Edinburgh enjoys a long and impressive literary heritage and can claim connections with some of the world's most famous writers. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson and Sir Walter Scott were all natives of the city, while Robert Burns, Charles Dickens, J.M. Barrie and Samuel Johnson were just a few of those who forged links with what William Cobbett described as 'the finest city in the kingdom'. Edinburgh has provided the setting for countless novels over the years, not least in...

'the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts' The greatest 'state of the nation' novel in English, Middlemarch addresses ordinary life at a moment of great social change, in the years leading to the Reform Act of 1832. Through her portrait of a Midlands town, George Eliot addresses gender relations and class, self-knowledge and self-delusion, community and individualism. Eliot follows the fortunes of the town's central characters as they f...

"Since the beginning they've played our hearts a deceitful game, a pinch that catches fire or scatters in the wind.But oh, to watch it build, to hear its rhythm, can count the steps.From the moment that girl caught his eye, her voice his ear, he was taken.Something so familiar, those cries silenced in his mind.In a flash of memories caught in time for eternity reflecting in the distance see clearly what you've found in love."This is a work of fiction...

A young ultra-marathon runner is pushed to the breaking point and beyond in this gripping tale of physical endurance and emotional healing.Quinn has been called a superhero and a freak of nature. At age 13, he's an amazing distance runner. He takes on the second-hardest challenge of his life when he enters his first ultramarathon: a grueling 100-mile, 24-hour-long race that will push him to the very limit of his endurance.While Quinn struggles to g...

Two men meet to discuss common enterprise."On the trails hunting with my father he once struck me peculiar. His anecdotes always of treachery, but that time he did his best to explain that which erodes with power and the consequence of being pitted against one another. He'd always shot clean but this time aimed for the lung. I remember it tasting particularly like hell and he said it was, 'so the animal could have a few more moments in the world.' We'd tracked the poor thing to whe...

Writing at the very moment when the foundations of Western thought were being challenged and undermined, George Eliot fashions in Middlemarch a concept of life and society free of the past's dogma yet able to confront the scepticism that was taking over the age.Felicia Bonaparte has provided a new Introduction for this updated edition, the text of which is taken from David Carroll's Clarendon Middlemarch (1986), the first critical edition. - ;Writing at the very moment when the foundations...

FROM BROKEN TO RESTORED!David and Shannon were living the typical stressed-out, busy, rat-race of American life until it all suddenly caught up with them and devastated everything. David's mind became broken with amnesia and their world, as they knew it, turned upside down. Being everything to everyone and doing "all the things" is a real and prevalent pressure among most families today. The financial, career, family and relationship demands add immense stress. In this book, you'll...

The Home Guard was formed in May 1940, when the dark clouds of war rolled over Britain and the nation stood alone, threatened with a Nazi invasion. Within six weeks of a radio appeal for a new civilian army to guard the Home Front, a staggering 1.5 million men had enrolled for service, covering every city, town and village in the country. Despite initial deficiencies in the provision of training and equipment, the Home Guard later developed into a cohesive force and one of impressive diver...

Taking you through the year day by day, The Dumfries Book of Days contains quirky, eccentric, amusing and important events and facts from different periods in the history of the town. Ideal for dipping into, this addictive little book will keep you entertained and informed. Featuring hundreds of snippets of information gleaned from the vaults of Dumfries's archives and covering the social, criminal, political, religious, industrial, military and sporting history o...

Along with its rich history and spectacular scenery, Dumfries and Galloway is home to a great many curious and unusual buildings, objects and landscape features that have survived the centuries. This well-illustrated book is a guide to 100 of these remarkable sights, including Scotland's highest village, the world's narrowest hotel, and even the statue of a rhinoceros on top of a bus shelter. Dumfries & Galloway Curiosities will encourage readers to explore this area of s...

Wrongly accused of theft and exiled from a religious community many years before, the embittered weaver Silas Marner lives alone in Raveloe, living only for work and his precious hoard of money. But when his money is stolen and an orphaned child finds her way into his house, Silas is given the chance to transform his life. His fate, and that of the little girl he adopts, is entwined with Godfrey Cass, son of the village Squire, who, like Silas, is trapped by his past. Silas Marner, George ...

Charles Lamb (1775-1834) was a poet, critic and, above all, an essayist of great distinction.As the 250th anniversary of his birth approaches, Charles Lamb: Man and Brother First tells the story of a man beset by domestic responsibilities and family tragedy. He worked as a clerk at the East India House in the City of London for most of his adult life. Despite the physical and emotional demands heaped upon him, he succeeded in carving out a unique place for himself in Engli...