The Black Eden - 'Wonderfully evocative and atmospheric.' WILLIAM BOYD

''Action-packed and panoramic.'' Observer
''Magnificent . . . there won''t be a finer piece of Scottish fiction published this year.'' Big Issue
''A galloping and impressively wide-ranging read.'' Herald (Scotland)
''Gripping.'' Times Literary Supplement

1956, the Scottish Highlands: Aaron and Robbie, a schoolmaster-s son and a farmer-s boy, are fast friends with a shared passion for diving, but very divergent ideas of what they will do with their lives.

Meanwhile, Mark and Ally, bright pupils at Edinburgh-s grandest private school, are aspiring to make change in the world - one through high finance, the other on the political stage.

And Joseph, heir to an Aberdeen trawler-fishing dynasty, is brooding over whether his true ambitions are set higher than his father-s succession plan.

For each of them, the discovery of oil under the North Sea will make their dreams achievable. But behind the