A famed anthropologist, who has investigated everything from ancient burials to modern acts of genocide, has won the coveted Saltire Book Award.
Dame Sue Black accepted the 2018 award at a ceremony in Edinburgh last night, in recognition of her literary work All That Remains: A Life in Death.
The book explores the myriad faces of death she has experienced during more than three decades in forensic science – a career which has taken her from analysing horrific war crimes committed in Kosovo to identifying victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in Thailand.
The former Aberdeen University student described the book as being “as much about life as about death” and argued that, rather than being something to fear, death is something which people should accept “as an integral and fundamentally necessary part of life’s process.”
She said: “Over the past thirty years and more, I feel very lucky to have been able to work in a job that I absolutely love.
“Working with teams who are second to none in their field of expertise has made that experience uniquely rewarding.
“In writing this book, my goal was always to create a record of that experience but also to reflect on the important and positive lessons I have learned about life through the study of death in its many different forms.”
The winners of the five other book Awards announced as part of the awards ceremony included Aberdeen-based Leila Aboulela’s short story collection.
Mairi Kidd, interim head of literature, languages and publishing at Creative Scotland, said: “We are delighted to be able to support the 2018 Saltire Literary Awards.
“These awards occupy a unique place in the Scottish literary landscape, recognising as they do Scottish literature and publishing in all its many and varied forms.
“Particular congratulations go to Dame Sue Black on winning Saltire Book of the Year and to all of the other individual category winners in what was another very competitive year.
“It is great to be able to celebrate and showcase the work of everyone shortlisted and, in so doing, hopefully promote it to a new and wider audience.”
