An academic book about the history of Scottish towns has won the title of Saltire Book of the Year.
At the Saltire Society's annual literary awards, held in Edinburgh last night, The Scottish Town in the Age of Enlightenment 1740-1820, a work by history professors Bob Harris of Oxford University and the late Charles McKean of Dundee University, won the £10,000 prize from the cultural society.
It was described by the judging panel as "magisterial" and considered "a pioneering study of Scottish urbanisation".
It also won the 2014 Saltire Society Scottish Research Book of the Year award.
Other winners included Edinburgh-based poet Niall Campbell for his collection of verse, Moontide, who won the First Book of the Year award.
Ali Smith won the Literary Book of the Year award for How to be Both, which was also shortlisted for the 2014 Man Booker Prize.
The Saltire Scottish Poetry Book of the Year Award was won by Bones and Breath, a collection by poet Alexander Hutchison.
The publisher of the year award went to Sandstone Press, based in Dingwall.
The history book of the year prize went to Scottish Gods, Religion in the Modern Scotland 1900-2012, by social historian Steve Bruce.
Each individual book category winner received a £2,000 cash prize while the winner of the publisher of the year award received £4,000.
The winner of the Saltire Society's 2014 Ross Roy Medal was also announced. Established in 2009, it commemorates the outstanding contribution to Scottish literature by Professor G Ross Roy of the University of South Carolina.
This year's winner was Barbara Leonardi from Stirling University for her thesis, An Exploration of Gender Stereotypes in the Work of James Hogg.
The winner of the 2015 Saltire Society Literary Travel Bursary, supported by the British Council, was also announced. Lenore Bell, from St Andrews University, intends to putthe £1,500 towards research for a novel set in Edwardian Brooklyn.
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