A bit of nice news: my Nocturne book has been longlisted for a Saltire Book Award 2026.

The Saltires are Scotland’s national book awards, open to books about Scotland, topics relating to Scottish life and culture, or to authors of Scottish heritage. Since there are about 5,347 distinguished authors of Scottish heritage all over the world, I’m very pleased to be on the list.

There are Saltire awards in various categories: fiction, non-fiction, research and poetry.  My book is longlisted in the ‘research’ category. I’m not sure why – the non-fiction category seems a more obvious fit, but I’m very happy to think that someone considered it a good piece of research.

(Photo shows me and Robert Philip at the end of our Nocturne-themed event at Wigtown Book Festival last Sunday.)