SIX GREAT SCOTTISH BOOKS ABOUT NATURE AND WILD LANDSCAPES

The Dun Cow Rib by John Lister-Kaye (Canongate, £9.99)

John Lister-Kaye has spent a lifetime exploring, protecting and celebrating the nation’s landscapes and wildlife. This beautiful memoir shares his boyhood awakening to the wonders of the natural world and the joy he found living in the Scottish Highlands.

I Am An Island by Tamsin Calidas (Doubleday, £16.99)

After upping sticks from London to take on a derelict, rundown Hebridean croft, Tamsin Calidas saw her life torn apart at the seams. A powerful story of courage, resilience and discovering unexpected beauty in the midst of anguish.

Marram by Leonie Charlton (Sandstone Press, £12.99)

Leonie Charlton and a friend trekked through the Outer Hebrides from Barra to Lewis on their Highland ponies in 2017. Her mesmerising account blends travel and nature writing as Charlton reflects on grief, catharsis and acceptance.

The Nature of Autumn by Jim Crumley (Saraband, £12.99)

A perfect time to delve into The Nature of Autumn, the first in Jim Crumley’s four-strong series of thoughtful appreciations on the Scottish seasons. He charts a colourful procession of markers – falling leaves, rutting deer, geese flying south – from September through October and November.

Just Another Mountain by Sarah Jane Douglas

(Elliott & Thompson, £14.99)

Sarah Jane Douglas was 24 when she lost her mother to breast cancer in 1997. Douglas sought solace in the mountains of Scotland, walking in her mother’s footsteps, as she attempted to make peace with a troubled past and face her own diagnosis 20 years later.

The Secret Life of the Cairngorms by Andy Howard

(Sandstone Press, £24.99)

Wildlife photographer Andy Howard has spent years capturing images of the animals and birds that reside in the Cairngorms National Park.

His stunning book shares unforgettable moments, from acrobatic red squirrels to secretive mountain hares and soaring ospreys. speech, memory and swallowing. They left the appointment and clung to each other in the hospital car park.

“You can’t be ill, I still love you,” Winn wrote of that moment in The Salt Path. She had met and fallen in love with Moth when she was 18. At the time of his diagnosis Winn was 50 and her husband only 53. Life without Moth seemed unfathomable.

That was seven years ago. Remarkably Moth continues to beat the odds. He recently celebrated his 60th birthday. One oft-Googled question about The Salt Path is “What happened to Moth?” and Winn is touched by the emotional investment that many readers have in her husband’s health.

“I tried to put across in The Wild Silence that it wasn’t a straightforward journey where we stopped that walk, everything was rosy, and he was OK – because that’s not how it has been,” she says. “But, by spending all the time we possibly can out in the natural environment and being as active as possible, he has found a way to keep his health on the plateau for now. Every day we just hope it is going to be another good day.”

To that end, The Wild Silence is more than simply a memoir – it is a love letter to the natural world in all its wondrous glory. There are moments when Winn, who grew up on a farm in Staffordshire, speaks about her strong, unyielding pull to the land that is reminiscent of Chris Guthrie in Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s Sunset Song.

Not least in the heart-rending section of her new book where she writes about losing her mother to a stroke, watching helplessly as life ebbed away. When Winn isn’t at her