A Work of BeautyIn this sumptuous new book, Alexander McCall Smith curates his own distinctive story of Edinburgh combining his affectionate, incisive wit with a wealth of stunning imagery drawn from Scotland's national collection of architecture and archaeology.

He was ferociously well travelled

Starting with the events surrounding Jesus' birth

high-yield crops

The long-awaited autobiography of John Cooper Clarke

It also began a movement that would change women's lives forever

Every chapter of my book is based around an object (usually a pot) that's been significant in my life

with twisting corridors and roaring fires

lows and hard

why this is important

But these groundbreaking subversions all came from a middle-class Belgian gent

is an original and controversial work that captures the terror and the pain but also the hope of life and pursuit of happiness in a deeply divided society

to launch a scheme to 'save' their streets