"One of the best Scottish writers of our time" offers "a fictional re-creation of the life and teachings of the 18th century Zen master Ekaku Hakuin" ( Scotsman).On the side of a mountain in eighteenth-century Japan sits a man in perfect stillness as the summit erupts, spitting fire and molten rock onto the land around him. The man is Hakuin. He will become the world's most famous teacher of Zen—and this is not the first time he has seen hell.In ...

A classic of short fiction, Alan Spence’s celebrated debut collection, first published in 1977, brings Glasgow to vibrant life and captures the spirit of the city as it teetered on the brink of change. From childhood Christmases in small tenement flats and games played on scrubland, to Orange Walks on bright Saturday afternoons and Thursday nights in dark, pulsing dancehalls, these interlinked stories vividly evoke the city and its inhabitants – young and old, Catholic and Protestant, hope...

*Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2024 Longlist*Lovers of Haiku, Zen and Japan will find this novel truly inspiring!An extraordinary man at a crucial time and place."In Mister Timeless Blyth, writer Alan Spence has created a fascinating (auto) biography, convincingly in R.H. Blyth's own voice. In it, he has conveyed the haiku scholar's love of music, eastern and western literature, Zen Buddhism, a...

The year is 1858. Thomas Glover is a gutsy eighteen-year-old who grasps the chance of escape to foreign lands and takes a posting as a trader in Japan. Within ten years he amasses a great fortune, learns the ways of the samurai, and, on the other side of the law, brings about the overthrow of the Shogun. Yet beneath Glover's astonishing success lies a man cut to the heart. His love affair with a courtesan - a woman who, unknown to him, would bear him the son for which he had always longed ...

Clear Light contains 150 haiku bursting with Alan Spence's characteristic verve and wit.Mythic and mesmerising, inspiring and hilarious, these poems shed clear light on the delights, hardships, breakthroughs and frustrations of the world of the momentary.Simple in form, these haiku request a fresh look at the familiar and leave us reeling at how much in the world, from the exotic to the everyday, we have yet to observe.

This is Spence's first book of poetry since Glasgow Zen. He evokes the essence of the seasons with this cycle of haiku.

A superb new collection of haiku and other short poetic forms on the theme of Glasgow - its people, landscape, culture. As always, Spence is uniquely illuminating, witty and delightful.Incorporating some of the poems which appeared decades ago in the much sought-after collection of the same title, Glasgow Zen includes mostly new material from this highly popular and exquisite poet.

A collection of three stories to mark the Leap Year by Laura Marney, Ruth Thomas and Alan Spence.The Leap Year Tales are:'Aw Wrong' by Laura MarneyFacing the imminent birth of their first child, a couple take steps to try to influence the course of nature.Read by Gabriel Quigley.'February Alone' by Ruth ThomasAn intended romantic lunch goes strangely awry. Will a gift of lingerie help save the hour?Read b...

Published to mark John Herdman's 80th birthday in 2021.Writers, academics, publishers and literary figures from Britain, Europe and North America came together to celebrate Scottish novelist and critic, John Herdman.The cast of Not Dark Yet are John Herdman's contemporaries and friends, his students and readers.This celebration of John Herdman is witness to the strength of admiration that exists for this Scottish writer's work, a body of writing that extends over a ...

Today Christology is of concern to both New Testament scholars and theologians alike and continues to provoke debate within the Church. Christology: A Guide for the Perplexed examines the key debates and defining moments in the early Church and the Reformation. After a brief introduction providing a basic definition of Christology, this historical background provides an essential foundation on which to outline later developments in Christology. Alan Spence then considers the Quest...

Through engagement with the historical debate Incarnation and Inspiration offers a systematic exposition of the person of Jesus that brings together dissonant aspects of the tradition. It serves as an introduction to the theology to John Owen, the most able of the Puritan theologians and provides a way of understanding the theological dynamic underlying the Christology of the Fathers and the Definition of Chalcedon. Through its emphasis on coherence it seeks to illuminate the inner rationa...

This book offers a fresh outline of the Christian story shaped by the idea of God's love as it is described in the New Testament.Love Hurts is a fresh and compact summary of the central themes of the Christian message. Journeying through the Bible's rich and diverse world of ideas and stories, it leads the reader on a route mapped out by one particular motif - the love of God. The meaning of this idea as it is explained in three key verses in the New Testament determines t...