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A son of the manse, Mack has grown up in an austere and chilly house, dominated by a joyless father. Unable to believe in God, he is far more attracted by the forbidden allure of television and popular culture. Father and son clash traumatically one day and it may be guilt which drives Mack to take up a career in the Church. This minister, who doesn't believe in God, the Devil or an afterlife, one day discovers a stone standing in the middle of a wood where previously there had been none. Unsure what to make of this apparition, Mack's life begins to unravel dramatically until the moment when he is swept into a mountain stream, which pours down a chasm before disappearing underground. Miraculously Mack emerges three days later, battered but alive. He seems to have lost his mind however, since he claims that while underground he met the Devil. Written with tight pacing, superlative storytelling and immense imaginative power, this is Robertson's most ambitious and accessible novel to date.
It is the age of the bomb, the Cold War, Margaret Thatcher and North Sea Oil. As nationalism becomes a credible force in Scotland, a gay photographer, a feminist journalist, a war veteran and a guilt-ridden Conservative MP find their private lives entangled with the ideological conflicts of the times.
‘A book of such quality as to persuade you that historical novels are the true business of the writer.’ Daily Telegraph
In the chaotic days following Abraham Lincoln's assassination, Washington and the world struggled to come to terms with the loss of the figure who symbolized America's Union. Best-selling author James Robertson brings readers back to 1865, exploring the critical years following the Civil War, and focusing on 75 key figures who would come to shape America during Reconstruction and beyond. We meet Edwin Stanton, the dour secretary of war who would attempt to seize political power amid the chaos of post-assassination Washington and avenge the Union with harsh punishments for Confederate president Jefferson Davis. We meet the "Old Soldiers" such as Winfield Scott, the general who was older than ...
LONGLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION 'To tell the story of a country or a continent is surely a great and complex undertaking; but the story of a quiet, unnoticed place where there are few people, fewer memories and almost no reliable records - a place such as Glen Conach - may actually be harder to piece together. The hazier everything becomes, the more whatever facts there are become entangled with myth and legend. . .' Deep in the mountains of north-east Scotland lies Glen Conach, a place of secrets and memories, fable and history. In particular, it holds the stories of three different eras, separated by centuries yet linked by location, by an ancient manuscript an...
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WODEHOUSE COMIC FICTION PRIZE 2017 An utterly mad, entirely heart-warming Highland adventure from the Man Booker-longlisted author of And the Land lay Still Douglas is fifty years old - he's just lost his job, been kicked out by his girlfriend and moved back into his dad's house. Just when things are starting to look hopeless, he makes a very unexpected new friend: a talking toad. Mungo is a wise-cracking, straight-talking, no-nonsense kind of toad - and he is determined to get Douglas's life back on track. Together, man and beast undertake a madcap quest to the distant Highlands, hot on the trail of a hundred-year-old granny, a beautiful Greek nymph, a split-personality alcoholic/teetotaller, a reluctant whisky-smuggler, and the elusive glimmer of redemption . . .
132 untold stories and 475 rare illustrations offer a completely new perspective on the Civil War.