Best Selling Books by Eric Linklater

A Carnegie Medal winner, this delightful fantasy will appeal to children who love Alice in Wonderland and The Wind in the Willows. In the English village of Midmeddlecum, Major Palfrey asks his two daughters to behave themselves while he is off at war. Sighing, Dinah says, “I think that we are quite likely to be bad, however hard we try not to be,” and her sister, Dorinda, adds helpfully, “Very often, when we think we are behaving well, some grown-up person says we are really quite bad. It’s difficult to tell which is which.” Sure enough, the mischievous sisters soon convince a judge that minds must be changed as often as socks, stage an escape from the local zoo (thanks to a witch’s potion that turns them into kangaroos), and—in the company of a golden puma and silver falcon—set off to rescue their father from the tyrant of Bombardy. A tale of hilarity and great adventure, The Wind on the Moon is also a work of high seriousness; after all, “life without freedom,” as the valiant puma makes clear, “is a poor, poor thing.”

The earlier adventures of Juan Mosely – a lineal descendant of Byron''s Don Juan – continue on an amorous adventure to China where he becomes involved in politics and welfare and deals with them in his own practical and fantastic way. "Witty and amusing...Brilliant at times -- erratic -- original -- and for a somewhat sophisticated taste." -Kirkus Review

The Next Great War begins, and soon all Europe is involved. The war lasts a year - and then the women, robbed of husbands and sweethearts and sons, grow doubtful of the benefits of military policy, and begin to think that victory will come too late to do them any good. But what can they do? A remedy was discovered by Aristophanes about 2350 years ago. It is re-discovered and re-applied. And it is again successful. This is an Aristophanic comedy, and takes some Aristophanic liberties. It is satirical when the author pleases and when he cares to be serious he is very serious indeed. There is no monotony. The story shifts from realism to wild burlesque; from earnest appeal to uproarious extravagance. The final scenes are in Edinburgh. Aristophanes made his insurgent women seize the Acropolis - here they take possession of Edinburgh Castle, as tall an eminence, and hold it against the infuriated men. The fight for the Castle is the culminating incident in a vigorous and many-sided novel.

When the celibate Major Gander, C.B., T.D. sold out the family toffee business to American Candy Inc., he was able to retire in comfort. And when he dies from heart failure (it was after a strenuous shoot at the Brackens'' Rife Meeting) his gathered relatives found that the thought of his will moderated their grief considerably. For they all felt well placed for at least a few thousand to help them cultivate their favourite virtues and vices! But it was not to be so simple. The Major, they soon discovered, had made his choice of legatee dependent on the most preposterous condition...

"When the giants fell, old bones revived" - there is the rubric for Eric Linklater''s new story, first published in 1949. There may be no historical foundation for his tale of a fantastic war, in the First century A.D., between the giant Furbister and the abominable Od McGammon, his neighbour in the south-west of Scotland; but their quarrel - which provides a background to the engaging love-story of the willful poet Albyn and the delightful Princess Liss - has a real enough interest and no small significance in our equally strange world of today. Would love cure all our troubles? Love indeed has a power that is almost infinite. But man (especially if he is a willful poet) has the habit of dissatisfaction, an eye that looks critically at love itself. And here, in this tale of some very modern primitives, love makes the running but fails to win the race. A new departure for Linklater? Well, he often makes new departures, and here, though he is serious at bottom, his seriousness is nicely garnished with wit, and sometimes at the mercy of humour. The fascination of the story carries its outlandishness as lightly as a feather.

A hitherto unknown pornographic manuscript of Robert Burns is found in the effects of a dead schoolmaster of impeccable reputation. Max Arbuthnot, an Edinburgh lawyer and a rich man, who at the age of sixty has a rampant appetite for the pleasures of the flesh, takes charge of it. As the manuscript is lost, found again, stolen, and variously shuttles back and forth, the infection of its bawdiness creates havoc in Edinburgh.It''s ultimate fate is only decided after a series of bizarre adventures. Part farce, part satire on manners and social attitudes, The Merry Muse sparkles from beginning to end. It is the work of a master, written at the height of his powers. "[Linklater] has created one of his most memorable characters in that solid and yet strangely vulnerable citizen, the inimitable Max. - The New York Times "This is one of those rare books of comedy in which the humor depends solidly on situation and character and not merely on wisecrack" - Chicago Daily Tribune

First published in 1966, Eric Linklater''s brilliant novel tells the story of a double existence. Evan Gaffikin, sixtyish, grumpy and bored with his dull commercial success, discovers and develops his power to dream: to dream in such depth and in such glowing reality that he is able to escape his extraordinary existence. We learn of his double life as scenes from Gaffikin''s real life alternate with his surrealistic, vivid, and often hilariously bawdy forays into the world of unreality. As his dream-world and its remarkable characters, gradually get the upper hand, the tension of the novel rises and the climactic sequence - in a yacht off the Hebrides - is mysterious and exciting. A Terrible Freedom could, perhaps, be described as an idiosyncratic venture into the realm of science fiction; but it may be preferable to see it as a conventional novel built with classical composure of unconventional material. Either way it is a tour de force of imagination and narrative skills.

Eric Linklater''s command of language and situation, and his gifts for humour and storytelling have seldom been better displayed than in A Man Over Forty, first published in 1963. Edward Balintore is the archetypal television personality: big, loud, and assertive, given to reactionary sentiments and fits of explosive anger. In a ''depth'' interview before the cameras he is driven to admitting a fear ''of being found out'' and collapses with what the doctors call overstrain and nervous tension. Accompanied by his Watson or Sancho Panza, Guy Palladis, an elegant, detached and well-connected young man, he sets out on a long and varied quest for peace and an earthly paradise. Jamaica, Ireland, Greece, all are sampled in turn and nearly accepted; but in each some dissonant element from Balintore''s past turns up and sends him on. The Furies (If it is indeed they who are pursuing him), finally catch up with him in the Aegean in sight of Mount Athos - appropriately enough, for a man with a soul to save or sell. This is a novel of great satirical and imaginative scope - a picture of red-blooded Dionysiac man bent on defying ''the solemn ones'' who plague him.

This hilarious novel charts the rise and fall (and perhaps the rise again) of Magnus Merriman-would-be lover, writer, politician, idealist and crofter-moved by dreams of greatness and a talent for farcical defeat. Convinced that ''small nations are safer to live in than big ones'', Magnus becomes a Nationalist candidate for the parliamentary seat of ''Kinluce''. With details based on Linklater''s own experiences in an East Fife by-election in 1933, the way is set for a satirical and irreverent portrait of Scottish life, literature and politics in the 1930s. Nothing is sacred and no-one is spared.

In the early years of the Second World War an army officer is sent to the Faroe Islands to investigate rumours of a collaboration with the Nazi regime in Norway. What he finds changes lives, not least his own. No one who reads this book will forget the frozen corpse tied to a chair in an icehouse guarded by two drunken seamen, or the raging storm which batters their, ship as they carry the body to Shetland. That''s just the beginning. As the tale takes grip, the reader becomes haunted, just as the characters are haunted by a sense of guilt and betrayal. One of the finest of Linklater''s later, deeper, darker novels, The Dark of Summer combines national and family histories as it sets out to understand the past, redeem the corrosion of memory and find meaning in a world of divided loyalties.

The Pirates in the Deep Green Sea, written for children, is a fantasy, in which Davy Jones and all the drowned pirates under the sea are discovered guarding the great knots that tie latitudes and longitudes together to keep the world from splitting.

Are the people of Britain capable of serving the new world, of writing with honour a new chapter of history? The answer, conclusively, is Yes.... But Socrates, in the third of the pieces, has still to be satisfied that the Allies are truly conscious of their purpose. A four-fold rule of law is not enough: the peace within that rule must not be an idle peace, but creative. If that is not explicitly our intention and desire, then why are we fighting? The Raft and Socrates Asks Why are imaginary conversations revolving around the political and military problems of WWII. The Raft is set in the mid-Atlantic, where six survivors from a torpedoed ship discuss the position of Britain and the difficulties and moral dilemmas of a soldier life. Socrates Asks Why is a conversation between Socrates, Voltaire, Johnson and Lincoln where the Allies'' aim of peace and ending of the war is discussed and questioned. These conversations were first published in 1942.

Eric Linklater was one of the most respected and prolific Scottish writers of this century, yet more than twenty-five years have passed since his last collection of short stories was published. This selection covers Linklater''s entire writing life. The settings are as various as the places where he lived - Orkney, India, California, Edinburgh and the Highlands - the events that take place, both fantastic and sensual in their depiction. A strong seam of Scottish history and culture runs through much of Linklater''s work. The short stories include classics of the form, such as The Goose Girl and Kind Kitty, and wild variations on fairy stories, medieval myths, bawdy folktales, Viking sagas and 1920s crime reports. They derive from the magic of the world - love, beauty, ambition, drink and language. Their exuberant invention and comic verve provide glorious evidence for George Mackay Brown''s assertion that ''Linklater is one of Scotland''s best story-tellers ever''.

Engelsk regimentshistorie og afdelingshistorie om den britiske 51. højlandsdivision og dens indsats som en del af Den Britiske Ekspeditionsstyrke, "The British Expedionary Force" i Frankrig i 1940. Divisionen, som desuden indeholdt bataljoner fra adskillige andre højlandsregimenter, f.eks "Argyll Higlanders", "Sutherland Highlanders" og "The Ark Force", kom i hårde kampe, bla. fordi fronten visse steder var meget lang.

This satirical novel of a young innocent caught in the fascist machinery of WWII offers "the drollest medley of muddle and misadventure" ( The Sunday Times, UK). A private in Mussolini''s ''ever-glorious'' Italian army, Angelo may possess the virtues of love and innocence, but he lacks the gift of courage. And yet, due to circumstances beyond his control, he ends up fighting not only for Italy but also for the British and German armies. Through the shifting winds of war, as well as marriage and romance, Angelo''s most enduring quality may be his talent for survival. Told with humor, insight and sympathy, Angelo''s tale is a wittily satirical comment on the grossness and waste of war. Eric Linklater, who served with the Black Watch in Italy during World War II, is one of Scotland''s most distinguished writers. In Private Angelo he has written a book which demonstrates that honor is not solely the preserve of the brave. "He writes not only of an angel, but like one . . . Private Angelo is now a permanent portrait in the heavenly gallery of human futility." — The Observer, UK "A quite unforgettable group of people take part, none of whom lacks the genuine Linklater stamp . . . A high-spirited entertainment which never loses its individual air." — The Sunday Times, UK