Madness Lies Page 31

  ‘Stunningly captures the feel of Pakistan, from Karachi to the hills’ – tripfiction.com

  ***

  QueerBashing

  Tim Morriosn

  ISBN: 978-1-910946-06-0 (eBook)

  ISBN: 978-0-9929768-9-7 (Paperback)

  The first queerbasher McGillivray ever met was in the mirror.

  From the revivalist churches of Orkney in the 1970s, to the gay bars of London and Northern England in the 90s, via the divinity school at Aberdeen, this is the story of McGillivray, a self-centred, promiscuous hypocrite, failed Church of Scotland minister, and his own worst enemy.

  Determined to live life on his own terms, McGillivray’s grasp on reality slides into psychosis and a sense of his own invulnerability, resulting in a brutal attack ending life as he knows it.

  Raw and uncompromising, this is a viciously funny but ultimately moving account of one man’s desire to come to terms with himself and live his life as he sees fit.

  ‘…an arresting novel of pain and self-discovery’ – Alastair Mabbott (The Herald)

  ***

  A Good Death

  Helen Davis

  ISBN: 978-0-9575689-7-6 (eBook)

  ISBN: 978-0-9575689-6-9 (Paperback)

  ‘A good death is better than a bad conscience,’ said Sophie.

  1983 – Georgie, Theo, Sophie and Helena, four disparate young Cambridge undergraduates, set out to scale Ausangate, one of the highest and most sacred peaks in the Andes.

  Seduced into employing the handsome and enigmatic Wamani as a guide, the four women are initiated into the mystically dangerous side of Peru, Wamani and themselves as they travel from Cuzco to the mountain, a journey that will shape their lives forever.

  2013 – though the women are still close, the secrets and betrayals of Ausangate chafe at the friendship.

  A girls’ weekend at a lonely Fenland farmhouse descends into conflict with the insensitive inclusion of an overbearing young academic toyboy brought along by Theo. Sparked by his unexpected presence, pent up petty jealousies, recriminations and bitterness finally explode the truth of Ausangate, setting the women on a new and dangerous path.

  Sharply observant and darkly comic, Helen Davis’s début novel is an elegant tale of murder, seduction, vengeance, and the value of a good friendship.

  ‘The prose is crisp, adept, and emotionally evocative’ – Lesbrary.com

  ***

  The Birds That Never Flew

  Margot McCuaig

  Shortlisted for the Dundee International Book Prize 2012

  Longlisted for the Polari First Book Prize 2014

  ISBN: 978-0-9929768-5-9 (eBook)

  ISBN: 978-0-9929768-4-2 (Paperback)

  ‘Have you got a light hen? I’m totally gaspin.’

  Battered and bruised, Elizabeth has taken her daughter and left her abusive husband Patrick. Again. In the bleak and impersonal Glasgow housing office Elizabeth meets the provocatively intriguing drug addict Sadie, who is desperate to get her own life back on track.

  The two women forge a fierce and interdependent relationship as they try to rebuild their shattered lives, but despite their bold, and sometimes illegal attempts it seems impossible to escape from the abuse they have always known, and tragedy strikes.

  More than a decade later Elizabeth has started to implement her perfect revenge – until a surreal Glaswegian Virgin Mary steps in with imperfect timing and a less than divine attitude to stick a spoke in the wheel of retribution.

  Tragic, darkly funny and irreverent, The Birds That Never Flew ushers in a new and vibrant voice in Scottish literature.

  ‘…dark, beautiful and moving, I wholeheartedly recommend’ scanoir.co.uk

  ***

  Over Here

  Jane Taylor

  ISBN: 978-0-9929768-3-5 (eBook)

  ISBN: 978-0-9929768-2-8 (Paperback)

  It’s coming up to twenty-four hours since the boy stepped down from the big passenger liner – it must be, he reckons foggily – because morning has come around once more with the awful irrevocability of time destined to lead nowhere in this worrying new situation. His temporary minder on board – last spotted heading for the bar some while before the lumbering process of docking got underway – seems to have vanished for good. Where does that leave him now? All on his own in a new country: that’s where it leaves him. He is just nine years old.

  An eloquently written novel tracing the social transformations of a century where possibilities were opened up by two world wars that saw millions of men move around the world to fight, and mass migration to the new worlds of Canada and Australia by tens of thousands of people looking for a better life.

  Through the eyes of three generations of women, the tragic story of the nine year old boy on Liverpool docks is brought to life in saddeningly evocative prose.

  ‘…a sweeping haunting first novel that spans four generations and two continents…’ – Cristina Odone/Catholic Herald

  ***

  The Bonnie Road

  Suzanne d’Corsey

  ISBN: 978-1-910946-01-5 (eBook)

  ISBN: 978-0-9929768-6-6 (Paperback)

  My grandmother passed me in transit. She was leaving, I was coming into this world, our spirits meeting at the door to my mother’s womb, as she bent over the bed to close the thin crinkled lids of her own mother’s eyes.

  The women of Morag’s family have been the keepers of tradition for generations, their skills and knowledge passed down from woman to woman, kept close and hidden from public view, official condemnation and religious suppression.

  In late 1970s St. Andrews, demand for Morag’s services are still there, but requested as stealthily as ever, for even in 20th century Scotland witchcraft is a dangerous Art to practise.

  When newly widowed Rosalind arrives from California to tend her ailing uncle, she is drawn unsuspecting into a new world she never knew existed, one in which everyone seems to have a secret, but that offers greater opportunities than she dreamt of – if she only has the courage to open her heart to it.

  Richly detailed, dark and compelling, d’Corsey magically transposes the old ways of Scotland into the 20th Century and brings to life the ancient traditions and beliefs that still dance just below the surface of the modern world.

  ‘…successfully portrays rich characters in compelling plots, interwoven with atmospheric Scottish settings & history and coloured with witchcraft & romance’ – poppypeacockpens.com

  ***

  Talk of the Toun

  Helen MacKinven

  ISBN: 978-1-910946-00-8 (eBook)

  ISBN: 978-0-9929768-7-3 (Paperback)

  She was greetin’ again. But there’s no need for Lorraine to be feart, since the first day of primary school, Angela has always been there to mop up her tears and snotters.

  An uplifting black comedy of love, family life and friendship, Talk of the Toun is a bittersweet coming-of-age tale set in the summer of 1985, in working class, central belt Scotland.

  Lifelong friends Angela and Lorraine are two very different girls, with a growing divide in their aspirations and ambitions putting their friendship under increasing strain.

  Artistically gifted Angela has her sights set on art school, but lassies like Angela, from a small town council scheme, are expected to settle for a nice wee secretarial job at the local factory. Her only ally is her gallus gran, Senga, the pet psychic, who firmly believes that her granddaughter can be whatever she wants.

  Though Lorraine’s ambitions are focused closer to home Angela has plans for her too, and a caravan holiday to Filey with Angela’s family tests the dynamics of their relationship and has lifelong consequences for them both.

  Effortlessly capturing the religious and social intricacies of 1980s Scotland, Talk of the Toun is the perfect mix of pathos and humour as the two girls wrestle with the complications of growing up and exploring who they really are.

  ‘Fresh, fierce and funny…a sharp and poignant study of growing up in 1980s Scotland
. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry…you’ll cringe’ – KAREN CAMPBELL

  ***