Autumn Gold from Anna Nicholson

I just love October. As readers of this column will know, the weather always get a mention, and this month can be spectacularly lovely, particularly if you venture into densely-wooded places like Perthshire and Argyll. The tourist people like to tempt visitors to Scotland at this time of year by running all kinds of ‘Autumn Gold’ promotions and while we don’t rival New England in the Fall, we’re quietly doing our own thing.

Books-wise, this is always a packed month. Publishers wheel out their big literary guns; the Christmas books are beginning to pile up in the shops, and the literary prize/award season beckons, if it ever goes away...

Jackie Kay's new collection looks fantastic. Not only does Red, Cherry Red have a cheery retro-look cover but there’s an audio CD attached as well. Kay is such a vibrant, life-affirming presence, and if she promotes this book with readings up and down the country, it should do well.

This is Book 2 in the Wickit Chronicles: ‘Trouble is heading for Wickit Monastery through the sweltering summer Fens - from King's court comes Cedric with a chip on his shoulder, and from the land of the Vikings, Rane a beautiful Norse girl, arrives with her hulking henchmen. But what are they really here for? Pip the orphan and Perfect the stone gargoyle find themselves caught up in a mad search for buried treasure, which leads them right across the marches, all the way to the dreaded blackbog, the very last place they want to be.’ Suitable for 8-11 year olds.

This next title is aimed squarely at the gift-book market, but that’s all right: we’re not sniffy, and this looks like fun. Expert in the one-line putdown, Mrs Mills’ philosophy could be summarised as: ‘chin up, collar straight, and jolly well get on with it.’ We all have a Mrs Mills in our lives - a friend or relative, generally from another generation, whose bracing common-sense can cut through all the flannel - (though I suspect this book will have a heck of a lot more humour than the real-life counterparts).

This is a title written by an academic for an academic market but it’s a fascinating read and one that would find a wider historical-interest market. How we live or used to live is perennially intriguing, as the large numbers visiting stately piles all over the country attests. This period of history focuses on a critical period of change for Highland lairds when the power of the clans was beginning to wane and the land-owning gentry were divided in their support (or otherwise) for the Jacobite cause.

I like the look of this one. It seems to be just on the right side of couthy, in the good sense of the word. Ewan McVicar, a well-known songwriter, has collected songs from over 40 schools to create the first book of the ‘hidden songs’ of Scots childhood.

As ever, I can’t improve on the blurb: ‘On the eve of his return to Baldreagan castle, Highlander Jamie Macpherson cannot believe his eyes - a golden-haired beauty haloed in the moonlight of St. Bride's own glade, so delicate and fair. But despite the treachery that has just made him the new Macpherson heir, he's still betrothed to a noblewoman he's never met.’