Our Ten Year Celebration Anthology

A wonderful collection of stories from previous winners and runners up

Blue Postcards by Douglas Bruton,a several times previous HISSAC Winner and partaker in our Mentorship Scheme

Once there was a street in Paris and it was called the Street of Tailors. Now it's the 1950s and Henri is the last tailor on the street...
"The novel, and the magic blue Tekhelet thread that stitches it together, will stay with readers forever, leaving them in a more beautiful and coincidental world."
Julia Nemirovskaya, poet, playwright and writer

Cuddie’s Strip by Rob McInroy, who took part in our Mentorship Scheme.

Cuddies Strip is based on a true crime. It faithfully follows the investigation and subsequent trial but it also examines the mores of the times and the insensitive treatment of women in a male-dominated society. It is a novel about love and friendship and the need to break free from the ghosts of the past.

More details of Rob and his book

Smog by Isabelle LLasera, who came joint 2nd in 2007.

Serious, humorous, tragic and inspiring, the stories in Smog explore the nuances of identity and nationality, assert that the personal and political are always interdependent and rest on our fundamental humanity.

More details of Isabelle and her book

The Wacky Man by Lynn Farrell, who took part in our Mentorship Scheme.

Winner of the Luke Bitmead Award in 2015 The Wacky Man is intense and disturbing. Amanda secludes herself in her bedroom, no longer willing to face the outside world. Gradually, she pieces together the story of her life: her brothers have had to abandon her, her mother scarcely talks to her, and the Wacky Man could return any day to burn the house down. Just like he promised.

More details of Lynn and her book

Mrs Winchester by Douglas Bruton

Sarah Winchester is gripped with guilt. Left a fortune by her husband’s invention of the Winchester rifle, she is haunted by those it has slain, and by her own complicity in their deaths. In an effort to ease her conscience, she begins the construction of the Winchester House, a maze of rooms meant to house the dead Sarah cannot seem to escape.The novel masterfully handles themes of grief, responsibility, atonement and ultimately forgiveness through a multitude of vibrant voices.

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Travelling in the Dark by Emma Timpany, who took part in our Mentorship Scheme

Set in the wild, beautiful and unreliable landscape of southern New Zealand, Emma Timpany’s novella is an evocative story of a woman coming to terms with her past

The Threat Level Remains Severe by Rowena Macdonald

A smart summer read, and a satirical look behind the doors of Westminster

The Huntingfield Paintress by Pamela Holmes

Click on the cover for reviews and press release

Tandem by Alex Morgan, who took part in our Mentorship Scheme

Tandem won the Hookline Award in 2014 and was shortlisted for the Guardian Debut Novel 2014 Award

Talk of the Toun by Helen MacKinven

Talk of the Toun will be published by Thunderpoint in October 2015; a coming of age novel set in Falkirk in the 1980s

Returning: The Journey of Alexander Sinclair by Sharon Gunason Pottinger

Returning is the story of a journalist returning to Scotland from Afghanistan