Reviewer biographies

Vin Arthey is a writer and researcher specialising in the history of espionage. His most recent book is Abel: The True Story of the Spy They Traded for Gary Powers.

Jane Bradley is consumer affairs correspondent and columnist for

The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday. She chairs events at The Edinburgh International Book Festival and is a reader for the Highland Book Prize.

Tim Cornwell is a freelance arts journalist, writing for The Art

Newspaper and Canvas magazine

as well as The Scotsman.

Roger Cox is the arts & books

editor of The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday .Healso writes an outdoors column for

The Scotsman Magazine.

Alastair Dalton is transport correspondent for The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday ,akeen cyclist, walker and train traveller, and an occasional driver.

Louise Fairbairn is The Scotsman’s deputy print production editor. An aficionado of tartan noir, she is often to be found at crime writing festivals, adding to her ridiculously large “to read” pile.

Stuart Kelly is a Scottish critic and author. His works include

The Book of Lost Books and Scottland: The Man Who Invented a Nation, which was longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize. He was a Man Booker Prize judge in 2013.

Allan Massie is The Scotsman’s chief literary critic. He is the author of more than 20 novels, notably his acclaimed trilogy set in mid-20th-century Europe – A Question of Loyalties, The Sins of the Father and Shadows of Empire – and his series of historical novels about the key figures of Imperial Rome.

Chris Mccall is a multimedia news reporter for The Scotsman, based in Glasgow. He has written about the arts, and music in particular, for a variety of publications.

Kirsty Mcluckie is property editor and special reports writer for the Scotsman. She regularly chairs Gliterary Lunches – meet the author networking events – in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Alan Pattullo is senior sports

writer for The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday , an occasional contributor to Nutmeg magazine and author of In Search

of Duncan Ferguson: The Life and Crimes of a Footballing Enigma.

Tom Peterkin is the political

editor of The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday .Heisalso a piper and a PG Wodehouse devotee.

Aidan Smith is chief sportswriter for The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday and a leader-page columnist for The

Scotsman. He is the author of three books including

Persevered: How Hibernian Smashed the Biggest Curse in Football.