Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

On a glorious, if blisteringly hot, Saturday in August 2010, Margaret Thomson's world is suddenly shattered by the incomprehensible news that her twenty-two-year-old son, a medic in the army, has taken his life. In a deep state of shock, Thomson and her husband immediately travel to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where their son Kieran was stationed, in an effort to assist their daughter-in-law. Upon their arrival, though, the couple find themselves plunged into a labyrinthine and, at times, seemingly bizarre world of military rules and regulations. Eventually, after the funeral and the memorial services are over, an even more challenging journey-emotionally as well as geographically-ensues, especially for Margaret, who, as a former journalist, is determined to find out more about the circumstances surrounding her son's death, no matter how high the cost. As she enters her second year of grieving, Thomson receives an unexpected invitation from an unlikely source-the army, which she's often blamed in many ways, whether fairly or not, for her son's death. Seizing upon this opportunity, Thomson finds that her perspective is changed-literally-and that as a result the world does indeed look different now.

With a handsome police officer for a husband and a brand new house in a quiet, secluded street bordering Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Mae Kelly appears to have it all. But appearances can be deceptive, and Mae soon finds the demands of living at 1 Waterside Way are more than she bargained for. Glasgow in the 1970s is also proving to be a challenging place to live for some of her neighbours. All Paul Brownlee and Clive Westley want to do is live together in peace but the spiteful Reverend Denby is determined to make sure that won't happen in Waterside Way. Meantime, Charlotte Arlington-Jones and her friend Gemma Ford are bitterly opposed to having an Asian family on the street but when her own daughter falls in love with an Asian boy, prejudices on both sides will test everyone to the limit as families are torn apart. And down the road, Doris McIvor is struggling to care for her ailing mother and fears she may end up losing her own mind. As secrets are exposed and beliefs are challenged, each household on Waterside Way must face up to its problems and find new ways to survive.

Red Alert is the story of the Price family and is set in a Glasgow fire station and in the world-famous Glasgow School of Art. Kirsty Price is a nice, ordinary girl and works in the fire station serving food and drink to the firefighters. She's happy in her work and her life except for the fact that she's also the daughter of Simon Price, an artist and tutor at the Glasgow School of Art. He is a notorious bully, both to his students and his family, including Kirsty and her brother Johnny who is plagued with ill-health. When Johnny starts hanging around with a dubious couple who work as croupiers in the local casino he accepts a job from them looking after their flat and Kirsty and her firefighter boyfriend, Greg McFarlane, start to worry about him. Then Greg phones to say that he has been attending a fatal road traffic accident and the car involved is Johnny's. The family is devastated but soon after Johnny's funeral, there's a knock at the door and Kirsty staggers back in shock when she sees who's standing in the shadows outside. But it's just the start of a chain of events that will tear the Price family apart. Red Alert is the compelling story of a Glasgow family which, to the outside world, looks like any other normal family but is riven with tensions and problems which escalate into a nightmare for Kirsty, Greg and her family.

Goodmans of Glassford Street is the story of a successful but old-fashioned family department store and the lives and conflicts of the people who work in it, including the strong-willed matriarch Abigail Goodman. Douglas Benson, Abigail's son-in-law, is determined to gain control of the store and completely modernise it. He becomes more and more ruthless and devious in his methods to oust Abigail but Abigail is determined to hold on to the business and keep it as it is. She and her late husband, Tom, had built the business up together. All her memories of her much-loved husband are tied up with the store. As the struggle for control of the store escalates, Abigail's son John presents the family with another crisis. A serial killer is stalking the closes and wynds of Edinburgh and it looks like John may be a suspect. It's a bitter blow to the Goodman family at an already uncertain time. Goodmans of Glassford Street is a powerful story of a family torn apart by personal conflict and the struggle for control of the business and of one woman's determination to protect both her family and her life's work.

A Darkening of the Heart is set in eighteenth-century Scotland. It contrasts the harsh life in the countryside, where social opportunities are few and far between, with life in the teeming streets of Edinburgh, where, on the surface, the bawdy and the proper seem poles apart but, in reality, they seep into one another on all kinds of different levels. It is in this world of sometimes sham respectability that brother and sister Alexander and Susanna try to advance their social standings. Alexander has qualified as a doctor but this is not enough for him - he has ambitions to become a famous poet. Snobbish Susanna also aims to climb the social ladder but, as a woman, her only hope of doing so is by finding herself a wealthy husband. Her drive for money and position leads her to become caught up in some truly terrifying situations that end up warping her character and her outlook on life. What makes this a cut above the usual historical romantic fiction is that one of the main characters is none other than Robert Burns. Margaret Thomson Davis has skilfully interwoven known events from the poet's life into the fictional world inhabited by Alexander and Susanna to stunning and often moving effect. Burns's sexual magnetism and the ease with which he got along with people from all sorts of backgrounds are normally seen as positive attributes but here we see how they could lead to exploitation and cruel deception at the hands of those Burns believed to be his friends. In addition to the narrative, Margaret Thomson Davis includes songs, poems and letters by the bard and the seamless way these fit in with events in the novel is evidence of a storyteller at her masterly best.

The New Breadmakers is the long-awaited sequel to Margaret Thomson Davis' bestselling saga The Breadmakers - her classic trilogy chronicling the life and times of a Glasgow working-class community during the 1930s and '40s. Having survived everything that the Depression and the Second World War has thrown at them, the people of McNair's bakery and the surrounding tenements are now facing an uncertain future. With the Coronation of 1953, a new age is beginning, and all is by no means well in the lives of the breadmakers. Catriona McNair's husband is making her life a misery and she decides to take drastic action; her friends Julie and Sammy have become involved in a search for a long-lost daughter; Alec Jackson, the happy-go-lucky reformed philanderer, finds himself caught up in one of Glasgow's worst tragedies; and the youngsters are challenging convention in the name of romance. The New Breadmakers is the wonderfully evocative story of these and a host of other colourful Glasgow characters, as they live through the extraordinary changes of the 1950s and '60s.

Marie Hepburn, illegitimate daughter of the Bishop of Moray, is only seventeen when she is promised in marriage to the repulsive Duke of Glasgow. But this proves to be only the start of Marie's troubles. A powerful story of romance and rivalry, friendship and bitter hatred.