JAMES ROBERTSON

A madcap Highland adventure from the Booker-longlisted author of And The Land Lay Still and The Testament of Gideon Mack.Douglas Findhorn Elder is in a sorry state. He's just turned fifty, split up from his girlfriend and been pushed out of his job in an ailing national newspaper. On the night of his birthday, he makes an unexpected new friend: a talking toad. So begins a wild goose chase that will lead Douglas out of his cosy house in Edinburgh and across the country - all the way to crumbling Glentaragar House in the distant West Highlands. Awaiting him along the journey are a semi-criminal hearse driver, a hundred-year-old political firebrand grandmother, a split-personality alcoholic/teetotaller, an elaborate whisky-smuggling conspiracy, a mysterious woman with a rather enchanting Greek nose, and maybe even a shot at redemption...In this gloriously surreal romp, James Robertson proves once and for all that the important things in life - friendship, romance, a very fine malt whisky - come when you least expect them.

El tema de la animación y el diseño de juegos se ha convertido, sin lugar a duda, en un arte de moda en el mundo del diseño por ordenador. Tratar Flash 5 desde la perspectiva de la programación interactiva de juegos en Internet y la creacion de personajes animados para la television es verdaderamente fascinante.A lo largo de sus once capitulos, este libro explica no solo la tecnologia para el uso de la aplicacion, sino tambien el proceso de produccion de un trabajo: la creacion de una secuencia, el uso del sonido y el color, el montaje de elementos y de movimiento, y la composicion de escenas. Temas tan interesantes como el diseño del guion y de los personajes, la sincronizacion de los labios y las expresiones faciales se explican de forma contundente. Otra seccion del libro esta dedicada al diseño de juegos: estrategias, programacion y animaciones, centrandose principalmente en ActionScript como herramienta para crearlos.Se incluye un valioso CD ROM con una version demo de Flash 5, SmartSound (software especializado en la creacion de musica) y Magpie Pro (editor especializado en la sincronizacion del movimiento de los labios), asi como numerosos ejemplos que contienen una completa exhibicion de juegos y dibujos animados, algunos en codigos fuente para investigar y otros ejecutables para observar y disfrutar.Los autores Bill Turner James Robertson y Richard Bazley tienen una amplia experiencia en el campo de los juegos y las animaciones realizadas con Flash.

An utterly mad, entirely heart-warming Highland adventure from the Man Booker-longlisted author of And the Land lay Still Douglas is fifty years old - he's just lost his job, been kicked out by his girlfriend and moved back into his dad's house. Just when things are starting to look hopeless, he makes a very unexpected new friend: a talking toad. Mungo is a wise-cracking, straight-talking, no-nonsense kind of toad - and he is determined to get Douglas's life back on track. Together, man and beast undertake a madcap quest to the distant Highlands, hot on the trail of a hundred-year-old granny, a beautiful Greek nymph, a split-personality alcoholic/teetotaller, a reluctant whisky-smuggler, and the elusive glimmer of redemption ...

Spring, 1997. Hugh Hardie needs a ghost for his Tours of Old Edinburgh, and Andrew Carlin is the perfect candidate. So with cape, stick, and plastic rat, Carlin is paid to scare the tourists, pretending to be the spirit of Colonel Weir, a religious extremist burned at the stake in 1670. But who was Weir? Carlin's research draws him into the past and, in particular, to James Mitchel, imprisoned in 1674 for the attempted assassination of the Archbishop of St Andrews. Through the story of Carlin and Mitchel, The Fanatic reveals an extraordinary history of Scotland: a tale of betrayals, witch hunts, Puritan exiles, smuggled journeys, and disguised identities. A gripping, richly imagined novel.

In 2013, James Robertson wrote a story every day. Each was exactly 365 words long. A year later, on a daily basis, the stories were published on the Five Dials website. Now the 365 stories are gathered together in one volume. Some draw on elements of ancient myth and legend, others are outtakes from Scottish history and folklore; there are squibs and satires, songs and ballads in disguise, fairytales, stories inspired by dreams or in the form of interviews, and personal memories and observations.Underpinning all of them are vital questions: Who are we? What are we doing here? What happens next?'Wow. James Robertson wrote a 365-word short story each day in 2013. They'll be posted throughout 2014' Ian Rankin, via Twitter'A great storyteller' The Times'One of Britain's best contemporary novelists' Irvine Welsh, GuardianJames Robertson is the author of five novels, The Professor of Truth, And the Land Lay Still, The Testament of Gideon Mack, Joseph Knight and The Fanatic. The Testament of Gideon Mack was longlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize and selected for Richard and Judy's Book Club the following year. Joseph Knight was the Saltire Scottish Book of the Year in 2003 and And the Land Lay Still was recipient of the same prize in 2010.

The Professor of Truth is James Robertson's acclaimed novel about grief, truth and justice. Twenty-one years after his wife and daughter were murdered in the bombing of a plane over Scotland, Alan Tealing, a university lecturer, still doubts the official version of events surrounding that terrible night. Obsessed by the details of what he has come to call The Case, he is sure that the man convicted of the atrocity was not responsible, and that he himself has thus been deprived not only of justice but also of any chance of escape from his enduring grief. When a terminally ill American intelligence officer arrives on his doorstep with information about a key witness in the trial, Alan decides to act. Will this lead to the truth for which he has waited so long? "Superb. A mystery thriller, a haunting evocation of grief". (Daily Mail). "A great storyteller. It is a tense and gripping read, beautifully imagined". (The Times). "Powered by action and mystery, and profoundly invested in the lives of its characters". (Scotsman). James Robertson is the author of four previous novels, The Fanatic, Joseph Knight, The Testament of Gideon Mack and And the Land Lay Still. The Testament of Gideon Mack was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, picked by Richard and Judy's Book Club, and shortlisted for the Saltire Book of the Year award. And the Land Lay Still was the winner of the Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award 2010.

A strange but compelling manuscript, supposedly the memoir of a Church of Scotland minister who has gone missing, arrives on the desk of an Edinburgh publisher. It tells the story of Gideon Mack, a son of the manse raised in chilly austerity and dominated by a joyless father, who claims to have met the Devil. Mixing fantasy, legend and history, The Testament of Gideon Mack is an ambitious, mesmerising novel which combines superlative storytelling with immense imaginative power.