Feeling Festive
Christmas Gifts
This full-to-bursting festive issue from BooksfromScotland is packed with great gift ideas for Christmas. Love fiction? Football? Film? Fashion? The great outdoors? Delicious recipes? Stunning coffee-table books? Don't worry, we've got you covered. So dive in, and we bet that soon you'll be crossing off everyone on your Christmas lists! And remember, whatever your literary indulgence, we hope you all have a fabulous festive break! x
Winter trees photograph by Donald Anderson
It’s been a brilliant year for Scottish books, and you truly are spoilt for choice for books to give as presents. If you’re still undecided, the best people to speak to about gift ideas are our wonderful booksellers. We spoke to a few to ask them what they’ll be recommending to their customers in the run up to Christmas day.
Sally, Far From the Madding Crowd in Linlithgow
2019 has been anoth...
Rosemary Hector has re-imagined the Nativity story through a series of poems offering different voices and perspectives. If you’re looking to see this story anew, this beautifully-illustrated book is a perfect gift for Advent. We’ve selected here a few of the poems from the collection to kick start your Christmas reflections.
Poems taken from A Quickening By Rosemary Hector Published by Muddy Pearl
Matter of Belief
The guide from National Geographic suggested it could have been a trough, rather than a manger, where Mary laid her baby, since Bethlehem, banked by olive and almond trees, is on an aquifer and was built to defend water. He pontificated that water and height, the soil and its fertility, defence, boundaries and access remain political issues. Trough or manger; a problem? The mystery is in contest...
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
Tall Tales Tales and Wee Stories
‘If it wisnae for your wellies, where would you be?’
Wintering: A Season with Geese
‘A morning, a week later. The first skein comes, shaped like the nib of a fountain pen, drawing a northbound line through the sky.’
‘When I read, I know there is a world beneath my branches.’
David Robinson Reviews: In Case of Any News by Kenneth Roy
‘Overwhelming love. Overwhelming love. Overwhelming love. I am surrounded by it, wrapped in it, and I am trying to learn at the end of my life to learn how to deal with it and respond to it. It isn’t …
The Secret Life of the Cairngorms
‘I love the solitude; just me, the wildlife and my camera.’
The Secret Life of Tartan: How a Cloth Shaped a Nation
‘It is the Fabric of the Nation.’
Charles Rennie Mackintosh in France
‘In the 1890s he made several watercolours of haunting beauty which developed the vocabulary of his design work, fusing elegant botanical forms and mystical figures into subtle, painted patterns. But …
The World of Bond According to Smershpod
‘The first sound we hear is of radio interference. Then a gun barrel unfurls into view. And there he is. . . James Bond (in this instance Bob Simmons, a stuntman standing in for Sean Connery). he walk …
Two Winters and Three Summers on Lewis
‘I photographed things as I found them. There are no attempts to create postcard images, no specialist filters, no long exposures of the incoming tide at Luskentyre, no misguided attempts to create an …
Scotland’s Mountain Landscapes
‘Mountain scenery is always inspirational; but understanding how mountain landscapes have evolved deepens our perspectives of time and space, and the transience of human existence.’
Something Delicious from Naturally Stefanie
‘A plant-based lifestyle is not a diet – nor is the gym the only place you can successfully, and happily, get fit.’
Football’s Roads Less Travelled
‘Shorn of crowds in the tens of thousands, there is time and space to see the small acts of love and devotion that any given supporter performs on a match day.’
‘Their dexterity and creativity as individuals is inspiring, and collectively they have left an exceptional cultural legacy from the heart of the shipbuilding and maritime trade on the Clyde.’
66: The House That Viewed the World
‘I had long been trying to write a story on this subject, to find a body, a vehicle, for that strong sense of man’s double being which must at times come in upon and overwhelm the mind of every thinki …
‘An at that moment a muckle great waw cam crashin oan tae the rocks an the waater hit against the preeson wa’ an the spray cam through yon wee windae an waashed ower me. An ah kent. Richt there an the …
ALSO ON BOOKS FROM SCOTLAND
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Pink Camouflage by Gemma Morgan
‘I had to tell this story for the thousands of other women who have been harmed by the toxic culture …
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The Hollow Tree by Philip Miller
‘The man turned around. His hands were dark with blood.
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David Robinson Reviews: All Before Me by Esther Rutter
‘This then is a book about recovery, about regaining self-confidence and rediscovering joy.’
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QuickFire, Slow Burning by Janette Ayachi
‘Things are shed when people listen to poetry.’
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‘But best of all it is dead silent: no sound of greetin’ weans, no shouting staff, no screaming- dru …
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‘If readers enjoy what you’ve written, they’ll keep on coming back for more.’
FEATURED AUTHOR:
Jock Findlay
John ‘Jock’ Findlay was born and brought up in the heart of the burgeoning West Lothian shale oil industry. His family and working life was shaped and dominated by The Pumpherston Oil Company or ‘The works’ as it was known locally. ‘The works’ provided …
FEATURED PUBLISHER:
Frontline Noir
Frontline Noir, founded in 2008, is a publisher of current affairs and recent history titles covering controversial topics and events, often written by people who were participants or otherwise affected. Our aim is to ensure such subjects are given a h …