Yet the man who wrote it remains a fascinating and enduring enigma. This is a personal and sympathetic look at this extraordinary man during his last tumultuous years. Maxwell's Ghost caused a stir when it was published in 1976 because it dealt candidly with its subject's homosexual friendships. This aspect of the man had not been common knowledge even among Maxwell's close friends, and certainly had not been touched upon in the 1969 film of Ring of Bright Water which Frere always called 'notably inane' or in Maxwell's memoir from the previous year, Raven Seek Thy Brother. Frere denied sensationalizing in his book. He said that Maxwell had asked him on his death-bed to write it, and 'demanded that I write a true and impartial account'. Maxwell's Ghost is a grittily honest portrayal of Gavin Maxwell through the destruction of Camusfearna to his final acceptance of the inevitability of his death.

    When the Second Earl of Douglas is slain at the Battle of Otterburn, foul play is alleged against the Stewarts. This is the first part of the "House of Stewart" trilogy.

    An invalid teenage girl and her eleven-year-old brother uncover secrets of past generations who lived in their family's house in Edinburgh.

    A bewitching and atmospheric collection of short stories celebrating life and love: the world ripens as a baby stirs in its mother's womb; a soldier captured at Bannockburn sees the daughter of his jailor bathing and falls in love; two ghosts become reconciled with death; an 18th century tale of piracy and treachery.

    In this second volume of his trilogy which began with To the Back of Beyond, Sir Fitzroy Maclean transports us to one of the most exciting places on earth, to the vast mountain barrier of the Caucasus, with its towering, snow capped peaks and precipitous abysses, and beyond it to the mellow, sunlit uplands of Georgia and Armenia.