Details the personal adventures of the Scottish-born doctor-author and the many, revealing parallels between his life and his stories

The autobiography in words and pictures of the fascinating and acclaimed author of Lanark, a key figure in postmodern art Alasdair Gray is known throughout the world for his writing, but he is also a highly regarded artist who not only illustrates and designs his own books, but has created many beautiful and intriguing portraits, paintings, posters, and murals. Alasdair started painting and writing from an early age, and in his seventies he's still vigorously doing both. In this autopictography he gathers together the work that has mattered most to him over the years, and weaves the story of his life through and around these pictures in his own unmistakable style. A beautifully and copiously illustrated book, designed by himself, this is life as seen by one of the millennium's most entertaining and wry creative geniuses.

Robert Service's time in the Yukon, at first as a transplanted bank clerk and later living off the royalties of poems like "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" and "The Cremation of Sam McGee," is the core of a fascinating life. Starving in Mexico, residing in a California bordello, farming on Vancouver Island and pursuing unrequited love in Vancouver were only preludes to his Yukon years and his first poems.Words were Robert Service's lifelong passion, and he set them on many stages. But it was his McGrew, McGee and other players of the Great White North who glittered with a golden glow and forever made him the "Bard of the Yukon" and the de facto poet laureate of Alaska. Robert Service sheds light on on aspects of Service's life that have been sketchily covered by other biographers, focusing on his years in the western U.S. and Canada. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of Songs of a Sourdough, was the most successful poetry book of the 20th century.

A portrait based on research into thousands of previously unavailable documents offers an alternative view of the prestigious author that depicts him as a contradictory man who embodied both upstanding and cruel tendencies, covering such topics as his dysfunctional parents, his extramarital affair, and his fanatical pursuit of scientific data. 30,000 first printing.

George Mackay Brown was one of Scotland's greatest 20th century writers, but in person a bundle of paradoxes. He had a wide international reputation, but hardly left his native Orkney. A prolific poet, he was also an accomplished novelist and a master of the short story. When he died on 13th April 1996, he left behind an autobiography as deft as it is ultimately uninformative.

The author learns to lie to and about his father in a memoir of growing up in the tough working-class neighborhoods of Scotland and England while enduring his father's self-hatred, which was expressed through enraged violence, cruelty, and belittlement. Original.

Catherine Carswell was heir to Glasgow's nineteenth century, its godliness, its realism, its modernity, and its sentimentality. As a well travelled twentieth-century woman, who lived in London from 1910, she visited Italy, Germany, France, and met most of Stalin's cabinet in pre-war Russia. This book presents a vivid account of her life.

A portrait of the life and career of the classic author best known for Peter Pan examines the controversies surrounding his life, from his scandalous divorce and guardianship of the orphaned Davies boys to the real-life Peter's hatred of his association with the literary character and Barrie's depiction in the 2004 film Finding Neverland. 15,000 first printing.

When he was five, Neil's mother walked out of the family home. Two years later she returned with a new man; Derek Cross. This tale describes how a lonely child deprived of his own father came to fall in love with a monster.

This biography of John Buchan is drawn on private papers which fully portray his life and interests, and provide a comprehensive view of British political, social and literary circles during the first half of the 20th century. Particularly noted for his classic thriller, "The Thirty Nine Steps", John Buchan wrote over 100 books, including a series of "shockers" as he called them, featuring the characters Richard Hannay, Sandy Arbuthnot and Edward Leithen, children's books and tales of the supernatural. He also wrote biographies, including lives of Montrose and Sir Walter Scott, and was the author of a history of the Great War. Buchan had a distinguished career in public life. He was a member of Milner's famous "Kindergarten" of young men in South Africa and later worked for the "Spectator". He worked in publishing at Nelson's and then ran the Ministry of Information during World War I. After eight years as a Conservative MP, he ended his career as Lord Tweedsmuir, Governor-General of Canada. Although he led an active public life, Buchan was at heart a countryman and fisherman, and believed deeply in the redemptive powers of the wild. (view table of contents)

An account of the Scottish novelist and dramatist's life focuses on his discovery, befriending, and guardianship of five boys who served as models for 'Peter Pan' and 'The Lost Boys.'