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The Little Book of Pride: The History, the People, the Parades
by Lewis LaneyCelebrate the LGTBQ community with this small but perfectly formed guide to Pride.What began as a protest for gay rights following the Stonewall riots of 1969 in New York has grown to become a global celebration of LGBTQ culture. In the 50-odd years since the original protest, and what is now widely accepted to be the first Pride march – Christopher Street Liberation Day, 1970 – Pride events are now attended by millions each year, celebrating how far we’ve come, recognising where we have to go and highlighting important causes in the queer community.The Little Book of Pride is a concise look at everything you need to know about Pride, revealing the history, the key people involved, the best Pride events around the world, inspirational quotes from famous queers, Pride facts and a fun Pride survival guide.
Music's Cult Artists: A Guide To Music's Cult Artists--from Punk, Alternative, And Indie Through To Hip Hop, Dance Music, And Beyond
by John RiordanLove music? Love illustration? Want to know more about some of the best musicians ever to record – from Bowie and the Beastie Boys to The Smiths and St. Vincent? Then A Guide to Music's Cult Artists is for you.
Queer Cocktails: 50 Cocktail Recipes Celebrating Gay Icons And Queer Culture
by Dog 'n' BoneRaise a glass to the LGBTQ+ community.This collection of cocktail recipes celebrates queer culture and pays tribute to the great gay icons of our time. Try your hand at mixing a Bloody Mariah (Carey), Cider Minelli or (Stephen) Fry Martini and get your tastebuds tingling. With recipes inspired by Madonna (La Isla Bonita Iced Tea), Freddie Mercury (Tequila Queen), Harvey Milk (The Land of Milk and Honey) and more, there’s plenty to keep all cocktail movers and shakers busy and thirsts well and truly quenched – we'll drink to that!
Box Hill: A Story of Low Self-esteem
by Adam Mars-JonesOn the Sunday of his eighteenth birthday, in 1975, Colin takes a walk on Box Hill, a biker hang-out. There he accidentally trips over Ray, a biker napping under a tree – and that’s where it all starts. This transgressive, darkly affecting love story between men, winner of the 2019 Fitzcarraldo Editions Novel Prize, is a stunning novel of desire and domination by one of Britain’s most accomplished writers. ‘I very much enjoyed Box Hill. It is a characteristic Mars-Jones mixture of the shocking, the endearing, the funny and the sad, with an unforgettable narrator. The sociological detail is as ever acutely entertaining.’ — Margaret Drabble
My Mind To Me A Kingdom Is
by Paul StanbridgeIn My Mind To Me A Kingdom Is, the extraordinary follow-up to his prize-winning novel Forbidden Line, Paul Stanbridge tells us about remarkable things.He tells us about the plains of Doggerland, lost under the North Sea. He tells us about ancient horses, carved into chalk hillsides. He tells us about the mysteries of trees.My Mind to Me A Kingdom Is is a book bursting with the joy of discovery, the beauty of the world, and the rich, warm pulse of life.It is also a book about death.In 2015, Paul’s brother took his own life, leaving behind pitifully few possessions and an irreducible complex of questions. In his search for answers, Paul discovers that facts can be the opposite of truth, and that to see something fully, we must sometimes look away.Blending fiction and memoir, knowing and unknowing, love and loss, My Mind To Me A Kingdom Is is a heartbreaking and generous exploration of grief. A beautiful and painful tribute to Paul’s brother, it stands alone.
After Sappho
by Selby Wynn SchwartzIt’s 1895. Amid laundry and bruises, Rina Pierangeli Faccio gives birth to the child of the man who raped her – and who she has also been forced to marry. Unbroken, she determines to change her name; and her life, alongside it. 1902. Romaine Brooks sails for Capri. She has barely enough money for the ferry, nothing for lunch; her paintbrushes are bald and clotted... But she is sure she can sell a painting – and is fervent in her belief that the island is detached from all fates she has previously suffered.... In 1923, Virginia Woolf writes: I want to make life fuller – and fuller.Sarah Bernhardt – Colette – Eleanora Duse – Lina Poletti – Josephine Baker – Virginia Woolf... these are just a few of the women sharing the pages of a book as fierce as it is luminous. Lush and poetic; furious and funny; in After Sappho, Selby Wynn Schwartz has created a novel that celebrates the women and trailblazers of the past – their constant efforts to push against the boundaries of what it means, and can mean, to be a woman – that also offers hope for our present, and our futures.
Love Offers No Safety: Nigeria's Queer Men Speak
by Olumide Femi Makanjuola and Jude DibiaLove Offers No Safety: Nigeria's Queer Men Speak is a raw and powerful collection of 25 first-person narratives that explore the diverse experience of queer Nigerian men. These stirring stories cut across age, class, religion, ethnicity, family and relationships, offering a glimpse into what it means to survive as a queer man in Nigeria. From Tunji, who takes us back to the thriving networking community before social media, to Chukwori, who struggles to reconcile his need to serve God with his sexuality, and Abdulkarim, who frustratingly wonders if he'll ever stop working twice as hard to be accepted, these stories are full of contradictions, anger, resiliency, profound insight, and radical hope. With heightened levels of oppression, violence, and discrimination faced by LGBTQ Nigerians due to the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Law, these voices remind us of what the queer community in Nigeria has always been fighting for - the freedom to be themselves, love themselves, and love each other, despite being viewed as unworthy. Love Offers No Safety is a heart-breaking yet hopeful reminder that love knows no boundaries and offers no safety, but it is worth fighting for.
Ash Mountain
by Helen FitzGeraldSingle-mother Fran returns to her sleepy hometown to care for her dying father when a devastating bush fire breaks out. A heartbreaking disaster-noir thriller from the bestselling author of The Cry.________________Fran hates her hometown, and she thought she’d escaped. But her father is ill, and needs care. Her relationship is over, and she hates her dead-end job in the city, anyway.She returns home to nurse her dying father, her distant teenage daughter in tow for the weekends. There, in the sleepy town of Ash Mountain, childhood memories prick at her fragile self-esteem, she falls in love for the first time, and her demanding dad tests her patience, all in the unbearable heat of an Australian summer. As past friendships and rivalries are renewed, and new ones forged, Fran’s tumultuous home life is the least of her worries, when old crimes rear their heads and a devastating bushfire ravages the town and all of its inhabitants… Simultaneously a warm, darkly funny portrait of small-town life – and a woman and a land in crisis – and a shocking and truly distressing account of a catastrophic event that changes things forever, Ash Mountain is a heart-breaking slice of domestic noir, and a disturbing disaster thriller that you will never forget…________________Praise for Helen FitzGerald‘The plotting is intricate and beautifully handled, and the narrative pace is absolutely breakneck … a wonderful, energetic, hard-hitting and deeply funny novel’ The Big Issue‘Shocking, gripping and laugh-out-loud hilarious’ Erin Kelly‘The main character is one of the most extraordinary you’ll meet between the pages of a book’ Ian Rankin‘A dark, comic masterpiece which manages to be both excruciatingly tense and laugh out loud funny at the same time’ Mark Edwards‘Outrageous, extremely funny and ultimately devastating’ Ambrose Parry‘Fabulously transgressive and completely unique’ Mark Billingham‘The classic thriller gets a hell of a twist’ Heat‘FitzGerald writes like a more focused Irvine Welsh or a less misogynist Philip Roth’ Daily Telegraph
The Big Chill (The Skelfs #2)
by Doug JohnstoneRunning private investigator and funeral home businesses means trouble is never far away, and the Skelf women take on their most perplexing, chilling cases yet in book two of this darkly funny, devastatingly tense and addictive new series!Haunted by their past, the Skelf women are hoping for a quieter life. But running both a funeral directors’ and a private investigation business means trouble is never far away, and when a car crashes into the open grave at a funeral that matriarch Dorothy is conducting, she can’t help looking into the dead driver’s shadowy life. While Dorothy uncovers a dark truth at the heart of Edinburgh society, her daughter Jenny and granddaughter Hannah have their own struggles. Jenny’s ex-husband Craig is making plans that could shatter the Skelf women’s lives, and the increasingly obsessive Hannah has formed a friendship with an elderly professor that is fast turning deadly. But something even more sinister emerges when a drumming student of Dorothy’s disappears and suspicion falls on her parents. The Skelf women find themselves sucked into an unbearable darkness – but could the real threat be to themselves?Following three women as they deal with the dead, help the living and find out who they are in the process, The Big Chill follows A Dark Matter, book one in the Skelfs series, which reboots the classic PI novel while asking the big existential questions, all with a big dose of pitch-black humour.
Betrayal
by Lilja SigurdardóttirBurned out and traumatised by her horrifying experiences around the world, aid worker Úrsula has returned to Iceland. Unable to settle, she accepts a high-profile government role in which she hopes to make a difference again.But on her first day in the post, Úrsula promises to help a mother seeking justice for her daughter, who had been raped by a policeman, and life in high office soon becomes much more harrowing than Úrsula could ever have imagined. A homeless man is stalking her – but is he hounding her, or warning her of some danger? And why has the death of her father in police custody so many years earlier reared its head again?As Úrsula is drawn into dirty politics, facing increasingly deadly threats, the lives of her stalker, her bodyguard and even a witch-like cleaning lady intertwine. Small betrayals become large ones, and the stakes are raised ever higher…Exploring the harsh worlds of politics, police corruption and misogyny, Betrayal is a relevant, powerful, fast-paced thriller that feels just a little bit too real…
The Great Silence (The Skelfs #3)
by Doug JohnstoneThe discovery of a human foot in an Edinburgh park, the inexplicable circumstances of a dying woman, and the missing daughter of Jenny’s violent ex-husband present the Skelf women with their most challenging – and deadly – cases yet…‘Simply stunning. Tense, funny and deeply moving’ Mark Billingham‘If you loved Iain Banks, you’ll devour the Skelfs series’ Erin Kelly'I LOVE the Skelfs’ Val McDermid_______________Keeping on top of the family funeral directors’ and private-investigation businesses is no easy task for the Skelf women, and when matriarch Dorothy discovers a human foot while walking the dog, a perplexing case presents itself … with potentially deadly results.Daughter Jenny and grand-daughter Hannah have their hands full too: The mysterious circumstances of a dying woman lead them into an unexpected family drama, Hannah's new astrophysicist colleague claims he's receiving messages from outer space, and the Skelfs' teenaged lodger has yet another devastating experience.Nothing is clear as the women are immersed ever deeper in their most challenging cases yet. But when the daughter of Jenny’s violent and fugitive ex-husband goes missing without trace and a wild animal is spotted roaming Edinburgh's parks, real danger presents itself, and all three Skelfs are in peril.Taut, dark, warmly funny and unafraid to ask big questions – of us all – The Great Silence is the much-anticipated third instalment in the addictive, unforgettable Skelfs series, and the stakes are higher than ever._______________‘Mysteries aplenty … a poignant reflection on grief and the potential for healing that lies within us all. A proper treat’ Mary Paulson-Ellis‘This enjoyable mystery is also a touching and often funny portrayal of grief, as the three tough but tender main characters pick up the pieces and carry on: more, please’ Guardian‘Wonderful characters: flawed, funny and brave’ Sunday Times ‘Exceptional … a must for those seeking strong, authentic, intelligent female protagonists’ Publishers WeeklyPraise for The Skelfs series***Shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Best Scottish Crime Book of the Year******Longlisted for Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year******Shortlisted for Amazon Publishing Capital Crime Thriller of the Year***‘An engrossing and beautifully written tale that bears all the Doug Johnstone hallmarks in its warmth and darkly comic undertones’ Herald Scotland‘Gripping and blackly humorous’ Observer‘This dark but touching thriller makes for a thoroughly enjoyable slice of Edinburgh noir’ Mary Paulson-Ellis‘This enjoyable mystery is also a touching and often funny portrayal of grief, as the three tough but tender main characters pick up the pieces and carry on: more, please’ Guardian‘A tense ride strong, believable characters’ Kerry Hudson, Big Issue‘They are all wonderful characters: flawed, funny, brave and well set up for a series. I wouldn’t call him cosy, but there’s warmth to Johnstone’s writing’ Sunday Times
Fall
by West CamelEstranged brothers are reunited over plans to develop the tower block where they grew up, but the desolate estate becomes a stage for reliving the events of one life-changing summer.–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––Twins Aaron and Clive have been estranged for forty years. Aaron still lives in the empty, crumbling tower block on the riverside in Deptford where they grew up. Clive is a successful property developer, determined to turn the tower into luxury flats.But Aaron is blocking the plan and their petty squabble becomes something much greater when two ghosts from the past – twins Annette and Christine – appear in the tower. At once, the desolate estate becomes a stage on which the events of one scorching summer are relived – a summer that shattered their lives, and changed everything forever…Grim, evocative and exquisitely rendered, Fall is a story of friendship and family – of perception, fear and prejudice, the events that punctuate our journeys into adulthood, and the indelible scars they leave – a triumph of a novel that will affect you long after the final page has been turned.––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––Praise for West Camel’s debut novel Attend‘From its opening gambit to its final line, Attend demands and rewards attention’ Foreword Reviews’With its blend of dark, gritty themes and gorgeous imagery, this is a book to make you believe there’s still magic in the world’ Heat ‘I’ve fallen in love with this absolutely glorious, spell-binding tale’ LoveReading‘It’s a genuinely pleasurable experience to encounter something couched in such alert and transparent language as West Camel’s Attend … In three hundred finely judged pages, West Camel leaves the reader eager for more from his pen’ Barry Forshaw, CrimeTime‘Lyrical and intense, the spellbinding prose is full of carefully chosen words which create an emotive and flowing’ Crime Review‘Rich, lively and intelligent, Attend is a novel of mystery, morality and meaning, but so delicately sewn together, you never notice the seams…’ Rosie Goldsmith'There is such a joy to the language. West Camel is a truly gifted wordsmith, and a beautiful storyteller’ Louise Beech
Queering Psychotherapy
by Jane Chance CzyzselskaLGBTIQ+ people are more likely than cisgender and heterosexual individuals to suffer with mental health issues, yet often have poorer therapeutic outcomes. Mainstream Eurocentric psychotherapeutic theories, developed largely by heterosexual, cisgender and white theorists, tend to see LGBTIQ+ as a singular group through this “othered” lens. Despite the undeniable value offered by many of these theories, they and those who use them – queer therapists included – can often pathologize, marginalize, misunderstand and diminish the flourishing and diversity of queer experience. In this volume, editor and psychotherapist Jane C. Czyzselska speaks with practitioners and clients from diverse modalities and lived experiences, exploring and rethinking some of the unique challenges encountered in a world that continues to marginalize queer lives. The contributors to Queering Psychotherapy present key insights and practical advice in a dynamic conversational format, providing intimate access to therapists’ personal and professional knowledge and reflections. This book is an invaluable training in itself.
Keeping the House
by Tice CinThe Turkish variety are prized for their enlarged leaf bud; that’s where we put the heroin . . . Ayla has a plan. There’s a stash of heroin; just waiting to be imported. No one seems sure what to do with it; but Ayla’s a gardener; and she knows.From secretive men’s clubs to spotless living rooms; Keeping the House is an electrifying debut that lifts the lid on a covert world. But just as it offers a fresh take on the London drug trade and its machinery; it tells the story of three women in one house: a grandmother; a mother; and the daughter; each dealing with the intricacies and reverberations of community; migration and love.
Oldladyvoice
by Elisa VictoriaNine-year old Marina swears like a sailor and thinks like a novelist; but that doesn’t make growing up any less of a mystery.While her mother is in the hospital with a grave but unnamed illness; Marina spends the summer with her grandmother; waiting to hear whether she’ll ever get to go home or be bundled off; newly orphaned; to a convent school. There are no rules here; but that also means there are no easy ways to fend off the visions of sex and violence that both torment and titillate the girl. Presenting a fresh; vivid take on the coming-of-age novel; Oldladyvoice reimagines childhood through the eyes of its one-of-a-kind; hilarious; perceptive; and endearing narrator.
Go Back at Once
by Robert AickmanCompleted by Robert Aickman in 1975; but never before published in the USA; Go Back at Once is a delicious; delirious comic fantasy about the joys and terrors experienced by two young women seeking to escape the degradations of our technological and conformist age by fleeing to a chaotic; poet-ruled utopia.
Boulder
by Eva BaltasarWorking as a cook on a merchant ship, a woman comes to know and love Samsa, a woman who gives her the nickname ‘Boulder’. When Samsa gets a job in Reykjavik and the couple decides to move there together, Samsa decides that she wants to have a child. She is already forty and can’t bear to let the opportunity pass her by. Boulder is less enthused, but doesn’t know how to say no – and so finds herself dragged along on a journey that feels as thankless as it is alien.With motherhood changing Samsa into a stranger, Boulder must decide where her priorities lie, and whether her yearning for freedom can truly trump her yearning for love.Once again, Eva Baltasar demonstrates her pre-eminence as a chronicler of queer voices navigating a hostile world – and in prose as brittle and beautiful as an ancient saga.
Anything That Moves
by Jamie StewartFrom being caught having their first orgasm by their mum’s best friend to being stalked and propositioned by a fundamentalist pastor; from soliciting spanking dates over the Internet to scoring a coveted invitation to a threesome with some elf fetishist neighbours, art rock darling (Xiu Xiu) Jamie Stewart’s journey of fleshy self-discovery and queer awakening makes for an extraordinary, cringy, unputdownable epic in miniature, burning always with radical and often shocking self-criticism.A one-of-a-kind exploration of abasement, depravity, joy, and embarrassment (and even joy in embarrassment), Anything That Moves is a series of comic, tragic X-rays of sex. It is funny, erotic, anti-erotic, honest, brave, icky, and hauntingly sad by turns. It demonstrates too how love and forgiveness can percolate around the edges of even the most traumatic relationships.Stewart's band Xiu Xiu has been called ‘self-flagellating’, ‘brutal’, ‘shocking’ and ‘perverse’, but also ‘genius’, ‘brilliant’, ‘unique’, ‘imaginative’ and ‘luminous’. Readers can expect nothing less from Anything That Moves.
Your Love is Not Good (G - Reference,information And Interdisciplinary Subjects Ser.)
by Johanna HedvaAt an otherwise forgettable party in Los Angeles, a queer Korean American painter spots a woman who instantly controls the room: gorgeous and distant and utterly white, the centre of everyone’s attention. Haunted into adulthood by her Korean father’s abandonment of his family, as well as the spectre of her beguiling, abusive white mother, the painter finds herself caught in a perfect trap. She wants Hanne, or wants to be her, or to sully her, or destroy her, or consume her, or some confusion of all the above. Since she’s an artist, she will use art to get closer to Hanne, beginning a series of paintings with her new muse as model. As for Hanne, what does she want? Her whiteness seems sometimes as cruel as a new sheet of paper.When the paintings of Hanne become a hit, resulting in the artist’s first sold-out show, she resolves to bring her new muse with her to Berlin, to continue their work, and her seduction. But, just when the painter is on the verge of her long sought-after breakthrough, a petition started by a Black performance artist begins making the rounds in the art community, calling for the boycott of major museums and art galleries for their imperialist and racist practices. Torn between her desire to support the petition, to be a success, and to possess Hanne, the painter and her reality become more unstable and disorienting, unwilling to cut loose any one of her warring ambitions, yet unable to accommodate them all. Is it any wonder so many artists self-destruct so spectacularly? Is it perhaps just a bit exciting to think she could too? Your Love Is Not Good stuffs queer explosive into the cracks between identity and aspiration, between desire and art, and revels in the raining debris.
Bella Caledonia: An Anthology of Writing from 2007 - 2021
by Kathleen Jamie Irvine Welsh Andy WightmanIn October 2007, writers Mike Small and Kevin Williamson launched Bella Caledonia at the Radical Book Fair in Edinburgh. Since then, Bella has consistently explored ideas of self-determination and offered Scotland’s most robust and insightful political commentary. In the run up to Scottish independence referendum, international interest grew and Bella Caledonia had more than 500,000 unique users a month, with a peak of one million in August ― and since then has been given multiple awards recognising it as one of the top 10 political blogs in the UK. This anthology, curated by Mike Small, is a flavour of Bella’s output over these 14 years ― the editor’s pick. Bella is aligned to no political party and sees herself as the bastard child of parent publications too good for this world; from Calgacus to Red Herring, from Harpies & Quines to the Black Dwarf. Under Mike’s editorship, Bella has developed a ‘Fifth Estate’ as a way of disrupting the passive relationship of old media, creating something more active and appropriate for the 21st century ― it’s about concentration of ownership, and bringing together radical coverage with cultural analysis. Hence the plethora of wide-ranging voices in this anthology, each representing outlier viewpoints in contemporary society ― novelists, poets, bloggers and journalists publishing in non-mainstream media outlets, and the social media. *”Bella Caledonia has been a flagship for progressive thought in Scotland, providing a platform for informed and creative writing, advocating a progressive and independent nation fit for the future."Stuart Cosgrove”Bella has been to be a constant thorn in the side of the powerful voices who would prefer that conventional wisdom went unchallenged, that awkward questions went unasked, and bold solutions went unheard."Peter Geoehgan * The Contributors:Andy Wightman • Alan Bissett • Brian Quail • George Rosie • Kathleen Jamie • Peter Arnott • Scott Hames • Laura Easton Lewis • Meaghan Delahunt • AL Kennedy • Alistair Davidson • Alastair McIntosh • Katie Gallogly-Swan • Max Macleod • Caitlin Logan • Irvine Welsh • Paul Tritschler • Chloé Farand • Abi Lightbody • Pat Kane • Adam Ramsay • Rory Scothorne • Alison Phipps • Jamie Maxwell • Amna Saleem • Neil Cooper • Dougie Strang • Mairi McFadyen • Christopher Silver • George Gunn • Stuart Christie • George Kerevan • Iain MacKinnon • Dougald Hine • Cait O’Neil McCullagh • Raman Mundair • Gerry HassanAbout The Editor:Mike Small is a writer, journalist, author and publisher. He has written for the Guardian, Sunday Herald, Sunday National, Open Democracy, Variant, Lobster and Z Magazine. He is currently working on a biography of Patrick Geddes and a history of Scottish Anarchism. He has edited Bella Caledonia since 2007.
Girlcrush: The debut novel from the bestselling author of Women Don't Owe You Pretty
by Florence Given'Dark, funny and wild.'- Chloe Ashby, author of WET PAINT'Girlcrush is a funny, filthy and furious exploration of sexuality, identity and the expectations on us all. It's a rare combination - a page turner with a message.' - Daisy Buchanan'It feels like a ball of energy coming right for you. I loved this debut.' - Emma GannonGIRLCRUSH is a dark feminist retelling of Jekyll & Hyde by bestselling author Florence Given.In Given's debut novel, we follow Eartha on a wild, weird and seductive modern-day exploration as she commences life as an openly bisexual woman whilst also becoming a viral sensation on Wonderland, a social media app where people project their dream selves online.The distance between her online and offline self grows further and further apart until something dark happens that leads her into total self-destruction, forcing Eartha to make a choice; which version of herself should she kill off?Warning this book does include storylines that some readers may find triggering.*Also by Florence Given*Women Don't Owe You Pretty
The Reykjavik Noir Trilogy (Reykjavik Noir #0)
by Lilja SigurdardottirGet ALL THREE books in the electrifying, unputdownable Reykjavík Noir Trilogy in one GREAT-VALUE Box Set!A young, single mother is lured into cocaine smuggling to keep custody of her son, as she eludes customs officers and the police, and tries to escape the clutches of the kingpins in Lilja Sigurðardóttir’s critically acclaimed, award-winning, international bestselling Reykjavík Noir Trilogy. A nerve-shredding, emotive Icelandic series by the co-writer of the Netflix hit Katla.’Tough, uncompromising and unsettling’ Val McDermid‘Stylish, taut and compelling’ Daily Express‘Tense and pacey … an intriguing mix of white-collar and white-powder’ GuardianSnare (Book One)Set in a Reykjavík still covered in the dust of the Eyjafjallajökull volcanic eruption, and with a dark, fast-paced and chilling plot and intriguing characters, Snare sees young mother Sonja become involved in cocaine-smuggling in and out of Iceland, under the suspicious eye of a customs officer … An outstandingly original and sexy Nordic crime thriller, and a nail-biting game of cat and mouse!Trap (Book Two)When Sonja's son is kidnapped by her ruthless ex-husband, she's thrust back into the world of cocaine smuggling, but this time she's got a plan of her own, with an unexpected ally, and a complicated relationship on her conscience ... High-stakes jeopardy presides in this dark and original, breathtakingly fast-paced thriller...Cage (Book Three)A deadly threat to Sonja and her family sees her return to Iceland, where she needs to settle scores with longstanding adversaries if she wants to stay alive, while a group of businessmen tries to draw Agla into an ingenious fraud. Drugs, smuggling, big money and political intrigue rally with love, passion and murder in the masterful conclusion to the explosive Reykjavík Noir Trilogy.Praise for the Reykjavik Noir trilogy**Guardian and New York Journal of Books THRILLER of the Year****WINNER of the Best Icelandic Crime Novel of the Year****Longlisted for the CWA International Dagger**‘A tense thriller with a highly unusual plot and interesting characters’ Marcel Berlins, The Times‘An emotional suspense rollercoaster on a par with The Firm, as desperate, resourceful, profoundly lovable characters scheme against impossible odds’ Alexandra Sokoloff‘Clear your diary. As soon as you begin reading … you won’t be able to stop until the final page’ Michael Wood‘A towering powerhouse of read and I gobbled it up in one intense sitting’ LoveReading‘Zips along, with tension building and building … thoroughly recommend’ James Oswald‘With characters you can’t help sympathising with against your better judgement, Sigurdardottir takes the reader on a breathtaking ride’ Daily Express‘Tense, edgy and delivering more than a few unexpected twists and turns’ Sunday Times‘Smart writing with a strongly beating heart’ Big Issue‘Deftly plotted though and with a forensic attention to the technicalities of stock exchange manipulations and drug-running techniques’ Financial Times‘The intricate plot is breathtakingly original, with many twists and turns you never see coming. Thriller of the year’ New York Journal of Books‘Compelling … this is prime binge-reading’ Booklist
Black Hearts (The Skelfs #4)
by Doug JohnstoneA faked death, an obsessive stalker, an old man claiming he’s being abused by the ghost of his late wife, and a devastating spectre from the past. The Skelfs are back in another explosive thriller, and this time things are more than personal…‘A new outing for the Skelfs deserves dancing in the streets of Edinburgh' Val McDermid‘Tense, funny and deeply moving’ Mark Billingham‘A total delight to be returned to the dark, funny, compulsive world of the Skelfs … Johnstone never fails to entertain whilst packing a serious emotional punch. Brilliant!’ Gytha Lodge________________________Death is just the beginning…The Skelf women live in the shadow of death every day, running the family funeral directors and private investigator business in Edinburgh. But now their own grief interwines with that of their clients, as they are left reeling by shocking past events.A fist-fight by an open grave leads Dorothy to investigate the possibility of a faked death, while a young woman’s obsession with Hannah threatens her relationship with Indy and puts them both in mortal danger. An elderly man claims he’s being abused by the ghost of his late wife, while ghosts of another kind come back to haunt Jenny from the grave … pushing her to breaking point.As the Skelfs struggle with increasingly unnerving cases and chilling danger lurks close to home, it becomes clear that grief, in all its forms, can be deadly…________________________‘The Skelfs keep getting better and better. Compelling and compassionate characters, with a dash of physics and philosophy thrown in’ Ambrose Parry‘Expertly written, with poise, insight and compassion’ Mary Paulson-Ellis’If you loved Iain Banks, you’ll devour the Skelfs series’ Erin Kelly‘Dynamic and poignant … Johnstone balances the cosmos, music, death and life, and wraps it all in a compelling mystery’ Marni Graff‘Just when you thought you couldn’t love the Skelfs more, Doug Johnstone finds a way to turn up the heat’ Live & DeadlyPraise for The Skelfs series***Shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Best Scottish Crime Book of the Year******Longlisted for Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year******Shortlisted for Amazon Publishing Capital Crime Thriller of the Year***‘An engrossing and beautifully written tale that bears all the Doug Johnstone hallmarks in its warmth and darkly comic undertones’ Herald Scotland‘Gripping and blackly humorous’ Observer‘A tense ride strong, believable characters’ Kerry Hudson, Big Issue‘The power of this book, though, lies in the warm personalities and dark humour of the Skelfs, and by the end readers will be just as interested in their relationships with each other as the mysteries they are trying to solve’ Scotsman‘Remarkable’ Sunday Times‘Keeps you hungry from page to page. A crime reader can’t ask anything more’ The Sun‘A thrilling, atmospheric book, set in the dark streets of Edinburgh. Move over Ian Rankin, Doug Johnstone is coming through!’ Kate Rhodes‘An unstoppable, thrilling, bullet train of a book that cleverly weaves in family and intrigue, and has real emotional impact. I totally loved it’ Helen Fields‘This enjoyable mystery is also a touching and often funny portrayal of grief ... more, please’ Guardian‘Wonderful characters: flawed, funny and brave’ Sunday Times‘Exceptional … a must for those seeking strong, authentic, intelligent female protagonists’ Publishers Weekly
The Opposite of Lonely (The Skelfs #5)
by Doug JohnstoneA body lost at sea, arson, murder, astronauts, wind phones, communal funerals and existential angst … This can ONLY mean one thing! The Skelfs are back, and things are as tense, unnerving and warmly funny as ever!The Skelf women are recovering from the cataclysmic events that nearly claimed their lives. Their funeral-director and private-investigation businesses are back on track, and their cases are as perplexing as ever.Matriarch Dorothy looks into a suspicious fire at a travellers’ site, and takes a grieving, homeless man under her wing. Daughter Jenny is searching for her missing sister-in-law, who disappeared in tragic circumstances, while grand-daughter Hannah is asked to investigate increasingly dangerous conspiracy theorists, who are targeting a retired female astronaut … putting her own life at risk.With a body lost at sea, funerals for those with no one to mourn them, reports of strange happenings in outer space, a funeral crasher with a painful secret, and a violent attack on one of the family, The Skelfs face their most personal – and perilous – cases yet. Doing things their way may cost them everything…Tense, unnerving and warmly funny, The Opposite of Lonely is the hugely anticipated fifth instalment in the unforgettable Skelfs series, and this time, danger comes from everywhere…
Pretended: Historical, Cultural and Personal Perspectives
by Catherine LeePretended is a vivid historical, political and cultural account of schools and teaching under Section 28, a law that banned schools in the UK from promoting homosexuality as a 'pretended family relationship'.Catherine Lee was a teacher in schools for each of the 15 years that Section 28 was law (between 1988 and 2003). In Pretended, she considers the landscape for lesbian and gay teachers leading up to, during and after Section 28. Drawing on her diary entries from the Section 28 era, Lee poignantly recalls the challenges and incidents affecting her and thousands of other teachers during this period of state-sanctioned homophobia. She reveals how these diaries led to her involvement in the 2022 feature film Blue Jean, and describes how this unexpected opportunity helped her to make peace with Section 28.Pretended will resonate with every lesbian and gay teacher who experienced Section 28 and will shock those who previously knew nothing about this law. Crucially, Pretended will explain to those who were lesbian and gay students during Section 28 why they never saw people like them in the curriculum, never had a role model and never had an adult in school to talk to about their identity.