Books by MacLean and Bullough named Scottish and Welsh Waterstones Books of the Year

S G MacLean’s The Bookseller of Inverness (Quercus) and Tom Bullough’s Sarn Helen (Granta Books) have been announced as the 2023 Waterstones Books of the Year for Scotland and Wales respectively.

The awards specifically champion books by Scottish and Welsh authors, or titles that have strong Scottish or Welsh settings.

The Waterstones Scottish Book of the Year winner, The Bookseller of Inverness, is described as a "gripping historical thriller" set in the wake of the 1746 Battle of Culloden. The synopsis says: "The titular bookseller, a Jacobite Culloden survivor, finds himself drawn into a web of intrigue when a stranger is found murdered in his shop. The bookseller must solve the murder before he and his family are implicated."

The book was selected as the Waterstones Scottish Book Of The Month for March 2023. Angela MacRae from Waterstones Inverness said: “Shona MacLean writes gripping crime thrillers and has throughout her career become a leading voice in historical Tartan Noir. The Bookseller of Inverness is quite frankly her best novel yet with an absorbing plot, rich historical detail and fabulous characters.

"It is also our best-selling Scottish Book of The Month ever. It is without a doubt that an author of Shona’s calibre rightly deserves to be the winner of The Waterstones Scottish Book of The Year. I cannot wait for us to get this novel both into the hands of customers who have read her earlier books and those to whom she is a new voice as there is something in this book for everyone”.

MacLean is a historical thriller writer with a PhD in history from the University of Aberdeen, specialising in 16th- and 17th-century Scottish history. The author commented: “I couldn’t have dreamt that the book would be chosen by Waterstones booksellers as their Scottish Book of the Year. They have taken it up with such enthusiasm and put it into the hands of so many readers who might never otherwise have picked it up. I am astonished and immensely grateful, and it has made my year.”

Moreover, Sarn Helen: A Journey Through Wales, Past, Present and Future by Bullough was announced as the Waterstones Welsh Book Of The Year 2023. Featuring illustrations by Jackie Morris, the book described as a "captivating nonfictional account" of the author’s journey along Sarn Helen, the old Roman Road running from the south of Wales to the north. The synopsis adds: "This is a revelatory portrait of a nation and a meditation on the way in which we are shaped by place and in turn shape places – potentially irrevocably."

Steven Gane, the bookshop manager at Waterstones Swansea, said: "We knew, early on, that Sarn Helen was something really rather special. It’s just so beautifully written, and equally beautiful to look at; Tom Bullough’s evocative lyricism is perfectly matched by Jackie Morris’ stunning illustrations. This is an eco-travel memoir of the highest order, and an immersive exploration of Wales, from its mythology and history to the likely effects of the climate crisis on its coastline today.”

Kate Willets, a bookseller at Waterstones Cardiff, added : “Sarn Helen is a rare jewel: a fascinating, genre-spanning book taking in travel, history, nature-writing and deeply felt conversations on climate science. Due to its immense scope and huge heart, Sarn Helen is a book that will appeal to many."

Bullough is the author of four novels and Sarn Helen, which was long-listed for the 2023 James Cropper Wainwright Prize for Writing on Global Conservation, is his first work of non-fiction. He commented: “Sarn Helen is a book of the ancient Welsh past, and of Wales as it is today, but above all it is a book about how we shape our future, given the climate and nature emergency.

"For it to be the Waterstones Welsh Book of the Year is a joy and honour in itself. But that this will help to bring more people into the conversation around climate and ecology – well, I couldn’t ask for better."