May and early June 2008 Preview from Anna Nicholson

After a break from reading and writing in the past few months, I am now firmly back in the previewing seat (a hymn to brown dralon). Here are some upcoming highlights for late May and early June.

Now out in paperback is DarkIsle, the debut from Glasgow-based writer, D A Nelson. Inspired by a beach sculpture in Irvine, Ayrshire, this fantasy tale for children has been shortlisted for the 2008 Royal Mail Awards. Rights have been sold in lots of European languages which is pretty unusual for a debut writer - a testament to the quality of the writing. It’s also one of the first offerings from ambitious new publisher, Strident, who, for the moment at least, are specialising in fiction for younger readers.

Now that the sun has made its way back to the Northern hemisphere, it’s all too tempting to look out of the window and dream of another, more outdoor life that would rescue us from the office. BBC London journalist, Mags MacKean did just that, but decided to act upon it. “Life would career by, night and day; the old double deckers swerving past the roadworks for the West End, people streaming in and out of restaurants, cafés and bars. But sometimes, the poky windows opposite of countless other solitary homes were like a mirror - were we ever really meant to live this way?.” In Meetings on the Edge: A High Level Escape from Office Routine she describes her ten-year climbing adventure of glaciers, peaks and Antarctic chills. Published by In Pinn, part of NWP.

Finlay Macleod, from the Isle of Lewis in the Western Isles, is a well-known figure on the Gaelic scene. Best known for his plays and his history titles, he has ventured into fiction with the latest title from the Ur-Sgeul imprint. Dìomhanas collects twenty-four of his Gaelic short stories and is a welcome addition to the newish list, shaping up to be the most important imprint in creative writing in the language.

Philip Kerr will be known to some readers as a writer of adult fiction. Here he is in young adult territory with One Small Step. The space race may have lost some its glamour these days but this is exactly the kind of thing that will appeal to boys of a certain age:

"I believe that the whole history of Scotland has been coloured by myth; and that myth, in Scotland, is never driven out by reality, or by reason, but lingers on until another myth has been discovered, or elaborated, to replace it," wrote the late Hugh Trevor-Roper, in The Invention of Scotland: Myth and History, published posthumously in June by Yale. Looking at three enduring ‘myths’, political, literary and sartorial, Roper aimed at debunking much of what passes for the tenets of national identity. Sure to be thought-provoking, I look forward to seeing some of the reviews in the press when it comes out.