The Caledonian Canal records the history of one of Scotland’s most massive engineering projects, from Thomas Telford’s first survey in 1801 into the twenty-first century.

A Calendar of Love is George Mackay Brown’s first collection of short stories set in Orkney.

This book is a parable: a moving story of stubbornly heroic resistance and of extraordinary personal achievement. It is the story of a statement made from the depths of one man’s heart in the most practical and indisputable of ways against the unnecessary destruction of his homeland.

In this revised and updated edition of his much-acclaimed book, Roger Hutchison provides a definitive history of the game of shinty.

All is revealed (well, not quite all – this is Scotland) in The Cannae Sutra, a ground-breaking exposé of the nation’s best-kept secrets.

Joyce M Wallace lovingly retells the history and heritage of these areas combined with lively anecdotes about the characters who populated them.

This book traces the story of the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, from the slums of Victorian Glasgow to the shanty towns of present-day Africa and among the ‘new poor’ at home. It is a colourful story, but it is more. In many ways it is an exemplar of the fortunes of all religious Congregations, and a microcosm of the Catholic Church itself, over the past century-and-a-half.

James Buchan beautifully reconstructs the intimate geographic scale and boundless intellectual milieu of Enlightenment Edinburgh, home to some of the finest minds and breathtaking innovations in architecture, politics, science, the arts, and economies.

The first general anthology of Gaelic verse and song of the nineteenth century to be published since 1879. Including translations, together with notes on sources and themes and an extended introduction.

The murder of David Beaton lies like a great shadow over the Scottish Reformation and this is the first modern account of this great prince of the church.

The Castles of Scotland is the most complete and comprehensive guide available to the nation’s wealth of castles. This new edition is the culmination of ten years’ research, and covers more than 2700 castles as well as mansions and historic houses.

First published in 1926, this remains the best and most comprehensive reference guide to the Celtic place-names of Scotland.

Westminster has taken a great constitutional leap in the dark, with the creation of a Scottish parliament and legislative assemblies in Wales and Northern Ireland. This collection of essays provides the historical context for the constitutional challenges facing the United Kingdom.

Polygon relaunches James Kelman’s backlist with four classic titles – Not Not While The Giro, The Busconductor Hines, A Chancer and his very first short story collection, An Old Pub Near The Angel in 2007. Each book features a new afterword in which the mature author reflects on his work and its development. 
    

The definitive collection of Chic Murray's one-liners and best comedic moments.

Christian Miller's perceptive but unpretentious autobiography recalls her privileged yet simultaneously deprived 1920s upper-class childhood in a castle in the Scottish highlands.

2006 RATCLIFF PRIZE - HIGHLY COMMENDED

Children of the Black House is a fascinating glimpse into life on the Hebridean island of Lewis from the closing years of the nineteenth century up to the 1970s in which Calum Ferguson draws on his mother Mairead's reminiscences, presenting her experiences and conversation in the first person.

'Her papers are a significant Scottish discovery' – Daily Telegraph

At the age of forty-seven Christian Watt began to write down recollections of her life; she continued until her death at the age of ninety in 1923. Her writings offer a vivid insight not only into the life of the north-east of Scotland during the middle and later part of the nineteenth century, and into the twentieth, but also on events of national and international interest.

Alison Gray in this book reconstructs the story of Catholic Orkney from records which the destruction and distortion of the Reformation have rendered both fragmentary and often misleading.

Clap Hands for the Singing Molecatcher is both hilarious and deeply moving in its splendid account of the writer’s childhood on a remote country estate in Morayshire in the 1940s and 1950s; laughter, tragedy and dramatic incident thread their way through the life of a growing boy and the lives of the people he observes. 

Based on thirty years of research by Professor Tom Devine, this book is a collection of essays covering the great transformation of rural Scotland which broadly occurred between the 1760s and the middle decades of the nineteenth century.

This highly engaging book provides an original perspective on the examination of the American civil war and how the Scots and Scottish shipbuilding was crucial to the battle of nations.

This is the first history of this beautiful part of the Cowal peninsula since Archibald Brown’s acclaimed book of 1908, and presents the story of Colintraive and Glendaruel from the end of the last Ice Age to the present day.

The Colour of Black and White was Liz Lochhead’s first collection of poems after the award-winning Dreaming Frankenstein and Collected Poems in 1984. It is a collection that is autobiographical and entirely fictional, rural and industrial, respectful and rude - it is on both sides of the coin at once, it is the colour of both the black and the white.

'An inspirational presence in British poetry – funny, feisty, female, full of feeling' - Carol Ann Duffy

Who was Saint Columba? How did this Irish aristocrat become the most important figure in early Scottish Christianity? In seeking answers to these questions this book examines the different roles played by the saint in life and death, tracing his career in Ireland and Scotland before looking at the development of his cult in later times.

Witness magic and miracles as Columba confronts the Loch Ness Monster and mysterious painted warriors. Blood-spattered Scottish history at its most wickedly entertaining.

Michael Munro has won the eternal gratitude of Glaswegians for his efforts in popularising their city’s dialect, universally known as ’the patter’.

“Excellent, dark,” - Sunday Herald

This candid and brutally honest memoir recounts Steve's heady days of footballing success, twinned with the devastating hubris of his addictive personality. It is a heart-rending and insightful account of one of the most fascinating players and managers in the Scottish game.

This book commemorates the late John Morton Boyd (1925–1998), one of the most influential figures in nature conservation of Scotland.

"Even if other novelists were writing about Pimlico terriers and their owners, I doubt whether any of them could do so with McCall Smith's gentle wit, intelligence and moral grace." - The Scotsman

Following on from the huge success of the 44 Scotland Street series, Alexander McCall Smith has ‘moved house’ to a crumbling four-storey mansion in Pimlico – Corduroy Mansions.

"Even if other novelists were writing about Pimlico terriers and their owners, I doubt whether any of them could do so with McCall Smith's gentle wit, intelligence and moral grace." - The Scotsman 

Following on from the huge success of the 44 Scotland Street series, Alexander McCall Smith has ‘moved house’ to a crumbling four-storey mansion in Pimlico – Corduroy Mansions.

Another comic masterpiece from Norman Maclean, Contracts chronicles the birth and horrible growing pains of a new creature: Gaelic television. Follow the misadventures of the vain, the deluded, and the greedy, all desperate get a piece of the government’s million pound fund. It’s brilliant and hilarious satire on the perennial themes of avarice, lust and folly.

Alexander Fenton is acknowledged as Scotland’s leading expert on rural life and offers his readers an improved version of the classic Scottish Country Life.

The sequel to her best-selling novel Brow of the Gallowgate, follows the next generation of the Ogilvie family through the Second World War. Under a calm surface, passion and resentment are stirring.

In this new and expanded edition of his best-selling book, Michael Munro has produced a hilarious compendium of the wit and wisdom of Glasgow.

This book is a celebration of the rich literary tradition of Argyll - a land which has produced many of Scotland's finest writers.

Wry, dry, moving and humorous, these tales capture the flavour of the North-east as never before and are written in the dialect of the area as it has been used over the last six decades.

Presents a story which features crime and is set in Edinburgh. This title ranges from hard-boiled police procedural to historical whodunit and from the wildly comic to the spookily supernatural.

Presents a story which features crime and is set in Edinburgh. This title ranges from hard-boiled police procedural to historical whodunit and from the wildly comic to the spookily supernatural.

This study seeks to restore the causal role of religion to its proper place in the story of Oliver Cromwell’s invasion and subsequent occupation of Scotland.

A fully-illustrated study of the written and iconographic material relating to the death of St Andrew, with discussion of the evidence which may help to determine when, where, and why the X-shaped cross was imported into the tradition.

This book provides the first comprehensive history of the Royal Scottish Corporation, covering four centuries of Scottish aid in the English capital from 1603-2003.

This informative, meticulously researched book is a fascinating companion to Cupar. Comparisons with other towns help to provide a rounded picture of this burgh, one of many historic small Scottish towns.

In this unique, full colour volume, editor Ian Buxton has assembled a top team of whisky experts to tell the colourful story behind ‘the real McCoy’.