Philip Paris Knihy

'The Italian Chapel' is a story of forbidden love, lifelong friendships torn apart, despair and hope, set against the backdrop of the creation of a symbol that is known around the world.

Exploring the often-overlooked issue of male victims of domestic abuse, this controversial novel challenges societal myths surrounding masculinity and victimhood. It sheds light on the shame and silence that many men face when confronting their experiences with abuse from women, highlighting the need for awareness and understanding in a topic shrouded in stigma.

1943: In a remote corner of the Scottish Highlands, something momentous is underway. When Effie's father receives a government notice to quit Kirk Farm, the lives of the Ross family and those of the whole community are utterly disrupted. But for Effie - irrepressible, beautiful, vital - wartime changes bring her close to Toni, an Italian prisoner of war sent to work on the farm. Before long, the young couple are planning a future together when the war is finally over - but it's a future that's under threat from the start. For there are those among them who cannot quite be trusted. Someone is determined to find out what lies behind the upheaval - and to pass those secrets into enemy hands. Stopping them will create devastation beyond anything anyone could have imagined...

Inspired by the true story of the last person to be tried and executed as a witch in the British Isles, The Last Witch of Scotland reimagines how Janet Horne came to be accused of witchcraft.