fiction Book of the Month ‘a wonderful page turner with a fabulous cast of characters’ – Historical Novels Society ‘Alvise is a terrific character, the murder mystery is absorbingly ingenious and, if you are a sucker for Venice, the sights, sounds and smells of its streets and canals ooze up from the page’ – Daily Mail

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9781846973130 £8.99 pbk

Gregory Dowling is an Associate Professor of American Literature at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. He has published four novels, coedited two anthologies of poetry, and written various non-fiction books and academic articles on Italian, British and American literature. He has a special interest in British and American writers in Italy, from the Romantic age onwards.

Fiction

SHIRLEY McKAY

ISBN 9781846971525 Price £8.99 Format 198 x 129mm B-pbk Rights World All Languages Publication 02 February 2017 Extent 320pp

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1588: A Calendar of Crime 9781846973635 £14.99 hbk

Fiction

HUE & CRY Shirley McKay New Edition WHEN HEAVY SNOW CUTS OFF KINTYRE, DCI JIM DA1579, St. Andrews. Hew Cullan, a young lawyer, returns home from studying in Paris. But it proves be a cold homecoming LEY AND DStoBRIAN SCOTT as Hew’s friend, university regent Nicholas Colp, is accused of murderingARE a thirteen-year-old boy. The boy was pupil ASSIGNED TOa private PROTECT of Nicholas, and salacious gossip backed up by incriminating letters have him judged, convicted and headingVISITORS. for the THEIR ILLUSTRIOUS hangman’s noose. AS AN ANCIENT SOCIETY Investigating the crime Hew uncovers a dark tale of duplicity and passion amidst a world of religious pietyTHE and the chilling EMERGES FROM BLIZausterity of university life. From a cast that seems to be open and shtu, aZARDS, Pandora’s Box ofAND lies and corruption emerges. ITS CREATION, Praise for Hue & Cry RAT STONE, REVEALS THE A gripping and welcome addition to the growing genre of historical crime fiction’ – Waterstone’s Books Quarterly GRISLY SECRETS, GHOSTS OF ‘An elaborate, closely plotted tale that combines THE PAST COME TOextensive HAUNT research with high drama’ – The Herald THE SHANNONS. AS THE ‘one of those rare ‘historical’ thrillers in which the characters are not onlyCURSE utterly believable, but also wonderfully immediate IS DECREES, DEATH and vivid in their humanity’ – John Burnside COMING – BUT FOR WHOM AND FROM WHAT? THE HEW CULLAN MYSTERIES Hue & Cry 9781846971525 £8.99 pbk

Friend & Foe 9781846973222 £8.99 pbk

Fate & Fortune 9781846971808 £8.99 pbk

Queen & Country 9781846973437 £8.99 pbk

Time & Tide 9781846972188 £8.99 pbk

SHIRLEY McKAY

FATE & FORTUNE Shirley McKay New Edition 1581: young St Andrews academic Hew Cullan is unhappy with his life and disillusioned with the law. After his father’s death he is invited by the advocate Richard Cunningham to complete his legal education in Edinburgh as Richard’s pupil at the bar. Among his father’s things Hew finds a manuscript entitled ‘In Defence of the Law’, directed to the Edinburgh printer, Christian Hall. At first, he resists its influence, but when a young girl is found dead on the beach at St Andrews, he is left unsettled and confused. He resolves to take the book to press and agrees to Richard’s offer.

ISBN 9781846971808 Price £8.99 Format 198 x 129mm B-pbk Rights World All Languages Publication 02 February 2017 Extent 320pp

Embarking on his new life in the capital, he falls in love. His relationships are fraught with lies and secrets and lead to brutal murder on the borough muir. Hew suspects a link with the dead girl on the beach. As he begins his desperate search to find the killer, he finds that the truth lies closer to home. Praise for Fate & Fortune ‘A superior historical thriller’ – The Herald ‘McKay’s debut, Hue & Cry, established both her own literary credentials and the problem-solving prowess of her hero, Hew Cullan. This second installment helps to cement the reputations of both’ – Scottish Field

Shirley McKay was born in Tynemouth but now lives with her family in Fife. At the age of fifteen she won the Young Observer playwritingcompetition, her play being performed at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs. She went on to study English and Linguistics at the University of St Andrews before attending Durham University for postgraduate study in Romantic and Seventeenth-Century prose. She was shortlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger. Shirley works as a freelance proofreader.

Fiction

TOM DOYLE

ISBN 9781846973741 Price £16.99 Format 234 x 156mm R-hbk Rights EL UK & Commonwealth ex. Canada Publication 02 March 2017 Extent 304pp

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Man on the Run 9781846972928 £9.99 pbk

Non-Fiction

CAPTAIN FANTASTIC Elton John’s Stellar Trip through the ’70s WHEN HEAVY SNOW CUTS Tom Doyle OFF KINTYRE, DCI JIM DAIn August 1970 Elton John achieved overnight fame after LEY AND DS BRIAN SCOTT a rousing performance at the Troubadour in Los Angeles; over the next five years he was unstoppable, scoring seven ARE ASSIGNED TO PROTECT consecutive number 1 albums and sixteen Top 10 singles in America. But behind his outré image and comedy glasses lay THEIR ILLUSTRIOUS VISITORS. a desperately shy individual, conflicted about his success, his sexuality, and his narcotic indulgences. In 1975, at the apex of AS AN ANCIENT SOCIETY his fame, John attempted suicide yet, after announcing his retirement in 1977 at the age of thirty as well as coming out as a EMERGES FROM THE BLIZgay man, he gradually found his way back to music. ZARDS, AND ITS CREATION, Captain Fantastic is an intimate look at the rise, fall and rise again of John’s fame-and-drug fuelled decade, with a final section THE RAT STONE, REVEALS bringing his life up to the present. Published to coincide with his seventieth birthday and based on one-to-one interviews, GRISLY SECRETS, GHOSTS OF this book boasts a supporting cast that includes John Lennon, Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, Groucho Marx, Katherine Hepburn, THE PAST COME TO HAUNT Princess Margaret and Elvis Presley. THE SHANNONS. AS THE ‘The go-to guy if you want to coax confessions from a superstar’ – Mojo on Tom Doyle CURSE DECREES, DEATH IS ‘Doyle focuses mainly on one decade of the musician’s career COMING – BUT FOR WHOM the ‘70s but what a decade it was’ – Publishers Weekly AND FROM WHAT? Tom Doyle is an acclaimed music journalist, author and long-standing contributing editor to Q, whose work has also appeared in Mojo, the Guardian, Marie Claire, Elle, The Times and Sound on Sound. Over the years he has been responsible for key magazine-cover profiles of Paul McCartney, Keith Richards, Kate Bush, Elton John, R.E.M. and U2, among many others.

ALAN TAYLOR

APPOINTMENT IN AREZZO My Life With Muriel Spark Alan Taylor This book is an intimate, fond and funny memoir of one of the greatest novelists of the last century. This colourful, personal, anecdotal, indiscrete and admiring memoir charts the course of Muriel Spark’s life revealing her as she really was. Once, she commented sitting over a glass of chianti at the kitchen table, that she was upset that the academic whom she had appointed her official biographer did not appear to think that she had ever cracked a joke in her life. Alan Taylor here sets the record straight about this and many other things.

ISBN 9781846973727 Price £12.99 Format 216 x 138mm D-hbk Rights English Language (UK & Commonwealth) Publication 13 November 2017 Extent 356pp

With sources ranging from notebooks kept from his very first encounter with Muriel and the hundreds of letters they exchanged over the years, this is an invaluable portrait of one of Edinburgh’s premiere novelists. The book will be published to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Muriel’s birth in 2018. Muriel Spark D.B.E, C.LITT. was born in Edinburgh in 1918. A poet and novelist, she wrote short stories, radio plays, children’s books, reviews and essays, as well as critical biographies of nineteenth-century literary figures including Emily Brontë and Mary Shelley. She died in 2006.

ALSO AVAILABLE

Glasgow: The Autobiography 9781780273532 £17.99 hbk

Alan Taylor has been a journalist for over 30 years. He was deputy and managing editor at the Scotsman, and for the last 15 years has been Writer-at-Large for the Sunday Herald. He has contributed to numerous publications, including The TLS, The New Yorker and The Melbourne Age, and edited four acclaimed anthologies – The Assassin’s Cloak (2000), The Secret Annexe (2004), The Country Dairies (2009) and Glasgow: The Autobiography (2016).

Non-Fiction

KENNETH STEVEN

COVER FORTHCOMING

ISBN 9781846973888 Price £8.99 Format 198 x 129mm B-pbk Rights World English Language Publication 18 May 2017 Extent 72pp

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A Song Among the Stones 9781846972126 £9.99 pbk

Poetry

Glen Lyon 9781780271774 £7.99 pbk

DEIRDRE OF THE SORROWS Kenneth Steven DALEY DS BRIAN The story of DeirdreAND of the Sorrows is widely known in Ireland, yet all but forgotten across the water in Scotland. SCOTT AREwhich ASSIGNED This great tragic love story, has its roots in theTO ninth or tenth century, is very much shared by both countries. For PROTECT THEIR Deirdre, according to the legend, fled withILLUSTRIher lover Naoise to Argyll. The oldest song in Scotland is believed to be Deirdre’s OUS AS AN ANhaunting farewellVISITORS. to her adopted land as she returns once more to Ireland. CIENT SOCIETY EMERGES In this new sequence, Deirdre of the Sorrows, Kenneth Steven FROM THE BLIZZARDS, AND beautifully reimagines the legend of this love story; he brings back to life Deirdre’s journey and attempts to capture its ITS CREATION, THE RAT timeless power. STONE, Praise for Kenneth Steven REVEALS GRISLY ‘Strong and impressive work’ – A. J. Alvarez SECRETS, GHOSTS OF THE ‘There is a grave beauty in these lines, revealing a poetic voice TOSmith HAUNT of greatPAST sensitivity’COME – Alexander McCall on Evensong THE SHANNONS. AS THE CURSE ‘An atmospheric, wintry tale of fragile human relationships set in a beautiful but unforgiving landscape’ – James Robertson on The DECREES, Ice and Other Stories DEATH IS COMING – BUT FOR WHOM AND FROM WHAT? Kenneth Steven spent his first years in Helensburgh, but the bulk of his childhood and adolescence was spent in Highland Perthshire. He was born to writing parents, his father was a journalist and his mother a social historian. Kenneth has always been first and foremost a poet, fourteen of his collections have been published over the years, and he has made many poetry related programmes for BBC Radio. Birlinn published his novel, Glen Lyon, in 2013. www.kennethsteven.co.uk.

ROBERT FERGUSSON

ROBERT FERGUSSON Selected Poems edited and introduced by James Robertson ‘O thou, my elder brother in misfortune, By far my elder brother in the Muse . . .’ – Robert Burns on Robert Fergusson. Written in 1787 after Burns had paid for a memorial stone to be erected over Fergusson’s grave in the Canongate Kirkyard.

ISBN 9781846970351 Price £9.99 Format 216 x 138mm D-pbk Rights World All Languages Publication 13 April 2017 Extent 224pp

Born in Edinburgh in 1750, Robert Fergusson has long been acknowledged as a crucial influence on Robert Burns, not least by Burns himself. But Fergusson was also a remarkable poet in his own right. For the few years in which he wrote, before dying in tragic circumstances at the age of 24, his work delighted readers with its vigour and craft. Although he wrote much verse in English – in the then fashionable Augustan style – it is his Scots verse with its great warmth, humanity, satire and outrageous comedy that is his enduring legacy. His work covers a wide range of human emotions and experience, and his subject matter ranges from drunken encounters with notorious City Guard to quieter reflections on pastoral themes. The poems are as fresh and appealing now as they were during the Age of Enlightenment in which they lived.

James Robertson is one of Scotland’s most significant writers, whose novels include Joseph Black (winner of the Saltire Scottish Book of the Year and the Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year 2003/2004), The Testament of Gideon Mack (longlisted for the Man Booker prize in 2006), And the Land Lay Still, and The Professor of Truth (2013). He is general editor of Black and White Publishing’s Itchy Coo imprint, which produces books in Scots for young readers.

Poetry

ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH

ISBN 9781846973703 Price £7.99 Format 198 x 129mm B-pbk Rights AL UK & Commonwealth Publication 02 May 2017 Extent 240pp

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CHANCE DEVELOPMENTS Unexpected Love Stories New in Paperback Alexander Smith DALEYMcCall AND DS BRIAN It is said that a pictureARE may be ASSIGNED worth a thousand words but an SCOTT TO old photograph can inspire many more. In this beguiling book, Alexander McCall Smith casts his eye over five chanced-upon PROTECT THEIR ILLUSTRIphotographs from the era of black-and-white photography and imagines the stories behind them. OUS VISITORS. AS AN ANWho were those people, what were their stories, why are they CIENT SOCIETY EMERGES smiling, what made them sad? FROM THE BLIZZARDS, AND What emerges are surprising and poignant tales of love and friendship variety of settings – an THE estate in the Highlands of ITSin aCREATION, RAT Scotland, a travelling circus in Canada, an Australian gold-mining town, aSTONE, village in Ireland,REVEALS and the Scottish capital, Edinburgh. GRISLY Some will find joy and fulfilment – others would happier SECRETS, GHOSTS OFprefer THE endings. Each of them, though, will find love, and that is ultimately what matters. PAST COME TO HAUNT THE ‘The book is vintage McCall Smith and for an SHANNONS. ASif anyone THEis looking CURSE early Christmas gift, they should look no further. A reader may wonderDECREES, whether if there wereDEATH no Alexander McCall Smith, he would IS COMhave to be invented’ – Washington Times ING – BUT FOR WHOM AND ‘These stories are full of insight and empathy...the first two, “Sister Flora’s FROM First Day of Freedom” and “Angels in Italy” are works of WHAT? depth and beauty that would not be shamed in the company of the world’s great short stories’ – Kerryn Goldsworthy, Fairfax Papers

The Bertie Project 9781846973598 £16.99 hbk

My Italian Bulldozer 9781846973550 £14.99 pbk

Trains and Lovers 9781846972638 £7.99 pbk

Fatty O’Leary’s Dinner Party 9781846973239 £7.99 pbk

18 New Paperback

Alexander McCall Smith is the author of the highly successful No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, which has sold over twenty-five million copies. He has since seen his various series of books translated into over forty-six languages and become bestsellers throughout the world. These include the 44 Scotland Street novels, first published as a serial novel in the Scotsman, the Isabel Dalhousie novels, the Von Igelfeld series and the Corduroy Mansions novels.

ZOË HOWE

LEE BRILLEAUX: ROCK ‘N’ ROLL GENTLEMAN New in Paperback Zoë Howe Lee Brilleaux, the uniquely 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. Exploding out of Canvey Island in the early 1970s – an age of glam rock, post-hippy folk and pop androgyny – 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.

ISBN 9781846973499 Price £9.99 Format 198 x 129mm B-pbk Rights AL UK & Commonwealth Publication 09 February 2017 Extent 272pp

Lee Brilleaux: Rock’n’Roll Gentleman, while a totally different work, is a companion of sorts to the hugely popular Wilko Johnson book: Looking Back at Me (also co-authored by Howe). Published with the blessing of Lee’s widow Shirley, this is an exhilarating, eye-opening collection of exclusive interviews, memories and unseen drawings and images – the first comprehensive appreciation of Lee Brilleaux and a book no Dr Feelgood fan would wish to be without. ‘A case study of a complex character . . . a Brontë-esque tale of love and pride’ – Rock’n’Reel ‘an accomplished and well-researched book’ – Essex Life

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Zoe Howe is a music author whose other 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. Barbed Wire Kisses 9781846973314 £9.99 pbk

New Paperback 19

NICK PERRY

ISBN 9781846973833 Price £9.99 Format 198 x 129mm B-pbk Rights World English Language Publication 20 July 2017 Extent 320pp

PEAKS AND TROUGHS WAS SELECTED FOR THE BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB IN NOVEMBER 2016

9780954407537 £8.99 pbk

20 New Paperback

9780954407520 £9.99 pbk

PEAKS AND TROUGHS In at the Deep End, High in the Hills NewDALEY in Paperback AND DS BRIAN NickSCOTT Perry ARE ASSIGNED TO As 1970 dawns Jack, brother Nick and his family set off from PROTECT THEIR ILLUSTRIswinging London to fulfil their dream of living off the land in the wild unforgiving hills of North Wales. They know nothing OUS AS AN and ANof farming or whatVISITORS. battles lie ahead with the weather their neighbours, or the ingenuity needed to survive. But armed with CIENT SOCIETY EMERGES the Farmer’s Weekly and protected by their youthful idealism and sense of the ridiculous they begin their adventure. FROM THE BLIZZARDS, AND Peaks and Troughs is a warm-hearted, humorous and inspirational THE RAT tale of ITS life in CREATION, all its drama – birth, death, tragedy, comedy, disappointment and hope – with the star player being one STONE, Rattlerow King David theREVEALS 57th, a prize boar GRISLY whose prodigious sex drive literally saves Nick’s bacon. SECRETS, GHOSTS OF THE ‘It’s a simple book, whose narrative contours seem to match PAST COME TO HAUNT THE the experience it relates and the landscape in which it happens. A perfect Christmas present’ – The National SHANNONS. AS THE CURSE DECREES, DEATH IS COMING – BUT FOR WHOM AND FROM WHAT? Nick Perry spent his childhood in Dorset, out in the countryside daydreaming most of the time. He 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. On impulse he bought a hill farm in North Wales, some experiences of which form the backdrop to Peaks and Troughs. He lives with his wife Arabella in the Wiltshire countryside where he spends his time writing, walking and listening to classical music.

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

KIDNAPPED & CATRIONA Robert Louis Stevenson In Kidnapped (1886) and later fiction such as The Master of Ballantrae (1888), Stevenson examined some of the extreme and contrary currents of Scotland’s past, often projecting a dualism of both personality and belief. This dualism is most famous in Kidnapped, whose two central characters are David Balfour, a Lowland Whig, and Alan Breck Stewart, a Highland Jacobite. The novel revolves around their friendship and their differences, suggesting a metaphor for Scotland itself. Stevenson wrote the sequel Catriona with the title David Balfour, but during serialisation in England the public became confused, thinking it might be a reprint of Kidnapped. At publisher Cassell’s request, the title was changed to Catriona, after Balfour’s daughter. ‘Edinburgh wouldn’t be Edinburgh without Robert Louis Stevenson’ – Ian Rankin ISBN 9781846970337 Price £8.99 Format 198 x 129mm B-pbk Rights World All Languages Publication 19 January 2017 Extent 480pp

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The Master of Ballantrae & Weir of Hermiston 9781846970603 £9.99 pbk

Robert Louis Stevenson was an atheist and free spirit. In Samoa – where he died – he fought in a civil war for independence. In 1886, the blockbuster novel Kidnapped was published – a dramatic adventure of abduction and life on the run in the wilds of Scotland. Stevenson died in 1894, just 44 years old. The Samoan natives, who were devoted to Stevenson, cut a track through the jungle to create a resting place for him on top of the mountain above his beloved Vailima estate.

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ROBERT J. HARRIS

THE THIRTY-ONE KINGS The Return of Richard Hannay Robert J. Harris Towards the end of John Buchan’s last novel Sick Heart River, Edward Leithen, reflects that, with the outbreak of a second world war, all his companions of old will be called to action once more. In The Thirty-One Kings the tale of their adventures is finally told ... COVER FORTHCOMING

ISBN 9781846973918 Price £9.99 Format 198 x 129mm B-hbk Rights World All Languages Publication 05 October 2017 Extent 256pp

June 1940. As German troops pour across France, the veteran soldier and adventurer Richard Hannay is called back into service. In Paris an individual code named ‘Roland’ has disappeared and is assumed to be in the hands of Nazi agents. Only he knows the secret of the Thirty-One Kings, a secret upon which the whole future of Europe depends. Hannay is dispatched to Paris to find Roland before the Germans overrun the city. On a hazardous journey across the battlefields of France Hannay is joined by old friends and new allies as he confronts a ruthless foe who will stop at nothing to destroy him. The lights are going out across Paris and time is running out for the world as both sides battle for the secret of the ThirtyOne Kings.

Robert J. Harris was born in Dundee and studied at the University of St. Andews where he graduated with a first class honours degree in Latin. He is the designer of the bestselling fantasy board game Talisman and has written numerous books including Leonardo and the Death Machine, Will Shakespeare and the Pirate’s Fire and the popular World Goes Loki children’s series. He lives in St. Andrews with his wife, Debbie.

John Buchan was a Scottish diplomat, barrister, journalist, historian, poet and novelist. He published nearly 30 novels and seven collections of short stories. After spells as a war correspondent, Lloyd George’s Director of Information and Conservative MP, Buchan moved to Canada in 1935. He served as Governor General there until his death in 1940.

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THE RICHARD HANNAY ADVENTURES THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS Recently returned from South Africa, adventurer Richard Hannay is bored with life, but after a chance encounter with an American who informs him of an assassination plot and is then promptly murdered in Hannay’s London flat, he becomes the obvious suspect and is forced to go on the run. Hannay must keep his wits about him if he is to warn the government before all is too late. ISBN 9781846971983 Price £6.99 Format 198 x 129mm B-pbk Rights World All Languages Extent 160pp

GREENMANTLE Richard Hannay is tasked to investigate rumours of an uprising in the Muslim world and takes off on a hair-raising journey through German-occupied Europe to meet up with his old friend Sandy Arbuthnot in Constantinople, where they must thwart the Germans’ plans to use religion to help them win the war.

ISBN 9781846971976 Price £7.99 Format 198 x 129mm B-pbk Rights World All Languages Extent 352pp

MR STANDFAST Brigadier-General Richard Hannay is recalled from active service on the Western Front and tasked with a secret mission to catch a dangerous German agent who is at large in Britain. Travelling incognito, he infiltrates a community of conscientious objectors with the aim of ferreting out the spy. During this adventure, Hannay at last finds love – in the form of 18-year-old Mary Lamington. ISBN 9781846971556 Price £8.99 Format 198 x 129mm B-pbk Rights World All Languages Extent 304pp

THE THREE HOSTAGES After the war and newly knighted, Hannay is living peacefully in the Cotswolds with his wife Mary and son Peter John. Unfortunately, a day arrives when three separate visitors tell him of three children being held hostage by a secret kidnapper. All three seem to lead back to a man named Dominick Medina, a popular Member of Parliament. Hannay uncovers a dastardly plot involving hypnotism and the black arts, as well as the more earthly crimes of blackmail and profiteering. ISBN 9781846971570 Price £7.99 Format 198 x 129mm B-pbk Rights World All Languages Extent 320pp

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP Having returned once again to a quiet life at Fosse Manor, Hannay’s life is shaken a final time when the son of an old acquaintance from Africa asks for his help in finishing a feud that goes back thirty years to a hilltop in Rhodesia. Accompanied by Lombard and Sandy Arbuthnot, Hannay sets out to protect the family – a trip that takes him from the England he knows to the Norlands, the Island of Sheep. ISBN 9781846971563 Price £7.99 Format 198 x 129mm B-pbk Rights World All Languages Extent 320pp

Classics 23

GEORGE MACKAY BROWN HAWKFALL George Mackay Brown This collection of eleven stories, first published by The Hogarth Press in 1974, demonstrates the full range of George MacKay Brown’s literary talent. George Mackay Brown was steeped in the life and traditions of Orkney, a world set firmly between the sea and the sky, where time has an altogether different nature and significance from the rest of the world.

ISBN 9781904598183 Price £7.99 Format 198 x 129mm B-pbk Rights World All Languages Publication 02 February 2017 Extent 214pp

The rich history of the islands – the succession of Neolithic man, Pict, Norsemen, Scot – leaves its impression upon the life of modern Orkney and is reflected in this finely wrought collection. Mingling past and present, the human world and the spiritual, George Mackay Brown brings together both the modern islanders and the Orcadians of centuries past, for the same lineaments are discernable in both. ‘Incantatory but down-to-earth, profound and often funny’ – Sunday Telegraph

BESIDE THE OCEAN OF TIME George Mackay Brown

ISBN 9781904598299 Price £7.99 Format 198 x 129mm B-pbk Rights World All Languages Publication 02 February 2017 Extent 272pp

Thorfinn Ragnarson is the daydreaming son of a tenant farmer, avoiding both work and school despite the best efforts of family, friends and neighbours. Instead, the boy dreams up elaborate historical fantasies of himself as a Viking traveller, a freedomfighter for Bonnie Prince Charlie and the colleague of a Falstaffian knight who participates in the Battle of Bannockburn. He is then hurled into the future as Thor, who returns to the Orkneys as an adult and recalls his internment in a German POW camp, where he discovered his writing skills. Thor also reflects on the history of Orkney, the links between dreaming and writing and the whims of fate. In this beautiful and haunting novel, Brown’s lyrical descriptions and gift for local colour capture, as ever, the myth-drenched magic of his native islands. ‘If an aspiring writer came to me and asked me how to tell a story, plot a book, round a character, make dialogue sing and whisper and bellow, I would say: ‘Read George Mackay Brown’ – Peter Tinniswood. ‘Fine, delicate prose’ – Publishers’ Weekly

24 Classics

GEORGE MACKAY BROWN A CALENDAR OF LOVE George Mackay Brown In this, George Mackay Brown’s first collection of short stories, the themes he would develop over his career are set out – an obsession with his home Orkney, its dark and violent Viking past, the cycle of the seasons, and the struggle of its inhabitants. The characters of these stories – the fishermen, the crofters, the farmers and the wild tinkers – are all struggling to live their lives and find their identities in a harsh habitat and a cruel age. The stories in this collection share the same melancholy tone and sense of the ceaseless renewal made possible by the natural cycle. ‘Timeless and meditative prose of extraordinary beauty’ – Inverness Courier ISBN 9781904598732 Price £7.99 Format 198 x 129mm B-pbk Rights World All Languages Publication 19 January 2017 Extent 160pp

‘The author’s prose is severely simple and beautiful; he never wastes words, but evokes a complete atmosphere in a phrase’ – Scottish Field

THE ISLAND OF THE WOMEN George Mackay Brown George Mackay Brown’s writing has never been more compelling and imaginative than in these six stories that celebrate the sea and the land, the past and present, voyages and homecomings. In the title story, Brown uses the famous Orcadian myth of the selkie, the seal-man. The story ‘Poet and Prince: A Fable’, explores the role of the writer in society, a tale which begins in an unknown European state and concludes on Brown’s beloved island. ISBN 9781904598909 Price £8.99 Format 198 x 129mm B-pbk Rights World All Languages Publication 19 January 2017 Extent 320pp

‘Unpretentious and wonderfully original’ – Sunday Times ‘One of the masters of the short story form’ – Ali Smith ‘Truly magical’ – Birmingham Evening Mail

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Birlinn Limited was established in 1992 by Managing Director Hugh Andrew, and is comprised of a number of imprints. Birlinn publishes Scottish and general UK interest books, from biography to history, military history, cookery and Scottish Gaelic. The name comes from the old Norse world ‘birlinn’, meaning a long boat or small galley used especially in the Hebrides and West Highlands of Scotland in the Middle Ages. BC Books is a new children’s imprint, launched in 2015. It is designed to provide writing and illustration of the highest quality for young readers in Scotland and beyond. Birlinn is dedicated to nurturing young readers and helping them discover a passion for reading that will last a lifetime. Polygon publishes literary fiction and poetry, both classic and modern, from Scottish writers such as Robin Jenkins, George Mackay Brown and the author of the No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, Alexander McCall Smith, as well as selected music and film titles. International writers including Jan-Philipp Sendker are also published under this imprint. Polygon was originally set up by students of Edinburgh University in the late 1960s.

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Arena Sport is Birlinn’s sport imprint. The sport books range from football and rugby, to golf and cycling. These books have an international as well as national appeal. Arena’s first titles were published in June 2013. John Donald publishes academic books.

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