An exhaustive piece of academic research has beaten off stiff competition from an array of new and established names in contemporary Scottish literature to claim the 2014 Saltire Book of the Year Award, sponsored by Creative Scotland.
Professors Bob Harris of Oxford University and the late Charles McKean of Dundee University won the 2014 Saltire Book of the Year Award, sponsored by Creative Scotland.
Their book,The Scottish Town in the Age of Enlightenment 1740-1820, explores how Scotland's eighteenth century burghs improved themselves and the significance of this for modern understanding of a society in a state of transition.
Described by the judging panel as 'magisterial' and considered 'a pioneering study of Scottish urbanisation', the book was the product of an extensive three-year research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
It also won the 2014 Saltire Society Scottish Research Book of the Year award, supported by the National Library of Scotland. Professor Bob Harris collected both awards and an accompanying cash prize of £10,000 at a special ceremony at Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh tonight.
Other writers shortlisted for the prestigious award this year included well-known broadcasters Sally Magnusson and Kirsty Wark as well as new writing talents such as Niall Campbell and Kirsty Logan and established Scottish writers and past winners including A L Kennedy and Martin MacIntyre.
Now firmly established as Scotland's most prestigious annual book awards, the Saltire Literary Awards have been supported this year by an expanded list of partners and sponsors including Creative Scotland, the Scottish Poetry Library, the Scottish Historical Review Trust and Tamdhu Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whisky.
The awards celebrate and support literary and academic excellence across six distinct categories with the winner of each of the five individual book categories going forward to be considered for the Saltire Book of the Year award.
Alongside the overall winner, a further five category winners were announced. Each individual book category winner received a £2,000 cash prize while the winner of the Publisher of the Year award received a £4,000 cash prize to support the ongoing development of their business:
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