Best of the summer reads by Scots authors

Glasgow’s bookshops are bursting with titles created by awardwinning writers and illustrators from the city and surrounding areas.

ANN FOTHERINGHAM rounds up the cream of the crop.

BEST FOR YOUNG CHILDREN

There’s a Bear on My Chair, by west end author and illustrator Ross Collins, is the latest of his brilliant creations to pick up a shiny award. A deceptively simple story of a little mouse attempting to remove a huge bear from his chair won the inaugural Amnesty CILIP Honour which is given to an illustrated book which explores an important human rights issue.

At its heart a message of peaceful protest and full of Ross’s enchanting illustrations, it’s the perfect summer holiday book for younger readers (although everyone else in the family will love it too.)

Glasgow School of Art graduate Ross, who grew up in Shawlands, has won an impressive array of awards for his books over the years.

He won the Macmillan Prize for his first picture book and since then has illustrated and written more than 100 books for children. His book The Elephantom was adapted into a play at the National Theatre and when he's not creating books he enjoys working on character development for animation studios including Laika and Disney.

BEST FOR OLDER CHILDREN

Renfrew-based author Ross MacKenzie recently picked up one of the top prizes in the Scottish Children’s Book Awards. He won the Younger Readers (8 – 11) category for his novel The Nowhere Emporium, which also won the Blue Peter Best Story Award 2016. It’s the story of an orphan called Daniel who stumbles upon the mysterious Nowhere Emporium and its owner Mr Silver.

But when Mr Silver disappears, and a shadow from the past threatens everything, the Emporium and all its wonders begin to crumble. Can Daniel save his home, and his new friends, before the Nowhere Emporium is destroyed forever?

BEST FOR GROWN-UPS

A. L. Kennedy’s fabulous new book Serious Sweet follows 24 hours in the lives of Jon Sigurdsson, a 59-year-old divorcee and senior civil servant who is busy leaking information about his government's loathsome acts; and Meg Williams, a 45-year-old bankrupt accountant, recovering from addiction and abuse.

Like all of the Glasgow-based, Dundee-born author’s books, it is good for the heart, mind and soul.

Ayrshire-based novelist and playwright Catherine Czerkawska tells the story of the Belle of Mauchline in her latest historical fiction work, The Jewel.

The story centres on Jean Armour, the wife of Robert Burns, who until now has been more or less ignored in stories of the bard’s life and work. The book follows the dramatic years of their courtship and marriage against a backdrop of political intrigue and sadness.

BEST FOR CRIME FANS

The Lies of the Land is Chris Dolan’s second murder mystery featuring procurator fiscal Maddy Shannon, a woman who tends to get too close to the cases she works.

Glasgow defence lawyer Julian Miller has been shot in the head and Maddy turns the case on its head by suggesting the killer may be female. But as the murders continue, and Maddy herself receives a disturbing message, she winds up in a race against the measured malevolence of an unknown killer.

It’s a gripping and funny tale, set in Glasgow and the city and its people feature throughout.

Glasgow-based author Helen Fitzgerald's new novel, Viral, is a dark, contemporary tale of two sisters who head off to Magaluf to celebrate their recent exam success and mend their broken relationship.

But events quickly spiral out of control and soon a damaging and degrading video of one of the sisters appears online. The young women’s mother is a judge, and the book follows her efforts to bring the men who took advantage of her daughter to justice.

BEST FOR THE BEACH

Escape to the darkly funny, fast-paced world of Jack Parlabane, Chris Brookmyre’s maverick reporter-turned-action-hero who returns in his seventh adventure, Black Widow

This one is as good as the rest, with Parlabane caught up in the life and woes of surgeon and anti-sexism campaigner Diana Jager.

When her details are published online, she suffers at the hands of the social media trolls until a knight in shining armour comes to her rescue. Unfortunately, he suddenly dies and things get really complicated for the woman the media have named the Black Widow...

Jenny Colgan’s heartwarming book about books, The Little Shop of Happy Ever After, is a fluffy, fun, holiday read which her fans will love.

When Nina's beloved Birmingham library is turned into a retail complex, Nina follows a whim north, to the Scottish Highlands, and a mobile book shop bus that no-one else wants. It’s a simple, sugary sweet story of leaving the rat race behind, finding love, and plenty of pretty Scottish scenery.