A critically acclaimed author invites readers on fascinating adventures to the mysterious and forgotten corners of the map.Be prepared to be captivated by the astounding tales of two dozen islands once believed to be real but no longer on the map. These are the products of the imagination, deception, and human error: an archipelago of ex-islands and forgotten lands. From the well-known story of Atlantis and the mysteries of frozen Thule to more obscure tales from a...

Longlisted for the Ondaatje PrizeShortlisted for the Highland Book Prize'The thing he felt ending was not just one person, or even one generation; it was older, and had, in truth, been ending for a long time . . . It was a chain of stories clinging to stories, of love clinging to love. It was an inheritance he did not know how to pass on.'Shetland: a place of sheep and soil, of harsh weather, close ties and an age-old way of...

Sonny is working on a whaling ship in the South Atlantic, reckoning with the most vicious storms he has ever seen. It’s a brutal way to make a living. When he finally returns to his Shetland home to build a life with his wife and young son, the legacy of his time at sea is felt by all of them.In present day Shetland, Jack is an old man, living alone in the cottage where he grew up, in the shadow of a hill. And it is here, one evening, that something appear...

'Luminous' The Times'Beautiful’ Caught by the RiverBringing together contemporary Scottish writing on nature and landscape, this inspiring collection takes us from walking to wild swimming, from red deer to pigeons and wasps, from remote islands to back gardens, through prose, poetry and photography.Edited and introduced by Kathleen Jamie, and with contributions from Amy Liptrot, Jim Crumley, Chitra Ramaswamy, Malac...

In its blending of nature writing and memoir—also touching on the connection of time, beauty, and memory—Illuminated by Water is an elegiac tribute to fly fishing and the natural world.Illuminated by Water is a book about the author’s own decades-long passion for fly fishing and how it has shaped the way he sees and thinks about the natural world. That passion is shared and made legible here, not just for other anglers, but for those who ...

The sixtieth parallel marks a borderland between the northern and southern worlds. Wrapping itself around the lower reaches of Finland, Sweden, and Norway, it crosses the tip of Greenland and the southern coast of Alaska, and slices the great expanses of Russia and Canada in half. The parallel also passes through Shetland, where Malachy Tallack has spent most of his life.In Sixty Degrees North, Tallack travels westward, exploring the landscapes of the parallel and the ways that people have...

Sonny is working on a whaling ship in the South Atlantic, reckoning with the most vicious storms he has ever seen. It’s a brutal way to make a living. When he finally returns to his Shetland home to build a life with his wife and young son, the legacy of his time at sea is felt by all of them.In present day Shetland, Jack is an old man, living alone in the cottage where he grew up, in the shadow of a hill. And it is here, one evening, that something appear...

Shetland: a place of sheep and soil, close ties and an age-old way of life. A place where David has lived all his life, like his father and grandfather before him. A place where Sandy, a newcomer but already a crofter, may have finally found a home. A place that Alice has fled to after the death of her husband. In the wind and sun and storms from the Atlantic, these islanders must decide: what is left of us when the day's work is done, the children grown, and all our choices have been made...

"Variably genial, cautionary, lyrical, admonitory, terrifying, horrifying and inspiring…A lifetime of thought, travel, reading, imagination and memory inform this affecting account." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)Blending history and anecdote, geography and reminiscence, science and exposition, New York Times bestselling author Simon Winchester tells the breathtaking saga of the Atlantic Ocean in a masterful work of narrative nonfiction. A gifted storyteller and...

North is the point we look for on a map to orient ourselves. It is also the direction taken throughout history by the adventurous, the curious, the solitary, and the foolhardy. Based in the North himself, Peter Davidson, in The Idea of North, explores the very concept of "north" through its many manifestations in painting, legend, and literature.Tracing a northbound route from rural England—whose mild climate keeps it from being truly northern—to the wind-shorn highlands o...

VIVE LA REVOLUTION!Dolphins shed and replace their skin every two hoursPluto was named by an eleven-year-old schoolgirlA donkey's personality is called its donkeyshipFreud didn't lose his virginity until the age of 30The bastion that was QI has been stormed, elves have been put to the guillotine, the readers are in charge.After nine and a half years of cumulative reading time, readers of the QI App have selected the definitive Q...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Winner of the Leacock Medal for Humour • The follow-up to the back-to-back successes of How to Be a Canadian (over 110,000 copies sold) and Happiness™Will Ferguson spent a three-year period criss-crossing Canada and back again. In a helicopter above the barrenlands of the sub-Arctic, in a canoe with his four-year-old son, aboard seaplanes and along the Underground Railroad, Will’s travels have taken him from Cape Spear on the...