The Orcadian archipelago is a museum of archaeological wonders. The Orcadian Neolithic is home to some of the best-preserved Neolithic sites in Europe: here we can find evidence of a dynamic society with connections binding Orkney to Ireland, to southern Britain and to continental Europe. Yet there is much that remains unknown about the societies that created these sites. In Orcadia, Mark Edmonds traces the development of the Orcadian Neolithic from the early fourth millennium BC through to the end of the period nearly two thousand years later, using artefacts, architecture and the wider landscape to recreate the lives of Neolithic communities across the region.

Deep Wheel Orcadia is, effortlessly, a first: a science-fiction verse novel written in the Orcadian dialect, it's also the first full-length book in the Orkney language in over 50 years Astrid is returning home from art school on Mars, looking for inspiration. Darling is fleeing a life that never fit, searching for somewhere to hide. They meet on Deep Wheel Orcadia, a distant space station struggling for survival as the pace of change threatens to leave the community behind. Deep Wheel Orcadia is a magical first: a science fiction verse novel written in the Orkney dialect. This unique adventure in minority language poetry comes with a parallel translation into playful and vivid English, so the reader will miss no nuance of the original. The rich and varied cast weaves a compelling, lyric and effortlessly readable story around place and belonging, work and economy, generation and gender politics, love and desire - all with the lightness of touch, fluency and musicality one might expect of one the most talented poets to have emerged from Scotland in recent years. Hailing from Orkney, Harry Josephine Giles is widely known as a fine poet and spellbindingly original performer of their own work; Deep Wheel Orcadia now strikes out into audacious new space.

Bere is the native barley of Orkney. In the past it was an important multi-use crop and a staple of the Scottish diet, though its use declined as more easily-processed crops were introduced. Bere is still grown on Orkney farms by an agricultural contractor employed by the Birsay Heritage Trust who run the Barony Mill, Orkney's last operating water mill. Here the grain is milled into beremeal, a cream-coloured flour with a distinctive, earthy, nutty flavour. In this book acclaimed food writer Liz Ashworth traces the story of bere from its Neolithic origins to the present day, providing useful culinary tips and recipes on how this ancient grain can be introduced to the modern kitchen for enjoyment. Recipes are included for Breads, Scones, Tea Breads, Cakes, Tray Bakes, Puddings, Pastry Dishes, and Sweet and Savoury Biscuits.

Brendan figures his troubles are over. Sure, he's going to have to hide the fact that he's a Faerie from his human family and his friends at school, but now that he's been initiated and survived his quest, the hardest part is behind him. Right? Wrong. In The Prince of Two Tribes, Brendan discovers that his troubles are only beginning. He has to prove his worthiness to the Faerie World in a series of difficult tests, and he's having trouble mastering even the simplest of his talents.

With a pimply face and braces on his teeth, the perpetually clumsy Brendan is having a hard time at school. When he starts hearing voices and conversing with chipmunks, he thinks he can add losing his mind to his growing list of problems. Then he discovers that he's a Faerie who was lost in the human world. Now that he knows his true identity, the human disguise that has been protecting him begins to fade and a whole host of wicked creatures tries to tempt him to use his Faerie power for evil intentions. It's up to Brendan to protect the human world, and to make the ultimate choice between the family he has grown up with and his new Faerie roots.

This beautifully illustrated ebook is the first practical step-by-step guide to using coloured pencils in botanical painting and is written by Ann Swan, one of the top exponents of the genre.

Diaries keep secrets, harbouring our fantasies and fictional histories. They are substitute boyfriends, girlfriends, spouses and friends. But in this age of social media, the role of the diary as a private confidante has been replaced by a culture of public self-disclosure. The Private Life of the Diary: from Pepys to Tweets is an elegantly-told story of the evolution – and perhaps death – of the diary. It traces its origins to seventeenth-century naval administrator, Samuel Pepys, and continues to twentieth-century diarist Virginia Woolf, who recorded everything from her personal confessions about her irritation with her servants to her memories of Armistice Day and the solar eclipse of 1927. Sally Bayley explores how diaries can sometimes record our lives as we live them, but that we often indulge our fondness for self-dramatization, like the teenaged Sylvia Plath who proclaimed herself 'The Girl Who Would be God'. This book is an examination of the importance of writing and self-reflection as a means of forging identity. It mourns the loss of the diary as an acutely private form of writing. And it champions it as a conduit to self-discovery, allowing us to ask ourselves the question: Who or What am I in relation to the world?