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In an era of hardening religious attitudes and explosive religious violence, this book offers a welcome antidote. Richard Holloway retells the entire history of religion - from the dawn of religious belief to the 21st century - with deepest respect and a keen commitment to accuracy. Writing for those with faith and those without, and especially for young listeners, he encourages curiosity and tolerance, accentuates nuance and mystery and calmly restores a sense of the value of faith.

Every August thousands of tourists and performers flood into Edinburgh for its famous festival. But this year, on the very first day, an explosion rocks Princes Street, and a man is killed. A few hours later, a threatening letter is delivered to the Secretary of State – apparently from a freedom group – demanding political separation from England. Assistant Chief Constable Bob Skinner, head of CID, quickly assembles his team, with SAS backup.

This essential guide to religion, narrated by James Bryce, explains the key tenets and big ideas behind the world's five main religions - Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism - alongside newer faiths. The Religions Book clearly explains the key concepts behind the earliest...

It was 1956, and Eric Newby was earning an improbable living in the chaotic family business of London haute couture. Pining for adventure, Newby sent his friend Hugh Carless the now-famous cable - CAN YOU TRAVEL NURISTAN JUNE? - setting in motion a legendary journey from Mayfair to Afghanistan, and the mountains of the Hindu Kush, northeast of Kabul. Inexperienced and ill prepared (their preparations involved nothing more than some tips from a Welsh waitress), the amateurish rogues embarked on a month of adventure and hardship in one of the most beautiful wildernesses on earth.

When struggling ex-copper Terry Coats was discovered in bed with an air hostess, his excuse that he was 'going undercover' cut no ice with the force - or his wife. But now he's been brutally killed on Hogmanay night, it seems there may have been more to his plea. Dragged from the New Year celebrations, Special Constable Sir Bob Skinner is shocked to find Coats' body alongside that of Griff Montell: his erstwhile protégé and former lover of Skinner's own daughter, Alex. Could there be some dark truth under Coats' cock-and-bull story, after all?

Sir Robert Skinner's stock is rising - after retiring from the police service he's been promoted to head an international media organisation. Yet a series of unexplained deaths on his home turf in Scotland threaten to bring him crashing back down to earth. As Skinner helps the elderly in his local community, several residents seem to die of natural causes. But when a gruesome discovery is made in a Glasgow flat and one of Skinner's long-time friends - an aspiring politician - emerges as the prime suspect, things become very murky indeed.

The opening of an elite country club, marked by a prestigious golf tournament, turns to chaos when a man is found dead in the clubhouse jacuzzi – with his throat cut. When the murder is linked to a legendary witches’ curse, Assistant Chief Constable Bob Skinner thinks it’s fantasy. He’s more concerned with harsh reality than East Lothian’s past as a centre for witchcraft. But when another body is found, he must uncover the disturbing truth beneath a dark mythology…

Amidst a family celebration, a cataclysmic storm uncovers long-buried horrors—and a team of detectives struggle to solve a thirty-year-old double murder. The police are also searching two countries for traces of a mysterious crime novelist who appears to have vanished. Has the faking of his own death been his masterpiece? Alongside each inquiry as it evolves is former Chief Constable Sir Robert Skinner, relishing his new role as a media magnate, but drawn into reluctant action and towards a chilling discovery of his own.

Despite his passionate love for Ardfalloch, Iain has been driven to let his home and estate to Mr Hetherington Smith, a wealthy London businessman, and his kindly wife (who was, truth be told, happier when they were poor). MacAslan stays on in a cottage by the loch, aided by his devoted keeper Donald and Donald’s wife, Morag. But he finds himself irresistibly drawn to Linda Medworth and her young son, invited to Ardfalloch by Mrs Hetherington Smith.

The 30th gritty mystery in Quintin Jardine's bestselling Bob Skinner series, not to be missed by readers of Ian Rankin and Peter May. Former Chief Constable Bob Skinner may have left the police service, but he's never far from a case. When his old mentor on the force, Jimmy Proud, finds himself in a desperate situation, Skinner gets pulled into a murder investigation that's been closed for 30 years.

Bob Skinner may be Chief Constable no more but he's indispensable to Scotland's police force when it comes to cracking the toughest cases. It's not just the brilliant detective work - it's the absolute determination to unearth the truth and see justice done. And Bob Skinner doesn't care whose toes he treads on as he pursues the guilty.

Duchlan Castle is a gloomy place in the Scottish Highlands. Late one night the body of Mary Gregor, sister of the laird, is found in the castle. She has been stabbed to death in her locked bedroom. The only tiny clue to the culprit is a silver fish's scale, left on the floor next to Mary's body. Inspector Dundas is dispatched to investigate. The Gregor family and their servants are quick to explain that Mary was a kind and charitable woman, but Dundas uncovers a more complex truth.

BBC Radio dramatisations of some of Muriel Spark’s best works, plus bonus episode of The Essay: All Miss Brodie’s Girls Muriel Spark was one of Scotland’s brightest and most original literary talents. In a career spanning over 60 years, she published over 20 novels, as well as essays...

First the joyous birth of Skinner’s son… Then the grim reality of murder in ones of Edinburgh’s prosperous suburbs. A man has been found knifed in a luxury villa. The victim had run a chain of launderettes, saunas and pubs throughout the city, but for some time the police suspected these to be the front for a drug-distribution network.

As head of Edinburgh’s CID, Detective Chief Superintendent Bob Skinner has seen it all…but even he is shocked by the savagely mutilated corpse discovered in a dark alleyway. The victim is identified as a successful young lawyer, and the motive for the brutal death remains a mystery. Then further seemingly random killings in the city begin to suggest a vicious serial killer on the rampage. But when the lawyer’s fiancée is also murdered, Skinner realises that someone is in deadly earnest.

When an Edinburgh car showroom is torched, leaving a charred body among the burnt-out luxury cars, Deputy Chief Constable Bob Skinner wonders if a life of crime has finally caught up with one of the city's most elusive villains. But the corpse turns out not to be that of Jackie Charles, the owner of the showroom, but his wife Carole. Skinner now finds himself on the same side as his old enemy. However, Skinner's number one priority is a murder much closer to home.

On his 44th birthday, Eric Newby sets out on an incredible journey: to travel the 1,200-mile length of India's holy river. In a misguided attempt to keep him out of trouble, Wanda, his lifelong travel companion and wife, is to be his fellow boatwoman. Their plan is to begin in the great plain of Hardwar and finish in the Bay of Bengal, but the journey almost immediately becomes markedly slower and more treacherous than either had imagined - running aground 63 times in the first six days.

Still reeling from the tragic death of their much-loved colleague, Skinner's men are about to discover that a disturbed serial killer is still at large and very close to home. DCC Bob Skinner and his men get a call informing them that the body of a young woman has been found on a golf course. The way she has been laid out is uncannily familiar; the body has been "composed", just like the bodies of three other young women in a previous case. Could it be the work of a copycat killer?

Quintin Jardine's 26th Bob Skinner mystery sees the Edinburgh sleuth plunged into a gruelling new case in which no score will go unsettled. Former Chief Constable Bob Skinner has uncovered his fair share of crime scenes over his 30-year career. But few have affected him quite as much as the horrifying sight he finds stowed in the back of a stolen car that collides with his own on the outskirts of Edinburgh.

Deputy Chief Constable Bob Skinner could be forgiven for thinking that someone is out to get him. With his marriage already on the rocks, he suddenly finds his private life plastered across the pages of a tabloid. And then a woman already linked to Skinner by tragedy is found dead, with her young son a kidnap victim. Skinner finds himself at the centre of a deadly maze of conspiracy and unless he can clear his name he stands to lose everything.