Great Regulars: Hamish Whyte's collection, A Bird in the Hand

(Shoestring Press, £8.95), makes the most of small, revealing moments in family and everyday life, attends to the pleasures of what's past and passing. Here, an exchange overheard becomes emblematic of longer journeys we're making, from the old year to the new.

The Great Journey

The old couple

from The Scotsman: Poem of the Week

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