Out of money and with little to show for his art school education, John-Calum Macleod takes the ferry home to the island of Harris to find that not much has changed except for him. In the windswept croft where he grew up, Cal resumes his old life, caught between the two poles of his childhood: his father John, a sheep farmer, weaver, and pillar of their local Presbyterian church, and his Glaswegian grandmother Ella, who has kept a faltering peace with her son-in-law for decades. While Cal wonders if any lonely men might be found on the barren hillsides of home, John is dismayed by his son's long hair and how he seems unwilling to be Saved. As the seasons pass, everything is poised to change as the threads holding together the fragile community become increasingly entangled. Douglas Stuart was born and raised in Glasgow. After graduating from the Royal College of Art, he moved to New York, where he began a career in fashion design. _Shuggie Bain_, his first novel, won the Booker Prize and both 'Debut of the Year' and 'Book of the Year' at the British Book Awards. It was also shortlisted for the US National Book Award for Fiction, among many other awards. His second novel, _Young Mungo, wa_s a number one _Sunday Times_ Bestseller. His short stories have appeared in _The_ _New Yorker_ and his essay on gender, anxiety and class was published by Lit Hub.

A new history of painting as told through the eyes and hands-on insights of a practising artist. The first question that Lachlan Goudie asks himself when he sees a work of art is not 'why' it was created but 'how'. For this book he poses that question of artworks created by the earliest humans to artists today, focusing on the technical inventions and turning points that at each stage have marked a new chapter in the history of art. Goudie knows from experience that masterpieces don't emerge serenely from an artist's studio. They are the result of a long tussle between dirty hands and crushed pigment, hog's-hair brushes and linseed oil, rabbit-skin glue and pulverized chalk. Great paintings are always the product of a struggle involving artists and their materials, one that pushes the practitioner to the very limits of technical ability. The secrets of painting lie above all in the physical elements from which an image is crafted. The nature of these elements has changed over time and across continents. And as each generation of painters exploits the new material and technical innovations of their era, they transform the character of their work and help propel the course of art history. Goudie traces this story all the way back to the original 'big bang' in the story of art: the very first painting pigments, made from charcoal and minerals, that were used to paint extraordinary art on the walls of the caves at Chauvet 36,000 years ago. He goes on to explore the impact of numerous new inventions and discoveries over the centuries, including ink, fresco, egg tempera, oil paint, canvas, watercolour, gouache, impasto, tubes of manufactured oil paint, collage, household gloss, acrylic, digital media and AI. Each chapter focuses on a technical turning point as embodied in the work of particular artist, including Giotto, Artemisia Gentileschi, Alma Thomas, Anselm Kiefer, David Hockney and many more. LACHLAN GOUDIE is a Scottish painter and arts broadcaster. He has presented many BBC TV programmes including 'Mackintosh: Glasgow's Neglected Genius', 'Painting the Holy Land' and 'The Story of Scottish Art'. He is the author of _The Story of Scottish Art_, published by Thames & Hudson in 2022.

A captivating authorised biography of the legendary writer Jan Morris. _She was the twentieth century. Who wouldn't want to write her biography?_ When Jan Morris joined the 1953 Everest expedition and was first to get news of the ascent back to London, she became the most famous journalist in the world. So began a glittering career covering the Eichmann trial, interviewing Che Guevara and scooping the story of Suez collusion. Morris transitioned in the early seventies and documented the experience in _Conundrum_. She was a pioneer and her books, including _Venice_ and the _Pax Britannica_ trilogy, have inspired readers across the globe. Here, renowned travel writer and biographer Sara Wheeler uncovers the complexity of this twentieth-century icon to reveal a mosaic of contradictions. Morris's work conjured the spirit of place, yet her late masterpiece _Trieste_ celebrates 'the meaning of nowhere'; she was a Welsh nationalist who wasn't Welsh; a preacher of kindness with a cruel side. This is a portrait of an astonishing life, and a scintillating story of longing, travel and never reaching home. SARA WHEELER is an award-winning and internationally bestselling travel writer and biographer, and a regular broadcaster on BBC Radio; like Jan Morris, she has spent half her working life on the road. Her eleven books include _Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica_ and _Cherry: A Life of Apsley Cherry-Garrard_. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a contributing editor of the _Literary Review._

From the _Sunday Times_ bestselling author of _Islands of Abandonment_, comes a new book about our relationship to the natural world. This book takes us into the wild - deep into dark forests, to the top of mountains and into the heart of deserts. It addresses our deep yearnings to be awed and inspired by landscapes that remain beyond our reach and examines what nature gets up to in the absence of humans. In 10 chapters, each loosely structured around a visit to some of the world's wildest and most invigorating landscapes, the book asks provocative questions about the nature of wilderness and how wild places might best be appreciated or preserved. These locations have been chosen for their physical beauty, their perceived isolation, and the moral or emotional complexity of the human stories that can be found there. In this search for wilderness, we will meet ascetics in search of theophany in the desert; lonely shepherds seeing off wolves under the stars; missionaries preaching from shacks deep in the jungle; wise lamas meditating under lofty mountain peaks. CAL FLYN is an award-winning writer from the Highlands of Scotland. She writes creative nonfiction, literary criticism, and long-form journalism. Her first book, _Thicker Than Water_, about frontier violence in colonial Australia, was a _Times_ book of the year. Her second book, _Islands of Abandonment_ - about the ecology and psychology of abandoned places - has been shortlisted for numerous literary awards including the Wainwright Prize, the British Academy Book Prize, the Ondaatje Prize, and the Baillie Gifford Prize for nonfiction. Cal's journalistic writing has been published in Granta, National Geographic, The Wall Street Journal, The Sunday Times, The Economist, and others. Cal was previously writer-in-residence at Gladstone's Library and at the Jan Michalski Foundation in Switzerland. She was made a MacDowell fellow in 2019, and in 2022 was announced the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year.

'BRIGHT, BEAUTIFUL AND ACHIEVABLE' - Mary Berry Tips, tricks and everything you could possibly wish to know about planning, growing and arranging your own cutting garden from the queen of cut flowers, Sarah Raven. Sarah shares the secrets she has evolved over decades at Perch Hill to keep cut flower production nearly constant, from the start of the growing year to the end. With her unparalleled expertise up your sleeve, you'll have a house full of flowers conditioned to last well in a vase, and an abundant garden always brimming with colour. With plenty of cut-flower inspiration and practical advice such as: - How to choose high, medium and low productive cut-and-come-again plants so you can enjoy bountiful vases of home-grown blooms. - Which plants should form the backbone of any cutting patch or garden, large or small. - Plant rotation, with a selection of plant groups coming in and out of the same patch of soil. - A year-round plan to achieve efficient cut flower production and ensure highest possible production from minimal space. - How to condition and arrange your cut flowers for maximum impact and longevity. '_I am passionate about growing cut flowers - it's been my main gardening obsession for over 30 years. It's an ever-filling cup, gardening for the optimist, the greedy flower lover, who wants to fill their house with colour, scent and abundance without shopping. That's me and I hope many of you and what this book is about, the things we can all pick month by month, what one should think of sowing and growing at that moment, and how I love to arrange what's been picked. I'll take your though the year and show you everything I've learnt about growing cut flowers over three decades, but most of all why having home-grown cut flowers in one's house is an easy life transformer_.' Since the publication of her first book _The Cutting Garden_ SARAH RAVEN has led the way over the last three decades in introducing a new kind of productive gardening which fuses intense colour, elegance and do-ability, bridging all kinds of gardening from dark rich dahlia glories to subtler smoky modern colours of poppies, roses, sweet peas, and all kinds of vegetable deliciousness. She is a teacher, broadcaster, has a popular gardening podcast _Grow, Cook, Eat, Arrange_ with colleague Arthur Parkinson and runs a mail order plant nursery and online store. She is the author of many books, most recently _A Year Full of Flowers_ which was a Sunday Times bestseller.

First there was _The Ghost Cat_, then there was _The Library Cat_, now Alex Howard joins us to celebrate the wonderfully heart-warming, _The Ship's Cat_. It is an epic of Homeric proportions that will leave the reader with a smile on their face. _From the bestselling author of The Ghost Cat comes an epic new adventure for feline fans. The Ship's Cat is the Odyssey with cats - a heroic yet feel-good tale of unlikely friendship on the high seas._ _When street-savvy London stray Archie accidentally stows away on a flight to Turkey, he's just looking for shelter. But after stumbling onto a fishing boat in a quiet cove, Archie discovers he's no ordinary feline - for with his polydactyl paws, he brings uncanny good fortune to vessels at sea._ _From the sun-drenched harbours of the Mediterranean to the bustling decks of ocean racers, Archie becomes a legend among sailors. Yet beneath the viral fame and whispered tales of 'the magical ship's cat', Archie yearns for something deeper: a forever-human who will love him not as a talisman, but as a companion._ _It may be luck that drives Archie on this great Odyssey around the world, but love will be what calls him home - not to some place, perhaps, but to someone._ _Heartwarming, adventurous and quietly profound, The Ship's Cat is a tale of resilience, belonging, unexpected friendship and the mysterious ways love finds us._ Alex Howard is an author, editor and theatre professional from Edinburgh. A doctoral graduate of English literature, Alex wrote his first book Library Cat (Black & White Publishing) while completing his PhD. It won the People's Book Prize in 2017, and has been translated into French, Korean and Italian. He also writes poetry, which has been published in New Writing Scotland, Gutter and The London Magazine, among others, and his academic book Larkin's Travelling Spirit was published in 2021 by Palgrave McMillan. Alex works at Capital Theatres as a creative engagement coordinator and editor while renovating his Edinburgh tenement flat at weekends, with his cat Tabitha, son Sasha and wife, Ellie.

An epic story of love and war as two opposing deities find themselves drawn to each other against all odds. Because when Aphrodite and Ares fall in love, sparks are bound to fly. This is the oldest love story of all time... Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, wields unparalleled power over every divine and mortal heart. Though her world is one of beauty, she is the most dangerous god of all, ruled by passion regardless of the consequences. Ares, God of War, is her perfect contradiction: feared, unwanted and relentless in his devotion to chaos. Where she breathes life into longing, he thrives in destruction. And yet gods are no more immune to love and loss than anyone else, and soon their lives collide. But even divine love can't protect them from the fates of Mount Olympus, and whilst the God of War may be capable of greater love than anyone else, so may the Goddess of Love be capable of the gravest mistakes._._ JENNIFER SAINT grew up reading Greek mythology and was always drawn to the untold stories hidden within the myths. After thirteen years as a high school English teacher, she wrote _Ariadne_, which was shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year in 2021 and was a Waterstones Book of the Month, as well as being a _Sunday Times_ bestseller. Jennifer Saint is now a full-time author, living in Yorkshire, England, with her family. All of her novels have been _Sunday Times_ bestsellers, with _Elektra_ and _Atalanta_ hitting the coveted number one slot.

Featuring real historical events and places amid its fiction, _The Jewel Keepers_ is an immersive, evocative story tinged with romance and brimming with intrigue. Men would kill for this treasure. The mckenzie women will guard it with their lives. LONDON, 1837. When 25-year-old Araminta McKenzie-Moore is summoned from Richmond to her great aunt's deathbed in Edinburgh, it's the first time she's met her extended family. The McKenzie women, however, have been keeping a close eye on her. For they have a long, secret and dangerous history as Jewel Keepers to the Scottish Crown and they need Araminta to play her part to solve a puzzle which stretches back generations. But the McKenzies are not alone in this high-stakes treasure hunt though history. They're being pursued. The last of her line, if Araminta succeeds, she will uncover something more valuable than mere jewels - a secret that will change the lives of all women living on this, the cusp of the Queen Victoria's rule. SARA SHERIDAN has written more than 20 books including novels, non-fiction, TV tie ins, and ghost writing. Her work has been the First Minister's Summer Pick at the David Hume Institute, shortlisted for the Saltire Prize, the Wilbur Smith Prize and the CWA Dagger in the Library, and she has also won a Scottish Libraries Award. Her novel _The Fair Botanists_ featured in series seven of the Queen's Reading Room. Sara has also written two plays for BBC Radio 4 and has reported from both Tallinn and Sharjah for Radio 4's Our Own Correspondent.

A new title in the british museum's _Object in Focus_ series that tells the remarkable story of an enamelled gold necklace pendant associated with Henry viii and his first wife Katherine of Aragon. This book tells the remarkable story of a spectacular chance find of a pendant associated with Henry VIII and his first wife Katherine of Aragon, as well as Mary, their only surviving child. Known as the Tudor Heart, the object comprises a heart-shaped pendant with enamelled motifs, suspended from a chain by an enamelled clasp. Over 3 metres of gold wire have been used to make the chain, the oldest known example of its type to survive, and together the pendant, chain and clasp weigh over 0.3 kilograms and are largely 24 carat gold. The pendant and chain have been dated to the last years of the 1510s based on the motifs used and archival evidence. This book argues that the object is an important witness to Henry's ambitions in the early years of his long reign, marking his first and longest marriage to a princess of higher birth, commemorating his daughter's betrothal to the infant son of the king of France, and showing the magnificence of Henry's court before the arrival of Hans Holbein the Younger changed its expression completely. Readers will learn about a masterfully crafted work using the most luxurious of materials, as well as its place as important historical evidence for pivotal years in English history. This publication explores the sensational finding of the artefact, but its central aim is to establish the details of object's making, its broader historical context and to tell its own extraordinary story. RACHEL KING is Curator of Renaissance Europe and the Waddesdon Bequest at the British Museum. Previous publications include _Amber: From Antiquity to Eternity_ _(Reaktion, 2022)._

Reporter Jack Parlabane thrives on chasing stories in unlikely places, and where could be less likely than a fan convention on a cruise liner celebrating a contentious Sixties TV series? But unlike the media family exploiting their show's renewed relevance, he's not there to stoke controversy: he's there to solve a murder. Already in deep water with his employer, Jack desperately needs a win, and solving this decades-old mystery could be it. Problem is, he's in the middle of the Atlantic, and someone onboard has already killed once to keep their secret. And that's not even the tricky part. No, the tricky part is definitely the dead body locked in a stateroom with him, covered in his blood. Now Jack has to solve _two_ murders, otherwise the only way he's getting off this ship is in handcuffs - or in a body bag. Chris Brookmyre was a journalist before becoming a full-time novelist with the publication of his award-winning debut _Quite Ugly One Morning_, which established him as one of Britain's leading crime writers. His 2016 novel _Black Widow_ won both the McIlvanney Prize and the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award. Brookmyre's novels have sold more than two million copies in the UK alone.

Lamorna Ash was raised with about as much Christianity as most people in Britain these days: a basic knowledge of hymns and prayers received via a Church of England primary school education; occasional brushes with religious services. But once she started writing about her two friends’ unexpected conversions, she began encountering a recurring phenomenon: in an age of disconnection and apathy, a new generation was discovering religion for itself. In _Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever_, Ash embarks on a journey across Britain to meet those wrestling with Christianity today. Through interviews and her own deeply personal journey with religion, and from Evangelical youth festivals to Quaker meetings, a silent Jesuit retreat along the Welsh coastline to a monastic community in the Inner Hebrides, she investigates what is driving Gen Z today to embrace Christianity. Written with lyrical beauty and sensitivity, this is a reminder of our universal need for nourishment of the soul. LAMORNA ASH is a writer and freelance journalist based in London. Her first book, _Dark, Salt, Clear: Life in a Cornish Fishing Town_, was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, won a Somerset Maugham Award and was shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize.

The way we produce food today is damaging people and nature alike. Modern, intensive farming systems producing pesticide-laced, ultra-processed foods are bad for us and bad for the planet. But there is cause for hope. From supporting more sustainable farming systems and modifying what we eat to wasting less and growing more ourselves, Dave Goulson shows that change is possible and individual choices do matter - even while governments fail to act. Packed with surprising insights and practical guidance, _Eat the Planet Well_ cuts through the information overload to help us navigate the tricky decisions we face every day, and offers an optimistic vision for a healthier future. DAVE GOULSON is Professor of Biology at the University of Sussex. He has published more than 300 scientific articles on the ecology and conservation of bumblebees and other insects. His books include the Sunday Times bestsellers The Garden Jungle and A Sting in the Tale, which was also shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson prize and has been translated into fifteen languages. He is an Ambassador for the UK Wildlife Trusts, the National Allotment Society and the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.

Based on the menu Itamar and Sarit serve at their cafe in Store Street, London, it's the kind of relaxed, informal food we all want to eat every day - chapters include effortless recipes with Eggs, fragrant Soups, tasty ideas for In or On Bread, nourishing Salads, simple, wholesome dinner ideas in Daily Nightly, quick and easy Cookies and Cakes and even some 'serve me in a glass' speedy Cocktails and Desserts. From a summery Courgette & Broad Bean Shakshuka and a Crispy Za'atar Chicken Schnitzel Sandwich to Spicy Sausage, Tomato, Pepper & Goat's Cheese Dirty Rice and Ginger & Chocolate Cookies - this is wholesome, seasonal food that will lift your spirits and improve your day. ITAMAR SRULOVICH and SARIT PACKER opened their first Middle Eastern-inspired restaurant, Honey & Co. in 2012. They have since added a deli, Honey & Spice, a grill house, Honey & Smoke, and now Honey & Co. Daily, a deli, bakery and cafe. They have an events space Honey & Co. Studio and host a podcast Honey & Co: The Food Sessions, interviewing influential guests from the food and drink industry. They have a recipe column in the _FT Weekend_ magazine. Their first cookbook _Honey & Co The Cookbook_ (2015) was named Cookbook of the Year by _The Sunday Times_, and was the Fortnum & Mason Food & Drink Awards Cookery Book of the Year, and won the The Guild of Food Writer's Award Winner for Best First Book.

Weimar looms large in German history: a crucible of democracy and dictatorship. This ancient town nestled in the heart of the country was home to some of Europe's greatest thinkers, Goethe and Schiller, Liszt and Nietzsche among them. It gave its name to the ambitious Weimar Republic crafted in the aftermath of the First World War. But it was also where fascism took hold. Where Bauhaus architects first experimented with new ways of living, Buchenwald was dug out of a beech forest. _Weimar_ shows us a town and its people on the edge of catastrophe. Drawing on a wealth of new archival research, acclaimed historian Katja Hoyer takes us from 1919 to 1939 as she tells the stories of the men and women who lived through the new republic and Hitler's regime. We encounter a vividly drawn cast of characters, from bookbinder Carl Weirich and hotel owners Rosa and Arthur Schmidt, to Friedrich Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth. Here are fascists and socialists, artists and workers, politicians and citizens, who, as the events of history swept them up, became witnesses, perpetrators, victims and bystanders. An unforgettable picture of lives and choices in extraordinary circumstances, _Weimar_ takes us deep into the heart of the storm - to the town that dreamt of a better world, and woke up to tyranny. KATJA HOYER is a German-British historian, journalist and the author of the international bestseller _Beyond the Wall_ as well as _Blood and Iron_. A visiting Research Fellow at King's College London and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, she writes for _Bloomberg_ and _Berliner Zeitung_ and is a commentator on German current affairs for many British newspapers. She was born in Germany and is now based in the UK.

_In an idyllic Sussex town, murder is fermenting..._ _Barclay Flint is the charmingly eccentric proprietor of The Bottle Bank wine shop, nestled in a picturesque Sussex town renowned for its gloriously anarchic Bonfire Night celebration._ _Barclay can taste a kaleidoscopic universe in a single glass of wine and delights in matching customers to the grapes of their dreams. But when his close friend, struggling regenerative vineyard owner Victor Crawshaw, is found dead, Barclay finds himself a prime suspect_ _To crack the case and clear his name, Barclay must deploy his wine detection skills and follow his nose through the rolling Sussex hills where a tangle of old resentments and rivalries awaits to ensnare him._ _With a killer on the loose and Bonfire Night fast approaching, the town crackles with anticipation. This year the fireworks might not be the only things to explode..._

_Julius Caesar is dead, and the lives of two teenaged boys are about to be changed forever. One is Caesar's 17-year-old nephew, Octavius, whom he has made his heir._ _The other is Octavius's closest friend, Agrippa._ _To claim Octavius's inheritance, they must fight the giant figures of the Roman Empire - and, against all odds, they win. Octavius becomes the Emperor Augustus. For twenty years, they rule the world together._ _Now Agrippa is fifty. Ailing and alone, betrayed by his wife's infidelity, he takes refuge in his house on the Bay of Naples and begins to write his memoirs. Yet to stir up the past can be dangerous. From his earliest meetings with Julius Caesar, through the epic conflict with Mark Antony and Cleopatra, the great naval battle of Actium and the endless wars to expand the empire, he describes how one man has dominated his life: the cunning, ruthless, unknowable Octavius._ _When it comes to power, does friendship exist at all?_ ROBERT HARRIS is the author of sixteen bestselling novels: the Cicero Trilogy - Imperium, Lustrum and Dictator - Fatherland, Enigma, Archangel, Pompeii, The Ghost, The Fear Index, An Officer and a Spy, which won four prizes including the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, Conclave, Munich, The Second Sleep, V2, Act of Oblivion and Precipice. His work has been translated into forty languages and nine of his books have been adapted for cinema and television. He lives in West Berkshire with his wife, Gill Hornby.

The first in a mystery series from the much-loved Irish actor, writer and comedian, for readers who enjoy the warmth of Graham Norton and the mystery of _Death in Paradise_, all wrapped up in one small Irish town. When beloved celebrity gardener Finn O'Leary returns to his hometown of Abbeyford in Ireland to care for his aging mother, he is naturally roped into the Tidy Towns committee. The Tidy Towns is a competition fanatically fought over by every town and village in the land. And for his best friend's sister, Aoife, it's a competition she's determined to win. With everyone's favourite gardener on board, she is sure that this year Abbeyford will take home the prize. But Finn's not been back long when an alto-baritone at his mother's choir practice drops dead during a rendition of 'What the World Needs Now'_._ With more at stake than just winning Tidy Towns, Finn soon finds himself trying to solve a murder - or two. For one of his many qualities is that people tend to confide in him... With his mother, her carer and Aoife in tow, Finn sets out to discover just who has brought murder to Abbeyford. AND SO IT BEGINS. ARDAL O'HANLON is one of Ireland's best-loved actors and stand-up comedians, as well as a writer of novels and documentaries. Ardal's acting credits include leading roles in Father Ted (C4), for which he won a British Comedy Award and Bafta nominations, Death in Paradise (BBC), My Hero (BBC), Derry Girls (C4), Big Bad World (ITV), Blessed (BBC) and the RTE sitcom Val Falvey TD. Among the shows he's presented he also did a half-hour special for Comedy Central (USA), the first overseas act to do so. Ardal has written the acclaimed bestselling novel _The Talk of the Town_ (1999), which was included in the book 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, and _Brouhaha_ (2022).

Jennifer Lee Tsai’s first full-length collection explores family history, intergenerational trauma, love, loss and belonging through the perspective of a second-generation British Chinese identity. _Melete_ interweaves dual cultures and heritages through narratives of memory, migration and mysticism across Liverpool, China and Hong Kong. The mythic structure of the book relates to the three original Boeotian Muses – Melete, Mneme and Aoede. Named after the Muse of meditation and contemplation, _Melete_ navigates the boundaries between life and art, personhood and subjectivity, states and places of spiritual transcendence and ecstasies. This expansive collection establishes a powerfully distinctive lyric voice in British poetry. Jennifer Lee Tsai is a poet, writer and artist. Born in Bebington on the Wirral, she grew up in Liverpool. She has published two pamphlets, _Kismet_ (ignitionpress, 2019) and _La Mysterique_ (Guillemot Press, 2022), with her first book-length collection, _Melete_, published by Bloodaxe in 2026. A fellow of The Complete Works and a Ledbury Poetry Critic, she has received a Northern Writers Award for Poetry and is a winner of the Rebecca Swift Foundation's Women Poets' Prize. She has worked as a teacher of English to students in universities and colleges as well as within community settings. She is the recipient of an AHRC doctoral scholarship in Creative Writing at the University of Liverpool and an Artist in Residence at the Bluecoat's studios through the Wittenham Bursary. Her poetry, essays and reviews have been published in publications including _The Guardian, The Poetry Review, Poetry London, The Telegraph, The TLS_ and _The White Review_ as well as on BBC Radio 4.

Join us for a matinee event with national treasure and beloved broadcaster Lorraine Kelly for her stunning new novel! Evie has come home to Orkney and finally found peace. She has rediscovered her passion for painting, mended broken friendships, and for the first time in a long time, truly feels a sense of belonging. But then a surprise visitor arrives. Mysterious Amelia McLean claims to be Evie's long lost-relative. She looks strangely familiar, her stories seem plausible and she quickly slides into island life. Yet Evie soon starts to feel unsettled and suspicious - and with her hard-won happiness slipping through her fingers, she knows she must uncover Amelia's secret, before it's too late... _ESCAPE TO WILD AND BEAUTIFUL ORKNEY ONCE MORE, WHERE SECRETS NEVER STAY HIDDEN FOR LONG!_ LORRAINE KELLY CBE has worked in breakfast TV for forty years, joining TVam as Scottish correspondent in 1984 and now presents Lorraine on ITV. She is married to cameraman Steve and they have one daughter Rosie, a journalist and broadcaster. Lorraine is a Dundee United fan and gets her best ideas when out for a walk with her beloved border terrier Angus. She first visited Orkney in 1985 and goes back every year.

In 1995 Norman MacCaig began working with translators and fellow poets, including Seamus Heaney, to render a selection of his poetry in Italian. Thirty years later Marco Fazzini has completed this task with a brilliant collection of MacCaig's major works, presented in a handsome Italian/English bilingual edition with a preface by Seamus Heaney and a detailed introduction by Fazzini. Marco will be joined by a number of poets reading MacCaig's work in both their original English and new Italian translations. Confirmed poets and readers include: Rebecca Sharp Anna Crowe Colin Will John Glenday Jean Johnstone

_Sunday Times_ bestselling author Mel Giedroyc will be joining us for the launch of her new novel - a funny, big-hearted story of second chances. _Sometimes life surprises you with an encore... _Twenty years ago, aspiring performer Gill Piper boarded a bus out of Leatherhead with a spring in her step and stars in her eyes. Things didn't quite pan out... Back home again, Gill finds much has changed. Young Lights, the youth theatre group which coaxed her out of her shell, is no more. The theatre itself, once the heartbeat of the community, now feels like a has-been; Gill can relate. When Gill learns the theatre is approaching its hundredth year, she decides to put on a spectacular anniversary show to give it a comeback and unite the town. She has just eight weeks, but if she can persuade some shy newcomers to step into the spotlight, it might just be possible. But Gill hasn't counted on self-appointed Artistic Director and diva extraordinaire Carla Keswick, who declares war. Can Gill and her unlikely company of amateurs defy Carla's dirty tricks, and prove it's never too late for a curtain call? MEL GIEDROYC has been entertaining the nation for over thirty years. A comedian, writer, actor and presenter, Mel is also known for her work alongside Sue Perkins, such as multi Bafta-winning _Great British Bake Off_ (BBC) and _Light Lunch_ (Channel 4). Mel has written two non-fiction books and has appeared in sitcoms and panel shows, as well as on radio and on stage, in Stephen Sondheim's Olivier Award-winning _Company_ in the West End and in _Starter for Ten_ at Bristol's Old Vic. Mel lives in London with her husband and two daughters. Her debut novel _The Best Things_ was a _Sunday Times_ hardback bestseller.

In popular accounts of the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the autocratic Catholic King James II was ousted by his subjects and replaced by his Protestant daughter Mary Stuart, wife of James's nephew, the Dutch William III of Orange. Devoted to her husband, Mary would not accept the crown alone, and so William and Mary were crowned together, securing a smooth dynastic succession. _The Last Invasion of England_ recounts the forgotten campaign that carried William and his army to English shores and led directly to James's fall, bringing a revolutionary age vividly to life-and rewriting the history of Britain, Europe and the transatlantic world more widely. In this bold work of revisionist history, Arthur der Weduwen tells the momentous story of the Dutch Armada, describing the immense risks and near failures of the last seaborne invasion of England-which occurred exactly one hundred years after the defeat of the Spanish Armada. The sixteen thousand Dutch troops who accompanied William were not on hand for moral support. They came with sword, musket and cannon. Der Weduwen argues that the political revolution in Britain could not have been achieved without the willpower, might and resources of William and the Dutch nation, and explains why the Dutch Republic, a small state that celebrated peace and commerce above all else, would dare to undertake a reckless preemptive military strike on its more powerful neighbour. Transforming our understanding of the Glorious Revolution and Britain's ascendancy as a global powerhouse, _The Last Invasion of England_ relies entirely on contemporary sources, many from leading protagonists who prepared and executed the invasion, evoking the historical realities of the women and men who lived during turbulent and uncertain times. ARTHUR DER WEDUWEN is a Lecturer at the School of History of the University of St Andrews. His books include the bestselling _The Library: A Fragile History_ and _The Bookshop of the World: Making and Trading Books in the Dutch Golden Age_, and his work has been translated into ten languages.

In the course of a long career at Sotheby’s and at Cambridge University, Christopher de Hamel has probably handled more medieval manuscripts than anyone alive and his delight and enthusiasm in them run through all he writes. His many books, translated into numerous languages, include _A History of Illuminated Manuscripts_, _Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts_ (winner of the Duff Cooper Prize and the Wolfson History Prize), _The Book in the Cathedral: The Last Relic of Thomas Becket_ and T_he Posthumous Papers of the Manuscripts Club_. Christopher joins us for his astounding new book, _The Migrants: A Memoir in Manuscripts_. This is a coming-of-age saga with extraordinary twists, crossing many hundreds of years and tens of thousands of miles, recounted with passion, humour and a lifetime's reflection. _Christopher de Hamel is one of the world's best-known scholars and writers on illuminated manuscripts. He was mostly brought up in the south of New Zealand, where his family moved when he was four._ _This book magically evokes a childhood at vast distance from Europe, recalling his thrill and wonder in first encountering medieval manuscripts in libraries there and the realization that they too are migrants far from home._ _The Migrants explores the immense journeys of books and people. It is a tale of colonization and the migration of culture - of motives and idealism, triumphs and disasters - bringing us face-to-face with history._ _We meet the colonial governor on his paradise island, the shipwrecked accountant, the nonagenarian who cut up manuscripts, the magnate who unknowingly bought Becket's Boethius and the early settler who inscribed his Book of Hours in the Maori language in 1842._

The theme of this book group a simple - incontrovertibly fine books accompanied by slightly more controversial, interpretive food pairings for each selection. For our second book of 2026 we will read Shida Bazyar's _The Nights are Quiet in Tehran,_ which was recently shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2026. Set across four decades, from 1979 to 2009, this is a polyphonic novel of one family’s flight from and return to Iran. You're very welcome to join us in the first Book Book and a Bite of the New Year. We will meet monthly, and there is no commitment beyond whichever meeting you decide to attend. _1979. Behzad, a young communist revolutionary, fights with his friends for a new order after the Shah’s expulsion. He tells of sparking hope, of clandestine political actions, and of how he finds the love of his life in the courageous, intelligent Nahid. _ _1989. Nahid lives her new life in West Germany with Behzad. With their young children, they spend hour after hour in front of the radio, hoping for news from others who went into hiding after the mullahs came to power. _ _1999. Laleh returns to Iran with her mother, Nahid. Between beauty rituals and family secrets, she gets to know a Tehran that hardly matches her childhood memories. _ _2009. Laleh’s brother Mo is more concerned with a friend’s heartbreak than with student demonstrations in Germany. But then the Green Revolution breaks out in Iran and turns the world upside down. _ _The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran is a moving novel about revolution, oppression, resistance, and the absolute desire for freedom._

Book Salad meets at the end of the month at 6:30pm, usually on a Tuesday, and you're very welcome to join us. To make a salad you put together different things you'd like to eat, and we do the same with reading. We try all kinds of books, by all kinds of people. We limit numbers to fifteen attendees and it's very friendly and informal. For our fifth book of 2026, we will read '_The Go-Between_' by L.P. Hartley, a classic chosen because someone told me it was their favourite book and somehow I'd never heard of it. Here's the blurb: _"_When one long, hot summer, young Leo is staying with a school friend at Brandham Hall, he begins to act as a messenger between Ted, the farmer, and Marian, the beautiful young woman up at the hall. He becomes drawn deeper and deeper into their dangerous game of deceit and desire, until his role brings him to a shocking and premature revelation. The haunting story of a young boy's awakening into the secrets of the adult world, _The Go-Between_ is also an unforgettable evocation of the boundaries of Edwardian society._"_ WHAT WE MIGHT READ NEXT I am sometimes asked for a provisional reading list for the rest of our year, so here it is. I'll try to stick to it but there may be changes if something exciting comes along: June: '_Captains of the Sands'_ by Jorge Amado July: '_The Impostor and Other Stories'_ by Silvina Ocampo August: '_The Man Who Was Thursday'_ by G.K. Chesterton September: '_The Sundial'_ by Shirley Jackson October: '_The Blizzard'_ by Vladimir Sorokin November: '_The Bean Trees'_ by Barbara Kingsolver December: '_A Chess Story_' by Stefan Zweig (We don't meet in December but this is the short book I've decided I'll be reading)