THE ongoing trial of those who murdered the West African revolutionary Thomas Sankara is one of the most significant political events of the year, and it was accompanied by the publication of Brian J Peterson’s biography of Sankara, A Revolutionary in Cold War Africa.

As the first and only book in English to combine a biographical account of Sankara’s life with a political account of the revolution, it is a landmark publication that draws existing material together with new evidence. It’s a thrilling and tragic story and Peterson does it justice. Essential reading.

I defy anyone to read the late Labour MP Maria Fyfe’s memoir of a Glasgow upbringing, Singing in the Streets, without being moved to tears. Published just before she died, it is more than a political autobiography, it is an outstanding contribution to Scottish letters, a working-class woman’s rite of passage written with heartwarming humour and humanity, Glaswegian grit and political clarity.