Dingwall-based Sandstone Press is starting a busy year with the publication of Inverness man Simon Varwell's "Up The Creek Without a Mullet", detailing his quest to visit places around the world which share their name with the infamous '80s hair-do.

2010 will also see the publisher move into full length fiction for the first time with four novels released in the first half of the year alone, starting with the publication of "Love, Revenge & Buttered Scones" by Bobbie Darbyshire next month.

Alongside the new fiction line, Sandstone will also be continuing to publish non-fiction with "Orkney Spirit" by leading Scottish food writer Liz Ashworth, illustrated by Slovenian artist Selena Kuzman; climber Hamish Brown's book about the first non-stop round of all Scotland's Munros; and the first comprehensive biography of poet Edwin Morgan.

"We are publishing eight books in the first half of the year. That's more than we have published in any year to date," Sandstone's managing director Robert Davidson said. "I would hope that in 2011 we would publish 18 books."

Though a published poet, Davidson spent 33 years as a civil engineer.

His professional links with the charity Water-Aid led him to edit a fundraising anthology for the charity. He then went on to become editor of literary magazine Northwords before founding Sandstone with fellow directors Iain Gordon and Moira Forsyth.

The imprint has already enjoyed success with a series of short books written for adult learners, with contributors including broadcaster Muriel Grey, Isla Dewar, Janet Paisley and science-fiction novelist Ken MacLeod.

Sandstone also publishes an innovative line of Gaelic books with chapter-by-chapter glossaries and summaries to assist learners.

Non-fiction has also proved a success for Sandstone, and something which Davidson believes is more attractive to readers than unknown novelists.

Inverness man Simon Varwell during his research for "Up The Creek Without a Mullet".

Books with a strong sense of place have done well for the publisher, including local author Jamie Whittle's "White River", "On The Atlantic Edge" by Kenneth White and Eric Macleod's "The Kerracher Man", which is now in its fifth printing.

The success of these and other books have now encouraged Sandstone to make the leap into fiction publishing, however Davidson acknowledged there was a drawback to being based in the Highlands.

"Our great struggle has always been for credibility. People tend not to believe we can do what we do from this area," he said.

"I have found the Scotland-England border to be very real in this respect. That is from the trade itself, which is struggling with changed times economically. Borders has gone down the tubes and that is a tragedy, both as a publisher and as somebody who buys books, but increasingly the internet takes a bigger share of trade."

Sandstone's own internet successes include "Cairngorm John", the autobiography of John Allen, leader of the Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team, which is now on its fourth print run in hardback and was shortlisted for the Boardman Tasker Award for mountain related literature.

Remzije Sherifi's "Shadow Behind The Sun", about her life in Kosovo and as an asylum seeker in Glasgow, has also been shortlisted in the first book category of both the Saltire Society and Scottish Arts Council Awards.

"Our books are being nominated for the most prestigious national and international awards," Davidson declared.

"We have not had the opportunity to do that with our fiction yet, but we are getting there."

* Inverness author Simon Varwell launches his first book, "Up The Creek Without a Mullet", at the Bishop's Palace, Eden Court, on Monday at 6pm.

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