AIDAN HART has written a slim paperback, Face to Face: The theology of the icon (Gracewing, £9.99 (£9); 978-0-85244-710-9), an adaptation for print of an article for the online St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology. It could be put into the hands of anyone seeking an introduction to the thinking behind these increasingly familiar images.

“IN CHRIST-TIME shepherds on the night-watch were seated on the ground; in the winters of medieval Britain shepherds crouched in convenient, weather-proof shrubbery (hence “Shepherd’s Bush”); but the modern English shepherd tends to pull him or herself off the sofa for a quick night-time check of their charges. . .” John Lewis-Stempel’s nature writing in Night Life (Doubleday, £12.99 (£11.70); 978-1-5299-3815-9) is infused with English literary and Christian tradition.

ROSEMARY GORING has written Exile: The captive years of Mary, Queen of Scots (Birlinn, £20 (£18); 978-1-78027-838-4), a hardback with family trees, a map, a section of colour plates, and suggestions for further reading. It is a sequel to a study of Mary’s early years, Homecoming (2022). The author was a literary editor on several Scottish newspapers and two books about Scotland and Scotland’s historic female figures.