These short stories by the renowned Scottish author demonstrate the powerful imagination that became "the wonder of literary Scotland" (Sorley MacLean, author of Eimhir).Growing up on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland's Outer Hebrides, Iain Crichton Smith was raised speaking Gaelic. When he went to school in Stornoway, he spoke English. Like many islanders before and since, his culture was divided. In After the Dance, he explores that tumultuous divid...

NOW A SELL-OUT PLAY: OUR LADIES OF PERPETUAL SUCCOURThe choir from Our Lady of Perpetual Succour School for Girls is being bussed to the national finals in the big, big city. And it's an important day for The Sopranos - Orla, Kylah, (Ra)Chell, Amanda Konky and Fionnula (the Cooler) - pub-crawling, shoplifting and body-piercing being the top priorities. Then it's time to lose that competition - lose, because a nuclear sub has just anchored in the bay and, t...

High up in the Conrad Flats that loom bleakly over Acton, two future stars of the literary scene - or so they assume - are hard at work, tapping out words of wit and brilliance between ill-paid jobs writing captions for the Cat Calendar 1985 and blurbs for trashy novels with titles like Brothel of the Vampire. Just twenty-one but already well entrenched in a life eked out on dole payments, pints and dollops of porridge and pasta, Llewellyn and Cunningham don't have it too bad: a p...

A battle lost. A daring escape. A long walk into obscurity. The ultimate failure… In the aftermath of the disastrous Battle of Culloden, a lonely figure takes flight with a small band of companions through the islands and mountains of the Hebrides. His name is Charles Edward Stuart: better known today as Bonnie Prince Charlie. He had come to the country to take the throne. Now he is leaving in exile and abject defeat. In prose that is by turns poetic, comic, macabre, haunting and humane, m...

After the scandalous theft of a pub's World Cup cash kitty, a homeless drifter pursues his eccentric uncle: 'The Man Who Walks', up into the Highlands to recover the money - a cool -27,000. The nephew's frantic, stalled progress and other bizarre diversions form this wickedly hilarious novel. But who is The Man Who Walks? Is he simply a water-carrying madman with one glass eye and a fondness for whisky and pony nuts, and who has a physiological inability to handle slopes? Or is he a savant...

Pure laughter, whether our own or others, makes us all feel more comfortable with the world and situations we find ourselves in. Why something is funny is hard to say but we know that there are people who are funny and can say funny things. It’s an immediate advantage for them.In this volume your hosts including Mark Twain, Nikolai Gogol, J M Barrie, O Henry and many others who range from the simply funny and the absurd to ….. well, other ways of funny.1 - Stories to Make Y...

Finally, a brilliant exploration of the German rock band Can's 1971 album Tago Mago. This hugely unique and influential album deserves close analysis from a fan, rather than a musicologist. Novelist Alan Warner details the concrete music we hear on the album, how it was composed, executed and recorded--including the history of the album in terms of its release, promotion and art work. This tale of Tago Mago is also the tale of a young man obsessed with record collecting i...

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTUREThe choir from Our Lady of Perpetual Succour School for Girls is being bussed to the national finals in the big, big city. It's an important day for The Sopranos, with pub-crawling, shoplifting and body-piercing being the top priorities. And with a newly anchored nuclear sub in the bay, the Man Trap disco will be full of submariners on shore-leave tonight. There is no time for delays – or even for winning…But after the fifth bottle...

Collects Moon Knight (1985) #1-6, Marvel Team-Up (1972) #144, Marvel Fanfare (1982) #30, Marc Spector: Moon Knight #1-7 And Material from Solo Avengers #3, Marvel Fanfare (1982) #38-39 And Marvel Super-Heroes (1990) #1. Moon Knight rises again! Marc Spector has exchanged his heroic mantle for the easy lifestyle of alter ego Steven Grant. But when a deadly foe arises in Egypt, Spector must embrace his destiny and become the Fist of Khonshu once again! Moon Knight will face deadly threats fr...

Shortlisted for The Winston Graham Historical Fiction Prize and The Highland Book PrizeA battle lost. A daring escape. A long walk into obscurity. The ultimate failure . . .In the aftermath of the disastrous Battle of Culloden, a lonely figure takes flight with a small band of companions through the islands and mountains of the Hebrides. His name is Charles Edward Stuart: better known today as Bonnie Prince Charlie. He had come to the count...

Children of Albion Rovers is the best-selling and critically acclaimed collection of novellas that features six of the most exciting young writers to emerge from Scotland in the 90s: award-winning authors Irvine Welsh, Alan Warner, Gordon Legge, and James Meek and introducing the striking new talents of Laura Hird and Paul Reekie. Children of Albion Rovers is a world of tripped-out crematorium attendants (Alan Warner), vengeful traffic-wardens (James Meek), born-again vinyl junkies (Gordon...

Do you have responsibility for managing cash flow in a small to medium enterprise or as a manager in a larger organisation, but have limited financial experience? Do you worry that lack of attention to this crucial aspect of financial management could lead to disaster for your business? Improve your Cash Flow, written by two leading financial experts, will help employers, managers and consultants to understand more about how to manage cash flow and how it can impact on your business. Wheth...