Scotland is famed for its rugged coastlines, pristine beaches, endless rivers and deep lochs. From the Highlands to the Islands, from the east coast to the west coast, the whole country is an unreported mecca for wild water sports. A guide to the very best locations - with personal experiences and tips. Mollie Hughes is a world record-breaking sports adventurer, mountaineer, polar explorer and international motivational speaker.

Photos by Rachel Keenan. Published by Birlinn. All rights with the publisher.

There’s a new craze at Dread Wood High. Flinch is a game of fear. The more you scare your friends, the more points on the app you get. At first it’s fun, but soon fun is replaced by fear. And Angelo and his friends notice that everyone is behaving more and more strangely every day – almost as if something is taking over their brains…

“Deliciously scary and hilarious comedy-horror, perfectly pitched for eight-plus.”

The Guardian

Congratulations, Jennifer!

M.G. Leonard, internationally bestselling author of Twitch, Beetleboy and Adventures on Trains, is back with another thrilling wildlife mystery for birdwatching detectives The Twitchers!

When Jack rescues a wounded cat, he quickly suspects foul play. Could there be a wildlife criminal on the loose in Briddvale? Jack rushes to investigate, determined to catch the culprit, only to stumble into a deepening mystery and a sinister criminal plot.

Can Jack and The Twitchers stop the villains before it's too late?

Congratulations, Maya!

When Herbie and Violet's arch-enemy Sebastian Eels turns up in Eerie-on-Sea, seemingly back from the dead, it can only spell bad news. And when they learn the legend of Ludo Festergrimm the clockmaker, creator of a vast mechanical robot that wrought havoc in the wrong hands, they KNOW they're on the right track. But how can they get the residents of Eerie-on-Sea to believe them?

The fourth book in the wonderful Eerie-on-Sea Mystery series. The first book, Malamander, was published to huge acclaim in 2019 and the series has been translated into 20 different languages to date.

Congratulations, Thomas!

Haley McGee’s new one-woman show is the never-the-same-twice show - a gripping story about how our relationship with mortality shapes the way we live - from your 25th birthday through to your death. Seminal moments. Rites of passage. And all the things unsaid. Inspired by hospices, mystics and trips to the cemetery, Age Is a Feeling wrestles with our endless chances to change course while we're alive.

Catch it at Soho Theatre between 6th-24th September.

★★★★★ ‘as breathtaking as it is moving’ - The Guardian

★★★★★ ‘ingenious’ - The Telegraph

★★★★★ ‘by turns hilarious and deeply moving’ - FairyPoweredPro

Can a tiny caravan provide the space to rebuild a life?

‘Life-affirming, soul-shaking, heart-breaking… A book that reminds us what it means to be alive.’ Kerri ní Dochartaigh, author of Thin Places

An intimate journal across the space of a defining summer, Thunderstone is celebration of the people and places that hold us when the storms gather; an invitation to approach life with imagination and to embrace change bravely.

Published by Elliott & Thompson, all rights with the publisher.

Bastien Bonlivre is in trouble again. His sworn enemy, Olivier Odieux, has escaped jail and is after Bastien once more.

Meanwhile, trouble is also brewing in Paris. Fires are burning, and danger lurks at every corner. Who could be behind this? As clues start piling up, Bastien and his friends Theo, Alice and Mathilde must set off on a risky treasure hunt to track down the answers they so desperately need. Because if they don't find them, it won't just be Bastien who is in danger...

"A charming and bookish tale of friendship, villainy and the power of stories." Thomas Taylor, author of Malmander

Published by Usborne.

Expectation meets Julie and Julia, The Yellow Kitchen is a brilliant exploration of food, belonging and friendship.

London E17, 2019. A yellow kitchen stands as a metaphor for the lifelong friendship between three women: Claude, the baker, goal-orientated Sophie and political Giulia. Exploring the complexities of female friendship, The Yellow Kitchen is a hymn to the last year of London as we knew it and a celebration of the culture, the food and the rhythms we live by.

Published by Simon & Schuster, and chosen as July’s Independent Bookshop book of the month, US/translation rights represented by PFD.

Congratulations, Margaux!

Audible has announced the commission of family listening title, The Ice Children, by award-winning author M.G. Leonard, which will be its first Original Publishing family title.

The Ice Children, inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s classic tale The Snow Queen, will be released in audio only on 17th November 2022. The Ice Children is a modern fairytale for the festive season which explores young people’s response to the current climate challenge.

We are thrilled by this acquisition. Macmillan Children’s Books, who publish Leonard’s popular and award-winning Adventures on Trains series with Sam Sedgman, will publish The Ice Children in November 2023.

The 2022 James Cropper Wainwright Prize longlist has been revealed and M.G. Leonard’s Twitch (published by Walker Books) is on the first longlist for children’s books. Named after much-loved nature writer Alfred Wainwright, the aim of the Prize is to inspire everyone to connect with nature and embrace the outdoors.

The prize shortlists will be announced on 28th July and the winners’ announcement will be made live on 7th September at The London Wetland Centre.

Sarah Levison, editorial director at Farshore has snapped up two more books in the Dread Wood comedy horror series from "Queen of Horror for kids" Jennifer Killick.

The first book in the series Dread Wood, launched in April, was picked as a Book of the Month in the Week Junior and a best book for Easter in the i and Irish Independent. The publisher has since accelerated the series publishing schedule to meet demand, launching a new book every six months and bringing forward the publication date of Killick’s next book, Dread Wood: Fear Ground.

"Endlessly illuminating, challenging and compelling. Bi is a vivid and vital read" - Musa Okwonga, author and co-host of the Stadio Podcast

Published today by Canongate, Bi: The Hidden Culture, History and Science of Bisexuality, Shaw explores all that we know about the world's largest sexual minority. From the hunt for a bi gene, to the relationship between bisexuality and consensual non-monogamy, to asylum seekers who need to prove their bisexuality in a court of law, there is more to explore than most have ever realised.

Congratulations, Julia!

We are delighted that Twitch by M.G. Leonard won the 2022 Crimefest Award for Best Crime Novel for Children at the conference over the weekend. Crimefest is a convention for people who like to read an occasional crime novel as well as for die-hard fanatics. Drawing top crime novelists, readers, editors, publishers and reviewers from around the world, it gives all delegates the opportunity to celebrate the genre so this is a wonderful accolade.

Congratulations, Maya!

Secrets and illusions abound as a group of young magicians competes for the prize of a lifetime in this gripping adventure, the first in an enthralling new series from debut author Justyn Edwards, published by Walker Books today.

“Magic is about dreaming what is impossible and making it possible. It's the innocent young mind in all of us that loves it. We want to be filled with wonder. We want to believe. I want the winner of this competition and the recipient of my legacy to dare to dream big. So, let The Great Fox Hunt begin."

We are thrilled that Fault Lines has been longlisted for this Prize. Derek Owusu, chair of the judges and winner of the 2020 Desmond Elliott Prize, will be joined by journalist and author Symeon Brown and Cheltenham Literature Festival’s Lyndsey Fineran to choose the shortlist, which will be announced on 7th June, and a final winner, to be revealed on 1st July.

Fault Lines was the first title for Francesca Main’s Phoenix imprint, a story of rediscovering freedom after a monotonous marriage.

Congratulations to Jennifer, whose book, Dread Wood, is published today. The brand new must-read middle-grade novel from the author of super-spooky Crater Lake. Perfect for 9+ fans of R.L.Stine’s Goosebumps.

“Deliciously scary and hilarious comedy-horror” The Guardian

It's basically the worst school detention ever. When classmates (but not mate-mates) Hallie, Angelo, Gustav and Naira are forced to come to school on a SATURDAY, they think things can’t get much worse. But they’re wrong. Things are about to get seriously scary.

Congratulations to Jennifer Killick with her book, Crater Lake: Evolution, and Maya Gabrielle, for her book, Twitch, both shortlisted for the CrimeFest Award for best crime book for children.

Crater Lake: Evolution, is the second book in Jennifer’s Crater Lake series published by Firefly Books and Twitch is the first in Maya’s new series, published by Walker Books.

The 2022 CrimeFest Awards will be presented at the convention Gala Awards Dinner on 14 May, 2022.

We are delighted to that Tsunami Girl has been shortlisted for the 2022 Yoto Carnegie prize.

Illustrated by Chie Kutsuwada, with words by Julian Sedgwick, the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami is at the heart of Tsunami Girl, a part-prose, part-manga coming-of-age story.

The winners will be announced and celebrated on Thursday 16th June at a lunchtime ceremony at The British Library.

Simon Thorogood at Canongate has acquired Cacophony of Bone, the second book from nature writer Kerri ní Dochartaigh, to be published in April 2023.

"Cacophony of Bone maps the circle of a year – a journey from one place to another, field notes of a life – from one winter, to the next," the synopsis explains. "This is a time like no other, but it is also exactly like any other, too. The longest day came, as always it does – and the shortest came, too – in turn.”

Ní Dochartaigh is the author of Thin Places which was highly commended by the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing 2021. She has written for the Guardian, Irish Times, the BBC, Winter Papers and others.

A thrilling and hugely entertaining adventure story' – David Walliams on The Highland Falcon Thief

Ride into danger with Hal and Uncle Nat on the fifth breathtaking Adventures on Trains Mystery, Sabotage on the Solar Express, from bestselling award-winners M. G. Leonard and Sam Sedgman. Published by Macmillan.

Happy publication day to Maya and Sam!