We’ve asked Scotland’s leading writers, booksellers, festival directors and critics to pick one, or two, books — published this year or in the past — that they most enjoyed reading in 2018. There will be new selections every day throughout December — so keep reading for great ideas about what to read next and visit your nearest high street bookshop to purchase your Christmas gifts! Today’s selection is from Victoria MacKenzie.

Corbel Stone Press, run by Autumn Richardson and Richard Skelton, specialises in beautiful and hand-made books. Richardson’s poetry collection, An Almost-Gone Radiance, is a clear-eyed, deeply-felt exploration of a variety of landscapes. There’s nothing sentimental or romanticised here – ‘The willows too fatten on death’ – but there’s an alertness to the other-than-human, an awareness of other ways of being and existing on this planet than our own. It’s an exquisite book, thread sewn and embossed, the attention to detail reflecting the attention to detail in Richardson’s writing. A book to offer as a gift and a book to treasure.

Victoria MacKenzie is currently participating in the Emerging Critics programme. She writes fiction and poetry and will be spending two months in Finland in 2019 on a Saari Residency. You can find out more about her at https://victoriamackenzie.net/