Barbican Press

What if the end of the world is the best thing that's never happened?

'A REMARKABLE AND PEERLESS READ.' Morning Star

'GRIPPING, FUNNY AND HOPEFUL.' The Times

'WILDLY IMAGINTIVE.' Scotland on Sunday

In the central Scottish town of Dundule, residents of the Busy Bee Flats – Donna and her eight-year old daughter, dour ex-miner Douglas, big Giorgio the chip shop fryer, young druggies Tam and Mac – struggle like everyone else.

Then the lights go out.

Winter, and it’s a global blackout.

Now’s the choice. Go wild and raid the streets, or come together and build something new in the ruins of the old.

But there's no paradise yet. Botched deals, armed survivalists and dwindling resources threaten to destroy progress. And the occasional screech of a fighter jet reminds them that nuclear oblivion still looms…

Disnaeland mixes tenderness with broad comedy during the end times. Shifting from the deeply personal to the visionary, D.D. Johnston brings us an extraordinary and prophetic novel.

Some blogger reaction:

‘A brilliant exciting roller coaster ride... the best dystopia I have ever read.’ @ladyreading365

‘Refreshingly original… thought provoking… surprisingly uplifting. I laughed, I cried… and I enjoyed the ride.’ @librarylove2781

‘What a read! Heart-breaking but heart-warming, morbid but hopeful.’ @herandherbooks

‘It took me exactly one chapter to be obsessed with this book... quirky, morbid, uplifting and hilarious.’@mybloodybookstsagram

‘Laugh out loud funny with great characters.’ @candygirl73reads

‘Memorable characters and an interesting set up… one of my top dystopian books.’ @whatyoutolkienabout

‘The novel’s radical premise is elevated by vividly drawn characters and its compassionate and hilarious storytelling.’ @reecetagram

‘Disnaeland is as witty and warm as it is dark and dingy.’ @swordinthesloan

'Sharp-witted humour and a writing style that reminded me of Christopher Brookmyre, I was engrossed in this distinct wee novel.’ @pap3rcut__

A 'lost' women's classic from World War I - discovered in the rare books room of the British Library, last seen in 1917!

A Scottish woman sends funny, moving, compassionate and rousing letters to her younger brother, set to fight with the Canadian Expeditionary Force in the trenches of WWI. Dunfermline, her hometown and the base for the Scottish regiment The Black Watch, morphs into an active home front.

Letter by letter we watch the war unfolding. Her brother trains with his cavalry regiment on England’s Salisbury Plain and moves to frontline duty in France. Shocked by the war and those who inflame it, the sister’s letters are frank and also encouraging. Others are vanishing. She needs her brother, her young Canadian, to survive. Complete with an introduction, a closing biography, and original photographs of the author and the period.

"Daisy Thomson Gigg creates a voice as alive and open, fresh and engaged as when she sat at the little round table, beneath the red-shaded lamp more than a century ago, writing to her Boy, determined to keep his spirits up and remind him of home....Hers represents a new and unique voice and an important addition to the canon of literature of the First World War." –Angela K. Smith, author of Women's Writing of the First World War

“Make this book your friend,” says Arianna Huffington.

James Thornton’s Nature, My Teacher, is a powerful guide to being human in a time of eco-crisis.

In Nature, My Teacher, poet, lawyer and founder of top global environmental group ClientEarth, James Thornton offers a meditation on being alive while the planet fights to survive. He explores topics such as memory, climate anxiety, and human consciousness through a series of short essays, arranged into twelve “books”, each closing with a poem and a photo to leave readers in a reflective space.

As a Zen priest from Los Angeles, James contemplates what he has learnt from observing and listening to nature, and shows that when the planet is hurting, we too feel its pain.

The way this book is opening hearts and minds is remarkable. Arianna Huffington found it “powerful and moving”, Zen abbot and author Joan Halifax sums: “A profound guide to discovering the great wisdom in the natural world, this book…is a treasure for all”.

Patrick, the first Irish Pope, is sure of many things: his faith, the sanctity of life, that he is a man, that he is celibate.

Then all he's held true is cast into doubt.

How can he act as the moral heart of the church when his convictions falter and his secrets threaten to destroy all he's achieved? Catholicism and modern morality are held in tension, and Pope Patrick must make once unimaginable choices. When the truth begins to emerge, the Vatican wants him silenced. The Pope’s sheltered existence becomes a race of life and death.