ANNA MARSHALL’s The Little Book of Christmas and Hogmanay: Scotland’s festive traditions
(Birlinn, £9.99 (£9); 978-1-78027-960-2), revealing that the Christmas tree did not take off in Scotland until the 1950s and that “Morning has broken” has the tune of an old Scottish carol, carries on past Hogmanay to Twelfth Night with a feast of facts.
Alice Loxton, for Eleanor: A 200-mile walk in search of England’s lost queen (Macmillan, £22
(£19.80); 978-1-0350-7694-9), walked the route marked by the 12 Eleanor Crosses that the grieving Edward I raised in the 1290s. Cathedral deans are among those who talked to her.