Isla Dewar Books

When Iris Chisholm arrives in the tiny Highland community of Green Cairns, she's still in a state of shock - not so much from her husband's untimely death as from the discovery that he'd gambled away all their money and even their home. In addressing the problems of the children at the school where she becomes the only teacher, Iris finds distraction from her worries. Further distractions come in the shape of golden-tongued lawyer Michael and the gentle handyman, Chas. The locals are deliciously outraged at the scandal of a schoolmarm who seems to have a sex life, while so embroiled is Iris that she does not notice what is happening to her own children - who need her just as much as the waifs of Green Cairns...

A SOJOURNER'S LIFE - The Life of Alexander Maclean is a novel cast in the form of a biography. Alexander Maclean, the product of a colonial and South African childhood set in an era long before the liberalising of South African society after 1994

Vicar's daughter Izzy feels hugely guilty that she's having a very good war. But when Izzy finds herself falling for the charms of a dashing American doctor it is to Julia and Clare that she turns for help...

A girl, Nell was convinced, should have a good time at seventeen, have met her true love at eighteen, be engaged at nine, and marry at twenty-one. But Alistair comes from a wealthy family and is studying to be a lawyer, two things that mean that Nell soon has plans to leave her dance hall days far behind her.

To the neighbours who helped raise her, Madeline was a opinionated, disruptive, verbose. They blamed it all on her lack of a mother. But Madeline was her father was parent enough. Till he wasn't there for her any more, and Madeline had to grow up fast. Befriended by Annie, she catches a glimpse of normal family life, and sees Annie glow as she marries her adoring Willie. Madeline has never wanted a regular man in her own life, yet somehow she finds herself living in a rambling Highland mansion with Stuart, loving to the point of exhaustion, and painting her heart out. Until life creeps into the idyll with a vengeance...

You can’t change your past. You can only use the experiences you live through to make your future better, wiser. Anna and her best friend George meet every week to remember, to sigh, to laugh, to reminisce about their moments of glory, guilt and mischief and share their sorrows over a glass or three of wine. The things they’ve done still make them blush. Anna wanted to be a poet – a famous poet. George left home in a childish rage and years later returned with her baby.When Anna is asked to look after the boy across the road for a few hours each week, she isn’t sure. She doesn’t really do children. But she takes the job on and, gradually, a child’s view of her world shows her a different place.George remembers a flat she stayed in when she ran away from home. It had the kitchen of all kitchens and, oh, how she’d love to see it again. Anna sets out to see if it still exists and discovers a cookbook full of recipes, intimates notes and drawings from George’s life.Does all this mark an ending or the beginning of something new and marvellous for Anna and George?

A delicious and unputdownable read from the irresistible Isla Dewar

In this irresistible and unputdownable novel, Isla Dewar offers searing insight into human nature and relationships while also bringing out the humour of the darkest situations

Charlie Gavin was abducted as a baby. He didn’t know who he was or where he came from. His mission was to find himself. And when he did, he decided to spend his life finding other lost souls by opening the Be Kindly Missing Persons Bureau.Martha Walters, his assistant, has had her fifteen minutes of almost fame and failed. Now, dealing with her guilt and pain, she lives with her mum and dotes on her young daughter. Charlie appears to be a man who is a loser and dreamer, but, hey, his office is near her house, she can lie in of a morning, take her kid to school and the work isn’t too heart-breaking. Or is it . . . ?