Saltire Society Literary Awards - Winning Books
1995
- Best First Book
- Free Love and Other Stories by Ali Smith
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Free Love And Other Stories
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£6.99
PaperbackThe stories in Free Love are about desire, memory, sexual ambiguity and the imagination. Virago are proud to publish the first collection of stories from Alison Smith. This entertaining introduction is sure to create a large new following.
1996
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The Kiln
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£6.99
PaperbackThis novel tells of Tom Docherty who is back in Graithnock from Paris for his brother's funeral. Memories come flooding back to him of his youth spent there in the 1950s.
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Slattern
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£7.99
PaperbackSlattern is Clanchy's first book. It won the Forward Prize and was highly acclaimed on publication in 1995. The poems are sensual, moving and wickedly witty, about men and boys, love and loss.
1997
- Book of the Year
- Grace Notes by Bernard MacLaverty
- Best First Book
- A Painted Field by Robin Robertson
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Grace Notes
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£8.99
PaperbackA young composer returns to Belfast for her father's funeral. Memories of the claustrophobic enclave and her fastidious, nagging mother, remind her of why she left in the first place. The healing effect of music figures prominently in this novel.
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A Painted Field
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£8.99
PaperbackRobin Robertson's first collection of poetry reveals him to be one of the most varied and exciting new writers to come out of Scotland.
1998
- Book of the Year
- The Sopranos by Alan Warner
- Best First Book
- The Pied Piper's Poison by Christopher Wallace
- Best First Book
- Two Clocks Ticking by Dennis O'Donnell
- Research Book of the Year
- The Edinburgh History of the Scots Language ed. Charles Jones
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The Sopranos
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£7.99
PaperbackThe choir from Our Lady of Perpetual Succour School for Girls is being bussed to the national finals in the big city. It's an important day for the Sopranos - pub-crawling, shoplifting and body-piercing being their top priorities.
1999
- Book of the Year
- Pursuits by George Bruce
- Best First Book
- Some Rain Must Fall by Michel Faber
- Research Book of the Year
- The Poems of William Dunbar ed. Priscilla Bawcutt
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The Poems Of William Dunbar
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£30.00
HardbackPriscilla Bawcutt's edition of the poems of William Dunbar, the 16th century Scots poet, contains freshly established texts of every poem as well as a full introduction, a listing of textual variants in the early manuscripts, notes, a glossary and a list of sources.
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Some Rain Must Fall
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£6.99
PaperbackFaber's first collection of short stories reveals an extraordinarily vivid imagination and a confident versatility. His work varies from the satirical and poignant to the humorous and tragic
2000
- Book of the Year
- The Lantern Bearers by Ronald Frame
- Best First Book
- The Rising Sun by Douglas Galbraith
- Commendation
- Collected Poems and Songs by Hamish Henderson
- Research Book of the Year
- Jessie Kesson: Writing Her Life by Isobel Murray
The Highland Pipe and Scottish Society by William Donaldson
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The Highland Pipe And Scottish Society, 1750-1950
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£30.00
PaperbackWhat happened to the Highland bagpipe in the two centuries following Culloden? This study presents contemporary evidence to recreate the changing world of the pipers as they influenced and were influenced by the transformations in Scottish society.
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The Lantern Bearers: A Novel
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£7.99
PaperbackThis novel is based around observed flashbacks about the oppressive youth of a homosexual musician in Edinburgh. Frame is a distinguished novelist and playwright and his television work has, among other awards, won the Samuel Beckett Prize
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The Rising Sun
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£6.99
PaperbackScottish entrepreneurs aimed to cut a road across the infested swamps of Panama's Darien peninsula. A young Scot, Roderick Mackenzie, describes the horrors and difficulties the crew of one boat faced when they arrived there.
2001
- Book of the Year
- Medea by Liz Lochhead
- Best First Book
- In The Blue House by Meaghan Delahunt
- Research Book of the Year
- The Scottish Book Trade 1500 - 1720 by Alistair J Mann
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In The Blue House
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£6.99
PaperbackHounded from country to country by Stalin's agents, Leon Trotsky finally finds refuge in Mexico as the guest of the artist Diego Rivera and his wife Frida Kahlo. But the extraordinary years spent in the Blue House prove to also be his last.
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The Scottish Book Trade, 1500-1720: Print Commerce And Print Control In Early Modern Scotland
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£25.00
HardbackThe book trade in Scotland is examined in detail, looking at booksellers, bookbinders, stationers and printers and their relationship to the forces of authority.
2002
- Book of the Year
- Clara by Janice Galloway
- First Book of the Year
- Burns the Radical by Liam McIlvanney
- First Book of the Year
- The Cutting Room by Louise Welsh
- Research Book of the Year
- Sorley Maclean/Poems to Eimhir by Christopher Whyte
Public Sculpture of Glasgow by Ray McKenzie
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Clara
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£8.99
PaperbackJanice Galloway's new novel is based on the life of Clara Schumann - 19th century concert pianist and composer, editor and teacher, friend of Brahms - who was also the wife of Robert Schumann, the mother of his eight children, and the woman who cared for him through crippling mental illness.
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The Cutting Room
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£7.99
PaperbackRilke, an auctioneer, comes upon a hidden collection of violent erotic photographs. He feels compelled to unearth more about the deceased owner who coveted them. What follows is a journey of discovery, decadence and deviousness.
2003
- Book of the Year
- Joseph Knight by James Robertson
- First Book of the Year
- Ath-Aithne by Martainn Mac an t-Soair
- Lifetime Achievement Award
- Edwin Morgan
- Lifetime Achievement Award
- Robin Jenkins
- Research Book of the Year
- The Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection by Emily B Lyle & Katherine Campbell
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Ath-Aithne
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£8.99
PaperbackWhether in Aldershot, Uist, Glasgow, Nicaragua or elsewhere, the characters are brought to life with intelligence, passion and humour. Love, war, death, passion, belonging, identity, uncertainty, desire, tragedy and joy are just some of the themes running through these 18 short stories.
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Joseph Knight
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PaperbackExiled to Jamaica in 1746, Sir John Wedderburn made a fortune, returning to Scotland with Joseph Knight, a black slave. Now, in 1802, Sir John is settling his estate, and wants to find his former slave. Can old wounds that once touched the heart of Scottish law ever heal?
2004
- Book of the Year
- In Another Light by Andrew Greig
- First Book of the Year
- Stargazing by Peter Hill
- Research Book of the Year
- The Last of England? by Randall Stevenson
Maritime Enterprise and Empire by J Forbes Munro
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In Another Light
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£7.99
PaperbackIn the early 1930s, an ambitious young Scotsman sets out on the long sea voyage to Penang, eager to take up his post running a maternity hospital in the colony. 70 years later forty-something engineer Edward Mackay, while recuperating on Orkney, begins to unravel the story of a man he thought he knew - his father.
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Stargazing: Memoirs Of A Young Lighthouse Keeper
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£7.99
PaperbackWhen Peter Hill, a lackadaisical student, answered an advert in 'The Scotsman' seeking full-time lighthouse keepers, little did he imagine that within a month he would be living with men he didn't know in lighthouses on small remote islands off the west coast of Scotland.
2005
- Book of the Year
- Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
- First Book of the Year
- Amande's Bed by John Aberdein
- Research Book of the Year
- Weights and Measures in Scotland by RD Connor and ADC Simpson
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Amande's Bed
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£7.99
PaperbackIt is 1956 and post-war Scotland is reeling - with sex, Americans, storms, the news from Budapest and fish. Young Peem is hankering, trying to find his legs in that reel - what with Miss Florence, his mother, Haze, Bridget Amande, Dinah, plus the girls in
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Case Histories
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PaperbackFull of suspense and heartbreak, 'Case Histories' is a feat of bravura storytelling that conveys the mysteries of life, its inanities and its hilarities. Jackson is 45 but feels much older. Surrounded by death, intrigue and misfortune, his own life is brought sharply into focus.
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Weights And Measures In Scotland: A European Perspective
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£50.00
HardbackWinner of the 2005 Saltire Society/National Library of Scotland Research Book of the Year Award. After looking at contemporary legislation and examining the physical evidence of surviving artefacts, the authors have come to some surprising conclusions.
2006
- Book of the Year
- A Lie About My Father by John Burnside
- First Book of the Year
- George MacKay Brown The Life by Maggie Fergusson
- Research Book of the Year
- Dùthchas Nan Gàidheal Selected Essays of John MacInnes by Michael Newton
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Duthchas Nan Gaidheal: Collected Essays Of John MacInnes
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£25.00
HardbackDescribed by the Rev. William Matheson as the 'the last of the native scholars', Dr John MacInnes is the foremost living authority on the oral tradition of the Scottish Highlands.
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George Mackay Brown: The Life
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£9.99
PaperbackGeorge Mackay Brown was one of Scotland's greatest 20th century writers, but in person a bundle of paradoxes. Maggie Fergusson interviewed him several times and is the only biographer to whom he gave his blessing. Through his letters and through conversations with his acquaintance, she discovers that his life was vivid and surprising.
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A Lie About My Father
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£8.99
PaperbackThis book presents a story about forgiving but not forgetting, about examining the way men are made & how they fall apart, about understanding that in order to have a good son you must have a good father. The author's honesty, thinking & images of beauty & fracture combine to create a moving memoir of two lost men: a father & his child.
2007
- Book of the Year
- Day by A L Kennedy
- First Book of the Year
- Fresh by Mark McNay
- Research Book of the Year
- Scotland's Books by Robert Crawford
Auld Campaigner, A Life of Alexander Scott by David Robb
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Auld Campaigner: A Life Of Alexander Scott
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£35.00
HardbackThis is a biography of Alexander Scott, a hugely influential figure in the Scottish literary scene in the 20th century. It will appeal to students of the Scottish renaissance and lovers of 20th century Scots literature.
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Day
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£7.99
PaperbackAlfred Day wanted his war. In its turmoil he found his proper purpose as the tail-gunner in a Lancaster bomber; he found the wild, dark fellowship of his crew, and - most extraordinary of all - he found Joyce, a woman to love. But that's all gone now - the war took it away. Maybe it took him, too.
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Fresh
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PaperbackSean's days are of a kind. The factory, the line, the chickens, and his dreams of escape. His brother Archie gets out of jail on early release, which would be great if Archie weren't a little loose in the head - and if Sean didn't still owe him a grand.
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Scotland's Books: The Penguin History Of Scottish Literature
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£15.99
PaperbackStretching from the earliest written monuments during the Roman Empire to the thriving world of modern Scottish imaginative writing, this title is packed with research on some of the best works of a literature that extends far beyond the borders in which it was written.
2008
- Book of the Year
- Kieron Smith, Boy by James Kelman
- First Book of the Year
- The Good Mayor by Andrew Nicoll
- Research Book of the Year
- Scott's Shadow: The Novel in Romantic Edinburgh by Ian Duncan
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The Good Mayor
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£8.00
PaperbackSet in the little town of Dot in a forgotten part of the Baltic, this novel tells the story of Tibo Krovic, the good and honest Mayor of Dot, and his love for his secretary, the beautiful, lonely, but married, Mrs Agathe Stopak.
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Kieron Smith, Boy
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£8.99
PaperbackRejected by his brother and largely ignored by his parents, Kieron Smith finds comfort in the home of his much-loved grandparents. But when his family move to a new housing scheme on the outskirts of the city, a world away from the close community of the tenements, Kieron struggles to find a way to adapt to his new life.
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Scott's Shadow: The Novel In Romantic Edinburgh
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£23.95
Hardback'Scott's Shadow' is a comprehensive description and analysis of the distinctive field of literary production that flourished in Edinburgh (making it a rival to London) between 1802 and 1832.
2009
2009 included a special award, sponsored by the Scottish Government, to celebrate the Year of Homecoming.
- Book of the Year
- The Bard by Robert Crawford
- First Book of the Year
- The Tin-Kin by Eleanor Thom
- History Book of the Year
- A History of Scottish Philosophy by Alexander Broadie
- Research Book of the Year
- The Historical Thesaurus of the English Dictionary
- Homecoming Award
- A Passion for Nature by Donald Worster
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The Bard: Robert Burns, A Biography
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£20.00
HardbackPublished to mark the 250th anniversary of Robert Burns' birth, this biography paints a picture of a man fighting to maintain a sly sense of integrity in the face of overwhelming pressures
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A History Of Scottish Philosophy
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£70.00
HardbackThis book is unique in that is provides the first-ever substantial account of the seven-centuries-old Scottish philosophical tradition.
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A Passion For Nature: The Life Of John Muir
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£22.50
HardbackThis is a biography of the great conservationist and founder of the Sierra Club, John Muir. It traces Muir from his boyhood in Scotland and frontier Wisconsin to his adult life in California right after the Civil War up to his death at the beginning of World War I.
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The Tin-Kin
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£12.99
PaperbackWhen her aunt Shirley dies, Dawn finds herself back in her claustrophobic hometown of Elgin in Scotland. In an attempt to avoid contact with anyone from her former life, Dawn busies herself cleaning Shirley's flat, until one day she comes across the key to a cupboard that she was never allowed to open as a child.
About the Saltire Awards
The Saltire Society Awards for Scottish Book of the Year and Scottish First Book of the Year, were the brainchild of Paul Scott, the well-known member of the Saltire Society, and have been running for over 25 years.
Books are submitted for the awards by publishers, editors of the national newspapers and magazines, and from suggestions by panel members. The definitions are:
'They may be given for any book by an author or authors of Scottish descent or living in Scotland, or for any book which deals with the work or life of a Scot or with a Scottish question, event or situation. The book might be poetry, a novel, a play or other work of imaginative literature, or biography, literary criticism or a study of any Scottish issue. Books of multiple authorship would not normally qualify.'
