The kiln - William McIlvanney

Alone in a rented flat in Edinburgh in the 1990s, Tom Docherty calls up the past like a necromancer, reliving the summer of 1955 - the summer of the kiln. Then he was seventeen, with school behind him, a holiday job at a Graithnock brick work, and his life before him. As he recalls the intellectual and sexual awakening of his youth and the paths he took as an adult, he discovers that only by understanding where he comes from can he make sense of his life.

William McIlvanney portrays a man weighing up the balance of his life with unflinching honesty. It is a remarkable portrait, drawn with razor-sharp humour, wisdom and compassion by a masterful writer.