Scott`s last Antarctic expedition is one of the great adventure stories of the twentieth century. On 1 November 1911, a British team set out on the gruelling 800-mile journey across the coldest & highest continent on Earth to travel to the South Pole. Five men battled through unimaginably harsh conditions only to find the Norwegian flag had been planted at the Pole just weeks before. Captain Robert Falcon Scott, Lieutenant Henry Bowers, Petty Officer Edgar Evans, Captain Lawrence Oates, & Dr Edward Wilson all died on the return trek, starved & frozen to death, only eleven miles from a supply camp. In November 1912, a rescue party discovered their last letters & diaries, which told a story of bravery, hardship, & self-sacrifice that shocked the world. Recent decades have seen controversy rage over whether Scott was the last of a line of great Victorian explorers, intent on discovering uncharted lands, or a hopeless incompetent driven by personal ambition. Rejecting the stereotypes, Max Jones reveals a complex figure, a product of the passions & preoccupations of an imperial age. He also shows how heroes are made & manipulated, through a close examination of the unprecedented outpouring of public grief at the news of the death of Scott & his companions. Max Jones uses fascinating new evidence & prevously unseen illustrations to take us back to this remarkable moment in modern history, & tells for the first time the full story of The Last Great Quest. ...

In the heat & the dust of the Indian south, the last hangman of the former princely state of Travancore commits his life to paper. In seven notebooks he remembers the people he has killed, calmly recalling the final struggles of the criminals he hung by the neck to die. The Last Hangman is a remarkable & haunting novel, a meditation on death & what it means to end a life. This powerful & harrowing book explores a great moral question: what differentiates a killer in the cause of just from a murderer? ...

To mark & celebrate National Hedgehog Awareness Week, Pam Ayres has written a less-than-fond farewell from `the last hedgehog left on earth`
- a delightful & thought-provoking elegy to that most beloved inhabitant of the British countryside, the common hedgehog. Pam Ayres` spiky & wonderful creation reminds us that unless we take steps to prevent it, they will soon be far from `common` indeed: beautifully illustrated by Alice Tait, the poem sees our hero tell of all the terrible ends his family come to at our own hands
- & exactly what we can still do to keep them alive, & see them thrive once more.

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Fans of C.J. Sansom must read this Saltire Society Literary Awards Scottish First Book of the Year
- a great non-fiction adventure
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South Africa, 1900. The search for his missing son takes Joseph Radcliffe from the streets of Dublin, smouldering with rebellion, to the trackless veld of South Africa & the bloody brutality of the Anglo-Boer War. As a former cavalryman in the US army, Radcliffe is no stranger to war, but 800 miles north of Cape Town, under fire from Boer commandos & distrusted by the British forces, he will find his survival skills tested to the hilt. The Last Horseman is an epic tale of heroism & treachery, love & loyalty, set against the backdrop of a conflict that shook an empire to its core. ...

Separated by a narrow stretch of swamp-like waters, & distinguished by the color of their skin, the Black Jews & the White Jews have been locked in a rancorous feud for centuries. Only now, when their combined number has diminished to less than 50 & they are on the threshold of extinction, have the two remaining Jewish communities in south India begun to realize that their destiny, & their undoing, is the same. Living in Cochin alongside this last generation, Edna Fernandes tells their story from the illustrious arrival of their ancestors from the court of King Solomon, through their long heyday of wealth, tolerance & privilege to their present twilit existence, as synagogues crumble into disuse & weddings disappear, leaving only funerals. ...

The year is 1506, & the streets of Lisbon are seething with fear & suspicion when Abraham Zarco is found dead, a naked girl at his side. Abraham was a renowned kabbalist, a practitioner of the arcane mysteries of the Jewish tradition at a time when the Jews of Portugal were forced to convert to Christianity. Berekiah, a talented young manuscript illuminator, investigates his uncle`s murder, & discovers in the kabbalah clues that lead him into the labyrinth of secrets in which the Jews sought to hide from their persecutors. A challenging mystery & a powerful indictment of the evils of intolerance, The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon is an extraordinary & spellbinding historical thriller. ...

Two strong women. Two cultures. One unifying cause: survival. Ellen Thomas, experienced war correspondent, returns to Afghanistan`s dangerous Helmand Province on assignment, keen to find the murderer of her friend & translator, Jalil. In her search for justice in a land ravaged by death & destruction, she uncovers disturbing truths. Hasina, forced by tradition into the role of wife & mother, lives in a village which is taken by British Forces. Her only son, Aref, is part of a network of underground fighters & she is determined to protect him, whatever the cost. Ellen & Hasina are thrown together
- one fighting for survival, the other searching for truth
- with devastating consequences for them both. The Last Kestrel is a deeply moving & lyrical story of disparate lives
- innocent & not-so-innocent
- caught up in the horrors of war. It is a book which will resonate with fans of The Kite Runner & The Bookseller of Kabul.



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What would it be like to become Idi Amin`s personal physician? Giles Foden`s best-selling thriller is the story of a young Scottish doctor drawn into the heart of the Ugandan dictator`s surreal & brutal regime. Privy to Amin`s thoughts & ambitions, he is both fascinated & appalled. As Uganda plunges into civil chaos he realizes action is imperative
- but which way should he jump?
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Giles Foden’s first novel The Last King of Scotland is told from the point of view of Nicholas Garrigan, a young Scottish doctor, who comes to Uganda when he accepts a position with the Ministry of Health. His arrival in Kampala, the capital city, coincides with Idi Amin’s coup overthrowing President Obote. After a few days he moves out to the bush to begin his assignment but is then called back when Amin is involved in a freak accident featuring his sports car & a cow. Within a few months Garrigan becomes the president’s personal physician & quickly descends into a position where he is squeezed between his duty to his patient & his own government’s attempts to have him help them control Amin. Amin’s character is not a simple one of a monster but is actually often appealing. Garrigan is cast as an average man, like us, who falls under Amin’s spell & suffers a moral slide from the little compromises he makes
- it could happen to nearly anybody. Along the way the reader is treated to a stirring portrait of Africa’s natural, political & social complexity. An amazing story of tropical corruption & an extraordinarily well researched account of Uganda & one of Africa`s most notorious leaders.
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