Books published by Saraband

Haley and Ben's father, with inside knowledge of a new and deadly pandemic, kidnaps them and takes them to his prepper compound for their own safety. They have no contact with the outside world and face deeply conflicting views of reality with no reliable source of news. Will they survive, save their mother, deter intruders and keep everyone safe?

This evocative account underlines how an unprecedented crisis has changed the way we relate to the natural world, giving us hope for the future at perhaps the darkest time in our lives. And it puts down a marker for the 'new normal': the many species around us, all enjoying, for once, a land less lived in than usual by humankind.

'Absolutely Joyous' Chris PackhamA collection of vibrant essays to inform, stimulate and inspire every nature lover.Through unparallelled expertise as a field naturalist, Roy Dennis is able to write about the natural world in a way that considers both the problems and the progress in ecology and conservation. Beginning with cottongrass, whose snow-white blooms blow gently in the wind across the wetter moors and bogs, this is a year-round trove of insight and knowledge for anyone who cares about the natural world - from birdsong and biodiversity to sphagnum and species reintroduction.Written by one of our most prominent advocates for rewilding, the essays have a clear message: "e;Never give up on trying to conserve and restore wildlife and the wild places you cherish. It's essential to try and to succeed. And remember, it's never 'if', but 'when' - and with climate chaos closing in, the time is now.

"e;The one source that will guide you from start to finish"e; (Gina Cavaliero, Aquaponi Inc) Aquaponi is a revolutionary way of gardening by combining the best of aquaculture and hydroponi. It is an amazingly fun and easy way to grow organic fruit and vegetables by simply fertilising them with waste water from fish. Aquaponic systems are completely organic, hugely productive and there's no weeding, watering, bending or digging. This is the definitive do-it-yourself manual giving you all the tools you need to create your own aquaponic system and enjoy fresh and healthy food all year round.

"e;Entrancing...sparkles with lyrical imagery-Miriam Darlington, BBC Wildlife "e;Full of earthy realism, authentic observationand quiet lyricism"e; - Mark Cocker. Karen Lloyd takes us on a deeply personal journey around the 60 miles of coastline that make up 'nature's amphitheatre'. Embarking on a series of walks that take in beguiling landscapes and ever-changing seascapes, Karen tells the stories of the places, people, wildlife and history of Morecambe Bay. So we meet the Queen's Guide to the Sands, discover forgotten caves and islands that don't exist, and delight in the simple beauty of an oystercatcher winging its way across the ebbing tide. As we walk with Karen, she explores her own memories of the bay, making an unwitting pilgrimage through her own past and present, as well as that of the bay. The result is a singular and moving account of one of Britain's most alluring coastal areas.

From the author of the prize-winning As the Women Lay Dreaming comes a remarkable 'unreliable biography' of Karl Kjerulf Einarsson: an artist and an adventurer, a charlatan and a swindler, forever in search of Atlantis.

THE FIFTH BOOK IN CLAIRE MACLEARY'S MULTI-AWARD-LISTED HARCUS & LAIRD SERIES 'Claire MacLeary has, with little fuss or fanfare, written a crime series that subverts and rejuvenates the crime genre' Scots Whay Hae A disturbing hanging with a backstory of secrets and shaming highlights some outdated attitudes within Aberdeen's finest. After past skirmishes with the police, local PI Maggie Laird is determined to steer clear, but her partner, Wilma Harcus, goes rogue. Not only does she have leads up her sleeve, but she has grandiose ideas to expand their PI agency into the realm of romance fraud and cybercrime. Then, troubled schoolchild Frankie Bain goes missing. As the clock runs down, the two investigations collide. Was the hanging the last, desperate act of a tortured mind or a calculated murder? And will Frankie Bain be found alive? In this fifth Harcus and Laird novel, Claire MacLeary fashions a fast-paced, fresh and topical new adventure for her inimitable PI partnership.

Before Adam Farrer's family relocated to Withernsea in 1992, he'd never heard of the Holderness coast. The move represented one thing to Adam: a chance to leave the insecurities of early adolescence behind. And he could do that anywhere. What he didn't know was how much he'd grow to love the quirks and people of this faded Yorkshire resort, in spite of its dilapidated attractions and retreating clifftops. While Adam documents the minutiae of small-town life, he lays bare experiences that are universal. His insights on family, friendship, male mental health and suicide are revealed in stories of reinvention, rapacious seagulls, interdimensional werewolves, burlesque dancing pensioners, and his compulsion towards the sea. Cold Fish Soup is an affectionate look at a place and its inhabitants, and the ways in which they can shape and influence someone, especially of an impressionable age. Adam's account explores what it means to love and be shaped by a place that is under threat, and the hope - and hilarity - that can be found in community.

A haunting, award-winning and multi-award-nominated novel of the Iolaire disaster, written by a son of the Hebrides.

To paraphrase L.P. Hartley, "e;The past is a different country."e; Stan L Abbott sets out to explore the visible clues to our mysterious past from the Neolithic and Bronze Ages: stone circles. Cumbria boasts more of these monuments than any other English county. Here, our tallest mountains are ringed by almost fifty circles and henges, most of them sited in the foothills or on outlying plateaux. Were these the earliest such monuments in Britain, placing Cumbria at the heart of Neolithic society? And what traces of that society remain today in the roads we travel, the food we eat, the words we speak, our work and play? By observing and comparing many sites in Cumbria and beyond, and researching many sources, a greater understanding emerges. Were some circles built for ritualistic purposes, or perhaps astronomical? Were they burial sites? Or were they just places for people to meet? Illustrated with linocut illustrations by artist Denise Burden, Ring of Stone Circles follows the search for the hidden stories these monuments guard - and might reveal if we get to know them.

Tracing our environmental impact through time, David Howe demonstrates how humanitys exploitation of Earths natural resources has pushed our planet to its limit and asks: Whats next for our depleted planet?Everything we use started life in the earth, as a rock or a mineral vein, a layer of an ancient seabed, or perhaps the remains of a 400-million-year-old volcano.Humanity's ability to fashion nature to its own ends is by no means a new phenomenonwe have been inventing new ways to help ourselves to its bounty for tens of thousands of years. But today, we mine, quarry, pump, cut, blast, and crush Earth's resources at an unprecedented rate. We have become a dominant, even dangerous, force on the planet.InExtraction to Extinction, David Howe traces our impact through time to unearth how our obsession with endlessly producing and throwing away more and more stuff could destroy our planet. But is there still time to turn it around?

When twelve-year-old Sherrie-Lee witnesses a failed bank robbery in her neglected town, she seizes an opportunity to claim a new identity for herself. Escaping her troubled home life, she tries out a new name and invents stories and personas to cover her tracks. Sherrie-Lee finds both possibility and loneliness in this new freedom, as well as an unusual friendship which she nurtures. But harsh realities close in, and she's plagued with foreboding - from her vulnerable brother at home to the climate crisis. While she dreams of a kinder world, it won't be long before her own deceits start catching up with her. This arresting debut challenges assumptions and captures the powerless yearning of adolescence with a voice that is fresh, magnetic and often funny - one that pulls you in and won't let go.

Fifty-something librarian Shona is a proud former pupil of the Marcia Blaine School for Girls, but has a deep loathing for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, which she thinks gives her alma mater a bad name. Impeccably educated and an accomplished martial artist, linguist and musician, Shona is selected by Marcia Blaine herself to travel back in time for a crucial mission involving Macbeth, the Weird Sisters and a black cat.Unsure which version of history she's in, Shona tries to figure out who she's here to save. But between playing the Fool and being turned into a mouse, things don't always go her way. Shona's expertise in martial arts is put to the test as family tensions rise and fingers are pointed for murder. Can Shona unravel the mystery in time to complete her mission?Never underestimate a librarian!

"e;I have decided to write down everything that happens, because I feel, I suppose, I may be putting myself in danger."e; London, 1965. An unworldly young woman believes that a charismatic psychotherapist, Collins Braithwaite, has driven her sister to suicide. Intent on confirming her suspicions, she assumes a false identity and presents herself to him as a client, recording her experiences in a series of notebooks. But she soon finds herself drawn into a world in which she can no longer be certain of anything. Even her own character. In Case Study, Graeme Macrae Burnet presents these notebooks interspersed with his own biographical research into Collins Braithwaite. The result is a dazzling - and often wickedly humorous - meditation on the nature of sanity, identity and truth itself, by one of the most inventive novelists writing today.

Approvalis a powerful meditation on judgment, the adoption process, and fatherhood, told from a perspective rarely explored in fiction: a mans response to a couples infertility.Approvalfollows would-be parents David and Cici through a series of forays into the past as they go through the motions of applying to adopt a child. Their story builds a picture of hope, vulnerability and fear as David is put under intense and intrusive scrutiny during their battle against faceless bureaucracy.From family background and early experiences to adult relationships, he is forced to revisit uncomfortable sometimes painful episodes, in the hope of meeting the authoritys requirements.Confronting a lonely, difficult and uncertain path to family life, and raising questions about how much intervention and judgement is necessary for the state to ascertain fitness to parent,Approvalultimately invites the reader to decide.

The Lake District is one of our busiest national parks. Many people believe that wildness is long gone from the fells, lakes, tarns and becks, yet, within its boundaries, Jim Crumley sets out to prove them wrong - to find "e;a new way of seeing and writing about this most seen and written about of landscapes"e;.With a naturalist's eye and a poet's instinct he is drawn to Lakeland's turned-aside places where nature still thrives, from low-lying shores to a high mountain oakwood that's not even on the map. Through backwaters and backwoods, Crumley traces this captivating land's place in the evolution of global conservation and pleads the case for a far-reaching reappraisal of all of Lakeland's wildness.

The Mahogany Pod is a deeply moving account of falling in love with someone who only has a few months to live. Through honest prose, Jill Hopper's story explores the joy and pain of loving and losing, and the beginnings that come after endings.

Imani is a foundling. Raised by nuns on a Northumbrian Island, she grows up with an increasing sense of displacement. After the death of her biological mother, Imani travels to Ghana - beginning a journey of self-discovery that illuminates the stories we all tell to make ourselves whole.

An authoritative guide to the history, landscape and lore along the scenic English train line between Settle and Carlisle, by an established travel writer and railway aficionado.Widely known as England's most picturesque line, the enduring Settle-Carlisle Railway crosses the north Pennines between Yorkshire and Cumbria, traversing stunning scenery from the Dales through the lonely and lofty fells to the limestone pavements of Westmorland, and on into the lush, green Eden Valley.The line was built by the Midland Railway company in the 1870s, to forge an independent route connecting its English network with Scotland. Uniquely for a railway in the UK, the entire infrastructure is a Conservation Area in its own rightcomprising viaducts, stations, bridges, tunnels, trackside structures and railway workers' cottages.

"e;He's back, Carrie. The Scribbler is back."e;DI Gayther and his rookie colleague DC Carrie have been assigned a new caseload. Or rather, an old one... cold murder cases of LGBTQ+ victims.Georgia Carrie wasn't even born when the notorious serial killer began his reign of terror across the East of England, but Roger Gayther was on the force that failed to catch him and remembers every chilling detail.Back in the Eighties, Gayther's team hadn't been assigned sufficient resources. But now, after all these years, there's a sudden death featuring The Scribbler's tell-tale modus operandi. Gayther and Carrie have to find and bring him to justice to stop the killing once and for all.

From Great Yarmouth to Aberystwyth, Westering is a coast-to-coast journey crossing the Fens, Leicester, the Black Country and central Wales. It connects landscape, place and memory to evoke a narrative unravelling the deep topography, and following a westerly route that runs against the grain of the land, its geology, culture and historical bedrock. With the industrial Midlands sandwiched between bucolic landscapes in East Anglia and Wales, here we explore places too often overlooked. Along the way we encounter deserted medieval villages, battlefield sites, the ghosts of Roman soldiers, valleys drowned for reservoirs, ancient forests, John Clare's beloved fields, and the urban edgelands. Notions of home and belonging, landscapes of loss and absence, birds and the resilience of nature, the psychology of walking, and the psychogeography of liminal places all frame the story.

Everything Passes, Everything Remains takes us freewheelin' through Spain, song and memory as Chris Dolan documents his lifelong journey from Glasgow to Valencia. Along the way Dolan explores Spain's history, and future, through stories of the great writers before him and the friends around him.

This is a story of gardens and how people can grow well in them. Through a lifetime's experience of award-winning work in community gardens and in mental health care and training, Cameron shows us how tending green spaces can bring tremendous benefits to mental health.

The final instalment in the acclaimed "Seasons" series, which interrogates how climate change has disrupted the natural rhythm of the seasons. It has attracted widespread praise and prize attention; Jim's passionate stance on climate chaos and the need for rewilding chimes with an increasingly eco-aware public.