Historian Sir Tom Devine has been given a prestigious lifetime achievement award.

The leading Scottish academic will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award in Historical Studies from the UK All Party Parliamentary Group on History and Archives.

Sir Tom, a professor at the University of Edinburgh, is the first historian from a Scottish university to receive the award.

He joins other distinguished scholars including the late Professor Eric Hobsbawm, the late Lord Asa Briggs, Sir Keith Thomas and Sir Michael Howard on the list of recipients.

Known for his bestselling books on Scottish history, his teaching career spans 45 years including posts at the University of Strathclyde, where he was deputy principal, and the University of Aberdeen.

Sir Tom, who was born in Motherwell, Lanarkshire, will receive the award at a lunch in the House of Commons in July which will be attended by members of both Houses of Parliament.

His next book, The Scottish Clearances:A History of the Dispossessed ?1600-1900, will be published by Penguin Press in October this year.