Claire O’Callaghan
Dr Claire O’Callaghan is a literary scholar and cultural historian, specialising in Victorian literature and culture, with a particular focus on the Brontës. Her research explores themes of gender, sexuality, and violence, health and the body. She serves as Editor-in-Chief of Brontë Studies, the official journal of the Brontë Society, and works closely with the Brontë Parsonage Museum. She is a Senior Lecturer in English at Loughborough University and a regular contributor to television and radio. Her work has featured in The Guardian, History Today, and BBC History online.
Emily Brontë Reappraised
REVIEWS OF Emily Brontë Reappraised
"Thoughtful...an informally written, no-nonsense reappraisal...much more readable than most jargon-riggen academic articles." Jacqueline Banerjee, Times Literary Supplement
“O’Callaghan clearly knows her stuff… An original, valuable contribution that goes a long way to rehabilitating the image of one of the most influential female figures in English literature.” Katherine Clements, Northern Soul
“A fascinating read.” Hephzibah Anderson, Mail on Sunday
Mandy Haggith
Mandy Haggith lives in Assynt in the northwest Highlands of Scotland, where she combines writing with sailing, environmental activism and teaching – she is a lecturer in literature and creative writing at the University of the Highlands and Islands. Her first novel, The Last Bear, won the Robin Jenkins Literary Award for environmental writing in 2009. Bear Witness was published in 2013 and Into the Forest followed shortly after.
The Lyre Dancers is her fifth novel and the third in the Stone Stories trilogy, which began with The Walrus Mutterer (2018), longlisted for the Highland Book Prize, and continued with The Amber Seeker (2019).
Mandy is also the author of three poetry collections, a non-fiction book and numerous essays, and the editor of a poetry anthology.
The Walrus Mutterer
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Buy The Walrus Mutterer
In The Walrus Mutterer, the first volume of this extraordinary, imaginative trilogy, Mandy Haggith takes us back to prehistoric times and opens the way for an intergenerational saga ranging from the Sub-Arctic to the Mediterranean.
Northern Britain, Iron Age. Rian, a carefree young woman known for her healing and cooking skills, is enslaved by a powerful local trader and taken aboard a vessel for a long and perilous voyage. Their quest: to find precious walrus ivory and amber – sources of untold wealth and influence. They’re soon joined by a mysterious, ambitious stranger known as Pytheas the Greek, who claims to be seeking riches from the North to bring back to his native land.
As visceral as it is gripping, The Walrus Mutterer introduces an unforgettable cast of characters. It’s a stunning achievement from an award-winning novelist and poet.
Prizes and awards
Highland Book Prize 2018, LONGLISTED
REVIEWS OF The Walrus Mutterer
“A gripping, haunting and, at times, visceral novel… Lyrical and poetic prose, the author has created a convincing and entirely believable world… One of the best books I have read so far this year.” Penny Ingham, Historical Novels Review (Editors’ Choice)
“Compelling.” Lucinda Byatt, Historical Novels Review
“An immersive evocation of ancient folklore and ritual, this novel’s characterisation and fast pace make it a real page-turner which will keep you hooked.” Scottish Field
“Utterly compelling…beautifully crafted…paints an exquisite pen picture.” Undiscovered Scotland
“Haggith’s woman’s eye view of the Iron Age feels fresh and distinctive.” Alastair Mabbott, Sunday Herald
“An ambitious and imaginative novel … believable and compelling.” Jane Bradley, Scotsman
"A wonderful blend of history and fiction. …The skilful weaving of Celtic folklore and ancient history push the story forward, and Haggith’s lucid language is lilting and comforting … evocative descriptions of the northern seas, unforgiving and relentless … a thoroughly enjoyable read." Udita Banerjee, The Wee Review
"The Walrus Mutterer transported me to an extraordinary Iron Age world that resonated long after the final page - vivid, memorable, and utterly compelling." Helen Sedgwick
"We see what the world was like...for the Iron Age peoples ... Rian is a compelling heroine. Life for her is often harsh, uncompromising and dangerous, and yet she has insights and wisdom that we moderns may well envy." Margaret Elphinstone
Claire MacLeary
Claire MacLeary lived for many years in Aberdeen and St Andrews, but describes herself as “a feisty Glaswegian with a full life to draw on”. Following a career in business, she gained an MLitt with Distinction from the University of Dundee and her short stories have been published in various magazines and anthologies. She has appeared at Granite Noir, Noir at the Bar and other literary events.
Claire’s crime series, Harcus & Laird, has been recieved with wide acclaim. Her debut novel and the first in the series, Cross Purpose, was longlisted for the prestigious McIlvanney Prize, Scottish Crime Book of the Year Award 2017. Burnout was longlisted for the Hearst Big Book Award 2018. Runaway, her third novel, was published in 2019. Payback is Claire’s fourth novel and continues the Harcus & Laird series.
In Death Drop, the fifth Harcus & Laird novel, PIs Maggie and Wilma find themselves chasing leads on several fronts, including a missing Aberdeen schoolchild and the fallout from a disturbing hanging with a backstory of secrets and lies. Death Drop is out in July 2022.
BUYING OPTIONS
Buy Burnout
Longlisted for the Hearst Big Book Awards, 2018, Crime Novel of the Year
MAGGIE AND WILMA ARE BACK.
“My husband is trying to kill me.” A new client gets straight to the point, and this line of enquiry is a whole new ball game for Maggie Laird, who is desperately trying to rebuild her late husband’s detective agency and clear his name. Her partner, “Big” Wilma, sees the case as a non-starter, but Maggie is drawn in.
With her client’s life on the line, Maggie must get to the ugly truth that lies behind Aberdeen’s closed doors. But who knows what really goes on between husbands and wives? And will the agency’s reputation – and Maggie and Wilma’s friendship – remain intact?
REVIEWS OF Burnout
“Outstanding … the clever blending of several stories opens up different perspectives on [domestic abuse] providing real insight and it’s all delivered within the framework of a gripping and entertaining thriller … brilliantly realised, this thriller will appeal to people who don’t generally go for the genre and fans alike.” Nudge Books
"Excellent … kept me gripped" Hearst Big Book Award judges: longlisted 2018 Crime Novel of the Year
Warm, witty, thoughtful, and thrilling, Burnout leaves you with the feeling that Claire MacLeary is only just getting started.” Alistair Braidwood, Scots Whay Hae
“Edgy, gritty and intriguing … Littered with suspense, wit and a darkness that pulls you in, Burnout reminds us of the reality we often close our eyes to as well as the measures that some people might go to when they feel there is no way out.” Noelle Holten, Crime Book Junkie
“Harcus and Laird are quite unlike any other characters I am reading – they have self-doubt, worry about paying the bills, feel the world is almost on the brink of slipping away from them yet they have a will and determination to succeed and it makes them a joy to read.” Grab This Book
“MacLeary has a great ear for dialogue and her witty and often gritty prose evokes a strong sense of place and an authenticity that really makes this book sing … It’s not often you get such strong advocacy of and for women in the context of a crime novel but that’s what makes this such an engrossing read.” Live and Deadly
“Burnout examines a timely subject [violence against women and sexism], but it’s the depiction of relationships, all with plenty of nuance, that is the main reason to pick up this book. MacLeary’s confidence in her writing and central characters grows with every chapter, building on the fine foundation of Cross Purpose. You should make time to get to know Maggie and Wilma.” Louise Fairbairn, Scotsman
“A terrific writer.” Kirsty Gunn, Scotsman
“Absorbing. This is a thoroughly entertaining series that could run and run.” Shirley Whiteside, Sunday Herald
Robin Noble
The Islands and Highlands of northern Scotland run deep in the blood of Robin Noble. He is a naturalist who leads groups at the world-renowned Aigas Field Centre run by Sir John Lister-Kaye, and an eminent expert on the ancient woodlands of the Highlands. He’s also an artist, singer and hill-walker. His history of the Highlands, Castles in the Mist, was shortlisted for the Saltire Society History Book of the Year award, whilst North and West explored Scotland’s wilderness. His latest book, Sagas of Salt and Stone, is a love letter to Orkney.
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Buy Sagas of Salt and Stone
Orkney’s islands are wild, remote, surrounded by an endless ocean and dominated by an infinite sky, which brings either brilliant light or days of wind that make everything taste of salt. This remarkable landscape has the power to bewitch, and Robin Noble has been in its thrall for a lifetime. In Sagas of Salt and Stone he takes us on a personal voyage of adventure and discovery of the archipelago, its history, nature and people – from its seabird colonies and startling rock formations to its fishermen’s huts and the Ring of Brodgar.
Robin reflects on what has changed and is changing in Orkney, sharing stories of golden summer days and relentless winter storms, of past friendships and family travails. He highlights the best that Orkney has to offer and elucidates its power to inspire and to provide succour for troubled souls. Sagas of Salt and Stone is nothing less than his love letter to Orkney and its people.
REVIEWS OF Sagas of Salt and Stone
"Magical … The lovely style of the author's writing… brings his subjects to life with a lightness of touch and thoughtfulness that succeeds in being both accessible and thought-provoking." Undiscovered Scotland
"A wonderful and evocative celebration of the land and people of Orkney." Anna Ritchie
Jim Crumley
Jim Crumley is the author of more than forty books, mostly on the wildlife and wild landscape of his native Scotland, many of them making the case for species reintroductions, or ‘rewilding’. His Seasons series, a quartet of books exploring the wildlife and landscapes and how climate change is affecting our environment across the four seasons, is highly acclaimed. The Nature of Autumn was longlisted for the Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize 2017 and shortlisted for the Richard Jefferies Society and White Horse Bookshop Literary Prize 2017. The third in the series, The Nature of Spring, was Radio 4’s Book of the Week. The Nature of Summer, was shortlisted for the 2021 Highland Book Prize. The Eagle’s Way was shortlisted for a prestigious Saltire Society award, and his Encounters in the Wild series – which sees Jim get up close and personal with Britain’s favourite animals – has found him many new readers. He has written about the return of the beaver to the UK’s wetlands in Nature’s Architect, and his most recent title is Lakeland Wild, his first to focus entirely on an English landscape. Lakeland Wild was longlisted for the 2022 Lakeland Book of the Year prize. Jim is also a poet, an occasional broadcaster on both radio and television and a widely published journalist who wrote columns for the Dundee Courier for many years and has a monthly column in The Scots Magazine.
The Seasons quartet is now available in one handsome hardback edition, Seasons of Storm and Wonder.
Otter
by Jim Crumley
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Buy Otter
REVIEWS OF Otter
“An astonishingly good writer. Not just an astonishingly good nature writer, but an outstanding artist with prose.” West Highland Free Press
Jim Crumley
Jim Crumley is the author of more than forty books, mostly on the wildlife and wild landscape of his native Scotland, many of them making the case for species reintroductions, or ‘rewilding’. His Seasons series, a quartet of books exploring the wildlife and landscapes and how climate change is affecting our environment across the four seasons, is highly acclaimed. The Nature of Autumn was longlisted for the Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize 2017 and shortlisted for the Richard Jefferies Society and White Horse Bookshop Literary Prize 2017. The third in the series, The Nature of Spring, was Radio 4’s Book of the Week. The Nature of Summer, was shortlisted for the 2021 Highland Book Prize. The Eagle’s Way was shortlisted for a prestigious Saltire Society award, and his Encounters in the Wild series – which sees Jim get up close and personal with Britain’s favourite animals – has found him many new readers. He has written about the return of the beaver to the UK’s wetlands in Nature’s Architect, and his most recent title is Lakeland Wild, his first to focus entirely on an English landscape. Lakeland Wild was longlisted for the 2022 Lakeland Book of the Year prize. Jim is also a poet, an occasional broadcaster on both radio and television and a widely published journalist who wrote columns for the Dundee Courier for many years and has a monthly column in The Scots Magazine.
The Seasons quartet is now available in one handsome hardback edition, Seasons of Storm and Wonder.
Kingfisher
by Jim Crumley
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Buy Kingfisher
In the Encounters in the Wild series, renowned nature writer Jim Crumley gets up close and personal with British wildlife: here, the kingfisher. With his inimitable passion and vision, he relives memorable encounters with some of our best-loved native species, offering intimate insights into their extraordinary lives.
“Colour is to king sher what slipperiness is to eels. The particular quality of their plumage that startles, that makes gibberish peddlers out of field-guide compilers and induces frustrated poets to throw themselves off tall cliffs, is nothing more than an ingenious arrangement of shades of blue, all but one of which are unexceptional in their own right, but which are downright sensational when they are so intricately and inspirationally juxtaposed with each other… If there is anything more flamboyantly haute couture in all the fauna of the land, I have not seen it.”
REVIEWS OF Kingfisher
“A passionate, compelling, very personal work… the honesty of his voice is striking.” Scottish Review of Books
Olga Wojtas
Olga Wojtas is an unconventional – and witty – writer of cosy crime fiction whose surrealist humour has been compared to the likes of P.G. Wodehouse, Jasper Fforde, Blackadder and the Marx Brothers. She was born and brought up in Edinburgh, where she attended James Gillespie’s High School – the model for the Marcia Blaine School for Girls (in Muriel Spark’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie). Olga won a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award in 2014, and has amassed an impressive following for the Miss Blaine’s Prefect series, as well as several award nominations. A journalist for more than 30 years, Olga was Scottish editor of the Times Higher Education Supplement before she began adding creative writing to her portfolio.
Miss Blaine’s Prefect and the Golden Samovar
by Olga Wojtas
Comedy Women in Print Prize 2019: LONGLISTED
CrimeFest Awards, Last Laugh Award 2019: SHORTLISTED
Fifty-something Shona is a proud former pupil of the Marcia Blaine School for Girls, but has a deep loathing for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, which she thinks gives her alma mater a bad name.
Impeccably educated and an accomplished martial artist, linguist and musician, Shona is thrilled when selected by Marcia Blaine herself to travel back in time for a one-week mission in 19th-century Russia: to pair up the beautiful, shy, orphaned heiress Lidia Ivanovna with Sasha, a gorgeous young man of unexplained origins.
But, despite all her accomplishments and good intentions, Shona might well have got the wrong end of the stick about her mission. As the body count rises, will she discover in time just who the real villain is?
Cover for first edition. Still distributing whilst stocks last.
REVIEWS OF Miss Blaine’s Prefect and the Golden Samovar
“Wojtas’ debut is every bit as light-hearted, level-headed, inventive, hilarious, and altogether enchanting as its heroine, who richly deserves another jaunt through time and space.” Kirkus (starred review)
“This is a delightful addition to the ranks of comic crime, mixing sharp observation with a lightness of touch.” Laura Wilson, Guardian
“A thrilling and fast-paced tale of time-travel, murder, mayhem, matchmaking and manners … written with verve, lightness of touch and joie de vivre … unadulterated fun.” Alistair Braidwood, Scots Whay Hae
“A hefty dose of Jane Austen stylings and Stella Gibbons satirical wit … Like a sliver of sponge cake on a dainty tea plate, Miss Blaine’s Prefect… is light, fluffy, sweet and delightfully insubstantial.” Scotsman
"If you read one new author this year, make it this one - the crème de la crème of crime fiction debuts." Al Guthrie
"Anna Karenina written by P.G. Wodehouse." Linda Cracknell
Ever Dundas
Ever Dundas gained a Creative Writing Masters with Distinction from Edinburgh Napier University in 2011, and she has a First Class Degree in Psychology and Sociology from Queen Margaret University. She has had several short stories and dark fairy tales published and her work has been shortlisted for awards. Goblin is her debut novel, and she is currently working on her second.
Goblin
by Ever Dundas
Winner of the Saltire Society First Book of the Year Award 2017
Goblin is a child like no other
She is an oddball and an outcast. But she’s also a dreamer, a bewitching raconteur, a tomboy adventurer whose spirit can never be crushed.
Running feral in World War II London, Goblin witnesses the carnage of the Blitz and sees things that can never be unseen…but can be suppressed. She finds comfort in her beloved animal companions and lives on her wits with friends real and imagined, exploring her own fantastical world of Lizard Kings and Martians and joining the circus.
Caught between creativity and chimera
In 2011, London is burning once again, and an elderly Goblin reluctantly returns to the city. Amidst the chaos of the riots, she must dig up the events of her childhood in search of a harrowing truth. But where lies truth after a lifetime of finding solace in an extraordinary imagination, where the distinction between illusion and reality has possibly been lost forever?
A true original, with an unforgettable story to tell
Prizes and awards
Saltire Society First Book of the Year 2017, WINNER
The Guardian Not the Booker prize 2018, LONGLISTED
REVIEWS OF Goblin
“Terrific … moving. It is a celebration of freakery … a meditation on trauma and loss and abandonment … which, somehow, is never bleak. Goblin brims throughout with a kind of reckless joy.” Peter Ross, Guardian
"A standout debut…sophisticated." Nick Barley, Herald, Books of the Year 2017
“Confounds your expectations and enchants your sensibilities… an indelible and haunting novel.” Alistair Braidwood, Scots Whay Hae
“A love letter to the outcasts, rebels and underdogs … a dazzling narrative … Unflinching, raw and diamond bright.” Megan Kenny, Disclaimer Magazine
"The best debut fiction by a Scottish author since 2012... A profoundly affecting, intellectually challenging and beautifully written fable ... a marvellous piece of work." Stuart Kelly, Scotsman
"Enthralling... a captivating debut... Dundas presents us with an iconic protagonist: a powerful imaginative force who looks beyond the façade of 20th Century Britain and sees a fairy tale of lizard kings and dolls with shrews’ heads." Alastair Mabbott, Herald
"A captivating and capricious debut that explores with a deft hand the ‘creature world’ we all carry somewhere inside." Mary Paulson Ellis
Mary Gunn
Mary Gunn is a doctor, mother and wife who has lived with cancer for 20 years. She has worked in Paediatric Oncology (childhood cancer), as a hospital doctor in poverty-stricken Malawi and as a rural GP in Britain. At the age of 44, Mary was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer and received full conventional treatment. After a remission of 13 years, she developed a major recurrence and opted for “gentle” treatment only. Six years later, she is still living with cancer.
Her book, Well, is a doctor’s journey through fear to freedom.
When Dr Mary Gunn was diagnosed with cancer, her first reaction was fear, and to fight the disease aggressively for the sake of not only herself but her young children and husband. But when it came back – and turned out to be incurable – she knew that she couldn’t live the rest of her life in fear. Mary embraced a new approach to life: to accept all the joy and sorrow, safety and danger, certainty and unpredictability… in essence, to live freely.
In our uncertain times, when it’s difficult not to feel the fear, Dr Mary Gunn’s remarkable memoir offers mindfulness tools for resilience, and shows how we can all use acceptance, compassion and love to live courageously, magnificently. Backed up by many years of experience as both a doctor and a patient, her story will inspire you to let go of fear, love life and live well.
REVIEWS OF Well
“An insightful, compassionate account of living WELL in the shadow of death; a book for everyone by an inspiring woman.” Professor Liz Grant, Director of the Global Health Academy, University of Edinburgh
“[Well] will surely be helpful to anybody with a serious illness or, indeed, anybody affected by chronic fear.” Richard Smith, British Medical Journal
"Insightful and profound." - Dr James R Doty
Andy Davidson
Andy Davidson holds an MFA in fiction from the University of Mississippi. His work has appeared in publications such as Drunken Boat, Carve magazine, the Santa Clara Review and other journals. He lives in Georgia with his wife. In the Valley of the Sun is his first novel.
In the Valley of the Sun
BUYING OPTIONS
Buy In the Valley of the Sun
One night in 1980, a man becomes a monster.
Travis Stillwell spends his nights searching out women in honky-tonk bars on the back roads of Texas. What he does with them doesn’t make him proud – it just quiets the demons for a little while. But when he crosses paths with one particular mysterious pale-skinned girl, he wakes up weak and bloodied, with no memory of the night before. Finding refuge at a small motel, Travis develops feelings for the owner, Annabelle, but at night he fights a horrible transformation and his need to feed.
Half a state away, a grizzled Texas Ranger is hunting Travis for his past misdeeds, but what he finds will lead him to a revelation far more monstrous. A man of the law, he’ll have to decide how far into the darkness he’ll go for the sake of justice.
Prizes and awards
Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award 2018, SHORTLISTED
Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel 2017, SHORTLISTED
Best Novel in This Is Horror awards 2017, RUNNER-UP
REVIEWS OF In the Valley of the Sun
“By turns spare and solemn – but also vast and treacherous – as the Southwest.” Jeffrey Stayton
“Davidson’s rich prose plunges the reader into a hell all the more terrifying for its banality... grabs you by the throat and drags you down a twisted road.” E.Z. Rinsky
“A beautiful nightmare. A book that haunts, teases, and compels. a must-read for any brave horror fan.” Erik Storey
“Like some knives, a work of art—sharp, frightening, and elegant.” Nicholas Mainieri
“A perfectly paced thriller that’s chillingly fun to read, but Davidson’s prose transcends genre like a fresh Cormac McCarthy.” Dana Chamblee Carpenter
“A flint-hard, gorgeously-written nightmare.” Laird Barron
“A riveting blend of vampire horror, a serial killer’s tale, and police procedural.” Dana Cameron
