One of the country's most prestigious literary awards, the Saltire Society's Book of the Year, has gone to A L Kennedy, the Glasgow-based writer.

She won the £5000 prize, which was sponsored by the Faculty of Advocates, for her latest novel, Day.

The First Book of the Year Award went to Fresh by Mark McNay, and the Research Book of the Year Award had joint winners; Auld Campaigner, A Life of Alexander Scott by David Robb and Scotland's Books, The Penguin History of Scottish Literature by Robert Crawford.

The Scots and The Union by Christopher Whatley and Scotland's Historic Heraldry by Bruce A McAndrew jointly won the award for the history books of the year.

The awards presentation ceremony took place yesterday at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh.

A L Kennedy has published four previous novels, two books of non-fiction and three collections of short stories.

She has twice been selected as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists and has won a number of prizes including the Somerset Maugham Award, the Encore Award and the Saltire Scottish Book of the Year Award.