SCANDAL: how Scottish Book Trust handed £0’000s excess profit to CEO’s business partner Birlinn by duping Scottish Government & Postcode Culture Trust

News & Events

Scottish Book Trust negotiated a significantly worse deal than it claimed to ScotGov and Postcode Culture Trust. As a result, publisher Birlinn – SBT’s CEO’s business partner – pocketed £131k funding, and up to £43k EXCESS profit, for a Muriel Spark Centenary project announced by Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s First Minister. ScotGov and Creative Scotland –…

Mind the gaps

Investigations, News & Events

Does the IBBY article by Creative Scotland’s Head of Literature, Publishing & Languages, Mairi Kidd, herald long-overdue change from Creative Scotland? We have asked several times to see Creative Scotland’s priorities for Scotland’s publishing sector and have been referred to its 10-year plan each time. The plan is high level. It does not set out…

Creative Scotland faces abuse of dominant position anti-competitive behaviour claim after underwriting £0.31m publisher loss

News & Events

In a case set to shake up Scotland’s commercial trade book publishing market, Strident has filed a damages claim against Scotland’s main arts funder, Creative Scotland (CS), accusing it of breaching the Competition Act 1998 (CA98) by abusing its dominant position. The claim before the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) alleges that CS has breached the…

Gordon Brown on (blog) tour

News & Events

Top conspiracy-thriller novelist Gordon Brown, author of the Craig McIntyre series, is off on tour with his latest book, Deepest Wounds. And already it is garnering rave reviews. Gordon’s namesake, the former PM, might appreciate that there’s a little bit of politics (as Ben Elton used to say) in the Craig McIntyre novels. The underhand sort.…

Speed, blades & fire

News & Events

Linda Strachan has tackled them all. Speed in Spider. Blades in Dead Boy Talking. Fire in Don’t Judge Me. Novels centred around issues can be tricky – there’s a danger they will come across as preachy. But readers of these 3 can rest easy on that score in the expert hands of a Catalyst Book…

The first cut is the deepest…

News & Events

…as Cat Stevens wrote* and Rod Stewart, Sheryl Crow and others sang. Craig McIntyre’s cuts are deep. They run to the core of his being, and the scars are showing few signs of healing. Deep. Deeper. Deepest. Others seem to understand him better than he understands himself. And they see a use for him when…

Sunny – going down a storm in schools and libraries

News & Events

We’ve been captivated by Sunny, the gripping new novel from Paul Murdoch. So have his school and library audiences. It’s kicking up a storm of enthusiastic supporters. Sunny is like a cross between Frank Cottrell Boyce’s novel/Danny Boyle’s film Millions and Theresa Breslin’s exploration of sectarianism Divided City. It’s a page-turning thriller with a mystery…

New Kirkland Ciccone Young Adult novel out soon

News & Events

We’re excited and delighted to announce that we’ll be publishing Kirkland Ciccone’s 4th Young Adult novel next year. Hoorah! It’s titled Glowglass, and although it’s not out until May, a few lucky people will get a sneak preview. (More about that in the coming weeks.) There’s lots about all of Kirkland’s books over on his…

The Handmaid’s Tale v Bad Faith (via 1984)

News & Events

We see this as a relay – complete with dystopian baton-passing – more than as a straight race. After all, Margaret Attwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale came many years before Gillian Phillip‘s Bad Faith; and 1984 well before both. The theocratic premises are similar. In Bad Faith, there is a Putinesque collusion between the political leader and the One…

Darkest Thoughts: A taste of things to come

News & Events

Gordon Brown’s stylish Craig McIntyre road-trip thriller rips along. It combines intrigue, action, sparky dialogue and the alarmingly possible. And that ‘alarmingly possible’ verges on probable given the twists and turns in American politics over the last few months. So we thought you might like a taster. Here’s the prologue + chapter 1. Enjoy. (Note that it’s a…

How Free Fitness is changing lives

News & Events

When Kath Anderson, a Scot, moved to Boston to study, she came across free-fitness movement November Project™. It started in Boston, USA as a way of some friends keeping fit during the winter months. Soon it spread, and now it can be found in cities throughout America. More recently, it’s reached Europe. Kath went along to…

The Russian Revolution(s)

News & Events

Why ‘Revolution(s)’? Because what we call the Russian Revolution was really 2 revolutions: one first short-lived, the second the Bolsheviks coming to power. BBC TV’s Newsnight ran a feature on the Russian Revolution (we’ll stick with the singular now!) on 20 Feb 2017. So we thought we’d join in and provide you with this extract…

A Rainbow In The Basement

News & Events

We’re thrilled to announce the forthcoming publication of A Rainbow In The Basement, a magical novel by former H2O singer Ian Donaldson. We think you’re going to be blown away by this one. It’s a novel about a lot – our lot. It’s about life & death, love & loss, hope & despair, belief &…

The Genesis connection

News & Events

Genesis and Phil Collins have been in the news and on TV screens these last few nights. Just for fun we’ve looked at which of our book titles relate to Genesis songs. (We haven’t stretched to Phil Collins songs yet.) One is fairly obvious. The other link is more tenuous and, as it doesn’t relate…

Theresa Talbot talks about Penance on Pulse 98.4FM

News & Events

Great in-depth interview with author Theresa Talbot about penning her sociological crime novel Penance. Gives a real insight into her lead character Oonagh O’Neil, along with very useful advice for aspiring authors. Our favourite line (talking about trying to find an agent/publisher): ‘You can be the best peach in the box… Some people just don’t…

A wolf isn’t just for Xmas

News & Events

Although it LOOKS quite Christmassy (unless you’re in Scotland, in which case snow can mean it’s Winter, Spring or Autumn…), this gem from Emma Barnes is actually an all-year-round story. It won the Fantastic Book Awards. And rightly so. It’s insightful (especially about adults) and heart-warming. Adults: beware of lumps forming in your throats if you’re reading…

Strident to carry Neetah Books list

News & Events

PRESS RELEASE For immediate release   Strident to carry Neetah Books list Independent Scottish publisher Neetah Books is partnering with fellow independent Strident Publishing as it launches its list. Neetah specialises in books by well-known Scots. Its first was Habbie to Jeely-Eater, the humorous and poignant autobiography of Alexandria-based minister Ian Miller, known, amongst other…

The Robertsons – back in print

News & Events

Good news if you, or someone you know, is a Robertson, or a descendent of one. The Robertsons: Clan Donnachaidh in Atholl has just come back into print. It’s a meticulously researched history of the clan written by its current chief, James Irvine Robertson. The clan includes Duncans and Reids in addition to Robertsons. You…

What is a ‘Fencible’ regiment?

News & Events

It’s short for ‘Defensible’ (despite the swapping of the ‘c’ for the ‘s’). This is a great insight into the massive social upheavals that impacted Scotland in the late 1700s, seen through the eyes of some of those charged with keeping the peace. They were not always a cohesive group… “The worthless infamous Macdonell of…