Isla Dewar Knihy

Iris Chisholmová vede jednotřídku v jednom odlehlém údolí ve skotských horách. Do Green Cairns přichází, aby se vzpamatovala z šoku ze smrti svého manžela a zjištění, že díky jeho tajné hráčské vášni zůstala rodina bez domova, bez peněz, beze všeho. Problémy jejích žáků ji zaměstnávají natolik, že se jí stávají posláním. Iris je tak zaujata vším, co se kolem ní odehrává, že ani nepostřehne, co se děje s jejími vlastními dětmi. Je načase, aby se Iris stala svým dětem opět matkou, ať se do budoucna rozhodne jakkoliv.

Po odchodu od manžela hrdinku spojuje s rodinou pouze upřímné pouto s tchyní, moudrou a životaznalou ženou, která chce před svou smrtí snaše pomoci navázat zpřetrhané vztahy. Hrdinka žije sama v Londýně, živí se psaním časopiseckých seriálů a třebaže její život není nijak oslnivý, i po letech ji vrcholně uspokojuje pocit osobní svobody a samostatnosti. Smrt tchyně a setkání s dospělými dětmi ji ale postrčí do nové životní etapy, v níž se snaží dohonit, co ve vzájemných vztazích s dětmi zameškala.

Jedna z hrdinek je plachá, fantazií nadaná a nespolečenská komiksová autorka, zakotvená v nevydařeném manželství, kterou zdánlivě nic nespojuje s energickou a extrovertní učitelkou, matkou dvou nemanželských chlapců. Jejich přátelství hravě překonává povahové rozdíly a přes odlišný způsob života i různé názory na řadu věcí je jejich vzájemný vztah pevný a jsou si navzájem skutečnou životní oporou.

Hrdince románu skotské autorky Megs je čtyřicet a dotáhla to až na uklízečku, matku tří dětí a rozvedený život bez chlapa, zato s hádavou a vyčítavou matkou. Své zaměstnavatele má přečtené, a když se do jednoho omylem zamiluje, rychle od něj zase uteče a s nejlepší kamarádkou si raději otevře sendvičový bar...

To the neighbours who helped raise her, Madeline was a opinionated, disruptive, verbose. They blamed it all on her lack of a mother. But Madeline was her father was parent enough. Till he wasn't there for her any more, and Madeline had to grow up fast. Befriended by Annie, she catches a glimpse of normal family life, and sees Annie glow as she marries her adoring Willie. Madeline has never wanted a regular man in her own life, yet somehow she finds herself living in a rambling Highland mansion with Stuart, loving to the point of exhaustion, and painting her heart out. Until life creeps into the idyll with a vengeance...

You can’t change your past. You can only use the experiences you live through to make your future better, wiser. Anna and her best friend George meet every week to remember, to sigh, to laugh, to reminisce about their moments of glory, guilt and mischief and share their sorrows over a glass or three of wine. The things they’ve done still make them blush. Anna wanted to be a poet – a famous poet. George left home in a childish rage and years later returned with her baby.When Anna is asked to look after the boy across the road for a few hours each week, she isn’t sure. She doesn’t really do children. But she takes the job on and, gradually, a child’s view of her world shows her a different place.George remembers a flat she stayed in when she ran away from home. It had the kitchen of all kitchens and, oh, how she’d love to see it again. Anna sets out to see if it still exists and discovers a cookbook full of recipes, intimates notes and drawings from George’s life.Does all this mark an ending or the beginning of something new and marvellous for Anna and George?

An exquisite novel about friendship and community

Scottish girls with attitude! Scandalous, scathing - and scorchingly good: Scottish Girls About Town is a scintillating collection of stories from some of Scotland's best-loved women writers, who have joined forces with up-and-coming new stars in aid of a very good cause. A high-powered businesswoman metes a devastating revenge on her cheating husband. A bored housewife contacts an old schoolfriend - with unexpected results. Two flabby flatmates race each other in a hilarious weight-loss contest. And a night at the Edinburgh Fringe goes disastrously wrong for Jenny Colgan's hapless heroine. All this and much, much more in a fabulous collection of brand-new stories which proves - if proof were needed - that Scottish girls are not to be messed with. £1 from every copy sold will be divided between Barnardo's, the UK's largest children's charity, and the Scottish charity, Women Onto Work.

A SOJOURNER'S LIFE - The Life of Alexander Maclean is a novel cast in the form of a biography. Alexander Maclean, the product of a colonial and South African childhood set in an era long before the liberalising of South African society after 1994

Compulsively neat, obsessively organised, Lily is a writer who writes about writers. When she is asked to contribute to a book on lost icons, she visits Rita Boothe - photographer, journalist and wit - who took LSD when she was forty and never lived up to her promise. Rita shows Lily some of her photographs, including one of a beautiful, sexy creature drinking Jack Daniels in a white limousine. It is Mattie, Lily's mother. Lily stares in wonder and with envy - she wishes she could live with such abandon. But Mattie is no longer the woman in the limo, and she and Lily's father live in a neglected house with their neglected marriage. Lily and her siblings want to mend their parents' rift, but Marie's husband has walked out, and Rory avoids coming home altogether. Unless something happens, the family's going to fade away. But something is about to happen...