Winner of the Waterstones Scottish Book of the Year 2019 this is a 'propulsive, beautifully written investigation into atrocity, guilt and new beginnings.' - Justine Jordan. One rainswept winter's night in 1809, an unconscious man is carried into a house in Somerset. He is Captain John Lacroix, home from Britain's disastrous campaign against Napoleon's forces in Spain. Gradually he recovers his health, but not his peace of mind. He will not and cannot talk about the war or face the memory of what took place on the retreat to Corunna. After the command comes to return to his regiment, Lacroix sets out instead for the Hebrides, unaware that he has far worse to fear than being dragged back to the army - a vicious English corporal and a Spanish officer with secret orders are on his trail, and for him, freedom will come at a high price. In luminous prose, the author portrays a man shattered by what he has witnessed, on a journey that leads to unexpected friendships, even to love. A deeply involving novel, part pastoral comedy and passionate romance story, alternating with a blackly menacing thriller about male violence, the impact of war and the price of freedom. 422pp, paperback.

The long-awaited prequel to Elizabeth Chadwick's bestselling and beloved first novel 'The Wild Hunt'. The Welsh Borders, 1069. When Ashdyke Manor is attacked, Lady Christen is forced to witness her husband's murder and the pillaging of her lands at the hands of brutal Norman invaders. It seems the pain is finally over when Miles Le Gallois, Lord of Milnham-on-Wye calls off the attack, but he has Christen's brother under armed guard and a deal to offer - her brother's freedom for her hand in marriage. Christen finds herself hastily married to the enemy side, with the bride's brother swearing vengeance on her new husband. Miles and Christen's precarious union invites enemies from all sides, and when Miles is summoned for a lengthy campaign by the King, Christen is left to watch his lands. In the midst of war, two enemies must somehow learn to trust one another if they are to survive. Packed with action, emotion, politics and passion, Elizabeth Chadwick is an excellent chronicler of royal intrigue and an author who makes history come gloriously alive. 290pp, map.

'A sinister, fast paced gothic tale' - Caitlin Davies. Here is a spellbinding story of obsession, the lure of fame and the power of illusion. It is 1851. When Lily Bell is sold by her father to a 'Professor of Ghosts' to settle a bad debt, she dreams of finding fame on the London stage, but Erasmus Salt wants Lily not as an actress but as his very own ghost - the heart of his elaborate illusion for those desperate for a glimpse of the spirit world. Obsessed with perfection, Erasmus goes to extreme lengths to ensure his illusion is realistic. When Lily comes across her own obituary in the paper, and then her headstone in the cemetery, she realises that she is trapped, her own parents think she is dead, and that her fate is soon to become even darker. A beautifully evoked, sensory world and a macabre tale of dark obsessions and deadly ambitions. 362pp.

Written by the son of the well-known German novelist Thomas Mann, this historical fantasy takes Alexander the Great for its subject, looking at his life and career, and examining his obsession with conquest and supremacy, regardless of its effects on his friends and lovers. The novel that also explores Klaus Mann's ambiguous sexuality. It was written in 1920s Germany in the aftermath of World War I and can be viewed as a fascinating study of power with highly political connotations. Which enemy was it against this time? 'They shuddered, for an ice-cold wind blew at them. They felt themselves become rigid and they were already thinking down. Their swords, which had so often conquered, fell from their hands, which had suddenly become weak. They were still mumbling; was it a farewell greeting to their king? Then their lips, which looked white, became silent...When Alexander noticed that they were dead, he was frightened of his loneliness. For a moment it seemed to him that it would be unbearable. Behind the wall a metallic voice warned: 'For the battle with us you had to be completely alone, Alexander. Even the last ones had to leave you!' A double gate sprang open, and a brightness, which was blinding, poured towards the king...' Everything was at stake. 128 page paperback with a foreword by Jean Cocteau.

Vividly brings to life the checkpoints and informers, beatings and hunger, the small terrors of living in Mussolini's Italy under a fascist regime. 'A doll on the railroad tracks; a mad woman in the wild; silkworms in the attic. Recipes for rolling tender gnocchi, using sardines to make polenta last, torturing enemies with oil or salt - they are all part of life in this winning novel about tradition, hardship and resolve.' - Publishers Weekly USA. It is 1923. Maria Vittoria is embroidering a sheet for her dowry trunk. Her father has gone to find her a husband. He's taken his mule, a photograph and a pack of food - homemade sopressa sausage, cold polenta, a little flask of wine. There are no eligible men in this valley or the next one, and her father will not let her marry just anyone. Now, despite Maria's years, she is still healthy. And the Lord knows Maria will need to be able to work. Fascism booms as crops ripen, the State craves babies just as the babies cry for food. Maria faces a stony path, but one she will surely climb to the summit. A sumptuous and elegant novel in which you can touch the mulberry leaves cut finer than organdie and feel the strain of Maria's family, faith and place. 384pp.

'You start the forty days of Lent, in your ice-cold convent, receiving neither visitors nor letters, and whilst you settle into the comfortable intimacy of a god made to your own measure, I stay in the wilderness.' So begins this beautiful and moving story of unfulfilled love. 40 petitions follow in which the narrator uncompromisingly explores her feelings of intense longing and intense hatred for her beloved. The strands of a life have been devastated by the war in Spain and by a mother's betrayal. Only one response will come. Written with extraordinary grace and intensity of feeling, once read, this novel cannot be forgotten. It was first published in France under the title Un Corps en Trop and was the first book by the author who had become a classics teacher. She committed suicide aged 42 just prior to its publication. English translation, facsimile reprint of the 1994 edition, 134pp in small, neat hardback.

This long-neglected Edwardian classic, set in the shabby world of England's theatricals, populated by hack writers, drunken actors, pushy stage mothers and unscrupulous directors, is a tale full of drama, greed, ambition and love and one man's quest as an actor for a secure wage and fame. Christopher Tatham is trying to 'make it' in acting, surviving on third-rate bit parts and the charity of his uncle, continuing to hope for the elusive leading-man role. A chance encounter with the enchanting Peggy Harper seems to herald a change of fortune. But Tatham is soon forced to give up his flagging career for a dispiriting position as a clerk in the City as he wanders nostalgically through the West End in his lunchbreak, still filled with longing for a life denied him. In a London daubed with greasepaint and filled with hungry actors, will Peggy and Tatham manage to carve out a life for themselves and attain the success and stability they crave? Toasting engagements with ginger beer, living hand to mouth, Merrick's seedy world makes for grim reading and when Peggy turns out to a fame-hungry, vain and vacant as she first appears, Christopher's lot looks unlikely to improve. In an age in which fame and celebrity are widely courted and craved, this book is still an intriguing and potentially cautionary tale. 164 page paperback.

Uhtred of Bebbanburg's mind is as sharp as his sword. A thorn in the side of the priests and nobles who shape his fate, this Saxon raised by Vikings is torn between the life he loves and those he has sworn to serve. Warrior, pagan, scourge of the Vikings, Uhtred faces a hard choice. Despite being offered a crown of his own, he is a man of his word and he gave it to King Alfred of Wessex who dreams of an England free from Vikings. So when the king orders him to take London from the Danes and hand it to his foolish son-in-law Aethelred, Uhtred agrees, reluctantly. For Aethelred?s wife is the king's spirited daughter Aethelflaed, and her fate is entwined with Uhtred's, a fate that will not be denied. 365pp, paperback.

To King Alfred he is the 'lord of the battles'. He has gained riches, loyal men and a beloved wife, but Uhtred is dogged by betrayal and tragedy. The ailing King presses Uhtred to swear loyalty to his son and heir Edward, preventing the warrior lord from taking vengeance on those who stole his home at Bebbanburg. Now Uthred will once again defend the Christian kingdom in a battle which could smash the growing power of the deadly Danes. In doing so he meets a woman more dangerous than any warlord, a killer, a schemer with a dark power over men's hearts - Skade. A companion to Sword Song code 91214. 384pp, paperback.

Someone is trying to kill Uhtred of Bebbanburg and he is determined to kill them first, if he can find them. But the man Uhtred has reluctantly served for most of his adult life is dying. As the architect of Saxon resistance to the Vikings, King Alfred of Wessex's death may cause disaster, so the ailing King has sent his most feared warrior to negotiate what he hopes will be a lasting peace. Still, treachery and the doom-laden words of a prophetess dog his steps. Will Uhtred finally meet his match? A companion to codes 91214 and 91215 in this masterly series The Last Kingdom now a major TV series. 380pp, paperback.