PRIZES: Two Scottish authors have been longlisted for the Wainwright Prize for Writing on Global Conservation. Highlander Cal Flyn, for Islands of Abandonment: Life in a Post-Human Landscape (William Collins); and Lewis-raised Alistair McIntosh, for Riders on the Storm: The Climate Crisis and the Survival of Being (Birlinn). Reviewing Cal Flyn’s book in these pages, Dani Garavelli remarked on Flyn’s beautiful writing in a work that “looks at what happens when disasters – natural, industrial or territorial – render places uninhabitable” and offers an “optimistic … antidote to climate change defeatists who believe we are on an unstoppable course”.
Herald reviewer Rosemary Goring described McIntosh’s book as a “a multifaceted, occasionally dizzying analysis of the present situation and the arguments that rage over the planet’s urgent plight” that “offers a profusion of ideas, written with insight, honesty and wit”.
The shortlist will be announced on August 4 and the winner on September 7
COMPETITION: Here’s a creative challenge that will appeal to young readers and their parents – especially fans of Cressida Cowell’s How To Train Your Dragon series. The Scottish Friendly Summer Book Tour Competition offers the chance to win a full set of Cowell’s books, along with an e-reader and a one-year Historic Scotland family membership, granting free access to all Historic Scotland sites. All you have to do is invent your own dragon! Find out more at bit.ly/3wgU1dm
Entries close at midnight on August 2
JUST OUT: A retired Scottish GP has penned a book designed to help healthcare workers look after their own wellbeing. Concerned about the risk of stress and burnout on her hard-working colleagues, Peebles-based Dr Lesley Morrison has written The Wellbeing Toolkit for Doctors. Aimed at all healthcare workers, it aims to be “a practical guide to combating day-to-day challenges on the frontline”.
Morrison is co-editor of Tools of the Trade, a poetry book gifted to all Scottish medical graduates as a way of offering support and nurturing creativity. She believes that, in order to care for others, doctors need to care for themselves, and her new book includes
She hopes the book will also appeal to non-medical staff, by offering insight into doctors’ lives, including the pressures they face in the course of their work. . and . and says: “It examines the wider role of a doctor working holistically as an agent of social change, and it provides a general reader with insight into doctors' lives and the pressures they work under.
The Wellbeing Toolkit for Doctors: A Supportive Guide to Help Everyone Working in Healthcare, Watkins Publishing, £10.99
SUPPORT: Would-be authors still have a few days to apply for one of the Scottish Book Trust’s New Writers Awards 2022. Emerging but unpublished writers can apply for one of three awards which offer help with taking your work to the next level, including £2,000 financial support and professional guidance in moving towards publication, plus a writer’s retreat.
Successful novelist Helen Sedgwick has described winning one of these awards as “the most important turning point in my career”. There are a few days left until the applications closing date of July 14. Full details at bit.ly/3yzR35l
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here