When Finn Learson literally stumbles out of a stormy sea into a small village on the Shetland Isles, he steals the villagers' hearts. He's handsome and charming, he helps with the fishing and the harvest, and he's particularly drawn to Robbie's older sister Elspeth, with her beautiful long golden hair. Yet there's something about Finn that makes Robbie and his dog Tam feel uneasy. Haunted by local tales of the Selkie folk, Robbie suspects there's more to Finn than meets the eye. But who would believe Robbie's wild suspicions? As the story reaches its explosive finale at the fire festival of Up Helly Aa, can Robbie reveal the truth in time to save his sister? One of Mollie Hunter's most popular novels for children, A Stranger Came Ashore was first published in 1975 to great acclaim. This new Kelpies Classics edition brings this much-loved Scottish classic to a new generation of children.

The Thirteenth Member, first published in 1971, could be considered a 'cross-over' novel between the historical and fantasy genres. The subject matter is witchcraft and witch-hunts, which continued in Scotland far beyond the rest of Britain, with the last prosecution in Scotland in 1727. Mollie Hunter's work includes contemporary fiction for children and young adults, historical fiction and fantasy. Many critics regard her writing in the fantasy genre as her strongest and most influential. With its roots in recorded historical events and with the subject matter relating to the supernatural - again a major pre-occupation of Scottish Literature in general - the novel acts as a bridging text between these two major genres in the Scottish corpus. Moreover, it is one of the strongest and most unified of all Hunter's works in that it works well at both the realistic and symbolic levels, while still managing to incorporate themes of witchcraft, the supernatural, political intrigue, dishonesty, entrapment and love. This reprint includes an Afterword by Maureen Farrell.