Roddy's Christmas Review

Let's start with a few thoughts about a book which is already bulging from tartan stockings and lying foil-wrapped under trees in tenement flats and but and bens up and down the land. Maw Broon's Cookbook (Waverley) is a triumph in its chance meeting of design and content, nostalgia and humour. It's very well done and surprisingly inexpensive for a large gift book. I expect quite a few Maws and a puckle of Granpaws will end up with more than one copy.

The big news here is that oor first family has been outed at last as Dundonians, the greatest Scottish revelation since the Horseman's Word at last became revealed some years back. We always knew it – the Broons just look and act Dundonian, but there you have it. Maw Broon's name, in case you never knew, is Maggie – though we will probably never know what's on the birth certificates of the twins and the bairn.

For the most part, the book contains traditional Scottish recipés, but it is mocked up to look like a treasured old hobside tome, complete with the odd spillage and squashed insect. Some dishes are in the handwriting of various Broons, including Jeannie, Granpaw's late other half, while some are reproduced from old papers, magazines and cookery cards (many from the possibly not lamented Housewife Weekly). The foodie stuff is interesting in itself, but the graffiti and comments are braw too.

Some classic, food-related Broons strips are reproduced (sadly not the one where Paw ends up with a boiled egg at Glebe Street's first Chinese takeaway, which is probably mildly offensive these days), reminding us what a fabulous cartoonist Watkins was, especially when dealing with subsidiary characters, a trait which has been duly noted in Private Eye's new Gordon Broon spoof cartoons.

Meanwhile, looking back at books I have written on here in past months (see archive ), I'd like to single out two or three which would make good gifts for the right reader in your life. Folk in Print was my favourite Scottish book of the year – a survey of our chapbook heritage, it rises brilliantly above what might be a dusty, academic subject, delightfully readable, packed full of trophies gathered from archives, bawdy songs, tall tales, prison confessions, bizarre folklore.

Canongate's The Paris Review Interviews rounds up the best of the literary journal's lengthy discussions with famous authors – the treasures here are often the less-known poets and novelists included – it comes highly recommended. Magnus Magnusson's last book Fakers, Forgers and Phoneys is an insightful look at a number of famous fakes – artistic and archaeological ones and false persona tales - the cases are retold in full detail, rather than the usual three-page articles you get in other books on the subject.

In my own 'specialist subject', it's been a fairly quiet year. Public Dream, the debut of Edinburgh-born Frances Leviston means she is the youngest poet published so far by the prestigious list. Her editor, Don Paterson published another of his books of poetic aphorisms (The Blind Eye). Edwin Morgan published his umpteenth collection A Book of Lives (Carcanet) at the age of 86, a book which is hot favourite to win the TS Eliot Prize. It contains Morgan's usual mix of the comic and the serious, selections ranging from lyrics for indie band Idlewild to a sequence on the history of the earth. Jackie Kay, one of our most popular poets has recently published Darling, her New & Selected Poems (Bloodaxe £9.95). It contains most of the work from her four collections, plus some new work and a selection of her smashing poetry for children.

If you are looking for something humorous which will last till after Boxing Day, Awa an' Bile Yer Heid! By David Ross has just been reissued by Birlinn, whose list has been very impressive this year. Subtitled Scottish Curses and Insults, the book gathers bon mots of a derogatory stripe from Scottish wits, writers and politicians with a relay of insults from Dunbar's 'caribald carl' to Irvine Welsh's 'plukey-faced wee hing-oot'.

Lastly, a book I will return to write about in more depth here soon, which would make a fine seasonal gift. Social historian Professor RJ Morris's Scotland 1907 (Birlinn) is a fascinating book which takes as its main source postcards from a century ago made by Valentine and Sons. Far from being just a collection of old cards, the book is a survey of a changing Scotland - its industries, culture, lore, tourism - which was soon to be interrupted by war.