Peter Kerr

A QUIRKY CALEDONIAN CAPER - from the bestselling author of Snowball Oranges... Lord Strathsporran, the chinless-wonder laird of a Highland estate, plays host to a motley mix of international house guests who are paying sweetly to join him on a grouse-shoot. Fortune favours the devious when the seriously skint laird and two of his visitors juggle their disparate skills to pull off what promises to be an extremely lucrative scam. But lucrative for whom? Chicanery stalks the turrets of Strathsporran Castle. But who's conning who? An already complicated scenario is compounded by furtive flirtations crossing social barriers more eagerly than a prudent grouse would wing it off the moor at dawn on the Glorious Twelfth. And there's even a sighting of at least one Loch Ness Monster when the tangled threads of this offbeat drama finally unravel.

This book offers a fresh view of postwar British politics, very much at odds to the dominant view in contemporary scholarship. The author argues that postwar British politics, up to and including the Blair Government, can be largely characterised in terms of continuity and a gradual evolution from a period of conflict over the primary aims of government strategy to one of recent relative consensus. This book provides a provocative and challenging account of the historical background to the election of the Blair Government and will be of interest to a wide audience.

It's 1229, the year of the Christian 'Reconquest' of Mallorca from the Moors, a Muslim people of Afro-Arabic origin who have ruled Spain in cultural splendour for five hundred years. Heading the Christian invasion is King Jaume I, the dashing 21-year-old ruler of the northern Spanish kingdom of Aragon, who sets out for Mallorca with a mighty armada of one hundred and fifty ships carrying some fifteen thousand foot soldiers and fifteen hundred cavalry. The helmsman of the royal galley is Pedrito Blanes, a strapping Mallorcan peasant of the same age as King Jaume. This is his story. Pedrito has spent five years as a slave of Moorish pirates and is now eager to return to his family on the island. Despite their disparate backgrounds, a firm friendship develops between the two young men, a bond fortified by the perils of the sea voyage and destined to survive the disapproval of the youthful king's entourage of powerful nobles and clergymen - as well as Pedrito's patent lack of enthusiasm for the monarch's zealous commitment to warfare in the name of religion. Set against a backdrop of breathtaking Mediterranean scenery, an enthralling saga dictated by the vagaries of fate unfolds.The horror and brutality of battle is countered by the tenderness shown to Christian Pedrito in an unexpected encounter with two Muslim women - one older than him, the other younger - which reveals heart-rending aspects of his past and sows the seeds of a forbidden romantic relationship punishable by death. Yet there are threads of humour woven discreetly into this intense, action-packed yarn - a rare quality that puts Song of the Eight Winds in a niche unique within the genre of historical fiction.

The humorous though touching prequel to the award-winning 'Snowball Oranges' series. East Lothian is 'The Garden of Scotland', and the setting for this delightful recollection of country life in quieter, simpler times. Often hilarious, always heartfelt and at times sad - a fascinating account of one farming family's eventful journey through life.

First in a trilogy of comedy-spiked mysteries featuring Bob Burns, a dogged Scots detective with a droll sense of humour. Aided by his stunning forensic-scientist ladyfriend and abetted by a keener-than-bright rookie cop, Bob's murder investigations lead him to Mallorca, where intrigue and mayhem add unexpected excitement to a fishermen's fiesta.

In this second Bob Burns Investigates mystery, the droll Scots sleuth is aided again by a stunning-though-maverick forenstic scientist and a keener-than-bright rookie cop. The trio are drawn into a web of skulduggery stretching from southern Scotland to Sicily, New York and a tiny Hebridean island. A quirky mix of suspense and comedy prevails.

Fourth book in the award-winning Snowball Oranges series of humorous travelogues charting a Scottish family's adventures and misadventures while growing oranges for a living on their little farm in the Mallorcan mountains during the 1980s.

This book offers a fresh view of postwar British politics, very much at odds to the dominant view in contemporary scholarship. The author argues that postwar British politics, up to and including the Blair Government, can be largely characterised in terms of continuity and a gradual evolution from a period of conflict over the primary aims of government strategy to one of recent relative consensus. This book provides a provocative and challenging account of the historical background to the election of the Blair Government and will be of interest to a wide audience.

Providing an engagement with late-1990s perspectives on the development of the British State in the postwar period, this text challenges many of the well-established orthodoxies. It focuses on conceptions of consensus, evolution and transformation, and continuity and discontinuity.

This broad-ranging and original text provides an accessible introduction to British politics since 1945, challenging many well-established orthodoxies.