A lively, sharp and thought-provoking exploration of the enduring stereotype of the dangerous single woman in popular culture.

From the obsessive ‘bunny boiler’ of Fatal Attraction to the tabloid frenzy over Taylor Swift’s relationship status, Caroline Young explores how single women have so often been portrayed as unstable, dangerous, or incomplete.

Blending cultural criticism with her own personal experience, Young examines how these stereotypes have been shaped by broader social trends, including the antifeminist backlash of the 1980s and the current renaissance of the ‘trad-wife’.

Through her analysis of books, movies, and TV shows, she reveals how these narratives reflect deeper anxieties about women’s independence. Engaging, witty, fun and feminist, Single and Psycho is a timely critique of how society views single women – and a celebration of their complexity and resilience.

It was obvious to Catherine Simpson from the beginning that there was something different about her first child, Nina.

Motherhood had always felt like Catherine’s destiny, and she’d grown up nurturing joyful visions of the family she’d create. But her dreams crashed headfirst into the reality of parenthood. It seemed that the world was not Nina-shaped, and no matter how hard they both tried, they had to fight almost everything – especially once Nina started school.

Aged ten, Nina’s autism was diagnosed and a door opened. It became clear why she didn’t think or behave the way other children did, but faced with school bullies, dismissive doctors and insensitive peers, her difficulties were far from over. She and Catherine still felt as though it was them against a world that demanded Nina change as a child and Catherine as a mother.

While Nina remained resolutely herself, Catherine adapted. Mothering an autistic child lit a fierce determination within her and underlined the power of her unconditional love.

This is an unforgettable story that shows what a gift it is to see someone not as the world tells them they should be, but as they are.

From the author of Lady’s Rock, The Unreliable Death of Lady Grange and The Green Lady, a tale of the sisterhood, heartbreak and resilience of the Scottish women on the World War II home front

Clova, Scotland, 1942. The midst of the Second World War. Sisters Nell and Effie Anderson live together in the Old Schoolhouse. Effie is a teacher, while Nell works as a postwoman, delivering news – often of the worst – from the frontline to her neighbours. Though they love and care for one another, there are unspoken tensions and mysteries that put distance between them.

Then, a plane carrying Canadian and British soldiers crashes over their village, and the only surviving soldier stumbles up to their front door. In his pocket is a photo that will set in motion a chain of events threatening to uncover their families’ generations-old secrets.

Told across a dual timeline of Effie and Nell’s adult years through World War II and their adolescence during World War I, Whispers in the Glen is a novel about secrets, lies – and the dangers of keeping them hidden.

There She Goes brings together seventeen women writers – of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry – in an anthology of travel tales to inspire, encourage and empower women adventuring through the world in different ways and stages of life.

There She Goes celebrates the stories of women getting on with getting from one place to another – the grit, courage and determination of moving through the world with babies, with periods, with grief and loss, with the menopause, with magic and humour, with bodies that are ill or disabled or seen as foreign and Other. These are stories so often shared between women verbally but – despite the drama, excitement and humour they contain – are rarely printed.

This is a book offering a new perspective on what it means to be adventurous. In times where fear and worry seem so prevalent, it is a gift of courage and celebration.

A collection of concise and enlightening essays and reflections on the art of bouldering, from the author of bestseller The Zen of Climbing.

More than a sport, bouldering is a craft that demands equal fine-tuning of the mind and body. It calls for total commitment and attentiveness. Here, climber, writer, and philosopher Francis Sanzaro brings the discipline into conversation with other sports and arts including architecture, dance, skateboarding, painting, parkour, martial arts, and gymnastics.

Sanzaro shows how the pursuit of bouldering is akin to developing a philosophy – something that can be nurtured and strengthened like a muscle, benefitting both body and soul.

The Craft of Bouldering will enrich and enhance your climbing and encourage you to appreciate the natural physicality and artful play of bouldering.

Laurence Mitchell uncovers the stories that flint has to tell us in this celebratory journey through the natural and cultural history of the stone.

Beneath the bands of chalk that cover the UK lies flint, a mineral that has shaped our landscape, history and heritage. Flint Country tells the story of this abundant resource’s formation, what we can learn from its fossil records, and how it has been worked with and prized through millennia – from our prehistoric and ancient ancestors through to the present day.

Formed over 80 million years ago in ancient sea beds, flint was crucial for early humans, empowering them to hunt, craft, and survive. Far more than simply a building block, this “glass of the stone age” fuelled innovation and became the cornerstone of the industrial and architectural heritage of our chalk regions: Roman engineers blended it with brick to construct roads and fortifications; medieval masons transformed it into dazzling flushwork, iconic landmarks and sculptures; and countless farmers and villagers built cottages of local flint.

Whether it is thanks to the seismic geological events that have shaped our landscape, the material we rely on for our homes, or simply the joy of picking up pebbles on the beach, this book shows how flint continues to be a touchstone in our lives.

Fifty-something Edinburgh librarian Shona McMonagle is a proud former pupil and prefect of the Marcia Blaine School for Girls. Thanks to her alma mater, she is impeccably educated and an accomplished linguist, mathematician, martial artist, and musician, all of which being excellent training for working in a library and other challenges.

After a visit from Miss Blaine herself, involving a bad-tempered exchange about Robinson Crusoe and improper book shelving, Shona has a new, confusing mission. She finds herself on an island, with little in the way of clues to help her decipher why she’s there. Despite initially wondering if this might be a rare treat from Miss Blaine, she soon realises this is no holiday. She has been cast away in the Baltic Sea – and it’s the fifteenth century.

‘A Case of Matricide demonstrates literary talent of the highest order … few writers can rival Burnet.’ The Spectator

Chief Inspector Gorski returns … 

In the unremarkable French town of Saint-Louis, a mysterious stranger stalks the streets; an elderly woman believes her son is planning to do away with her; a prominent manufacturer drops dead. Between visits to the town’s hostelries, Chief Inspector Georges Gorski ponders the connections, if any, between these events, while all the time grappling with his own domestic and existential demons.

Graeme Macrae Burnet once again pierces the respectable bourgeois façade of small-town life in this, the concluding part of his trilogy of Gorski novels. He injects a wry humour into the tiniest of details and delves into the darkest recesses of his characters’ minds, but above all provides an entertaining, profound and moving read.

From the author of The Zen of Climbing and The Craft of Bouldering, a manifesto for a new approach to connecting meaningfully with the wildness around and within us.

As we live increasingly urbanised lives, we seek out wilderness and green space in times of hardship and turmoil, or simply during our leisure time. In the process of exploring and understanding more about the benefits of being in nature, many of us have taken up swimming, forest bathing, cycling, hiking and running in the open air. But when we spend this time in the wild, are we really connected to it?

Francis Sanzaro argues that we often obscure opportunities for real connection through our attachment to screens, our anxieties about our “everyday” lives, or simply through our egos. When we observe nature, we rarely do so without subconsciously filtering out the parts that don’t fit into the perfect snapshot we crave.

To foster a genuine connection with the natural world, and to better protect it, we must embrace its contradictions as well as the surface beauty. Through deeper engagement with our environment, we can discover the wild within ourselves, too.

Understanding, loving and protecting butterflies—in all their enchantments.

Butterflies have enchanted and intrigued us for centuries. From the eighteenth-century “aurelians”, through the Victorian “golden age” of collecting, to the twentieth-century focus on conservation, humans have chased glimpses of these beautiful but elusive creatures. Winding through literature, art, music, and dreams, The Butterfly: Flights of Enchantment uncovers why butterflies continue to inhabit such a profound place in our imagination.

A first of its kind in combining the history of human interest in butterflies with a guide to practical observation, this pocket guide encourages us to nurture our curiosity and head out into our local environment, focusing on edgeland habitats that are home to many species.

It is perhaps because butterflies are so fragile and fleeting that we are so beguiled by them. But now, as numbers dwindle, they have never been more difficult to spot. The Butterfly paves the way towards observing, identifying and ultimately protecting them.