The Essential Guide to Scottish History. Scotland has more history than you can shake a spurtle at, or a shinty stick, or a sporran – one of the many reasons for the nation’s newfound pride in its own glorious past. The richness of our history also explains why visitors find their trips to this land of contradictions so memorable: as stunning as our scenery is, there’s plenty of tradition and time capsules aplenty to explore on a rainy day. This handbook offers an inspirational resource for those who want to discover more about this land of Roman and Viking raids, the scene for epic battles, the historic home of the Enlightenment. From geological origins to the momentous Independence Referendum, this is the essential accessible guide to exploring Scotland’s history.

After the success of his first novel, the much-lauded A Book of Death & Fish, Ian Stephen returns to poetry and his passion for all things marine with a collection that evokes the dramatic waterscapes, rocky shores and wind-blasted textures of his native Hebrides. A natural-born son of the sea, Ian writes with an intensity, spareness and precision that echoes the turmoil, the beauty – the essential character – of the northern seas and their liminal coastlines.

Everybody knows Charlotte Brontë. World-famous for her novel Jane Eyre, she’s a giant of literature and has been written about in reverential tones in scores of textbooks over the years. But what do we really know about Charlotte?

Charlotte Brontë Revisited looks at Charlotte through 21st-century eyes. Discover her private world of convention, rebellion and imagination, and how they shaped her life, writing and obsessions – including the paranormal, nature, feminism and politics. It’s a celebration of all things Charlotte, and emphatically shows why she’s as relevant today as she ever was.

A riveting thriller about greed, power, hormones, illicit sex, and women … and the monstrous megalomaniac who believes he can have it all. Vainglorious Mordechai de Paauw is ruthless: in the years before World War II, the Dutch pharmaceutical entrepreneur is on the cutting edge of science and determined to develop the contraceptive pill… no matter what the cost. Testing hormonal treatments on his female workers, and sexually exploiting them, Mordechai’s secret immoral life and his successful company are threatened by the rise of Hitler and, years later, a shocking scandal involving his brash son. Will Mordechai ever find redemption, and will the women he manipulates regain control over their own bodies?

Beneath the Ice tells the fascinating, often troubling, story of the Sami – the indigenous people of the Scandinavian Arctic. A proud and resilient people in an unforgiving yet majestic northern wildscape, the Sami have carved out an existence rich in tradition, where the old ways of reindeer herding, shamanic belief and the veneration of bears have not yet been forgotten. Author Kenneth Steven celebrates this unique culture in a collection of essays that chronicle his own lifelong love affair with the north, and his own encounters with the Sami. Displaying a deep empathy, he finds a people often persecuted and a community under threat from modernity and climate change. But he also uncovers the Sami’s idiosyncratic culture – and captures the very essence of northern spirit.

Lakeland Book of the Year 2016, Striding Edge Prize, WINNER

“Evocative, muscular.” – Kathleen Jamie.

Karen Lloyd takes us on a deeply personal journey around the 60 miles of coastline that make up ‘nature’s amphitheatre’.

Embarking on a series of walks that take in beguiling landscapes and ever-changing seascapes, Karen tells the stories of the places, people, wildlife and history of Morecambe Bay. So we meet the Queen’s Guide to the Sands, discover forgotten caves and islands that don’t exist, and delight in the simple beauty of an oystercatcher winging its way across the ebbing tide. As we walk with Karen, she explores her own memories of the bay, making an unwitting pilgrimage through her own past and present, as well as that of the bay.

The result is a singular and moving account of one of Britain’s most alluring coastal areas.

A stylish thriller that riffs on The Third Man and transforms London into a contemporary noir landscape full of fast-talking antagonists, original and smart femmes fatales, and a River Thames that plays as big a part in the action as any other character.

Published to mark the 50th anniversary of Wright’s death (April 1959), this book offers a retrospective of his career, with photographs, drawings, floor plans and an illustrated time line covering 500 built works.

This lavishly illustrated volume of the imaginative interior and exterior spaces designed by visionary American architect Frank Lloyd Wright showcases his unique ability to create a building in harmony with its environment, as seen at Falling-water in Pennsylvania; Wright’s beloved home Taliesin West in Arizona; and the groundbreaking Unity Temple in Illinois. Spencer Hart pays tribute to the man who has been called “the single greatest influence on twentieth-century design.