eBooks

100 Scotsman Walks
From hill to glen and river
by Robin Howie

Hillwalking is a way of life for Robin Howie, whose name is very well-known in Scottish hillwalking circles and whose knowledge of the Scottish high tops is second to none. For over ten years his popular weekly hillwalking column has appeared in The Scotsman where his pleasure of walking in the hill... more...

349 Views of Scotland
by David Squires

Anyone who has walked or climbed in Scotland will sooner or later come across a view indicator – one of the discs or plates which identify surrounding features in the landscape. This is the first full-length work devoted to these devices. Since the first indicator appeared in 1890 at Ladies&rs... more...

4000m
Climbing the Highest Mountains of the Alps
by Dave Wynne-Jones

This is the engrossing story of the seasons the author spent climbing 4000m mountains in the different regions of the Alps. It is also about the people with whom he climbed who found time out of their day-to-day routine for this extraordinary activity. He explains the reason for this fascination whi... more...

A Countryside Camera
The photography of Roger Redfern
by Christopher Nicholson

Roger Redfern – author, writer and photographer – had been writing about his travels and exploration of different areas of Britain and abroad for over 50 years, most notably as a regular contributor to The Guardian newspaper’s Country Diary feature. He is the author of over 30 book... more...

A Fieldworker’s Guide to the Golden Eagle
by Dave Walker

The Golden Eagle is generally thought to be a well-known and well-documented species. However, much of the available literature is not necessarily in a form that can readily be used in the field. In fact, although much existing information about Golden Eagles has little supporting evidence it is ... more...

A Homeland Denied
In the Footsteps of a Polish POW
by Irena  Kossakowski

A Homeland Denied follows the horrific journey of Waclaw Kossakowski, a young Warsaw University student whose peaceful life was changed dramatically and with far reaching consequences that fateful day of 1st September, 1939. From imprisonment in the notorious Kozelsk prison to the forced labour c... more...

A Last Wild Place
by Mike  Tomkies

Mike Tomkies gives a remarkable picture of the whole cycle of nature around him, in a harsh and testing environment of unrivalled beauty. Vivid colours and sounds fill these pages – exotic wild orchids, the roar of rutting stags, a pair of dragonflies mating, the flight of the redwing, the ter... more...

A Life of Ospreys
by Roy  Dennis

Winner of the Birds Illustrated Conservation/Monographs/Science category Ospreys are one of our best known and best loved birds and the name Roy Dennis is not only synonymous with the successful return of the osprey to Scotland, but is also renowned for his international work with a variety of sp... more...

A Natural History of Lighthouses
by John A. Love

This is the story of lightkeepers’ contributions to the natural history of lighthouses in conjunction with the history and maintenance of the manned navigation beacons – their primary function of course – ‘for the safety of all’. Since keepers were first engaged to main... more...

A Private Sort of Life
by Bridget  MacCaskill

Bridget MacCaskill has been observing otters for many years and studies undertaken with her late husband, Don, resulted in books and a film about otters and their environment. Otters are fascinating and delightful creatures but to watch them in their natural habitat requires immense patience over a ... more...

A Saga of Sea Eagles
by John A. Love

This is a much-needed update on a pioneering reintroduction project and its much-celebrated success. It also provides essential background and a logical and objective summary of its justification and significance in global conservation terms. It is very much a personal account, although fundamentall... more...

A Year in a Ditch
by J C Jeremy Hobson

Rivers, canals and Britain’s glorious waterways are championed and admired at every opportunity. They are the subject of countless photos, television programmes and books – and are places to visit and enjoy whenever considering a walk in the countryside. Sadly, not so the humble ditch; y... more...

Alone in the Wilderness
by Mike  Tomkies

This is the story of a man who achieved what thousands only dream of. He shed the pressures of urban life as an international journalist and exchanged it for solitude, self-sufficiency and new purpose. He emigrated to Canada, found a plot of rock, trees and cliffs in a remote part of the British Col... more...

Argonauts of the Western Isles
by Robin Lloyd-Jones

The west coast of Scotland casts a spell on anyone with a taste for adventure, a feeling for the past or a love of the wild, uninhabited places. With tidal currents of awesome power running between fascinating patterns of islands, it is a challenging place for any type of small craft. Robin Lloyd... more...

Ate the Dog Yesterday
Maritime casualties, calamities and catastrophes
by Graham Faiella

The constant dangers that deep-sea sailing ships and sailors of the late 19th century and early 20th centuries faced were numerous and this book recounts the true-life dramas of their perils and misfortunes – the battles that they waged, and all too often lost – against the hazards of th... more...

Back from the Brink
by Malcolm Smith

Back from the Brink is an antidote to a world that seems full of stories of wildlife doom and gloom. Amongst all the loss of habitat and the animals and plants that are in spiralling decline, it’s easy to forget that there are a huge number of positive stories too; animals threatened with exti... more...

Behaviour and Management of European Ungulates
by Rory Putman, Marco Apollonio

Ungulates are an extraordinarily important group of animals worldwide, at many levels – in their remarkable biodiversity; in many cases, as keystone species with a disproportionate effect on the functioning of the wider ecological systems of which they form a part or as dominant species acting... more...

Belief in Ourselves
by Neil M.  Gunn

Neil M Gunn (1891 – 1973), one of Scotland’s most distinguished and highly regarded novelists of the 20th century, was a prolific writer. While he is best known for his fictional work Gunn was also a perceptive and meditative essayist who wrote extensively throughout his life on a w... more...

Between Daylight and Hell
Scots Who Left a Stain on American History
by Iain Lundy

This is the culmination of years of research into the lives of Scots who were guilty of dastardly deeds after leaving Scotland for America – in some cases they literally got away with murder. These emigrants were rogues, con artists, charlatans and reprobates of the worst order and their crime... more...

Between Earth and Paradise
by Mike  Tomkies

After giving up a hectic life as a journalist in Europe and Hollywood in the late 1960s to return to his boyhood love of nature, Mike Tomkies found Eilean Shona, a remote island 'between earth and paradise' off the west coast of Scotland. There he rebuilt a rotting wooden crofthouse which sh... more...

Big Cats
Facing Britain's Wild Predators
by Rick  Minter

Right across Britain, people are making remarkable claims - they are reporting large feral cats resembling panthers, pumas and lynx. Month after month the sightings continue with citizens from all walks of life having surprise encounters with big cats. They may be driving, walking their dog, or ridi... more...

Caithness Archaeology
Aspects of Prehistory
by A. Heald, J.  Barber

Caithness, the most northerly county in mainland Britain, is one of the richest cultural landscapes in Europe. The relative geographical isolation of the area, traditional landholding and the survival of large estates, combined with the use of flagstone as the main building material since earliest t... more...

Caithness to Patagonia
Distant Lands and Close Relatives
by Ian Leith

This is an extraordinary and little-known story of emigration from Scotland. Caithness and Patagonia are literally a world apart, yet in the late 19th and early 20th centuries a number of Caithness men and women took on the challenge of this wild, open and windswept land. The book provides the origi... more...

Call of the Eagle
by Dave Walker

This is an account of one man's 30-year involvement with England's rarest bird, the golden eagle. Initially employed by the RSPB as a senior species protection warden at a secret location in Cumbria, the author describes the intricacies of establishing a protection regime by wardens that wou... more...

Camp 165 Watten
2nd edition
by Valerie Campbell

This is a new and expanded second edition of the best-selling first edition. The author has provided an in-depth historical account with new information on a number of prisoners including the eminent Professor Klaus Eggers; Karl Haensel, a former rear gunner who remained in Caithness after his relea... more...

Canals Across Scotland
Walking, Cycling, Boating, Visiting
by Hamish Brown

This entertaining and informative book will be of practical benefit to all who discover the historic Union Canal and the Forth & Clyde Canal, whether walking, cycling, boating or visiting the Falkirk Wheel or the Kelpies. The canals are for fun, whether on the water, on the towpath, walking or c... more...

Change of Will
Where Hollywood, politics and religion collide
by Ali Azam

A prominent Pakistani industrialist, his two sons and driver are gunned down in broad daylight. In another world thousands of miles away, Danyal is heading home on the Gatwick Victoria Express after a year long internship with a US senator. He is stunned to see a leading actor sitting unnoticed o... more...

Chasing Conrad
A tale of the sea and a glimpse into the abyss
by Simon J.  Hall

Simon Hall’s second book is set in the mid-1970s during the closing years of the golden age of British shipping, when cargo carriage at sea saw radical change and the romance of being at sea in old-style cargo ships came to an end. Hall’s account is of five years during which he worked a... more...

Close Range Photogrammetry and Machine Vision
by K.B. Atkinson

Over the past decade, advances in this field have been rapid and we are now well into the era of digital photogrammetry. This book provides an authoritative account of the subject with chapters from acknowledged international experts. The methodology, algorithms, techniques and equipment necessar... more...

Deeper into the Darkness
by Rod Macdonald

In Deeper into the Darkness Rod takes the reader diving to explore many more famous wrecks around the UK from the Great War. These include HMS Pathfinder and HMS Audacious – the first British battleship to be lost to enemy action in WWI. The wreck of HMS Hampshire on which Lord Kitchener peris... more...

Diplomatic Protocol
Etiquette, Statecraft & Trust
by Rosalie Rivett

Diplomatic Protocol explores the etiquette of diplomacy, without which all efforts to negotiate would flounder. In a world of instant communications, and the growing informality and influence of social media, the rules of diplomatic exchange have never been more important. They are not there to rest... more...

Dive Palau
The Shipwrecks
by Rod Macdonald

Recounted with his usual level of meticulous historical research, Rod weaves an easily readable account of the build-up to and implementation of Operation Desecrate 1 – the raid undertaken to destroy Japanese ships and aircraft in the lagoons of Palau. He uses his intimate knowledge of shipwre... more...

Diving for Treasure
Discovering history in the depths
by Vic Verlinden, Stefan Panis

This book recounts the efforts over many years to dive wrecks that contained treasure in one form or another. The often prolonged and sometimes dangerous expeditions tell of dives to many ships that were wrecked while carrying tons of gold or other valuables. Many of the wrecks came to lie at great ... more...

Doctor in the Navy
by Bill Yule

'Small ships abroad, please' National Service, Britain's name for conscription, existed between 1945 and 1963. In that time, two and a half million men were required to serve for two years with the armed forces. For some, it was a miserable penance. For the majority, it was just somet... more...

Engineering Hitler's Downfall
the Brains that Enabled Victory
by Gwilym Roberts

Whilst living in Liverpool, Britain’s second most heavily bombed city during World War II, the author experienced at first-hand the terrible effects of the war on the civilian population and when studying at Cambridge he witnessed the American heavy bombers and their fighter escorts flying to ... more...

Enigma: The Untold Story of the Secret Capture
Vol. III of The British Navy at War and Peace Series editor Captain Peter Hore
by David Balme

David Balme will be forever known as the 20-year-old hero who, on 9 May 1941, boarded a German U-boat in mid-Atlantic, and captured one of the greatest secrets of the Second World War. This capture – or ‘pinch’ as it was known within secret, inner circles – changed the course... more...

Eponym Dictionary of Odonata
by Bo Beolens

The Eponym Dictionary of Odonata is a comprehensive listing of all people after whom damselflies and dragonflies have been named in scientific or common names. Each entry provides details of the species and a brief biography of the person. It is also cross-referenced so that the relationships betwee... more...

Fallen Pieces of the Moon
by Robin Lloyd-Jones

A kayak trip in Greenland's Nuuk fjords through an area of amazing beauty Turreted fairytale peaks, glistening snowfields, waterfalls plunging over immense cliffs into the sea, a million tons of ice capsizing - this is the setting for Fallen Pieces of the Moon, an account of a kayak trip alon... more...

Force Z Shipwrecks of the South China Sea
HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse
by Rod Macdonald

The tragedy of the loss in 1941 of two Royal Navy capital ships, HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse, the core of Churchill’s deterrent Force Z, stunned the world. Churchill had hoped that sending a small powerful squadron of ships to Singapore would deter a threatened Japanese invasion of Mal... more...

Golden Stripes
Leadership on the High Seas
by Captain VS Parani

Although merchant ships carry 90% of the world’s trade, the mariners who run them have little guidance on leadership. This can result in disasters such as the Titanic, Costa Concordia, the Exxon Valdez, and the recent El Faro. With modern ships being worth several million dollars, seafarers ne... more...

Gone Wild
Stories from a Lifetime of Wildlife Travel
by Malcolm Smith

Often amusing, sometimes romantic or fraught with danger, these 30 short stories are about local people, spectacular places and the special wildlife the author sets out to find. The stories include seeking out Arabian Oryx on the searing plains of the Saudi desert; eiderdown collecting in Iceland, c... more...

Great British Shipwrecks
by Rod Macdonald

For more than 30 years, internationally acclaimed wreck diver and best-selling author, Rod Macdonald, has surveyed and researched shipwrecks around the world. His books such as Dive Scapa Flow and The Darkness Below are household names in the diving world. In Great British Shipwrecks Rod uses his... more...

Growing Barn Owls in my Garden
by Paul Hackney

The barn owl is a ‘flagship’ species, at the top of the food chain, and its presence or absence is a good indicator of the health of the countryside. This is the enjoyable and informative story of the author’s success in restoring this beautiful bird to areas of the country where i... more...

Hadrian's Wildlife
by John Miles

Built in the years AD122-30 by order of the Emperor Hadrian ‘to separate Romans from Barbarians’, Hadrian's Wall was 73 miles long, running from Wallsend-on-Tyne to Bowness on the Solway Firth. It was originally almost 5 metres high with 16 large forts along its length and is the lar... more...

Halcyon in the Hebrides
by Bob Orrell

To celebrate 60 years of sailing Scottish waters, the author single-handedly sailed Halcyon, a 32ft wooden yawl, from Fairlie on the Clyde, round the Mull of Kintyre by way of numerous inner islands to Barra in the Outer Hebrides and to the Atlantic side of the islands, not often visited by cruising... more...

HARD DOWN! HARD DOWN!
The Life and Times of Captain John Isbester from Shetland
by Captain Jack Isbester

Hard Down! Hard Down! describes the eventful life of a Shetland man in pursuit of his ambitions – to reach the top in his profession, to find a wife, to cherish a family, to do his job well and to be respected by his peers. The account is enlivened by extracts from numerous well-chosen family ... more...

In the Shadow of Power
Influence and spin down the centuries
by Bob Whittington

From Alexander the Great to Saddam Hussein, from Cardinal Richelieu and Howard Hughes to Martin Luther King and Pope Benedict, emperors and tycoons, presidents and popes, they have all had a right hand man – or woman – at their side advising, sometimes influencing and occasionally manipu... more...

Into the Abyss
Diving to Adventure in the Liquid World
by Rod Macdonald

Into the Abyss, the first volume in The Diving Trilogy, is a fascinating collection of true life diving adventures from Rod’s long and varied diving career. It follows his progression from novice diver in the 1980s through the dangers of the deep air diving era and on to trimix diving in the 1... more...

It Was Fun While It Lasted
by A. J.  Lane

A lively, at times hilarious, first-hand account of a lighthouse keeper's life in the last traditional years before the introduction of helicopter reliefs and automation. Arthur Lane entered the Service in 1953 as a fugitive from the Birmingham branch of a large insurance company, who seem to... more...

Kestrels for Company
by Gordon Riddle

An appealing book that rightfully raises the profile of the kestrel. It provides an extensive picture of this delightful falcon, including its lifestyle and the factors that affect its breeding success and survival. This is based upon almost 40 years’ monitoring of the kestrel in south-west Sc... more...

Kirkcudbright's Prince of Denmark
and her voyages in the South Seas
by David R.  Collin

This is the story of the unusually long and interesting career of a small Scottish schooner spent primarily in the southern hemisphere. From the quest to trace her history and construction to the careers of those who owned and sailed in her during her 74-year life, the story is full of vividly-portr... more...

Landscape to Light
by Neil M.  Gunn

Although Neil M. Gunn is well-known as one of Scotland's foremost writers of the 20th century, he is less well-known as a perceptive and meditative essayist who wrote on a variety of subjects - from landscape, nature and the sea to literature, politics and matters of the spirit. Written in paral... more...

Last of the Line
by Patricia Gumbrell

Now that lighthouse automation has been completed, what of the service and dedication to duty that was unfailingly provided by keepers, their associates and their families? Last of the Line is an account of four generations of lightkeepers, the first being John Hall, the author's great-great-... more...

Life and Death on Little Ross
The Story of an Island, a Lighthouse and its Keepers
by David R.  Collin

Little Ross is an attractive and unspoiled island and its lighthouse, beautifully designed by the famous Stevenson family, is officially a 'lesser' light, far away from busy sea lanes, at the summit of this remote island. The island was unknown to most people until 1960 when a murder in t... more...

Life with Birds
A Story of Mutual Exploitation
by Malcolm Smith

Life with Birds uncovers the fascinating story of our interdependence with birds. The author weaves an amazing web of inter-relationships, from the Parsi funeral in Mumbai where birds of prey eat the dead; to collecting eider down from nests in Iceland and standing on the once body-strewn battlefiel... more...

Light over Lundy
A History of the Old Light and the Fog Signal Station
by Myrtle Ternstrom

Set atop the rocky plateau of Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel, the Old Light stands proudly - a monument to the skill of its builder, Joseph Nelson. It is of a pleasing construction, both solid and graceful, and when built in 1820 it had two lights - an upper and a lower, and was the highest lig... more...

Listen to the Trees
by Don MacCaskill

In his introduction, Don MacCaskill wrote modestly, 'I think I became a naturalist'. He was, in fact, one of Scotland's foremost naturalists and a remarkable wildlife photographer as well. In a flashback to his early years in Kilmartin, a village in Argyllshire, we learn of his awakening... more...

Literature of the Gaelic Landscape
Litreacheas na Tìre
by John Murray

From the comfort of an armchair and with the aid of this new book, the reader can travel to the Breadalbane and Argyll of Duncan Bàn Macintyre; the Skye and Raasay of Sorley Maclean; and the Caithness and Sutherland of Neil M. Gunn. Photographs, maps and place-names linked to key passages in ... more...

Lost Sounds
by Alan Renton

An intriguing history and one not to be missed. The book visits a number of lighthouses at different times over the last 130 years to reveal the philanthropic, scientific and romantic story of the fog signal - how it came about, how the machinery worked and, for the mariner and the keeper, what it s... more...

Luftwaffe over Scotland
A history of German air attacks on Scotland, 1939-45
by Les Taylor

Luftwaffe over Scotland is the first complete history of the air attacks mounted against Scotland by Nazi Germany during World War Two and undertakes a detailed examination of the strategy, tactics and politics involved on both sides, together with a technical critique of the weaponry employed by bo... more...

Managing Upland Resources
New Approaches for Rural Environments
by Lois Mansfield

Many traditional approaches to rural land management are strictly sectoral, with a rigid introspective focus. Consequently the impact of silo-driven change on other land users they can often be overlooked or not appreciated. This book critically reviews why there has yet to be a clear route to uplan... more...

Mangroves and Man-Eaters
and other wildlife encounters
by Dan Freeman

‘…In this entertaining book, which is as much about people and places as it is about wildlife, you’ll read of hair-raising encounters with giant crabs, lions and killer bees. But rest assured, with Dan Freeman you are travelling with the best of guides…’ Extract from... more...

Maths for Map Makers
second edition
by Arthur L. Allan

In response to demand, the author has written a new chapter on the subject of least squares estimation. To support this new topic, an appendix has been added, presenting additional matrix algebra. This second and enlarged edition of this established textbook for students and professionals is again p... more...

Mediterranean
A year around a charmed and troubled sea
by Huw Kingston

Huw's journey around the shores that gave birth to Western Civilisation is a modern odyssey that reminds us not only of this but also that a real and endlessly fascinating world is still out there… Quote from Tim Macartney-Snape, first Australian to climb Mount Everest and only perso... more...

Money Talks
British Monarchs and History in Coins
by Bob Whittington

Money Talks is a fast-paced history of the humble British coin, the events which at times literally shaped it and the stories reflected in its creation. It has been used to barter and to bribe, to hold a cloak in place and to pay a king’s ransom, been an object of pride and a symbol of cour... more...

Monkey Puzzle Man
Archibald Menzies, Plant Hunter
by James McCarthy

'This richly detailed account of the life and travels of Archibald Menzies is a most welcome addition to the literature of botanical exploration. ...we now have a satisfyingly comprehensive account of the life of a Scot who travelled the world as a surgeon naturalist in the Royal Navy'. Ext... more...

My Arctic Summer
by Agnieszka Latocha

Spitsbergen is the largest island of the Svalbard archipelago which is situated between the Greenland and Barents Seas, approximately 600 miles from the North Pole. In the 16th century the islands were visited by Barents' expedition and in the ensuing centuries were used primarily as a base for ... more...

Nation and Nationalism
by Alistair McCleery

Neil M. Gunn (1891–1973) has been widely recognized as the most important novelist of the twentieth-century Scottish Literary Renaissance. Most of his novels are still in print and they continue to find in each generation an enthusiastic popular and academic readership. His novels have been ad... more...

Natural History of Tenerife
by Philip Ashmole, Myrtle Ashmole

Tenerife is a remarkable island, dominated by Mount Teide, an active volcano higher than any mountain in mainland Spain. The island has extraordinary volcanic landscapes, and thousands of species of plants and animals that are found only there. The authors’ love of Tenerife stems from its e... more...

Oriental Endeavour
by Dave Creamer

As a sequel to the successful Rats, Rust and Two Old Ladies, the story of Oriental Endeavour begins when the author delivers a tugboat from Avonmouth to Buchanan in war-torn Liberia. Four years later, he is asked to command one of two tugboats for delivery from West Africa to Singapore and, despite ... more...

Otters of the World
by Paul Yoxon, Grace M. Yoxon

Having worked for over 20 years on otter conservation of all 13 species, the authors wished to share their experiences of these beautiful animals. People may be familiar with the Asian small-clawed otters, often found in zoos, or the sea otter, well-known for lying on its back cracking open shells, ... more...

Palm Oil and Small Chop
by John Goble

Palm oil is the quintessence of West Africa – it is complex, an acquired taste and reckoned to be rather unhealthy. Small chop is the addition of ingredients that make it palatable for European taste. From the unique perspective of working aboard merchant ships trading to the area, the author ... more...

Patrick Neill
Doyen of Scottish Horticulture
by Forbes W. Robertson

Descended from a Haddington family of printers and booksellers, Patrick Neill became head of the most prestigious printing firm in Edinburgh. Leaving his manager to run the business, he devoted his life to writing, natural history, horticulture and civic duties. His early tour of Orkney and Shetland... more...

Ploughing a New Furrow
A Blueprint for Wildlife Friendly Farming
by Malcolm Smith

Farmland wildlife has been decimated by intensive crop growing using pesticides, grubbing up hedges, ploughing heathland and draining marshes, etc. With too many sheep grazing our moors, hills and mountains, a range of upland plants, invertebrates and birds has been diminished and the land converted... more...

Polar Mariner
Beyond the Limits in Antarctica
by Captain Tom Woodfield

Captain Woodfield made 20 seasonal voyages to the Antarctic on three research ships between 1955 and 1974. Starting as a Junior Deck Officer he worked for The Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey which in 1964 became the British Antarctic Survey. He played a paramount role in the gradual change from... more...

Postcards from the Edge
Remote British lighthouses in vintage postcards
by Christopher Nicholson

We've been sending one another postcards for well over a century now - usually brief messages to our friends and family telling them about the weather on our holidays or where we're visiting next on our travels. A hundred years ago we sent postcards with more serious messages - important,... more...

Principles of Geospatial Surveying
by Arthur L. Allan

This important new book replaces the author's highly successful Practical Surveying and Computations and has been completely recast to accord with modern practices of geospatial surveying. Although much has changed in the profession of geospatial surveying, the same basic geometrical principl... more...

Rats, Rust and Two Old Ladies
by Dave Creamer

Delivering two 38-year-old Mississippi river tugboats halfway around the world from Bahrain to Trinidad would not be every ship master's dream employment. However, for Captain David Creamer, the seven-week voyage of the Justine and Martha was not only unique, but a memorable experience he was un... more...

Reading the Gaelic Landscape 2nd edition
Leughadh Aghaidh na Tìre
by John Murray

Following the success of the first edition, this new edition has been expanded and improved with additional images and enhanced drawings. The subject matter has been expanded with the chapter on grammar and pronunciation extended. There are examples of how Gaelic personal names and the human body ar... more...

Recollections of an Unsuccessful Seaman
by Dave Creamer

Born in 1887, George Leonard Noake joined the nautical training establishment, HMS Conway, in 1903. He then served an apprenticeship at sea until 1908 when his detailed memoirs commence, sailing as a second officer in the European/West African trade. After going ashore to work on a farm between 1913... more...

Recycling our Future
A Global Strategy
by Ranjit S. Baxi

Every day, every one of us contributes to the waste problem but, despite being a part of our lives, waste is poorly understood, even by those who should know better. We live in a throw-away society and yet what is discarded is a vital raw material and ingredient being traded as a valuable commodity ... more...

Running South America
with my Husband and other animals
by Katharine Lowrie

It is the story of two everyday runners, Katharine and David, who decided to take on a continent and learn how to run again – barefoot, pushing their bodies and minds to levels they had never considered possible in a bid to become the first in the world to run the length of South America, to g... more...

Running Wild
by Mike  Tomkies

You thought he was retired, even dead? No, he is back! At the age of 86, Mike Tomkies is back doing what he does best – observing our rarest and most dramatic wildlife, unsuspected and from close quarters, and writing about it with the kind of intimate detail that has earned high acclaim from ... more...

Scotland's Global Empire
A Chronicle of Great Scots
by Jock Gallagher

Scotland's Global Empire is one journalist's tribute to some of the lesser-known great Scots and their contribution to the world.  Jock Gallagher was encouraged in his epic enterprise by a quote from Voltaire: We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation. ‘Voltaire m... more...

Scotland's Heritage
A photographic journey
by John Hannavy

Scotland’s Heritage is a unique book. It combines John Hannavy’s stunning and original photography of Scotland with an engaging narrative on the country’s evolution from 4000 BC to the present day, using both the author’s own account of his travels with those of the great tra... more...

Scottish Lighthouse Pioneers
Travels with the Stevensons in Orkney and Shetland
by Paul A.  Lynn

In the 19th century, the Stevenson engineers pioneered marvellous lighthouses around the coasts of Scotland – lighthouses which inspire with their architectural elegance, and speak of compassion for sailors and fishermen risking their lives in these notoriously dangerous waters. But what wa... more...

Scott's Forgotten Surgeon
Dr. Reginald Koettlitz, Polar Explorer
by Aubrey A. Jones

'...In this year celebrating the centenary of the conquering of the South Pole … it is more than fitting to have one of the unregarded figures of Antarctic history brought into the limelight of remembrance'. Extract from Introduction by Dr. Ross D.E. MacPhee, American Museum of Natura... more...

Second Sight
by Neil M.  Gunn

A novel set in a Highland shooting lodge, where the focus is a hunt in a remote deer forest; but this is no ordinary thriller. A shooting lodge party of wealthy English people, a team of Highland stalkers, a legendary stag to be hunted and a background of glen and corrie, shrouded from time to time ... more...

Self Portrait
The Eyes Within
by William Mitchell

This is the story of Bill Mitchell’s life – his career and his body of work from hospital at an early age to a life of art with commissions offered 80 years later. It describes gaining commissions, experiments with materials and methods and his determination to produce magnificent works ... more...

Self-Compacting Concrete
by John  Gibbs, Peter  Domone , Geert  De Schutter, Peter J. M. Bartos

During the last decade, concrete technology has made an enormous advance through the introduction of self-compacting concrete. This application of nanotechnology in construction provides benefits from the perspective of materials technology and environmental protection and is presenting diverse oppo... more...

Seton Gordon's Cairngorms
An Anthology
by Hamish Brown

Seton Gordon really created himself as naturalist, photographer and writer, the first such in the country, his first book appearing when he was eighteen. In all he wrote 27 books, two specifically about the Cairngorms where he grew up and first explored and returned to many times throughout his long... more...

Seton Gordon's Scotland
An Anthology
by Hamish Brown

Seton Gordon was only a boy when he began exploring the Cairngorms, fascinated by its wildlife and seeking to photograph all he saw - he later became a pioneer naturalist, photographer and folklorist. He wrote about the land that is Scotland, her flora and fauna, her people, her spirits, her often v... more...

Solo Round Scotland
The first single-handed circumnavigation by boat and bike
by Alan Rankin

In April 2006 the author became the first person to single-handedly circumnavigate Scotland by boat and bike. Setting out on this ultimate adventure from Kirkcudbright on the Solway Firth, Alan sailed around Scotland on a 50-foot yacht to the north-east coast of England. After 16 exhausting days on ... more...

Tales from the Forgotten Front
British West Africa during WWII
by John Wade

In November 1943, four years into World War II, Corporal Sid Wade, a conscripted and reluctant soldier in the British Army, was uprooted from a cold English winter and transported to the tropical coast of West Africa. Sid Wade was the author’s father and, nearly 70 years after his two-year sti... more...

That Curious Fellow
Captain Basil Hall, RN
by James McCarthy

Son of a scientifically-minded Scottish aristocrat, Basil Hall joined the Royal Navy at the age of 13 in 1802. His first naval engagements in America and Spain during the Peninsular War are described, as are his travels in India and the Far East. His renowned interview with Napoleon, while still a p... more...

The Biology and Management of Animal Welfare
by Rory Putman, Frauke  Ohl, and members of DWM, Utrecht

This book provides a concise and up to date review of current knowledge on the biological processes affecting animal welfare, and the implications emerging from our improved understanding of those biological principles in terms of options available to assess and manage the welfare status of individu... more...

The Caithness Influence
Diverse lives of distinction
by Valerie Campbell

With a small population, it is remarkable that so many people from the county of Caithness have had such a huge impact, not only in Scotland but worldwide. The sheer hard work and determination of people from the county, both past and present, has guaranteed their place in history. From scientists, ... more...

The Darkness Below
by Rod Macdonald

From the best-selling author of four classic UK diving books, comes The Darkness Below - a collection of absorbing adventures gained from a lifetime in diving. As one of the UK's leading Technical Divers, Rod takes the reader on a spellbinding and gripping journey, from first beginnings as a nov... more...

The Farnes & Holy Island
A comprehensive new dive guide
by Ron Young

Following the successful previous book, this new and expanded edition is the most informative and comprehensive book available, particularly for the diving fraternity, and will be essential for divers wishing to experience the rich underwater heritage around the 28 Farne Islands. However, it is not ... more...

The Grey Wolves of Eriboll
2nd edition
by David M. Hird

The surrender of the German U-boat fleet at the end of World War II was perhaps the principal event in the war’s endgame which signified to the British people that peace really had arrived. This revised, updated and expanded new edition gives career details of not only the 33 commanders who... more...

The Hen Harrier
In the Shadow of Slemish
by Don Scott

The hen harrier is one of the iconic species of the bird world and its history is a mix of controversy, persecution, and recent patchy recovery. This book, a dedicated study of the bird in N. Ireland for over two decades, provides a detailed account of the life, habits and prospects for the bird. Th... more...

The Joy of Climbing
by Terry Gifford

The Joy of Climbing is the result of a search through Britain, Europe and America for the esoteric gems at the easier end of climbing. This special selection demonstrates the sheer fun and enjoyment of climbing. The articles have been especially chosen to provide a stimulating but achievable challen... more...

The Life of Buzzards
by Dr. Peter Dare

This is a much-needed and authoritative account of Common Buzzards gained from extensive studies by the author over 60 years and also from enthusiasts in this country and across northern Europe. The accounts describe the life history and ecology of Buzzards mainly inhabiting the British uplands w... more...

The Lighthouse on Skerryvore
by Paul A.  Lynn

Perched on an isolated rock in the Scottish Hebrides, this is a fascinating account of Skerryvore, ‘the most graceful lighthouse in the world’, and the great Victorian engineer who designed and built it. At a height of 48m (156 feet), it is the tallest lighthouse in Scotland. The stor... more...

The Lost Glen
by Neil M.  Gunn

The Lost Glen vividly portrays a clash of cultures and personalities against a background of a landscape in visible decay. The cultural collision and its effects are explored through Ewan, a young local man recently returned from university in disgrace, and a retired English colonel staying at the v... more...

The Mariner's Trilogy
by Ray Solly

* SPECIAL OFFER - buy the trilogy for the special price of £34.95 (print edition)* In the Ray Solly trilogy, Mariner’s Launch, Mariner’s Voyage and Mariner’s Rest, the author brings alive a lifestyle which epitomised excitement and adventure during the ‘golden age&rs... more...

The Mountains Look on Marrakech
A trek along the Atlas Mountains
by Hamish Brown

After an initial visit of three months to the Atlas Mountains in 1965, well-known travel writer, climber and photographer Hamish Brown has been back every year since, and this book is something of a love story about one man's lifelong devotion to the Atlas Mountains and the Berber Highlanders wh... more...

The Myth of UK Integration
by Kailash Puri

This book dares to say what the politically correct thought police are determined you should not know.  Michael Cole, broadcaster and writer, Chairman of a PR and broadcasting company, journalist and former Director of Public Affairs for Harrods and House of Fraser Group If we fail to learn ... more...

The Shadow
by Neil M.  Gunn

Horrific experiences of the blitz in wartime London and the spiritual bankruptcy of her lover and his Marxist acquaintances are seen through the eyes of Nan, a young Scotswoman, who has returned to her native Highlands to recover from a nervous breakdown. Her letters to her lover from the warm an... more...

The Silver Bough
by Neil M.  Gunn

At the heart of The Silver Bough is a cairn on a knoll surrounded by standing stones. This is of professional interest to an archaeologist, around whom the story revolves. The life-enhancing qualities of the crofting family with whom he lodges and the quiet tenor of Highland life bear a curious simi... more...

The Storm Leopard
by Martyn Murray

'Books such as this must be published and reach a wide audience'. George Schaller, author and world-renowned conservation biologist 'A very-well written meditation on all aspects of travel in Africa'. Peter Matthiessen, American novelist and non-fiction writer, twice winner of the... more...

The Ultimate Shipwreck Guide
Whitby to Berwick
by Ron Young

The author has acquired a vast wealth of knowledge, data and experience in boat angling, sport and wreck diving over a period of almost 50 years and has written various wreck books, including two volumes about shipwrecks off the north-east coast of England. However, this book is far superior. No oth... more...

The UN's Lone Ranger - Combating international wildlife crime
by John M.  Sellar

Illegal trade in wildlife is now recognized as one of the most significant criminal activities in the world, bringing billions of dollars in illicit profits to organized crime groups and networks, which are acknowledged to control much of this trafficking. Until 2011, John M. Sellar was the most sen... more...

The Victorian Naval Brigades
by Arthur Bleby

There is a view that, in Victorian times, whilst the Army was engaged in a series of wars, the Navy enjoyed a peaceful existence - however, this was not the case. Complemented by authentic engravings, this book relates in fascinating detail the significant role that was played by the Naval Brigades ... more...

The Way We Were
Victorian and Edwardian Scotland in Colour
by John Hannavy

This is John Hannavy's reflective look at how Scotland was depicted in photographs and postcards 100–170 years ago. In many ways, it redefines our view of Scotland's past as we are familiar with seeing Victorian and Edwardian people and views in sepia, but these are in colour, adding a... more...

They Were Just Skulls
The Naval Career of Fred Henley, Last Survivor of HM Submarine Truculent
by John Johnson-Allen

This compelling story is the result of many hours spent recording the memories of Fred Henley. His life at sea is at the centre of his being and his own words are at the heart of the book. At the age of 14 Fred worked on a Thames sailing barge, then after his training at HMS Ganges, he joined his fi... more...

Three Men on the Way Way
A Story of Walking the West Highland Way
by Hamish Brown

The West Highland Way is Scotland’s first official Long Distance Route and runs near 100 miles from Milngavie to Fort William. It was nicknamed the 'Way Way' by a trio from Fife who set off to walk it in the year of the Millennium. This is not a guidebook but an account of their experi... more...

Through Albert's Eyes
Vol. II of The British Navy at War and Peace Series editor Captain Peter Hore
by A. Bentley-Buckle

The autobiography of Tony Bentley-Buckle, a child of the Empire who was left to grow up in the care of maiden aunts. Having joined the Royal Navy before the war, he found himself on the Northern Patrol during the blockade of Germany and as a teenager in command of captured ships. When he brought a s... more...

To Auckland by the Ganges
The Journal of a Sea Voyage to New Zealand in 1863
by Robert M. Grogans

In 1863 there was only one method of travelling from Britain to the other side of the world by sailing ship, on a journey that could take up to four months, and when the vagaries of wind and weather could put travellers in peril during long voyages. The offer of grants of land in New Zealand was a m... more...

Understanding Animal Behaviour
by Rory Putman

This accessible introduction to animal behaviour provides an authoritative yet reader-friendly guide for the interested naturalist. It presents current knowledge about the way animals behave and will enable the reader to derive more pleasure from their observations of animals by gaining a deeper und... more...

Underwater Potholer
A Cave Diver's Memoirs
by Duncan Price

Duncan’s curiosity has got him into a lot of tight spots – quite literally!  As a teenager, Duncan really wanted to be an astronaut but took to the exploration of inner space instead.  Only a dozen men might have stood on the moon but Duncan has squeezed into many places that n... more...

Walking over the Waves
by Chris Foote Wood

In 2007, author and broadcaster Chris Foote Wood achieved a lifelong ambition - to visit every seaside pier in England, Wales and the Isle of Man - all 56 of them! This odyssey, plus copious research, has provided the raw material for Walking over the Waves. In words and pictures, Chris describes... more...

Water and Life
by Alistair McCleery

Water and Life pursues the goal of the previous volume, Nation and Nationalism, to bridge the often ivory-tower concerns of academic critics and the interest of a wider public in the works and thought of Neil Gunn, considered the foremost Scottish novelist of the twentieth century. The ‘circle... more...

Wild Geese Overhead
by Neil M.  Gunn

From this evocative title comes a powerful novel set in the city of Glasgow in 1939. This is indeed a bleak stage, and yet how does this title, with its implication of freedom and flight, meld with a depressed city at the outbreak of war? The main character, a journalist, finds that a glimpse of wil... more...

Wildcat Haven
by Mike  Tomkies

Some seven years after abandoning the life of an international journalist for a life in the wilds, Mike Tomkies began a remarkable experiment, rearing the most ferocious animal to roam wild in Britain - the Scottish wildcat. The true wildcat is now an endangered species and only to be found in in... more...

Wildlife Crime
The Making of an Investigations Officer
by Dave Dick

Through the professional life of Dave Dick, the RSPB’s Senior Scottish Investigation Officer between 1984 and 2006, the often murky world of wildlife crime is revealed. This is the first book that faces up to the realities of the often unsuccessful efforts by the justice system in its attempt ... more...

Wingfield at War
Vol. I of The British Navy at War and Peace Series editor Captain Peter Hore
by Mervyn Wingfield

Captain Mervyn Wingfield was one of the last of his generation of submariners who made their reputation in the Second World War. Pre-war he had served on the China station and lived the riotous life of a young officer; in the war he commanded three submarines, Umpire, Sturgeon and Taurus, survived a... more...

Woman
Acceptable Exploitation for Profit
by Shreela  Flather

This thought-provoking and challenging book is about sex and profits. It is not a book about Women's Lib, but it is a book that will lead to the recognition of women carried along by the wholehearted support of men; it is not another call for charitable donations, but it is a book about investme... more...

Wreck, Rescue and Salvage
by Captain Dick  Jolly

After joining the Australian Merchant Navy at the age of sixteen, Dick Jolly trained as an engineer before joining the Australian National Line as a cadet. After a four-year apprenticeship, he gradually gained promotion while travelling around the Australian coast. Fascinated by the world of commerc... more...

Wrecks & Reefs of Southeast Scotland
100 Dives from the Forth Road Bridge to Eyemouth
by Mike Clark

Situated on the south side of the Firth of Forth, the port of Leith, Edinburgh, is a major harbour for warships and cruise liners. Over hundreds of years it has been a trading port and a military dockyard. With Rosyth Dockyard situated further west, this busy waterway has two historically-important ... more...