Shortlisted for The Winston Graham Historical Prize

A battle lost. A daring escape. A long walk into obscurity. The ultimate failure…

In the aftermath of the disastrous Battle of Culloden, a lonely figure takes flight with a small band of companions through the islands and mountains of the Hebrides. His name is Charles Edward Stuart: better known today as Bonnie Prince Charlie. He had come to the country to take the throne. Now he is leaving in exile and abject defeat.

In prose that is by turns poetic, comic, macabre, haunting and humane, multi- award-winning author Alan Warner traces the frantic last journey through Scotland of a man who history will come to define for his failure.

'Written in carefully crafted prose . . . this reimagining of Charles Edward Stuart’s escape from Culloden is a triumph' – Stuart Kelly, The Scotsman

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'By turns funny and furious, raucous and rueful, Warner unravels this story of abject failure with winning aplomb'

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'Written in carefully crafted prose shot through with cleverly-deployed alliteration and assonance, this reimagining of Charles Edward Stuart’s escape from Culloden is a triumph'

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'Warner masticates on language joyously,' 'a brilliantly chewy recreation,' 'It’s easy to imagine Robert Louis Stevenson and Walter Scott grinning in admiration at these lines'

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'Polygon Books' Darkland Tales series of novellas have been among Scottish literature's most exciting books of recent times'

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'There's something about the author's style and use of language that draws you into the moment in a very visual way'

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'a thrilling historical novel'

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'Bringing a fascinating historical figure to vivid life, the author of Morvern Callar and Kitchenly 434 reimagines the last, dramatic flight of Bonnie Prince Charlie in the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden'

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'One of the most interesting developments in Scottish publishing'

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'A tour-de-force of the author's fertile imagination... Warner has painted a warts-and-all canvas of a volatile, violent period'

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'I have not read anything quite like it. Warner's style is captivating'

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'So, so beautifully evocative... a resounding success of a novella and comes as highly recommended by our team'

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'A story that is lyrical and humane but peppered with dark humour'

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'visceral, vulgar, vivid, by turns comic and grotesque, yet with a powerful undertow of elegy and sorrow'

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'With lashings of dark, earthy wit... [Warner] writes beautifully and injects life into a wide cast of historical characters'

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'The poetry of the descriptions and the believability of the dialogue amply grip the reader’s attention... a great pleasure'

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'Warner’s work is iconoclastic at the best of times; here, commissioned to write about this time-period as part of a series on Scottish history, he’s been gifted an ideal subject'

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'a fresh look through fiction at the often sneered-at prince... Warner seems to relish reassessing his royal 'brigand''

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'A terrifying journey through the most inhospitable terrain, with all its gory and violent staging posts, plagued by midges and Hanoverian soldiers, but where the most insignificant tuft of grass, or heather covered hillock, or the fragility of the light, is immortalised for its beauty' 

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'Warner’s searing vision of Hebridean hell reconfirms his role as bard of the Gàidhealtachd’s seamier side, in prose that draws on lyrical traditions far older, and more resilient, than the House of Stuart’s claim to lord it over them'