Fledgling Press is an independent publisher based in Edinburgh, publishing historical fiction, life stories, crime fiction, literary fiction and young adult fiction, including award-winning authors Helen Grant, Philip Caveney and Alex Nye. We are committed to publishing work by debut authors, emerging talent and new voices in the literary world.
Saltire First Book Award shortlistees Moira McPartlin (The Incomers) and Kate Hunter (The Caseroom), and the next new name in Scottish Crime Fiction, Andrew James Greig (Whirligig), currently longlisted for the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger 2020 and the McIlvanney Prize 2020 are represented by Fledgling Press too.
Happiness Is Wasted On Me is a genre-blending tale that spans a decade in the life of Walter Wedgeworth. It's a coming of age tale, a family drama, a mystery, and a biting dark comedy. Ultimately, it's the story of how even the strangest people can find their way in the world.
The Sins of Allie Lawrence is a tale of temptation, inspired by the legend of Black Donald, and set against the vibrant world of the theatre.After a blazing row with her mother, sixteen-year-old Allie Lawrence impulsively runs away from the family home in Killiecrankie, with no plan other than to go to Edinburgh to 'be an actor.'
A gamekeeper is found hanging lifeless from a tree near a sleepy Highland town. A police investigation finds he has been cleverly snared. As the body count rises, the hunt is on to find the murderer. But the town doesn't give up its secrets easily and who makes the intricate clockwork mechanisms carved from bone and wood found at each crime?
Four teenagers devise a plan to show people they should never trust what they read on the internet. They launch a news site detailing amazing, utterly believable but totally untrue stories. They intend to come clean, but success goes to their heads and soon they are enmeshed in a world of spies and aliens. How will they get out of this unscathed?
Sometimes it's terrifying, loving someone this much... For Fen Munro and her fiance James, it is a dream come true: an escape from London to a beautiful house in stunning Perthshire. But at night, Fen is tormented by horrifying dreams. Someone wants Fen's happiness, and nothing is going to stop them - not even death...
It's Hannah Greenshields's first day at Memory Lane, a memory clinic in the centre of Edinburgh. John Valentine, a Memory Lane client, is reliving his wedding day over and over again, hoping to change one key event he can't forget. When Hannah and John's paths meet, they must work together to get John back to the real world before it's too late.
The Caseroom follows the fortunes of Iza Ross as she joins the ranks as one of around 800 women who, for the first time, have been allowed to join Edinburgh's thriving print industry in the late 19th to early 20th century as typesetters: a male-dominated trade which stands resistant to changes in the industry.
Wing Commander Robert Sutherland has left his days as a pre-war detective far behind him, or so he thinks. Set against a background of a country that is far from united behind Winston Churchill, Eyes Turned Skywards spans land and sea and air. This novel is based around true events, including the death of the Duke of Kent during World War II.
Augusta McAndrew lives on a remote Scottish estate with her grandmother, Rose. She hides from outsiders, as she has done her entire life. One day Rose goes out and never returns, leaving Augusta utterly alone. Then Tom McAllister arrives; good-looking and fascinating, but dangerous. What he has to tell her could tear her whole world apart.
Everybody in the kingdom supports brave knight Leo in his battle against his fearsome dragons. They try lots of different things to help him defeat them but eventually Leo realises the most important thing to do is to believe in himself. Written by Gill White for her son Leo who suffers from Ohtahara Syndrome, an extremely rare form of epilepsy.
This third and final volume of The Sun Song Trilogy finds Sorlie and Ishbel working together in one last attempt to save Esperaneo. As The Prince's health deteriorates he hands over leadership of the Star of Hope's mission to Sorlie and Ishbel. But what is the Star of Hope? All they know is that it will free the native race from slavery.
Graham Morgan helped to write the Scottish Mental Health (2003) Care and Treatment Act. This is the Act under which he is now detained. His story addresses mental illness from a perspective that is not heard frequently: that of those whose illness is so severe that they are subject to the Mental Health Act.
The year is 1586, and Mary Stuart is sitting in an English prison cell at the end of her life, stitching her tapestries, haunted by the ghosts of her past - only she can tell the true version of events, whilst quietly stitching her braid and entertaining the apparitions which visit her.
The year is 1839, and Mary Shelley - the author of Frankenstein - is alone. Sorting through her husband's scattered papers she is reminded of their past: the half-ruined villas in Italy, the stormy relationship with Shelley and her stepsister Claire, the loss of her children, and finally, her husband's drowning on the Gulf of Spezia.
Steve Harvey was in the same class at school as Sting in the sixties, on 'the Fringe' with Liam Neeson in the seventies; spent a day with Spike Milligan; went round the world; breathalysed Gazza and much, much more - this is the story of his life so far.