Night Falls on Ardnamurchan is a classic account of the life and death of a Highland community.

John McPhee lived in Colonsay 1969 and recorded his experiences in this blend of anthropology and art, capturing the tensions which both support and threaten a small community.

This book has been seminal in bringing once again to the fore the injustices that have been inflicted on the Highlands in the name of government and landlord - injustices often lost in the name of dry statistics and academic balance.

Throughout his lifetime, Angus MacLellan was regarded as one of Scotland’s finest traditional Gaelic storytellers - this definitive autobiography demonstrates his rich skill of the oral tradition.

The problem of the Clearances is often associated simply with the Highlands, but on the small island of Rousay one of the most dramatic conflicts of all took place between tenant and landowner in the dramatic years from 1840 to 1890.

Iain Thomson mixes his own personal story with Scotland’s historical past in a melting-pot of ideas, snapshots and autobiographical accounts, which conjure up the vital past and continuing force of the elusive Highland spirit.

On the Crofter’s Trail is the revised and updated version of David Craig’s popular book about the clearances in the 19th century.

2006 RATCLIFF PRIZE - HIGHLY COMMENDED

Children of the Black House is a fascinating glimpse into life on the Hebridean island of Lewis from the closing years of the nineteenth century up to the 1970s in which Calum Ferguson draws on his mother Mairead's reminiscences, presenting her experiences and conversation in the first person.

An examination of why deer forests were not popular with the majority of crofters in Victorian and Edwardian times, and how forests served to marginalise and impoverish local people.

• Crofting