In the wake of Calum and Catherine MacGillivray’s deaths, the novel follows their daughter Mary, who leaves Scotland to work for the wealthy Buchanan family in Jamaica. Against a backdrop of rebellion and starvation among freed slaves, Mary’s compassion and her father’s legacy of resistance to oppression shine through. Returning to her homeland years later, […]
Famine, clearance and the inspiration for a novel
It was over 50 years ago when Willie Orr found the seed of an idea for a novel about the Scottish potato famine and the Highland Clearances. He had a lot of living to do first, and the inspiration took root in a Scottish archive much later. Now the third of his series about Shiaba […]
St Kilda Bird Song by KF MacCarthy (the 2024 HWA Dorothy Dunnett Short Story winner)
St Kilda Bird Song by KF MacCarthy won the 2024 HWA Dorothy Dunnett Short Story Competition. Our judges said: “A magical and immersive story of a late 19th-century teacher on the remote island, told from diverse perspectives with fluency and confidence. A very special piece of writing about a remarkable place.” The 2025 Short Story […]
Burke and the War of 1812 by Tom Williams
As the United States sets its sights on expansion, James Burke, part spy, part diplomat, is sent to gather crucial intelligence and navigate the treacherous political landscape. His journey takes him from the tribal homes of the Shawnee people to the heart of Washington in the run-up to open conflict along the Canada-US border. When […]
The War of 1812: unexpectedly relevant
When Tom Williams decided to send his soldier/spy James Burke to North America for his next book, he wondered how European readers would respond to a rather obscure war that took place across the Atlantic while Napoleon was capturing most people’s attention. But as he was writing Burke and the War of 1812, that conflict […]
Dangerous by Essie Fox
Living in exile in Venice, the disgraced Lord Byron revels in the freedoms of the city. But when he is associated with the deaths of local women, found with wounds to their throats, and then a novel called The Vampyre is published under his name, rumours begin to spread that Byron may be the murderer. As events escalate and […]
The King’s Agent by Rosemary Hayes
In France in 1809, as war against Napoleon is still raging, disgraced soldier Will Fraser and Duncan Armstrong, his wounded sergeant, are now working as agents for the British Government. They are dispatched to France on an urgent mission to rescue undercover spies — royalists, who are ardent enemies of Napoleon, and who have been […]
When fiction is fatal – Byron and vampires
Vampires in Venice? In her new Gothic thriller, Dangerous, Essie Fox imagines what could happen if fiction appears to become fatal fact when Lord Byron is living in the water-bound city. Here she writes about the two incidents from Byron’s life that inspired her novel. Most of us know of Bram Stoker‘s Dracula, published in […]