Bøker utgitt av Sandstone Press Ltd

The armistice is months past but the memories won't go away. 'A harlequin, leaning against a tree stump and with a goblet of ale clasped in one outstretched hand. Beaumont felt chilled suddenly, in spite of the fire... Most likely it wasthe thing's mouth, red-lipped and fiendishly grinning, or maybe its face, which was white, expressionless, the face of a clown in full greasepaint.'Dennis Beaumont drove an ambulance in World War One. He returns home to London, hoping to pick up his studies at Oxford and rediscover the love he once felt for his fiancee Lucy. But nothing is as it once was. Mentally scarred by his experiences in the trenches, Beaumont finds himself wandering further into darkness. What really happened to the injured soldier he tried to save? Who is the figure that lurks in the shadows? How much do they know of Beaumont, and the secrets he keeps?

William Hutchison Murray (1913 - 1996) was one of Scotland's most distinguished climbers in the years before and after the Second World War. As a prisoner of war in Italy he wrote his first classic book, Mountaineering in Scotland, on rough toilet paper which was confiscated and destroyed by the Gestapo. The rewritten version was published in 1947 and followed by the, now, equally famous, Undiscovered Scotland. In 1951 he was depute leader to Eric Shipton on the Everest Reconnaissance Expedition, which discovered the eventual successful route which would be climbed by Hilary and Tensing. From the 1960s onwards he was heavily involved in conservation campaigns and his book, Highland Landscape, commissioned by the National Trust for Scotland, identified areas of outstanding beauty that should be protected. It proved to be extremely influential. In 1966 he was awarded an OBE as he pursued a life of service, as is well illustrated by the various posts he held: Commissioner for the Countryside Commission for Scotland (1968-1980); President of the Scottish Mountaineering Club (1962-1964) and of the Ramblers Association Scotland (1966-82); Chairman of Scottish Countryside Activities Council (1967-82); Vice-President of the Alpine Club (1971-72); President of Mountaineering Council of Scotland (1972-75). He was a prolific author but a proper understanding of his life and work requires that we appreciate that his driving force was a quest to achieve inner purification that would lead him to oneness with Truth and Beauty. For many years the climber, author and teacher, Robin Lloyd-Jones (above) has been researching the life and work of Bill Murray and working steadily on this biography. It is not only a triumph of fine writing and interest, but a worthy accolade for this great man.

This book offers a detailed history of the sport of fell running. It also tells the stories of some of the great exponents of the sport through the ages. Many of them achieved greatness whilst still working full time in traditional jobs, a million miles away from the professionalism of other branches of athletics nowadays. The book covers the early days of the sport, right through to it going global with World Championships. Along the way it profiles influential athletes such as Fred Reeves, Bill Teasdale, Kenny Stuart, Joss Naylor, and Billy and Gavin Bland. It gives background to the athletes including their upbringing, introduction to the sport, training, working life, records and achievements. It also includes in-depth conversations with some of the greats, such as Jeff Norman and Rob Jebb. The author is a committed runner and qualified athletics coach. He has considerable experience of fell running, competing in the World Vets Champs when it was held in Keswick in 2005. He is a long-time member of the Fell Runners Association (FRA). Using a mixture of personal experience, material from extensive interviews, and that provided by an extensive range of published and unpublished sources, a comprehensive history of the sport and its characters and values is revealed.

A novel about the aftermath of war. Sean McNicol's best friend Mitch saved his life in Afghanistan, in an act of impulsive heroism. Now Mitch is dead and Sean has left the Royal Marines with a head full of ghosts and guilt.

Only three houses away from the policeman's home, a man has been sitting dead in front of his television set for four months. There are no indications that anything criminal has taken place. Viggo Hansen was a man nobody ever noticed, even though he lived in the midst of a close-knit community. His death doesn't hit the headlines, but there is something about the case that catches the attention of William Wisting's journalist daWhile Line embarks on her investigations, the police are notified about another death. A male corpse has been found in a forest clearing, and it appears that he has lain there for quite some time. An extremely unexpected discovery on the dead body triggers one of the most extensive manhunts in Norwegian police history. The only thing that can hinder the police in their work, is the media finding out what's brewing.ughter, Line, and she decides to write a newspaper article with a different twist for the festive season: the portrait of a completely anonymous and obscure person whose death goes unremarked and unmourned.

John McPake, a former teacher, has a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Soon after his marriage fell apart he started hearing voices and eventually moved into an Edinburgh hostel for men with enduring mental health problems. An earlier obsession with the works of Breughel develops into a full blown delusion, and he assumes the personna of Johannes, a 16th century Dutch weaver who travels with his friends, Balthazar and Cornelius, in pursuit of his son who has been abducted by the Spanish mercenaries. This is an echo of John's real life quest to be reunited with his brother.

From his early years Tom Weir MBE was set on making his way as an explorer, writer and photographer, a progress interrupted by World War Two but then leading to expeditions ranging from the Himalayas to Greenland. For over forty years his feature 'My Month' appeared in the Scots Magazine, reflecting his fascination with Scotland, its remote corners, people and wildlife - interests that made his award-winning TV programme Weir's Way so popular. From sources published and unpublished this collection of Tom Weir's writing has been selected by Hamish Brown from the whole body of his life's work. One of Hamish Brown's teenage inspirations was Tom Weir's Highland Days and, later, he was lucky to know and sometimes work with Tom. As a much-travelled author, lecturer and photographer himself, Hamish was delighted to put together this selection of Tom's work.

Thousands of people visit the tiny and remote Hebridean island of Iona each year to experience its unique atmosphere of tranquil spirituality. The wood and wattle buildings built by Columba and his monks have long since vanished, replaced by the Benedictine abbey of stone which, after the Reformation, fell into neglect, to languish for three hundred years as no more than a romantic ruin. In the early twentieth century, however, it was restored by the Church of Scotland's Iona Cathedral Trust and the charismatic, controversial George MacLeod, founder of the Iona Community, an experiment in Christian living which flourishes to this day.

Martin Moran has been a man of the mountains since youth. Famously, he made the first solo ascent of the Scottish Munros in the winter months, as described in his great book, The Munros in Winter (published by Sandstone Press). For decades now he has made his living as a mountain guide based in Strathcarron, Wester Ross. The Scottish hills have by no means bound or defined him though. It was after his ascent of the North Face of the Eiger that he made his decision to take the mountain guide qualifications. Martin has climbed and guided in the Alps, Norway, and the Himalayas, experiencing life changing adventures, near death experiences, meeting and guiding many interesting people. Humour has never been far away, but neither has excitement and interest. Martin Moran has lived life in the mountains to the full and this is his story

Seventeen years ago William Wisting led the investigation into one of Norway's most notorious criminal cases, the murder of young Cecilia Linde. When it is discovered that evidence was falsified he is suspended from duty. It looks like a man has been wrongly convicted, and suddenly the media are baying for blood. Wisting, who has spent his life hunting criminals, is now the hunted. To discover what really happened Wisting must work alone and under cover. Under investigation and with the press on his trail, he gets help from his journalist daughter, Line, and another unexpected source. Then another young woman goes missing and an electrifying race against time begins. Together they have to stay one step ahead of the pack.

Bernadette and Nancy are on holiday in Northern Ireland in 1982 when they discover that their family are involved with the IRA. There are many places that they are forbidden to go by their Aunt Agatha and Uncle Donn and Agatha, and things they are forbidden to talk about by their mother. So many things to be forbidden; they pretty much ignore all of them. Only Tommy really frightens them. Things are manageable until one day their absent uncle, Ryan, reappears to the horror of his siblings. Tommy arrives to deal with the situation and, soon after, Bernie sees Ryan's body on the kitchen floor, wrapped in a blanket.

Keith Partridge is probably the world's most experienced and famous practitioner of a rare trade. His filming has recorded expeditions all over the world in some of its most beautiful and hostile environments.

From the moment I watched a documentary of Chris Bonington and Tom Patey climb the perpendicular flanks of the Old Man of Hoy I knew that my life would not be complete until I had followed in their footholds. That was in 1983 when I was thirteen. Within months I was tackling my first crags and dreaming of standing atop Europe's tallest sea stack with the Atlantic pounding 450 feet below. Those dreams went dark at nineteen when I learned I was going blind. I hung up my harness for twenty years and tried to ignore the twinge of desire I felt every time The Old Man appeared on TV.' Middle aged, by now a family man, crime novelist and occasional radio personality, Red Szell's life nonetheless felt incomplete. He was still climbing, but only indoors until he shared his old, unforgotten, dream with his buddies, Matthew and Andres, and it became obvious that an attempt had to be made. With the help of mountain guides Martin Moran and Nick Carter, and adventure cameraman Keith Partridge, supported by family and an ever growing following, Red set out to confront the Orcadian giant.

Life is sweet for would-be bohemian Artie Conville. Safe at the helm of his subsidised magazine-with a cosy office paid for by the tax-payer-he's content to drift along quoting poetry, lingering over long lunches and flirting with the lovely Rosie McCann. The main thing is to keep the real world-of nine-to-five jobs, mortgages and political violence-at bay. So when his cushy number is threatened, Artie hatches a cunning plan to keep the funds coming in. But events quickly spiral out of control and before long he is up to his ears in a bizarre fraud. Can he avert disaster? Will he get the girl? With a cast of characters that includes a gun-toting playwright, a jealous police chief, a drunken actor and a giant white rabbit, this is a rich and riotous tale about coming-of-age in 1980s Belfast; a novel that is by turns darkly ironic and laugh-out-loud funny.

Not all of Hamish Brown's many travels about Scotland have taken up mountains or into wild and wind swept places, but he has found himself in some pretty odd locations.

Anne Scott has never housed her books in order of theme or author yet she knows where each of them is and the kind of life it has led. Some have been gifts but most have been chosen in bookshops unique in their style and possibilities. They have been observers of discovery, decisions, and marvels with her, following the line of her time and place. Some are everyday shops with a shelf of books in a corner, some are beginning again after long lives as churches, printing presses, medieval houses, a petrol-station. There are a few the author is too late to see: early print-houses and booksellers here too in this book, searched for and described, side by side with all the bookshops open now and busy with readers. Not one is like another. In one way, the book is a sequence about writing. But first it is a map of books and a life.

Hamish Brown's classic account of his John O'Groats to Lands End Walk with his famous Shetland Collie, Storm.

Approaching his middle forties, Gavin Boyter wondered what his life was all about. A Scot living in London, single and with no kids, he was living for the job and the dwindling hope of a career in film. He had been a club runner all his life, pretty good but not at the front all that often. He was what he called an ordinary runner and he came to wonder just what an ordinary runner might be capable of. How about John O'Groats to Land's End, the longest linear run in Britain, and how about making a film of it? And how about writing a book? As usual, Gavin was neither the first nor the quickest but Downhill from Here is his real triumph, written in such an engaging and witty voice the reader accompanies him every step of the way.

Edwin Morgan's restless imagination moved easily between multiple worlds, voices and identities. His own life story, told here for the first time, also reveals a range of identities - as academic, cultural activist, radical writer, international traveller, gay man and national poet. These identities were sometimes in conflict, or kept hidden and apart. Beyond the Last Dragon, written with his full support, explores hitherto unknown archive resources and creative work. It recounts an amazing and sometimes troubled career, using the poet's own letters, poems and plays from the 1930s to the present day to uncover the origins of his remarkable - and life-long - inventiveness and flair. All this is set against Edwin Morgan's moving struggle against 'the last dragon' of cancer, and to remain creatively alive in the face of suffering in the final years of his life. This prize-winning biography was published just days after the poet's death. James McGonigal now adds a new chapter to describe subsequent events.

Remzije Sherifi worked as a journalist with Radio Gjilan in Kosova. She lost her job, and almost her life, as the Milosevic regime steadily tightened its grip on the Albanian people who lived there. In Shadow Behind The Sun she recounts her family's history, shining a new light on the terrible events of the 1990s.