Polygon New Titles 2016

POLYGONNEW TITLES Spring 2016

New TiTles2016www.polygonbooks.co.uk

Polygon Catalogue Cover 2016.indd 2-3 11/01/2016 11:04

CONTENTS

ALEXANDER McCALL SMITHAlexander McCall Smith – My Italian BulldozerAlexander McCall Smith – The Bertie Project

NEW FICTIONKevin MacNeil – The Brilliant & Forever Denzil Meyrick – The Rat Stone Serenade

NON-FICTIONStuart Cosgrove – Young Soul Rebels: A Personal History of Northern SoulLouise Wyllie & Jan Patience – Arrivals & Sailings: The Making of George WyllieRobert Crawford (Editor) – The Book of Iona

POETRYLiz Lochhead – Fugitive ColoursJenni Fagan – The Dead Queen of BohemiaNeu!Reekie! – #UntitledTwoLizzie MacGregor (Editor) – Weathering: The Third Age: An Ageing Anthology

NEW EDITIONSRosemary Goring – Dacre’s WarMalachy Tallack – Sixty Degrees North: Around the World In Search of HomeLewis Grassic Gibbon – Sunset SongShirley McKay – Queen & CountryMichael F. Russell – Lie of the LandChristopher Jory – The Art of Waiting

SPECIAL EDITIONSTimothy Neat – The Day of the Mountain

FROM 2015Cara Ellison – Embed With Games: A Year on the Couch With Game DevelopersZoë Howe – Lee Brilleaux: Rock’n’Roll GentlemanAlexander McCall Smith – Chance Developments: Unexpected Love StoriesGregory Dowling – AscensionLizze MacGregor (Editor) – Beneath Troubled Skies: Poems of Scotland at War, 1914 – 1918Jan-Philipp Sendker – Whispering ShadowsChristopher Rush – Penelope’s WebRon Butlin – The Magicians of Scotland

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4 Fiction

ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH

ISBN 9781846973550Price £12.99Format 216 x 138mm hardbackRights World ex. Canada & United StatesPublication 19 May 2016Extent 224pp

MY ITALIAN BULLDOZERAlexander McCall Smith

When writer Paul Stewart heads to the idyllic Italian town of Montalcino to finish his already late book, it seems like the perfect escape from stressful city life. Upon landing, however, things quickly take a turn for the worse when he discovers his hired car is nowhere to be found. With no record of any reservation and no other cars available it looks like Paul is stuck at the airport. That is, until an enterprising stranger offers him an unexpected alternative. While there may be no cars available there is something else on offer . . .

A bulldozer.

With little choice in the matter, Paul accepts and so begins a series of laugh out loud adventures through the Italian countryside, following in the wake of Paul and his Italian Bulldozer. A story of unexpected circumstances and a lesson in making the best of what you have, My Italian Bulldozer is a warm holiday read guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

Praise for Fatty O’Leary’s Dinner Party‘All you can eat platter of humour . . . once again McCall Smith doles out an appropriately extra-large helping of fun’ – Scotland on Sunday

‘McCall Smith’s generous writing and dry humour, his gentleness and humanity, and his ability to evoke a place and a set of characterswithout caricature or condescension have endeared his books to readers’ – The New York Times

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Alexander McCall Smith is one of the world’s most prolific and most popular authors. For many years he was a professor of Medical Law until the publication of his highly successful No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, which has sold over twenty-five million copies. He now devotes his time to the writing of fiction and has seen his various series of books translated into over forty-six languages, becoming bestsellers throughout the world.

Fiction 5

THE BERTIE PROJECTAlexander McCall SmithOnce more, we catch up with the delightful goings-on in the fictitious 44 Scotland Street from Alexander McCall Smith. With customary charm and deftness, Alexander McCall Smith gives us another instalment in this popular series, now running in its eleventh season in the Scotsman. Anything could happen to Bertie and the gang. . .

Cover not yet available

ISBN 9781846973284Price £16.99Format 216 x 138mm hardbackRights World ex. Canada & United StatesPublication 13 August 2015Extent 368pp

THE REVOLVING DOOR OF LIFE

ISBN 9781846973598Price £16.99Format 216 x 138mm hardbackRights World ex. Canada & United StatesPublication 04 August 2016Extent TBC

6 Fiction

WHEN HEAVY SNOW CUTS OFF KINTYRE, DCI JIM DA-LEY AND DS BRIAN SCOTT ARE ASSIGNED TO PROTECT THEIR ILLUSTRIOUS VISITORS. AS AN ANCIENT SOCIETY EMERGES FROM THE BLIZ-ZARDS, 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?

ISBN 9781846973376Price £9.99Format 198 x 129mm paperback w/flapsRights WorldPublication 03 March 2016Extent 256pp

KEVIN MacNEIL

THE BRILLIANT & FOREVERA NovelKevin MacNeil

On an island like no other, the annual Brilliant & Forever festival is a much anticipated event; its participants a story away from either glory or infamy.

This year, three best friends – two human, one alpaca – are chosen to compete, so victory is not only about reward. The glitterati descends, the festival begins: thirteen performers, each have their own story to tell. Who will be chosen by the judges? Who will be chosen by the people?

This is a novel like no other; a whip-cracking, energetic, laugh-out-loud satire on what we value in culture, and in our lives. And yet, written with exquisite warmth and empathy, The Brilliant & Forever is also a moving exploration of integrity, friendship and belonging. It’ll split your sides and break your heart.

Praise for A Method Actor’s Guide to Jekyll and Hyde:‘An artistic nugget, daring and burnished . . . from first to last an enticing read’ – Tom Adair, Scotsman

‘Kevin MacNeil is only just starting. Some of you out there can look forward to another 30 or 40 years of such quality and better. You are very lucky. We are lucky’ – West Highland Free Press

9781846971839£7.99 pbk

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Kevin MacNeil is an award-winning writer from the Outer Hebrides now living in London. He is a novelist, poet, editor and screenwriter. The Brilliant& Forever is his third novel.

Fiction 7

DENZIL MEYRICK

THE RAT STONE SERENADEA D.C.I. Daley ThrillerDenzil Meyrick

It’s December, and the Shannon family are returning home to their clifftop mansion near Kinloch for their annual AGM. Shannon International is one of the world’s biggest private companies, with tendrils reaching around the globe in computing, banking and mineral resourcing, and it has brought untold wealth and privilege to the family. However, a century ago Archibald Shannon stole the land upon which he built their home – and his descendants have been cursed ever since.

When heavy snow cuts off Kintyre, D.C.I. Jim Daley and D.S. Brian Scott are assigned to protect their illustrious visitors. 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?

Praise for the series:‘Touches of dark humour, multi-layered and compelling’ – Daily Record

‘The right amount of authenticity ... gritty writing ... most memorable’ – Herald

‘Has the ability to give even the least important person in the plot character and the skill to tell a good tale’ – Scots Magazine

ISBN 9781846973406Price £8.99Format 198 x 129mm paperbackRights English Language (UK & Commonwealth)Publication 14 April 2016Extent 384pp

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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.

8 Non-Fiction


STUART COSGROVE

YOUNG SOUL REBELSA Personal Historyof Northern SoulStuart CosgroveNothing will ever compare to the amphetamine rush of my young life and the night I was nearly buggered by my girlfriend’s uncle in the Potteries . . . The opening line of Stuart Cosgrove’s Young Soul Rebels sets up a compelling and intimate story of northern soul, Britain’s most fascinating musical underground scene, and takes the reader on a journey into the iconic clubs that made it famous – The Twisted Wheel, The Torch, Wigan Casino, Blackpool Mecca and Cleethorpes Pier – the bootleggers that made it infamous, the splits that threatened to divide the scene, the great unknown records that built its global reputation and the crate-digging collectors that travelled to America to unearth unknown sounds.

The book sweeps across fifty years of British life and places the northern soul scene in a social context – the rise of amphetamine culture, the policing of youth culture, the north–south divide, the decline of coastal Britain, the Yorkshire Ripper inquiry, the rise of Thatcherism, the miners’ strike, the rave scene and music in the era of the world wide web.

Books have been written about northern soul before but never with the same erudition and passion. Young Soul Rebels nails a scene that is as popular today as it was in its heyday in the 1970s.

ISBN 9781846973338Price £14.99Format 240 x 170mm paperbackRights World Publication 19 May 2016Extent 320pp

Stuart Cosgrove, originally from Perth, 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. A graduate of Hull University, he completed a PhD in modern American theatre history. In 2005 he was named Broadcaster of the Year in the Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Awards and in 2012 he won numerous awards including a BAFTA and Royal Television Society award for Channel 4’s coverage of the London Paralympics 2012.

Non-Fiction 9

LOUISE WYLLIE & JAN PATIENCE

ISBN 9781846973062Price £25.00Format 250 x 240mm hardbackRights World Publication 14 April 2016Extent 224pp

ARRIVALS AND SAILINGS The Making of George WyllieLouise Wyllie & Jan PatienceThe Making of George Wyllie has been co-written by his elder daughter, Louise Wyllie, and arts journalist Jan Patience. Containing never-before-seen images and fresh insight into his influences and early life, this book seeks to answer questions about the forces which shaped Wyllie’s unique worldview.

The voyage begins with Wyllie’s Glasgow childhood – a period ‘disadvantaged by happiness’ – and moves on to time spent serving in the Pacific with the Royal Navy during WWII, where he witnessed first-hand the devastation caused by the world’s first atomic bomb being dropped on Hiroshima.

After the war, like Robert Burns and Adam Smith before him, Wyllie became an Excisemen. He made ‘time for art’ in his forties, going on to create memorable public art works such as the life-sized Straw Locomotive, which hung from the Finnieston Crane in Glasgow, and the giant seaworthy Paper Boat, with the letters QM (Question Mark) on her side.

By the time of his death at the age of ninety in 2012, this idiosyncratic self-taught artist had laid out his vision of himself as the artist-shaman, arrow in hand, making a last Cosmic Voyage.

Louise Wyllie is the artist’s elder daughter. Recent writings include an episode of CBeebies drama, Katie Morag. She edited and commissioned the recent George Wyllie Retrospective exhibition catalogue, which won an D&AD In-Book Award.

Jan Patience has been a journalist and editor for over twenty-five years. She writes on visual art for the Herald, Homes and Interiors Scotland and the Daily Record, among others. Jan was a driving force behind the Whysman Festival in 2012.

10 Non-Fiction


I ON At h e b o o k o f

AnAnthology

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ROBERT CRAWFORD

THE BOOK OF IONAEdited by Robert CrawfordThis brand new anthology is comprised of creative prose, non-fiction and poetry that ranges from Columba to the present day, all linked by the island of Iona.

Featuring the writing of Meaghan Delahunt, Jennie Erdal, Sara Lodge, Victoria Mackenzie, Candia McWilliam, Ruth Thomas, and Alice Thompson this wonderful collection will have broad historical and contemporary appeal.

The Book of Iona is a celebration of one of Scotland’s most beautiful islands and follows on from the success of The Book of St. Andrews (Polygon, 2007).

ISBN 9781846973512Price £12.99Format 216 x 138mm hardbackRights WorldPublication 14 July 2016Extent 320pp

Robert Crawford is Professor of Modern Scottish Literature in the School of English at the University of St Andrews. His seven collections of poems include A Scottish Assembly (Chatto & Windus, 1990), Selected Poems (Cape, 2005) and Apollos of the North (Birlinn, 2006), which featured his English translations alongside poems in Latin by George Buchanan and Arthur Johnston. With Mick Imlah he is co-editor of The New Penguin Book of Scottish Verse (2000). His books include The Modern Poet (Oxford University Press, 2001), The Book of St. Andrews (Polygon, 2007), The Beginning and the End of the World (Birlinn, 2011) and Young Eliot (Jonathan Cape, 2015). He lives in St Andrews with his wife and two children.

9781904598992£7.99 pbk

Poetry 11

LIZ LOCHHEAD

ISBN 9781846973451Price £9.99Format 198 x 129mm hardbackRights World English LanguagePublication 19 May 2016Extent 108pp

FUGITIVE COLOURSLiz LochheadThis stunning new collection features never before published work along with poems written during her time as Scots Makar, and marks the end of her term as Scotland’s Poet Laureate (2011-2016). Whether commissioned works, such as ‘Connecting Cultures’, written for the Commonwealth Games in 2014, or more personal works, ‘Favourite Place’, about holidays in the west coast with her late husband, this collection is beautiful, sensitive and brilliant.

Throughout her career Liz Lochhead has been described variously as a poet, feminist-playwright, translator and broadcaster but has said that ‘when somebody asks me what I do I usually say writer. The most precious thing to me is to be a poet. If I were a playwright, I’d like to be a poet in the theatre.’

Praise for Liz Lochhead‘An inspirational presence in British poetry – funny, feisty, female, full of feeling’ – Carol Ann Duffy

‘The social satires in Liz Lochhead’s new collection are among the wittiest and most original pieces she has written’ – Herald

‘One of the few poets writing today capable of encompassing the matter of contemporary life in terms that are both attractive and thought-provoking’ – Books in Scotland

‘This is the work of a highly intelligent, sensitive, perceptive, and humorous young woman ’ – George Mackay Brown

Poet and playwright Liz Lochhead is a Fellow of Glasgow School of Art, an Honorary Doctor of Letters of Glasgow University, a Fellow of RSAMD and of Glasgow Institute of Art, and is an Honorary President of the Scottish Poetry Library. Her poetry collections include Dreaming Frankenstein (Polygon, 1984), True Confessions and New Clichés (Polygon, 1985), Bagpipe Muzak (Penguin, 1991), The Colour of Black and White (Polygon, 2003) and A Choosing: Selected Poems (Polygon, 2011). Her plays include Tartuffe (Polygon, 1986), Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off (Penguin, 1989) and the Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award-winning Medea (Nick Hern Books, 2000). In 2016 Liz will be awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry


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12 Poetry

DALEY AND DS BRIAN SCOTT ARE ASSIGNED TO PROTECT THEIR ILLUSTRI-OUS VISITORS. AS AN AN-CIENT 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 COM-ING – BUT FOR WHOM AND FROM WHAT?

JENNI FAGAN

ISBN 9781846973390Price £9.99Format 205 x 145mm paperbackRights World English LanguagePublication 14 April 2016Extent 176pp

THE DEAD QUEEN OF BOHEMIANew & Collected PoemsJenni FaganThe Dead Queen of Bohemia is a journey through a life lived on the edge. With a poetic style influenced by Gertrude Stein and William Burroughs, this collection is woven with surrealistic imagery that is both unflinching and dislocating. Fagan’s poetry is raw and tough yet beautiful and tender and with themes of loss and recovery, hope and defiance, her work represents a clarion call from a self-taught poet who started writing at the age of seven and so far has not stopped.

The Dead Queen of Bohemia documents the progression of a voice and a life written over the last twenty years. It opens with Jenni’s most recent work and includes her previous two collections, both now out of print.

Jenni Fagan is an author, poet, screenwriter, essayist and a playwright. She has won awards from Creative Scotland, Arts Council England, Dewar Arts, and Scottish Screen, among others. She was named one of the Best Young British Novelist by Granta, a once-in-a-decade accolade. Her debut novel was in Waterstones 11 as one of the best worldwide debuts 2012. Fagan has twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, was shortlisted for the Dublin Impac, Dundee International Book Prize, the Desmond Elliott Prize and the James Tait Black Prize, and has recently written for BBC Radio 4, The New York Times, the Independent, and Marie Claire. She is currently completing the screenplay of The Panopticon. Jenni lives by the coast and is working on two new novels. Her second, The Sunlight Pilgrims comes out in 2016.

Poetry 13

MICHAEL PEDERSEN & KEVIN WILLIAMSON

ISBN 9781846973536Price £12.99Format 234 x 156mm paperbackRights World English LanguagePublication 01 May 2016Extent 112pp

#UNTITLEDTWONeu! Reekie!Edited by Michael Pedersen& Kevin WilliamsonA follow up to last year’s immensely popular #UntitledOne. This year’s anthology gives us more of the promising and established names in British poetry who have all shared the Neu! Reekie! bill. Many of the works are new, many are favourites read at the events; all are savoured, sublime, sumptuous voices within poetry already.

Contributors include: Jackie Kay, Kathleen Jamie and Liz Lochhead as well as younger poets: Rachel McCrum and Ryan van Winkle as well as poets from the spoken word circuit: Luke Wright and Ross Sutherland. Accompanying the book is a downloadable compilation album.

Praise for #UntitledOne

‘Neu! Reekie! dismantles the structures and snobberies dividing high and low art – art is for everyone’ – Skinny

‘Genre-crossing performance night led by Michael Pedersen and Kevin Williamson, incorporating spoken word, animation, drama, music and more’ – Time Out

Michael Pedersen is a poet, playwright and animateur with an electric reputation on the performance circuit and a prolific precedent of collaborations, having teamed up with some of the UK’s top musicians, film-makers and artists. He is widely published in magazines, journals, anthologies and e-zines, and a key creative within Dream Tower Productions. Michael’s collection, Play with Me, was published by Polygon in 2013.

Kevin Williamson is a writer, publisher, and activist, originally from Caithness. He is a Scottish socialist and republican and was an activist for the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP). He wrote a regular weekly column, Rebel Ink, for the Scottish Socialist Voice. He is co-founder of Neu! Reekie!

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14 Poetry


LIZZIE MacGREGOR

ISBN 9781846973383Price £9.99Format 198 x 129mm paperbackRights WorldPublication 04 August 2016Extent 100pp

WEATHERINGThe Third Age: An Ageing AnthologyEdited by Lizzie MacGregorThere is not one way to age but neither can any of us truly stop our bodies from ageing. Ageing is not a single phenomenon but complex, multiple, perplexing. This anthology may not console but it can widen our perspectives, helping us to change what we can change: our attitudes.

Poetry can help to give us a fresh language to think about ageing and these poems are carefully chosen to fortify, celebrate, lament, grieve, rage and ridicule.

In association with the Baring foundation, The Saltire Society and the Scottish Poetry Library, Weathering: The Third Age: An Ageing Anthology, edited by Lizzie MacGregor, brings together newly commissioned poems from: Vicki Feaver, Diana Hendry and Douglas Dunn as well as a selection of poems dealing with ageing.


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Lizzie MacGregor is the Assistant Librarian of the Scottish Poetry Library, and editor of several popular anthologies co-published by the SPL and Polygon, including Handfast: Scottish poems for weddings and affirmations, Lament: Scottish poems for funerals and consolation; and Luckenbooth, an anthology of Edinburgh poetry.

New Editions 15

ISBN 9781846973413Price £8.99Format 198 x 129mm paperbackRights UK & Commonwealth exc. CanadaPublication 03 March 2016Extent 352pp

ROSEMARY GORING

DACRE’S WARNew EditionRosemary GoringDacre’s War is a story of personal and political vengeance. Ten years after the battle of Flodden, Adam Crozier, head of his clan and of anincreasingly powerful alliance of Borderers, learns for sure that it was Lord Thomas Dacre – now the most powerful man in the north ofEngland – who ordered his father’s murder. He determines to take his revenge.

As a fighting man, Crozier would like nothing better than to bring Dacre down face to face but his wife Louise advises him that hemust use more subtle methods. So he sets out to engineer Dacre’s downfall by turning the machinery of the English court against him. A vivid and fast-moving tale of political intrigue and heartache, Dacre’s War is a fascinating portrait of the historical Scottish and English borderlands, a place were there is never any chance of peace.

‘Dacre’s War is an absorbing, dense read, packed with political twists. The Scottish Borders are superbly evoked – this is a land of constantfear and hardship, as well as great beauty. Highly recommended.’ – Antonia Senior, The Times

‘A packed and atmospheric tale of intrigue and derring-do in 16th century border country, astoundingly well written with a cracking plot coming to a satisfying conclusion’ – Sue Broom, Love Reading

9781846972836£8.99 pbk

Rosemary Goring studied social and economic history at the University of St Andrews. She was the literary editor of Scotland on Sunday, editor of Life & Work, the Church of Scotland’s magazine, before returning to newspapers as literary editor of the Herald, and later also of the Sunday Herald. In 2007 she published Scotland: The Autobiography: 2000 Years of Scottish History By Those Who Saw it Happen, which has since been published in America and Russia. Rosemary’s first novel was After Flodden.


16 New Editions

MALACHY TALLACK

ISBN 97818469733451Price £8.99Format 198 x 129mm paperbackRights World English LanguagePublication 02 June 2016Extent 208pp

SIXTY DEGREES NORTHNew EditionMalachy TallackThe sixtieth parallel marks a kind of borderland. It wraps itself around the lower reaches of Finland, Sweden and Norway; it crosses the tip of Greenland and of Southcentral Alaska; it cuts the great spaces of Russia and Canada in half. The parallel also passes through Shetland, at the very top of the British Isles. In Sixty Degrees North, Malachy Tallack explores the places that share this latitude, beginning and ending in Shetland, where he has spent most of his life. The book focuses on the landscapes and natural environments of the parallel, and the way that people have interactedwith those landscapes. It explores themes of wildness and community, of isolation and engagement, of exile and memory.

In addition, Sixty Degrees North is also a deeply personal book, which begins with the author’s loss of his father and his troubled relationship with Shetland. Informed by the journeys described, it moves towards a kind of resolution: an acceptance of loss, and ultimately a love of the place Tallack calls ‘home’.

‘It’s a joy to read, its prose as clear as the light on the Greenland ice-cap. In the past year, I’ve read three or four books combiningtravelogue and memoir. . .this was the best’ – Telegraph

‘Malachy is a fine, sensitive writer with an eye for detail and a talent for descriptive prose’ – Gavin Bell, Herald

Sixty Degrees North was chosen as BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week.

Malachy Tallack has written for the New Statesman, the Guardian, the Scottish Review of Books, Caught By the River and many other publications, online and in print. He won a New Writers Award from the Scottish Book Trust in 2014, and the Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship in 2015. He is from Shetland, and currently lives in Glasgow.

New Editions 17

LEWIS GRASSIC GIBBON

SUNSET SONGLuxury Hardback EditionLewis Grassic Gibbon‘Oh, she hated and loved in a breath!’

Since its first publication in 1932, Sunset Song has been regarded as one of the most important novels ever written in Scotland and it has retained its power to shock and to inspire ever since.

Its heroine, Chris Guthrie, endures much hardship and tragedy, yet her desire to learn, her powerful spirit, and her passionate love of the land have made her a beloved favourite with generations of readers.

Together with Cloud Howe (1933) and Grey Granite (1934) her story forms A Scot Quair, which is also published by Polygon, and this deluxe edition is perfect to treasure or to give as a gift.

‘Its great gripping hybrid of melodrama and realism has left me scorched’ – Ali Smith

‘Chris Guthrie is the most passionate and appealing heroine in Scottish Literature; Grassic Gibbon’s magnificent novel is fresh, powerful and timeless’ – Anne Donovan

ISBN 9781846973574Price £9.99Format 198 x 129mm hardbackRights WorldPublication 18 February 2016Extent 264pp

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Lewis Grassic Gibbon (James Leslie Mitchell) was one of the finest writers of the twentieth century. Born in Aberdeenshire in 1901, he died at the age of thirty-four. He was a prolific writer of novels, short stories, essays and science fiction, and his writing reflected his wide interest in religion, archaeology, history, politics and science. The Mearns trilogy, A Scots Quair, is his most renowned work, and has become a landmark in Scottish literature.

9781904598664£7.99 pbk


18 New Editions

SHIRLEY McKAY

ISBN 9781846973437Price £8.99Format 198 x 129mm paperbackRights World English LanguagePublication 14 April 2016Extent 288pp

QUEEN & COUNTRYNew EditionShirley McKay1587. Three years after his enforced departure to London, Hew is reconciled with King James VI and recalled to Scotland. He elopes to St Andrews with a young Englishwoman. The death of Mary, Queen of Scots has unleashed a wave of anti-English sentiment among the Scottish people, and fear and confusion in the king himself. James will grant his blessing to their controversial marriage on the condition that Hew discovers what lies behind a painting cunningly contrived to prick the young king’s conscience – an anamorphic death’s-head with his mother’s face.

Meanwhile in St Andrews, the death of a painter is troubling Giles Locke, and the English Frances, struggling to adapt to a foreign town and culture, helps Hew find the link among the artists and intriguers of opposing courts, a quest for love – and life – requiring all his skills.

This is the fifth book in the bestselling Hew Cullen Series.

‘Charms the reader’ – Scotland on Sunday

‘Wonderful stuff’ – Good Book Guide

Shirley McKay was born in Tynemouth but now lives with her family in Fife. She studied English and Linguistics and was shortlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger. Shirley works as a freelance proofreader.

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New Editions 19

MICHAEL F. RUSSELL

ISBN 9781846973604Price £8.99Format 198 x 129mm paperbackRights World All LanguagesPublication 16 June 2016Extent 304pp

LIE OF THE LANDNew EditionMichael F. RussellInvestigative journalist Carl Shewan lives in a world controlled by terror. When an informant summons him to the Highland town of Inverlair with information on the mysterious new communications system, S.C.O.P.E. Carl thinks he might finally be onto something. Not long after he arrives, however, the system is activated . . . with catastrophic results.

Imprisoned in this remote refuge by a technological catastrophe, Carl struggles to adapt to impending fatherhood and to a harsh new existence in an ancient landscape, until a childless gamekeeper offers him an alternative to guilt and alienation.

Set in the near future, Lie of the Land examines the claustrophobia of small-town life and questions how far the state will go to preserve an orderly society, one in which ubiquitous surveillance has reduced human life to a virtual experience.

‘Lie of the Land is greater than the sum of its possible parts, and those parts might be 1984, Lord of the Flies, and Under the Dome’– Shoreline of Infinity

‘The outstanding debut novel of the year’ – Stuart Kelly

Michael F. Russell grew up on the Isle of Barra before leaving to study Social Sciences at the University of Glasgow, followed by a postgraduate diploma in Journalism Studies at the University of Strathclyde. He is deputy editor at the West Highland Free Press and writes occasionally for the Sunday Herald. His writing has appeared in Gutter, Northwords Now and Fractured West. He lives on Skye with his partner and two children.


20 New Editions

CHRISTOPHER JORY

ISBN 9781846973628Price £8.99Format 198 x 129mm paperbackRights World All LanguagesPublication 19 May 2016Extent 304pp

THE ART OF WAITINGNew EditionChristopher JoryRussia, 1943. A girl from Leningrad and a soldier from Venice stand together on the edge of wilderness. He is a shadow of a man,trapped behind wire, an enemy in her land. Taking something from her pocket, she slips her hand through the wire and catches herskin on a barb producing a tiny drop of blood.

‘Have this.’ The man takes the gift – a small crust of bread, a little piece of hope. Its memory will nourish him, keep him alive, on hislong journey home to Italy.

But when he returns, he must decide which path to take – to be true to the love of the girl who saved his life, or to pursue hisunfulfilled vow and seek revenge on the man who had ruined his home and his family.

This is a tale of love, revenge and survival against the odds, set in Venice and Russia in the 1940s.

‘A profoundly moving novel that sweeps you from Russia to Italy over the course of a gripping, richly evocative and atmospheric tale’– Alex Preston

Christopher Jory was born in 1968 in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He spent his early childhood in Barbados, Venezuela and finally Oxfordshire. He did a degree in English Literature and Philosophy at Leicester University and then worked for the British Council and other organisations in Italy, Spain, Crete, Brazil and Venezuela. He is currently a Publisher at Cambridge University Press. His first book, Lost in the Flames (Matador, 2011), was a moving account of RAF Bomber Command airmen and their families.

Special Editions 21

THE DAY OF THE MOUNTAIN

A Book of Sketchbook Drawings by

TIMOTHY NEAT

TIMOTHY NEAT

THE DAY OF THE MOUNTAINLimited EditionDrawings by Timothy NeatPreface by John BergerWritings by Anne MichaelsSince entering his eighth decade Timothy Neat has concentrated his wide-ranging creativity on the act of drawing, in sketchbooks. His prime subject is people – the common man, writers, artists, travellers, prisoners: he also addresses war, landscape, and the ancient past with visionary understanding.

Of the four hundred drawings being published, only three have been publicly seen. In this book Neat, the artist, can be seen for the first time – championed by the great art critic John Berger and renowned writer Anne Michaels: these drawings are revelatory.

This special signed edition, produced to the highest specification, is limited to 150 copies and is guaranteed to appeal to collectors of fine art and belle-lettres in Scotland and across Europe.

Neat’s books include The Summer Walkers, Part Seen Part Imagined, a two volume biography of Hamish Henderson and, most recently, These Faces, a collection of photographs and drawings (2013).

ISBN 9781846973581Price £100.00Format 240 x 170mm hardbackRights World English LanguagePublication 19 May 2016Extent 352pp

Timothy Neat was born and brought up in Cornwall. He completed a degree in Fine Art at the University of Leeds and moved to Scotland in 1968. From 1973 to 1988, he lectured in History of Art at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee. During his time there, he became the founder-editor of a fine-art periodical called Seer. He also took over the convenorship of the Scottish Sculpture Trust, supervising the major George Rickey sculpture exhibition on Clydeside (1982), the EduardoPaolozzi exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy (1984) and the funding and erection of the Hugh MacDiarmid Memorial Sculpture in Langholm (1985). He also organised a series of national conferences on topics including public art, women’s art and Scottish art. In 1997 he was a consultant to the City of Glasgow’s international touring exhibition of work by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. His book The Summer Walkers was awarded the Jena Michaelis Ratcliffe Folklore Award in 1996. He lives in Fife.

22 From 2015

2015 HIGHLIGHTS: ELLISON, HOWE

EMBED WITH GAMESA Year on the Couch with Game DevelopersCara EllisonIn 2014 games critic Cara Ellison rather flippantly pledged to the internet she’d leave home, become itinerant, and travel around the world to live with and write about some of the most interesting game developers and their cultural outlook.

Originally Cara put up the Embed With Games series monthly on a free blog as she travelled from couch to couch, writing about the people she met and about the way our game creators express the culture around them. This is the collected work, with an exclusive introduction from Kieron Gillen, a cover from Irene Koh, and a conclusion exclusive to the ebook.

‘I didn’t know too much about Cara before reading Embed with Games, now I admire her. This book made me want to play games, it makes me want to make games. I can’t really offer higher praise than that’ – VideoBrains.co.uk

LEE BRILLEAUXRock’n’Roll GentlemanZoë HoweLee 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 ageof glam rock, post-hippy folk and pop androgyny.

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.

‘Zoe Howe presents a fascinating portrait of Lee Collinson (Lee’s pre-Brilleaux name)’ – Louder Than War

ISBN 9781846973444Price £8.99Format 198 x 129mm paperbackRights WorldPublication 19 November 2015Extent 136pp

ISBN 9781846973352Price £14.99Format 234 x 156mm paperbackRights WorldPublication 19 November 2015Extent 272pp

From 2015 23

2015 HIGHLIGHTS: McCALL SMITH, DOWLING

CHANCE DEVELOPMENTSUnexpected Love StoriesAlexander McCall SmithIt is said that a picture may be worth a thousand words but an old photograph can inspire many more. In this beguiling book, Alexander McCall Smith casts his eye over five chanced-upon photographs from the past and imagines the stories behind them. What emerges are surprising and poignant tales of love and friendship in a variety of settings – from an estate in the Highlands of Scotland to a travelling circus in Canada.

Some will find joy and fulfilment – others would prefer happier endings. Each of them, though, will find love, and that is ultimately what matters.

These stories are full of insight and empathy…the first two, ‘Sister Flora’s First Day of Freedom’ and ‘Angels in Italy’ are works of depth and beauty that would not be shamed in the company of the world’s great short stories’ – Kerryn Goldsworthy, Fairfax Papers

ASCENSIONGregory DowlingVenice in 1749 – the city has lost its political and financial primacy but has become Europe’s pleasure capital. Alvise Marangon, born in Italy but brought up in London, returns to the city of his birth and quickly becomes involved in the protection of a visiting wealthy young Englishman and his beautiful cousin.

Amidst the world of gambling dens and courtesans, something momentous is being planned for the Feast of the Ascension, Venice’s most important and spectacular holiday, and it seems that only Alvise can prevent the day from turning into bloody mayhem.

‘Alvise is a terrific character, the murder mystery is absorbinglyingenious 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

ISBN 9781846973291Price £9.99Format 170 x 126mm hardbackRights UK & CommonwealthPublication 19 November 2015Extent 240pp

ISBN 9781846973130Price £8.99Format 198 x 129mm paperbackRights WorldPublication 24 September 2015Extent 352pp

24 From 2015

ISBN 9781846973321Price £12.99Format 216 x 138mm hardbackRights WorldPublication 19 November 2015Extent 126pp

BENEATH TROUBLED SKIESPoems of Scotland at War,1914–1918Edited by Lizzie MacGregorThis is the story of Scotland at war in the poetry of the time, in English, Gaelic and Scots, by servicemen, volunteers, and those on the home front. Well known soldier poets like E.A. Mackintosh, Dòmhnall Ruadh Chorùna and Joseph Lee are joined by others who fought with their pens to chronicle and comment on the war, among them Mary Symon, Neil Munro and Margaret Sackville.

This anthology traces the progress of Scotland’s war through poetry written by serving soldiers and those on the home front, including Charles Hamilton Sorley, E.A. Mackintosh, R.Watson Kerr, Joseph Lee, Charles Murray, May Wedderburn.Cannan, Mary Symon.

WHISPERING SHADOWSJan-Philipp SendkerPaul Leibovitz was once an ambitious advisor, dedicated father, and loving husband. But after living for nearly thirty years in Hong Kong, personal tragedy strikes and Paul’s marriage unravels in the fallout.

When he makes a fleeting connection with Elizabeth, a distressed American woman on the verge of collapse, his life is thrown into turmoil. Less than twenty-four hours later, Elizabeth’s son is found dead in Shenzhen, and Paul, invigorated by a newfound purpose, sets out to investigate the murder on his own.

‘If you like intriguing plots, engaging characters, real-lifeissues, and the emotional turmoil of losing a loved one, all wrapped up into a (small ‘p’) political drama, this one is very definitely for you’ – Lovereading

ISBN 9781846973307Price £8.99Format 198 x 129mm paperbackRights UK & Commonwealth ex. CanadaPublication 25 June 2015Extent 330pp

2015 HIGHLIGHTS: MacGREGOR, SENDKER

From 2015 25

PENELOPE’S WEBChristopher RushOdysseus returns to Ithaca after nearly twenty years, half of it spent as a soldier and the other half as a soldier of fortune. During his absence his wife Penelope remains faithful, despite Odysseus being missing and presumed dead, but when her husband suddenly reappears he confronts those who have been trying to seduce his wife and kills them all.

This is a novel about war and peace, about how returning soldiers can find peace more horrible than war, and home more hellish than the battlefield.

‘This is strong stuff, but Penelope’s Web works on the premise that brutal times call for brutal prose. The result is original and challenging.’ – The Times

ISBN 9781846973093Price £16.99Format 234 x 156mm hardbackRights WorldPublication 24 September 2015Extent 512pp

THE MAGICIANS OF SCOTLANDRon ButlinJust as The Magicians of Edinburgh’s themes ranged from Sir Walter Scott to the new parliament, from Greyfriar’s Bobby to the trams, the themes of the new collection include Scotland’s past, present and future, its landscape and people, its myths and politics – from Bannockburn, Flodden to Faslane, the Loch Ness Monster, wind farms, Hutton to Higgs, Bonnie Prince Charlie to Donald Trump. It is accessible, serious and entertaining.

‘Butlin is the best, the most productive Scottish poet of his generation’ – Douglas Dunn

ISBN 9781846972911Price £9.99Format 198 x 129mm paperbackRights WorldPublication 24 July 2015Extent 112pp

2015 HIGHLIGHTS: RUSH, BUTLIN

26 Contacts

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TRADE TERMSAll orders are subject to a 35%discount, unless otherwisearranged. The standard discountwill be applied to all subscriptionsand cash with order. Singlecopy orders are subject to a 20%discount. Orders with a net invoicevalue under £30 may be subject toa reduced discount of 25%.

RETURNS POLICYAll books must be in mintcondition and suitable for resale.All returns requests mustbe authorised in advance byBirlinn Ltd or an authorisedrepresentative.

No out-of-print titles may bereturned unless permission issought from the publisher.

Books may not be returned withinthree months or after twelvemonths from receipt by thecustomer.

Single copy returns will notnormally be accepted unless byspecial arrangement.

Faulty books must be returnedcomplete. Title page is notacceptable.

Returns must be sent to theBooksource warehouse within onemonth of written authorisationbeing received, otherwise they maynot be accepted. Returns should NOT be sent tothe publisher’s office. All returnsmust have an authorised returnslabel and should be addressed to:

Booksource50 Cambuslang RoadGlasgow G32 8NB

Contacts 27

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.

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.

Birlinn LtdWest Newington House10 Newington RoadEdinburghEH9 1QSTel: +44 (0) 131 668 4371Fax: +44 (0) 131 668 [email protected]

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Rights represented by Maria [email protected]: +44 7866713512

Sales DirectorLaura [email protected]

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Editorial Director (Birlinn & BC Books)Andrew [email protected]

Managing Editor (Polygon)Alison [email protected]

Academic Editor (John Donald)Mairi [email protected]

Export ManagerCarol [email protected]

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Sales Liason ManagerVikki [email protected]

New TiTles2016www.polygonbooks.co.uk

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Polygon New Titles 2016

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