A novel rather than a biography. Why? I thought a biography would fail to do justice to Marion’s life journey. 

A long poem in fourteen sections, describing journeys we made between May 2010 and May 2011 to destinations in Scotland paired with places in northern Japan visited by Basho and Sora in 1689.

When Mark is invited back to Leila’s flat and ordered to strip, he thinks he’s about to have the experience of his life. Waking later he finds Leila gone from his side. Keen to leave, he opens the wrong door and finds he’s entered a nightmare; behind the swaying Barbie dolls that hang from the ceiling is the body of the girl he just had sex with.

Walk The Walk was developed by Scottish Book Trust, in partnership with the Scottish Government, to explore issues around sectarianism and how to tackle it. The story follows one day in the lives of two best friends: Rab McGowan and Robbie Black. It’s the day that Rab’s cousin Kylie is supposed to marry Robbie’s brother Romeo, but there are people at both ends of The Walk who don’t want the wedding to happen.

Individually, the poems which make up this collection are windows with unparalleled views of their subjects – that they happen to be built into a pristine fortress is no accident. Whether misty or clear, closed or open, these windows offer exceptional views of the streets, hospitals, gardens and graveyards which form the perfectly-lit landscapes of the poet’s memories.

This important new book by Tom Devine, Scotland’s premier historian, explores this extraordinary story in all its ambiguity, from the seventeenth century to the present. He shows that, when not undermining each other with invading armies, both Scotland and England have broadly benefitted from each other’s presence – indeed for long periods of time nobody questioned the union which joined them.

Against the Light sets a title-sequence resonant with an affectionate awareness of the fragility and vulnerability of our lives alongside a group of poems which conjure up the distinctive moods and aspects of Edinburgh in winter.

The Touch of Time: New & Selected Poems is a comprehensive retrospective, drawing on ten previous books published over the last five decades, including his prize-winning 2010 collection The Breakfast Room, and concluding with a section of new poems.