Books and DVD

At Christmastide, 1827, in a boarding house in Edinburgh's West Port, an old army pensioner dies of natural causes. He owes the landlord £4 rent. Instead of burying the body, the landlord, William Hare, and his friend William Burke fill the coffin with bark and sell the corpse to Dr Robert Knox, an ambitious anatomist. They make a profit of £3.10s.

After this encouraging outcome, Burke and Hare decide to suffocate another sickly tenant. So begins the criminal career of the most notorious double act in the history of serial murder.

Robin Mitchell's 2012 kids' smash Princess Pumpalot: The Farting Princess gets a hotly-anticipated follow-up, with Her Royal (and Farty) Highness off on a new adventure in the kingdom of Wiffyville.

An eminently readable guidebook, Edinburgh's Historic Mile is the perfect companion for exploring the rich and diverse wonders of Edinburgh's royal Mile. Informal and informative, witty and authoritative, here is an extravagant procession of all the tragedy and eccentricity in the history of Scotland's most famous street - from the sexy cannon of Edinburgh Castle, through the story of the Heart of Midlothian outside St Giles' Cathedral, all the way down to 17th century photocopying at Holyrood Palace.

What Time Does Edinburgh's One O'Clock Gun Fire? is a charming book mixing the rich history of the One O'Clock Gun with a bountiful selection of amusing Castle anecdotes. The firing of the One O'Clock Gun has been a recognised custom in Edinburgh since 1861, startling millions of visitors to Scotland's capital. The time gun is fired daily from the Mills Mount Battery of Edinburgh Castle at 1300 hours precisely, except on Sundays, Christmas Day and Good Friday.