Ajay Chowdhury, the inaugural winner of the Harvill Secker-Bloody Scotland prize, is a tech entrepreneur and theatre director. His children’s book – Ayesha and the Firefish, was published in 2016 and adapted into a musical which premiered in San Francisco. 
 
 
The Waiter (Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month), was published in 2021, and is the first in his critically-acclaimed crime series about Detective Kamil Rahman, an ex-policeman from Kolkata who has moved to Brick Lane in London. It is being adapted for television by Moonage Pictures.The Cook (Guardian Top Crime Books of the Year) was published in May 2022 to excellent reviews and deals with the issue of homelessness. The third book in the series – The Detective (Sunday Times Top Crime Books of the Year) – is about government surveillance and AI. The Spy (Longlisted Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing), the fourth book, sees Kamil infiltrate a terrorist cell. The Shadow (A Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month) is the latest book in the series.

Ajay Chowdhury

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Roger Hutchinson

Bho chionn deich bliadhna fichead, bha cnan agus cultar na Gidhlig, a bha air a bhith iomraiteach ann an Alba airson 1,300 bliadhna, a rir coltais ann an ceumannan deireannach cronadh bsmhor a mhair 200 bliadhna. Bha an ireamh de dhaoine a bhruidhinneadh Gidhlig ann an Alba air tuiteam deich uiread thairis air an linn a chaidh roimhe. Cha robh an cnan fhin cumanta ach a-mhin ann an coimhearsnachdan sgapte ceann an iar-thuath na Gaidhealtachd agus Innse Gall.Ro bhliadhnaichean trtha na ciad linne thar fhichead, ge-t, bha atharrachadh mara air tighinn. Theireadh cuid gun robh a' Ghidhlig - a bha na cuspair magaidh is nimhdeis airson ineachan - a-nise 'fasanta'. Bha obraichean Gidhlig rim faotainn; chaidh foghlam tro mheadhan na Gidhlig a stidheachadh ann an iomadh ite; agus chunnaic luchd-poileataigs agus luchd-gnomhachais gun robh buannachdan an lib a bhith cirdeil ris a' chultar. Ged a bha ireamh luchd-labhairt na Gidhlig a' sor thuiteam agus seann daoine a' caochladh, dh'fhs an cronadh na bu mhaille, agus airson a' chiad uair ann an 100 bliadhna, thisich rdachadh co-roinneil a' tighinn air an ireamh de dhaoine ga s a' cheud a bha a' cleachdadh a' chnain. B' e sersa de dh'ath-bhethachadh a bha anns na thachair: ath-bhethachadh Gidhlig a dh'fhoillsich e fhin ann an cel pop, litreachas, ealain, brdachd, foillseachadh, drma, ridio agus telebhisean. B' e morbhail annasach a bh' ann ris nach robh dil. Agus aig cridhe a' ghluasaid sin, bha foghlam. Gealach an Fhis ag innse sgeulachd aon ionaid, Sabhal Mr Ostaig, a' cholaiste Ghidhlig san Eilean Sgitheanach a tha air a bhith aig teis-meadhain an dsgaidh seo. Ach, thar gach rud, tha an leabhar a' mion-sgrdadh mar a thugadh dchas airson an ama ri teachd do chultar urramach aig m nuair a shaoilear gun robh gach n caillte.

Gealach an Fhais

Ur Bheothachadh na Gaidhlig

E. Benjamin Skinner

Two hundred years after Parliament passed the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act, over 27 million people worldwide languish in slavery, forced to work, under threat of violence, for no pay. In Africa, hundreds of thousands are considered chattel, while on the Indian subcontinent millions languish in generational debt bondage. Across the globe, women and children, sold for sex and labour, are already the second most lucrative commodity for organised crime. 
 
 Through eviscerating narrative, A Crime So Monstrous paints a stark picture of modern slavery. Skinner infiltrates trafficking networks and slave sales on four continents, exposing a flesh trade never before portrayed with such vivid detail. From mega-harems in Khartoum to illicit brothels in Bucharest, from slave quarries in India to urban child markets in Haiti, he lays bare a parallel universe where lives are bought, sold, used and discarded. 
 
 The personal stories related here are heartbreaking but in the midst of tragedy Skinner also discovered a quiet dignity that leads some to resist and aspire to freedom. He bears witness for them and for the millions that are held in the shadows - all victims of what is the greatest human-rights challenge facing our generation.

A Crime So Monstrous

A Shocking Exposé of Modern-Day Sex Slavery, Human Trafficking and Urban Child Markets

Dominic Stevenson

In 1993, Dominic Stevenson left a comfortable life with his girlfriend in Kyoto, Japan, to travel to China. His journey took him to some of the most inhospitable and dangerous places in the world, from the poppy fields of the Afghan-Pakistan border to the ancient trade routes of the Silk Road, before he was arrested for drug smuggling while boarding a boat from Shanghai to Japan. 
 
After eight months on remand in a Chinese police lock-up, Stevenson was sentenced to two and a half years in one of the biggest prisons in the world, the Shanghai Municipal Prison aka 'The Monkey House'. There, he was imprisoned alongside just five westerners amongst five thousand Chinese criminals in a block for death row inmates and political prisoners, where the guards drank green tea and let the prison run itself. 
 
The experience led him to reflect on his previous life in Japan, India and Thailand, during which time he took on a varied array of jobs, including English teacher, karaoke-bar host, factory worker, busker, crystal seller and dope smuggler. 
 
From Afghan gun shops to Tibetan monasteries, Thai brothels and the stirrings of the rave culture in Goa, Monkey House Blues is a tale of discovery and rediscovery, of friendship and betrayal.

Monkey House Blues

A Shanghai Prison Memoir

Alex Caine

The Hells Angels. The Bandidos. Asian triads. Russian mobsters and corrupt cops. Even the KKK. Just part of a day's work for Alex Caine, an undercover agent who has seen it all. 
 
After a tour in Vietnam and a stretch in prison on marijuana-possession charges, Caine fell into the cloak-and-dagger world of a contracted agent. Thanks to his quick-wittedness and tough but unthreatening demeanour, Caine could fit into whatever unsavoury situation he found himself. Over 25 years, his assignments ran the gamut from mean bikers to triad toughs. When a job was over, he'd slip away to a new part of the continent or world, where he would assume a new identity and then go back to work on another group of bad guys. 
 
Befriend and Betray offers an unflinching look at some familiar police operations and blows the lid off others that law enforcement would much prefer to keep hidden. It provides an unvarnished account of the toll such a life takes, one that often left Caine to wonder who he really was behind the myriad identities he had assumed and whether justice was ever truly served.

Befriend and Betray

Infiltrating the Hells Angels, Bandidos and Other Criminal Brotherhoods

Derek Flory

Blanche Le Fleur

Sybil Le Fleur

When Sybil and Blanche Le Fleur were growing up in idyllic Burma in the 1920s and '30s, little did they realise the changes and challenges that they would face during their lives. With the death of first their mother and then their father, they had to cope with enormous personal tragedy, including the loss of all their family wealth. Then the Japanese bombed Rangoon on 23 December 1941. Sybil managed to get out of the city, but there was no way for her to return to her sister, or even to know if Blanche was still alive, as the death toll was so high. 
 
While Sybil escaped from Burma and settled in Scotland after marrying a Scottish soldier, Blanche lived for over three years under Japanese occupation. After leaving for India in 1958, Blanche made a new life while still thinking of and praying for her sister. Decades later, a chance set of circumstances led to the discovery by Sybil's son that Blanche was alive and living in India. 
 
Torn Apart is the heart-rending, inspirational account of how the Le Fleur sisters lived separate lives for more than 65 years before an emotional reunion brought them together again in 2007.

Torn Apart

How Two Sisters Found Each Other After Sixty-Five Years

Ian Botham

Sir Ian Botham and the Ashes are as closely intertwined as willow and leather or Merv Hughes and his moustache. You simply cannot think of one without the other. In this book, Sir Ian takes you on a ride through a lifetime's relationship with cricket's oldest and most treasured prize, revealing just how it has shaped his life and how he has helped to turn it into the contest it is today. 
 
From the moment he first watched the likes of Ken Barrington stride to the wicket in jaw-jutting defiance to the day he flayed Australia's bowling attack around Headingley as if playing with his mates in the park, and then onwards to his role in commentating on what was arguably the finest series of the lot, in 2005, Sir Ian has a rich and varied connection with the Ashes, and he tells all here. 
 
The Ashes is a series that has provided incredible highs and heartbreaking lows for English and Australian fans alike over the past 35 years. Sir Ian has often been at the centre of the roller-coaster ride. Whether it is his account of his days as England's dogsbody in 1977 in Melbourne or the story of his refusal to let Bob Willis bowl downwind until he was angry enough to skittle the Aussies in 1981, all is revealed in depth in Botham's Book of the Ashes.

Botham's Book of the Ashes

A Lifetime Love Affair with Cricket's Greatest Rivalry

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton

On the morning of 3 April 1933, two single-engine biplanes set off on a flight into history. From their base near the Indian border with the mystery country of Nepal, the two young pilots, one a British Marquis and a Scottish Member of Parliament, the other a dynamic flight commander, flew towards as great a challenge as world aviation had faced to date - Mount Everest, 'Roof of the World'. 
 
The first flight over Everest was the climax of years of thought and months of intensive planning, an epoch-making event which caught the imagination of millions. News of its success reverberated throughout the British Empire to the world at large. Among the deluge of telegrams of congratulations received were those from the King and the Prime Minister. The Times of London, which had given exclusive coverage of the Expedition since its early days, carried one of its longest features ever and was excited enough to comment that the achievement was 'almost like exploring the rainbow'. Some half-a-century later that Houston-Mount Everest Expedition takes its place as one of the last great pioneering flights before the era of space travel. 
 
Roof of the World tells the remarkable story of that flight and its repercussions, among which were the growth of the British aviation industry and the creation of the country's second international airport. Using rare and unique photographs, many taken from the flight itself and giving an idea of the qualities required of the crews, Lord James Douglas-Hamilton has recreated the scene facing the pilots, one of whom was his father. He has had access to relevant diaries and personal papers presents in Roof of the World a valuable contribution to our understanding of a unique achievement in an eventful decade.

Roof of the World

Man's First Flight Over Everest

Clive Everton

Throughout its chequered history, snooker has had more than its fair share of heroes and villains, champions and chumps, rascals and rip-off artists. In the last 20 years, every sleazy scandal imaginable has attached itself to this raffish sport: corruption, match fixing, bribery, sex, recreational drugs, performance-enhancing drugs, ballot rigging, fraud, theft, domestic violence, common-or-garden violence, paranoid politicking, dirty tricks - all against a background of inept petty tsars fixated on the pursuit, retention and abuse of power. 
 
 In Black Farce and Cue Ball Wizards, Clive Everton recounts the glory and despair, the dreams and disillusion, and the treachery and greed that have characterised the game since it was invented as an innocent diversion by British Army officers in India in the nineteenth century. He tells the true and unexpurgated tale of snooker's transformation into a television success story second only to football and exposes how its potential has been shamefully squandered.

Black Farce and Cue Ball Wizards

The Inside Story of the Snooker World

Irshad Manjii

Irshad Manji calls herself a Muslim refusenik. 'That doesn't mean I refuse to be a Muslim,' she writes, 'it simply means I refuse to join an army of automatons in the name of Allah.' These automatons, Manji argues, include many so-called moderate Muslims in the West. In blunt, provocative and deeply personal terms, she unearths the troubling cornerstones of Islam as it is widely practised today: tribal insularity, deep-seated anti-Semitism and an uncritical acceptance of the Quran as the final, and therefore superior, manifesto of God. 
 
In this open letter to Muslims and non-Muslims alike, Manji breaks the conspicuous silence that surrounds mainstream Islam with a series of pointed questions: 'Why are we all being held hostage by what's happening between the Palestinians and the Israelis? Who is the real coloniser of Muslims - America or Arabia? How can we read the Quran literally when it's so contradictory and ambiguous? Why are we squandering the talents of women, fully half of God's creation?' Not one to be satisfied with merely criticising, Manji offers a practical vision of how Islam can undergo a reformation that empowers women, promotes respect for religious minorities and fosters a competition of ideas. Her vision revives Islam's lost tradition of independent thought. 
 
The recipient of death threats as well as heartfelt support from her co-religionists, Manji travels throughout the world with her challenge for both Muslims and non-Muslims: dare to ask questions - out loud.

The Trouble with Islam Today

A Wake-Up Call for Honesty and Change

David V. Herlihy

In the spring of 1892, Frank G. Lenz, a gallant young accountant from a modest German American family, set forth from his unhappy home in Pittsburgh to circle the globe atop a new 'safety' bicycle with inflatable tyres (the forerunner of today's road bike). He brought along a large wooden camera and arranged to send regular reports to his sponsor, Outing magazine, effectively making him a harbinger of the great bicycle boom that was about to explode with stunning social and industrial repercussions. Two years, fourteen thousand miles and many adventures later, after crossing the United States, Japan, China, Burma, India and Persia, just as he was about to enter Europe for the home stretch, Lenz vanished. His presumed murder in Asiatic Turkey jolted the American public and became an international cause célèbre. 
 
The Lost Cyclist recounts, for the first time ever, the short but remarkable life of Lenz and the heroic efforts of another American 'globe girdler', William L. Sachtleben, who was sent by Outing to unravel Lenz's mysterious death in Turkey - all set against the horrifying backdrop of the Hamidian massacres.

The Lost Cyclist

The Untold Story of Frank Lenz's Ill-Fated Around-the-World Journey

Amnesty International

Inspired by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which starts memorably with Article 1: we are all born free and equal, Freedom is an enthralling anthology of short stories by some of the world's top writers. 
 
Most of the stories have been written especially for this anthology by a renowned array of internationally acclaimed writers, including Paulo Coelho, Yann Martel, AL Kennedy, Ali Smith, Amit Chaudhuri, Ariel Dorfman, Helen Dunmore, Marina Lewycka, Walter Mosley, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, James Meek, Kate Atkinson, David Mitchell, Hector Aguilar Camin, Ishmael Beah, Boris Akunin, Alice Pung and Banana Yoshimoto. 
 
Each acclaimed contributor has chosen one of the thirty UDHR rights as the basic inspiration for his or her story, and the result is an anthology that contains a complete mix of thoughtful, serious, funny and thrilling stories that provide some completely unexpected takes on the issue of human rights. 
 
Published in association with Amnesty International, Freedom is an eclectic collection that will prompt readers to engage imaginatively with what human rights mean for all of us.

Freedom

Short Stories Celebrating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Phil Sparrowhawk

Martin King

Martin Knight

Grass is the incredible story of Phil Sparrowhawk, a working-class boy with gambling in his blood. Like most punters, he enjoyed an incredible run of luck, but finally rolled the dice once too often. 
 
Before he had come of age, Phil had accumulated a small fortune from street trading. He then staked his entire capital on Njinsky in the 1970 Derby - and won. With his now large capital base, he launched a business importing clothes. Enter Howard Marks (aka Mr Nice), who was enthused by Phil's Far East connections and introduced him to the far more lucrative world of the 'movement of beneficial herbs' - or drug smuggling, as it is known to the authorities. 
 
Phil struck out on his own and from his new base in Thailand became involved in many large-scale cannabis deals, whilst at the same time developing highly successful legitimate businesses. Read of his encounters with Greenpeace, Mother Teresa, gangsters and leading politicians, Lord Moynihan, religious cults, former pop singers and many other diverse characters as his life became more and more surreal. 
 
The winning streak came to an end in 1988 when the US Drug Enforcement Agency closed in. Phil's £30m fortune was promptly confiscated and he spent the next four years in two of Thailand's most notorious jails before being extradited to the US, where he served further time in a series of penitentiaries. 
 
Grass details the life of an ordinary young man with a taste for adventure, who ended up on the most extraordinary journey. Sit back, take a deep breath and enjoy.

Grass

Peter Mortimer

When author Peter Mortimer was commissioned to write a play about a little-known riot between Yemeni and British seamen at Mill Dam, South Shields, in 1930, he decided to take the long trip to Yemen itself in search of inspiration. Undeterred by post-11 September government warnings against visiting this 'highly dangerous' area, Mortimer set off and found an extraordinary and surprisingly Anglophile country. 
 
Cool for Qat documents this remarkable journey, during which Mortimer pieces together how the riots of 1930 arose and considers their relevance to Western attitudes towards Muslims today. He meets many remarkable characters along the way and immerses himself in the national custom of chewing the narcotic qat leaf. 
 
After visiting the ex-British Protectorate of Aden - through which many of the seamen passed en route to Britain - Mortimer travels on to San'a and then Tai'iz. It is while visiting the isolated mountain villages surrounding this city that Mortimer finally meets men who worked in South Shields some 50 years ago. Carrying a battered book with images of Yemenis living in the North-east in the '30s from home to home, trying to jog distant memories, he realises his visit has taken on a new purpose - bringing a small part of the country's history back to where it belongs. 
 
Back in the UK, Mortimer's investigations into the 1930 riot reveal a society with many striking similarities to current times. Then, as now, Muslim immigrants were treated as scapegoats for all manner of ills, tabloid newspapers drummed up prejudice and hatred, and the powers that be often used fear and racial mistrust to disguise their own economic failings. 
 
Cool for Qat questions just how 'civilised' the Western world - and Britain in particular - is in comparison to Yemen. It is a touching, thought-provoking and at times humorous document of one man's travels through a country about which little is known in the West.

Cool for Qat

A Yemeni Journey: Two Countries, Two Times

Trevor Royle

Created in 1961 as a result of the amalgamation of the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders and the Seaforth Highlanders, the Queen's Own Highlanders embody the history and traditions of some of Scotland's oldest Highland regiments. Two great Highland families - Cameron of Lochdarroch and Mackenzie of Seaforth - were involved in the formation of the antecedent regiments and their tartans were incorporated in their successor's uniform. 
 
During its long history, the regiment has served in the Napoleonic Wars, the Crimea, the Indian Mutiny, the Boer War and the two World Wars of the twentieth century. After the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, the Duke of Wellington specifically mentioned the Cameron Highlanders in his dispatches as a result of the bravery shown by Piper Kenneth Mackay, who left the safety of the regiment's defensive square to encourage the men by playing the traditional rallying tune 'Cogadh no Sith' (War or Peace - the True Gathering of the Clans). 
 
In 1994, the Queen's Own Highlanders amalgamated with the Gordon Highlanders, and in 2006 they became the 4th Battalion of the new Royal Regiment of Scotland. This account of the regiment is therefore a timely memorial to its long and distinguished history.

Queen's Own Highlanders

A Concise History

Luke Williams

Paul Gadsby

The top snooker players in the world compete for several trophies every year, but one carries more prestige than all the others put together - the World Championship. No other tournament in the sport carries with it so much history, so many golden moments of spectacular success and dramatic failure. 
 
 Meticulously researched and including exclusive interview material with Steve Davis, Stephen Hendry and 2005 world champion Shaun Murphy, among others, Masters of the Baize is a comprehensive guide to the men who have lifted the greatest prize in snooker. 
 
 From the legendary Joe Davis, the first champion in 1927, to modern-day masters like Mark Williams, all the sport's world champions are put under the microscope, while the colourful careers of forgotten figures such as Walter Donaldson and John Pulman and rogue heroes like Alex Higgins and Ronnie O'Sullivan are brought vividly to life. 
 
 After uncovering the inauspicious origins of the game in nineteenth-century India, the authors examine every former world champion in his own comprehensive chapter. Additionally, a special section focuses on the extraordinary popularity of Jimmy White, by far the greatest player never to have won the title and one of the most emotive names in the sport.

Snooker's World Champions

Masters of the Baize

The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders is one of the best-known regiments in the British Army. In a previous incarnation as the 93rd Highlanders, its soldiers were famed for being the 'thin red line' that repulsed the Russian heavy cavalry at the Battle of Balaklava during the Crimean War. When the regiment was ordered to disband in 1968 as part of wide-ranging defence cuts, a popular 'Save the Argylls' campaign was successful in keeping the regiment in being. In 2006, it became the 5th battalion of the new Royal Regiment of Scotland. 
 
Formed by two earlier regiments, The Argylls have a stirring history of service to the British Crown. They served all over the empire, taking part in the Indian Mutiny and the Boer War, and fought in both World Wars. In the post-war period the Argylls captured the public imagination in 1967 when they reoccupied the Crater district of Aden following a period of riots. 
 
Recruiting mainly from the west of Scotland, the regiment has a unique character and throughout its history has retained a fierce regimental pride which is summed up by its motto: 'sans peur', meaning 'without fear'. 
 
 The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders puts its story into the context of British military history and makes use of personal testimony to reveal the life of the regiment.

The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders

Norman Dabell

Norman Dabell, journalist, broadcaster and notorious jinx, has been covering the European golf circuit for over 20 years, though after reading this hilarious account of his mishaps, you may well come to wonder how he has managed to survive for so long. 
 
Join Norman as he retraces his pursuit of the travelling circus of the golf world from St Andrews to Sun City, Malaga to Morocco, encountering all the great faces of the modern game. Woods, Ballesteros, Faldo, Montgomerie, Westwood, Lyle, Woosnam, Langer, Olazabal, Garcia... they have all made the headlines. Dabell is there to make sure they do - while also trying to survive another day. 
 
Golf isn't really meant to be fun, they say, and sometimes it can be toture. But Danbell's rib-tickling (and his have been more than tickled) account will have even the most serious enthusiast in stitches. Fate has caused him many a tumble, broken bone and on-air gaffe, and Dabell's presence inside the ropes has been known to make even the toughest tour professional blanche. However, he is a favourite of Major-winner Vijay Singh, who might have never have got his career on the road if his ball had plummeted out of bounds instead of ricocheting onto the fairway off Dabell's head in Spain in 1990. Singh made a birdie instead of a possible double-bogey, won the tournament and ten years later went on to beat the world at Augusta. Just one of a thousand escapades which happened to a living, breathing Natural Hazard.

Natural Hazard

The Diary of an Accident-Prone Golf Watcher

Shane Warne

With a flamboyant approach to the game on and off the pitch, Australia's greatest bowler Shane Warne is an irresistible cricketing force. In Shane Warne's Century, he candidly profiles 100 players from every Test nation who have had the most significant impact on his cricketing life. 
 
Warne is famous for having never scoring a Test century, although he came tantalisingly close on several occasions. He now wants to set the record straight by writing about a century of cricketing stars he has encountered during his illustrious career, The famous names featured here include fellow Australian legends Allan Border, Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting and Glenn McGrath, as well as adversaries such as Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar, Jonty Rhodes and Freddie Flintoff. Warne also puts together a dream Test match of those he would have loved to have played alongside versus a team of international legends. Pulling no punches and giving a fascinating insight into the game, Warne serves up highly readable anecdotes and opinions. 
 
Throughout the book, Warne covers the serious issues affecting cricket today, such as cheating and match-fixing, and assesses a large number of professional relationships he has enjoyed and endured, including those with Sri Lankan star Arjuna Ranatunga and South African captain Graeme Smith. 
 
Shane Warne's Century is a genuine page-turner by one of cricket's most popular stars and is a must-read for all cricket fans.

Shane Warne's Century

My Top 100 Test Cricketers

The Gordons recruited from the north-east of Scotland and the regiment's character was moulded by men from the farming counties of Aberdeenshire, Moray and Nairn. It was raised in 1794 by an aristocratic landowner, the Duke of Gordon, whose wife played a major role in attracting recruits by riding through her husband's estates and offering a guinea and a kiss to each man who enlisted. Originally raised as the 100th Highlanders, it was later renumbered the 92nd Highlanders and in 1881 was amalgamated with the 75th (Stirlingshire) Regiment to form The Gordon Highlanders. 
 
In the nineteenth century the two regiments were in constant service throughout the empire and in 1879 the 92nd Highlanders were involved in Lord Roberts' historic march from Kabul to Kandahar during the fighting in Afghanistan. One of the first Victoria Crosses was awarded to a Gordon Highlander, Private Beach, who was decorated for his supreme gallantry while serving in the Crimea in 1854. Another Victoria Cross winner was Major George White (Afghanistan, 1879), who went on to become a field marshal. During the fighting on the north-west frontier of India in 1897, Piper George Findlater was awarded the Victoria Cross for continuing to play his pipes despite being wounded and under heavy enemy fire. 
 
In 1994, The Gordon Highlanders amalgamated with Queen's Own Highlanders to form The Highlanders and in 2006 became the 4th Battalion of The Royal Regiment of Scotland. This is a celebratory account of the regiment's long and distinguished history.

The Gordon Highlanders

Cameron White

Mr Nasty charts the rise, fall and ultimate redemption of a wannabe player in the global narcotics business. From humble beginnings on the streets of London's East End, Cameron White rapidly ascended the drug ladder of London's club scene before notorious local criminals forced him to move to the US. There, he soon found himself aboard a cocaine-fuelled roller-coaster ride, transporting him from encounters with psychotic, crack-dealing Jamaicans in New York to luncheons with Hollywood's glitterati. The American adventure was to reach its inevitable conclusion in a drive-by shooting in the barrios of LA.Back in London, a dull nine-to-five existence did nothing to quell White's narco-inclinations. Cue a chemical vacation in Thailand and an effortless metamorphosis from recreational drug user to fully fledged smack addict in Berlin. White's eventual wake-up call came after he robbed some innocent tourists to feed his heroin habit. Stunned to realise how low he had sunk, he was determined to get clean and his gold-star efforts at rehabilitation were rewarded with an opportunity to start again in Australia. Faced with temptation once more, White's good intentions were to prove short-lived and he slid into the murky world of substance abuse in Sydney. But this time things were different and a gradual but life-defining epiphany rescued White from the edge. Mr Nasty is a thrilling yet cautionary tale of a decade lived within the narcotics underworld. Illuminating both the exciting and destructive sides of such an existence, it is ultimately a testament to how a strong will can sometimes overcome the lure of vice and break the chains of addiction.

Mr Nasty

Misadventures in the Drug World

Theresa Murphy

This is the story of an arena of crime and degradation, of infamy and human suffering. It is the history of the Old Bailey, an institution as flawed as all man-made attempts at justice are doomed to be. 
 
In the beginning there was barbarity and injustice. The court was packed with a restless, muttering mob, eager for the verdicts of 'Guilty' so they could enjoy public executions, hurling abuse and missiles at those with the noose around their neck. Today we fool ourselves that we have evolved beyond barbarism, but are made uneasy by the continuing exposure of miscarriage of justice. If we use the Old Bailey as a yardstick, it is possible to argue that mankind has not made much progress through the centuries. 
 
In these pages, we tour the courts of long ago, meeting the Dracula-garbed court chaplains, drunken, brutal judges and cold-blooded hangmen. With wit and skill, Theresa Murphy brings to life a cast of hundreds, from the well-known to the less imfamous, who together make up the harrowing history of the Old Bailey.

The Old Bailey

Eight Centuries of Crime, Cruelty and Corruption

John Beattie

In 1992, John Beattie set out to sail around the world. Joined at times by an assortment of exotic characters - including a parrot called Hamish and the former Beirut hostage Brian Keenan - the joys and travails of his journey are depicted with complete honesty. But be it a storm at sea, a single-handed Atlantic crossing, or a near shipwreck in an uncharted jungle river, his humour and fortitude shine through. 
 
 A compelling travelogue, a voyage of the spirit and a love story, The Breath of Angels is also a tale which might never have been told but for one chance-in-a-million encounter. Once day at dawn, a man lay dying of thirst in an open boat that had been swept out to sea - his partner had already died in his arms. In the gloom of the early morning light he sees a tiny fleck of white on the distant horizon. The Warrior Queen is homeward bound from Venezuela and the dying man has one last slender chance of life . . .

The Breath Of Angels

Into the Light reveals the full thrilling story of Sunderland Football Club - charting the club's progress from being the first great team to dominate the Football League, to the squad which returned to the top of English soccer at the dawn of the new millennium. Hutchinson traces a journey from Newcastle Road to the Stadium of Light by way of Roker Park. 
 
The early days of the Team Of All The Talents - the side in red-and-white stripes which took the English League by storm, breaking records and their opponents' hearts year after brilliant year - are brought vividly to life for the first time. 
 
Great goalscorers like Johnny Campbell and Jimmy Gillespie and sensational goalkeepers such as the legendary Ned Doig stride out of the pages of Into The Light; and the figures whose brilliance made Roker roar - from Len Shackleton and Brian Clough to the modern greats - are vividly portrayed. 
 
League successes came easily and early to Sunderland. Into The Light explores the club's devotion to winning trophies with style. The long - and finally triumphant - quest for FA cup victories is followed game by game. The heartbreaks and disappointments are also here in this see-saw ride through 120 years of English football, which ends as it began - right at the very top. This is the history of a football club and more - it is the tale of British soccer.

Into the Light

A Complete History of Sunderland Football Club

Geoffrey Beattie

Ben Beattie

Geoffrey Beattie is an extremely successful academic and celebrity psychologist. He was perhaps a less successful father. His obsession with his career and his driving passion for running when he was at home almost destroyed his relationship with his son, but, ironically, it is running that has brought them back together. 
 
Chasing Lost Times is the emotional story of a father and son trying to repair a relationship through a shared activity that depends on sheer physical effort, the kind of physical effort that may once have been the source of commonality between father and son in all previous generations but which seems to be absent in the modern world.

Chasing Lost Times

A Father and Son Reconciled Through Running

David Bryce

From running with the infamous Calton Tongs to running Calton Athletic, David Bryce's life story is a remarkable account of crime, violence, alcoholism and drug addiction in Glasgow's gangland. 
 
A respected 'hard man', Bryce worked his way through most of HM's prisons in Scotland before an epiphany in 1977 made him realise that he was a hopeless alcoholic who needed help. A five-year battle followed, during which he sank into the abyss of heroin addiction before finally getting clean. 
 
In 1985, in an effort to help others who were struggling against substance abuse, Bryce set up Calton Athletic, a football team and social group made up solely of recovering drug addicts. Reformed gangster Jimmy Boyle was one of the first to have faith in Bryce and Calton Athletic, but the club eventually won widespread respect. Gordon Brown, then a young MP, was so impressed that he wrote an article for The Observer which led to a TV film starring Lenny Henry and Robbie Coltrane. In the '90s, Ewan McGregor, Irvine Welsh and the Trainspotting crew sought Bryce's advice and friendship during the making of the internationally acclaimed cult film, while Robbie Williams begged to switch nationality and play for Calton Atheltic in an 'England v. Scotland' celebrity charity match. 
 
Bryce's uncompromising belief that the only way to come off drugs is to go cold turkey and stay completely clean saw him clash with government agencies over the 'harm-reduction' policy of recent years. The club's statutory funding was withdrawn in 1998, but today Calton Athletic are still providing an invaluable lifeline while the 'official' drugs policy has become increasingly discredited. 
 
Alive and Kicking is an inspirational tale of survival and success against the odds.

Alive and Kicking

A Story of Crime, Addiction and Redemption in Glasgow's Gangland

Colin Shindler

Before the Thai millions and Abu Dhabi billions, Manchester City was always a club that attracted fierce controversy. 
 
July 1965: Manchester City are on the scrapheap, managerless and languishing in Second Division mediocrity. Desperate to reverse the club's fortunes, the board turns to Joe Mercer, a respected football veteran hungry for a final chance to achieve management glory. Yet age and ill health are against Joe: he needs an assistant, and volatile, ambitious coaching genius Malcolm Allison is his man. Recently sacked from managing Plymouth, Malcolm is out to prove that his innovative tactics can breathe new life into the staid English game. City is the perfect opportunity to show off his talents - especially since Joe promises him the manager's job in two years' time . . . 
 
July 1970: City rule supreme, having just won their fifth trophy in as many seasons. The Mercer-Allison partnership is the most successful management team in the club's history. But, unwilling to let go of his success, Joe breaks his word and refuses to step aside. In order to fulfil his self-proclaimed destiny as the greatest manager in English football, an embittered Malcolm engineers a boardroom takeover that risks everything he and Joe have worked for. 
 
Based on real events, Colin Shindler's novel explores the clash of personalities that led to the spectacular rise and fall of Manchester City's 'Golden Age'. Malcolm and Joe's story is a cautionary tale of how ambition and betrayal brought down two men who had the world at their feet and of how two of the greatest management partners in British football history became the worst of friends.

The Worst of Friends

The Betrayal of Joe Mercer

Hailed by the authorites as `the future of housing', The Estate in south London was opened with a flourish by the Lord Mayor of London in the late 1960s. The six 20-storey tower blocks were seen as the new way forward for community life in London. However, within a matter of weeks it had all started to go wrong as racial tensions built up and families of ethnic minorities clashed. Based on true stories, THE ESTATE is a novel based around 11 different families living side by side in The Estate, and their perceptions of it. We find out how the Indion family, the gypsies, the gay couple and the landlord of the local pub all deal with new homes and the dynamics of a multi racial community. Building up to a finale at The Estate's Christmas party, this is a poignant and funny account of how life really treated the occupants of the tower blocks.

The Estate

A Novel

As the 1960's drew to a close, parents across Britain raised a curious eyebrow as their long-haired children suddenly returned home with shaven heads, sporting Levi's jeans and vicious looking army boots, pleading for three quid to buy a Harrington jacket from the market. The skinhead was born and a youth culture stronger and more widespread than any other, before or since, took Britain by storm. Marting King was one of them. Boys and girls alike embraced this new working-class fashion and music - the West Indian reggae sounds of Blue Beat and the strong sense of identity they fostered. For a couple of summers the media would have it that England was under seige, when the young skins paraded at seaside resorts on bank holidays and later on terraces at nearly every football ground acros the country. With his passion for Chelsea FC and their growing reputation as the skinhead club forming a backdrop, King artfully and humorously describes the heady mix of pleasures which were all part of life as a teenager growing up in working-class south London in the late 60's

A Boy's Story

The Revelations and Wild Times of a Young Skin

Colin Fry

The Krays were a product of their age, nurtured by a doting mother and created by their community, the East End of London. Their name alone conjures up images of power, violence and greed - and even brother Charlie couldn't steer the twins Ron and Reg clear of murder mayhem as they killed their way to the top of the criminal tree. They lived by their own rules. And they died by them. The three brothers will never be forgotten. They are an indelible part of our history, whether we like it or not. And from media manipulation to control freak paranoia, The Krays were masters of deception. Even at the end Reg Kray was still portraying himself as just an ordinary East Ender - mistreated by the Home Office and the police, misunder-stood and mistakenly labelled `Godfather of Crime' by the media. The Kray Anthology traces their history from childhood and early adolescence to manhood and death. This book explores the brothers' fantasy lives, full as they were of mind games and false memories. Whatever you want to know about the Krays and the real reasons behind their success, you can read it here for the first time. Only now can the truth be revealed - without fear of intimidation, retribution or revenge. The Krays are dead and buried, but the myth lives on.

The Krays - The Final Countdown

The Ultimate Biography Of Ron, Reg And Charlie Kray

Steven Preece

In Amongst the Marines, Steven Preece vividly depicted his excessive, violent lifestyle as an elite Royal Marine Commando. Now Always a Marine covers the author's struggle to leave that lifestyle behind following his departure from the service. 
 
Back on civvy street for the first time in over seven years, Preece finds it extremely difficult to adapt and struggles to shake off the belligerent mentality he developed while in the Marines. Despite these difficulties, he marries and starts a family, but this positive change is not enough to turn his life around. 
 
Preece soon discovers that his tendency towards violence will not be tolerated in the civilian workplace and, after finding himself blacklisted by many companies in his area, he is forced to look for employment abroad. This quest for work takes Preece to France, where he is caught up in a hotel fire; Germany, where he is double-crossed out of his job and later teams up with an ex-SAS trooper; Morocco, where an incident lands him in jail and he is later shot at by border police; and Thailand, where he fights in a boxing ring with a former French Legionnaire and gets caught up in a business scam. 
 
Having settled back in the UK, Preece's behaviour remains excessive. He severely injures his head and suffers minor brain damage after a heavy-drinking session. Upon recovering, he looks for something else to believe in and begins training in ninjutsu, the martial art of the ninjas, who view aggression as a sign of weakness. This, combined with the love of his family, finally enables him to put his past behind him. 
 
Always a Marine is the action-packed, often shocking account of one ex-Marine's 13-year struggle to control the aggression he learnt as a serviceman in order to become a respectable civilian.

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