The story of a communist Scotland'Reid in Braid' is a series of short stories taking a look at a world where the UK was on the losing side of the Great War and dissolved; leading to an independent Scotland almost a century before it became a serious possibility. That independent Scotland eventually fell to socialist revolution in the lead up to an alternate second world war, and remains an isolationist one-party state for the rest of the century. Each of the shorts takes place at a...

You're sitting around the campfire; it's dark, the moon is high in the sky, the wind is whistling through the trees, and the sense of isolation is pervasive. You hear a twig snap in the darkness, everyone is tense. What's the story you tell your friends to terrify them? What's in the dark, stalking the camp: an ax murderer, a werewolf, or something so far beyond our mortal understanding that just the sight of it will drive each of us insane?

What will the end of the world be like?Plague or nuclear fire? Asteroids or floods?Divine wrath or people meddling with what should have been left alone?The apocalypse may come in the future, but what apocalypses might have occurred if history had played out differently? What if nukes had flown during the Cuban Missile Crisis? What if an asteroid had been on a collision course with Earth before the first person could set foot on the Moon? What if humanity destroyed it...

Who do you think you are kidding, Mr Hitler?What if, in the summer of 1940, Nazi Germany had invaded the United Kingdom? Nearly eighty years on, images of swastikas on Whitehall still resonate and horrify in the popular imagination.But what would that invasion look like, even if it were doomed to fail? What sacrifices would occupation mean for the people of Britain, and what might be the lasting cultural effects of collaboration?In this collection of stories, the au...

**From the Thurber Prize-winning author of What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker comes a pioneering collection of Black humor from some of the most acclaimed writers and performers at work today“Crackling, hilarious. . . . You won’t want to miss it.” —People“Completely absorbing.”—Amy Sedaris**A critic explores the paradox of finding community in “the dozens” while grieving. A violent town ritual causes an all-too-familiar moral panic. An email t...

In "The Scottish Reformation," Alexander F. Mitchell offers a comprehensive examination of the religious transformation that swept through Scotland in the sixteenth century, marked by the emergence of Protestantism and the decline of Catholic hegemony. Mitchell meticulously investigates the complex interplay between political, social, and theological factors that contributed to this pivotal historical moment. His engaging prose and scholarly rigor provide readers with an in-depth understan...

In the new millennium, what secrets lay beyond the far reaches of the universe? What mysteries belie the truths we once held to be self evident? The world of science fiction has long been a porthole into the realities of tomorrow, blurring the line between life and art. Now, in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Ninth Annual Collection the very best SF authors explore ideas of a new world. This venerable collection brings together short stories from award winning authors and ...

Two friends. One campervan. And plenty of whisky.This is the hilarious true story of a Scottish adventure like no other.With a foreword by Diana Gabaldon.When Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish hit the road, they are not following a script. They are chasing adventure. Armed with a campervan, a shared history and plenty of curiosity, they set out to explore the Scotland that lies beyond the clichés.What follows is a fas...

There are many ways to be a heroine.Princess and swordswoman, lawyer and motorcyclist, scholar and barbarian: there are many ways to be a heroine. In this anthology, seventeen authors find new ways to pair one weapon-wielding woman and one whose strengths lie in softer skills.“Which is more powerful, the warrior or the gentlewoman?” these stories ask. And the answer is inevitably, “Both, working together!”Herein, you’ll find duels and smugglers, dan...

In the new millennium, what secrets lay beyond the far reaches of the universe? What mysteries belie the truths we once held to be self-evident? The world of science fiction has long been a porthole into the realities of tomorrow, blurring the line between life and art. Now, in The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fourth Annual Collection, the very best SF authors explore ideas of a new world. This venerable collection brings together award-winning authors and masters of the fi...

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The author of The Devil in the White City and Dead Wake delivers an intimate chronicle of Winston Churchill and London during the Blitz—an inspiring portrait of courage and leadership in a time of unprecedented crisis“One of [Erik Larson’s] best books yet . . . perfectly timed for the moment.”—Time • “A bravura performance by one of America’s greatest storytellers.”—NPR

Of all the days to have a problem, today was the worst. Of all the problems to have on all of the days, this was the worst.3000 years, they'd travelled the stars. 3,000 years of searching and archiving, cataloguing every single planet in the entire Universe. Their journey was now over. The day was here when they could, finally return home.But they'd found another planet.Today was a very bad day.