Alumni Services

October 2013

Each month, we bring you a selection of new books written by Edinburgh alumni. This month's selection includes two new novels, an artist's view of the landscapes and birds of Scotland, and a study of the healing movement in Christianity.

Timothy Francis Ashby

Author Timothy Francis Ashby
Edinburgh degree MBA 1991
Book Time Fall: A Novel

On a secret mission in 1945, Lt. Art Sutton’s crack team of US Rangers parachutes into Nazi Germany weeks before the end of World War II … and vanishes! The soldiers land on target - in densely forested Germany... in 2011. Unaware of the passage of time, the Rangers begin their operation: sabotage, assassinations and assaults on military targets. Each of the complex characters believes he is doing the "right thing." Germany’s elite counter-terrorism unit thinks the soldiers are immoral terrorists. Who is good? Who is evil? This inventive, historically accurate and fast-paced thriller will keep you on the edge of your seat from stunning beginning to surprising end.

Leo du Feu

Author Leo du Feu
Edinburgh degree Drawing and Painting 2006
Book Landscapes & Birds of Scotland, an Artist's View

Landscapes and Birds of Scotland: An Artist’s View is a journey through Scotland’s lowlands, highlands and islands, beautifully wrought by artist Leo du Feu. Leo’s three passions - birds, art and the outdoors - are demonstrated in the pages of this wonderful book. From peregrine falcons in flight over Slains Castle to the majestic lighthouse on Rattray Beach and the beauty of Orkney, this book will appeal to all lovers of nature and the natural landscape. Also included are sketches from trains, made by the artist on his travels around Scotland.

Victoria Hendry

Author Victoria Hendry
Edinburgh degree Creative Writing 2011
Book A Capital Union

A Capital Union explores the relationship between Scotland and England in the 1940s when the controversially elected Chairman of the SNP, Douglas Young, challenged Westminster's right to enforce conscription north of the border. He fought his case in the High Court in Edinburgh on the grounds that the move was illegal under the terms of the Treaty of Union in 1707. He lost his case and was imprisoned in Saughton. The story records these events through the eyes of a young country woman called Agnes. She is just seventeen, and the wife of a researcher on the fledgling Scottish National Dictionary project to save the Scots language for future generations. She uncovers a secret that will test her loyalty, both personal and political, at a time of national crisis. Real historical events are fictionalised.

J Keir Howard

Author J Keir Howard
Edinburgh degree MB, ChB 1960, MD 1982
Book The Healing Myth: A Critique of the Modern Healing Movement

Following on from his previous study of disease and healing in the New Testament (Medicine, Miracle and Myth in the New Testament [2010]), Keir Howard looks at the modern healing movement in the church. He challenges much of the woolly thinking and exaggerated claims found in the contemporary church about the subject of Christian healing ministries. With a lifetime of research in medicine, particularly in epidemiology, as well as a PhD in New Testament, Dr Howard is well placed to consider this subject. The book has been described as a highly accessible text. Informative and thought provoking, it poses an effective challenge to the widely held but largely unexamined belief that the Christian Church should have a ‘healing ministry’. Both books could well have places in medical and theological libraries and be of value to doctors and ministers alike.

Alexander Lee

Author Alexander Lee
Edinburgh degree PhD History 2009
Book The Ugly Renaissance: Sex, Disease and Excess in an Age of Beauty

Taking the reader on a shocking and often scandalous journey through Italian history, 'The Ugly Renaissance’ unmasks the social realities behind the surface of Renaissance art, from economic crises and political corruption to epidemics and murder.

Now an Associate Fellow at the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance, University of Warwick, Dr Lee is also a Founding Editor of The Utopian magazine.