Scottish Fiction

The Mearns Trilogy

One of the all-time greats of Scottish literature, truly revolutionary, A Scots Quair is a trilogy of novels: Sunset Song (1932), Cloud Howe (1933) and Grey Granite (1934). At each book's core is the heroine Chris Guthrie, as she grows from a child into adulthood through the Great War to the development of communism in the 1920s. Grassic Gibbon's writing is unique and riveting, blending Scots and English in an accessible style, and eloquent in its humanity and celebration of nature.

Patrick Paniter was James IV's right-hand man, a diplomatic genius who was in charge of the guns at the disastrous battle of Flodden in September 1513 in which the English annihilated the Scots. After the death of his king he is tormented by guilt as he relives the events that led to war. When Louise Brenier, daughter of a rogue sea trader, asks his help in finding out if her brother Benoit was killed in action, it is the least he can do to salve his conscience. Not satisfied with the news he brings, Louise sets off to find out the truth herself, and swiftly falls foul of one of the lawless clans that rule the ungovernable borderlands. After Flodden is a novel about the consequences of the battle of Flodden, as seen through the eyes of several characters who either had a hand in bringing the country to war, or were profoundly affected by the outcome. There have been very few novels about Flodden, despite its significance, and none from this perspective. It's a racy adventure, combining political intrigue and romance, and its readership will be anyone who loves historical fiction, or is interested in the history of Scotland and the turbulent, ungovernable borderlands between Scotland and England.

Young Donald Peter Gillies, a Lovat scout soldier lies in hospital in Gallipoli in 1916, blinded by the Turks. There he falls in love with his Queen Alexandra Corps nurse, Louise, and she with him.

The story moves back and forth from their time at the field hospital to the west highlands of Scotland where Donald grew up. As they talk in the quiet hours he tells her the stories of the coast and glens, how his family lived and the fascinating life of a century ago: bagpiping, sheep shearing, celidhs, illegal distilling, his mother saving the life of the people of St Kilda, the navvies building the west highland railway and the relationship between the lairds and the people. Louise in turn tells her own story of growing up in the Welsh valley: coal mining, a harsh and unforgiving upbringing.

They get cut off from the allied troops and with another nurse are forced to make their escape through Turkey to Greece, getting rescued by a Coptic priest and ending up in Malta. By this time their love is out in the open, but there is still another tragic twist to their story waiting on the way back to Donald’s beloved highland home . . .

Thorfinn Ragnarson is the daydreaming son of a tenant farmer, avoiding both work and school despite the best efforts of family, friends and neighbours. Instead, the boy dreams up elaborate historical fantasies of himself as a Viking traveller, a freedom-fighter for Bonnie Prince Charlie and the colleague of a Falstaffian knight who participates in the Battle of Bannockburn. He is then hurled into the future as Thor, who returns to the Orkneys as an adult and recalls his internment in a German POW camp, where he discovered his writing skills. Thor also reflects on the history of Orkney, the links between dreaming and writing and the whims of fate. In this beautiful and haunting novel, Brown's lyrical descriptions and gift for local colour capture, as ever, the myth-drenched magic of his native islands.

Greenvoe, the tight-knit community on the Orcadian island of Hellya, has existed unchanged for generations, but Operation Black Star requires the island for unspecified purposes and threatens the islanders' way of life. A whole host of characters - The Skarf, failed fisherman and Marxist historian; Ivan Westray, boatman and dallier; pious creeler Samuel Whaness; drunken fisherman Bert Kerston; earth-mother Alice Voar, and meths-drinker Timmy Folster - are vividly brought to life in this sparkling mixture of prose and poetry.

This grown up rhyming tale of Lizzie and her unrule lady garden is sure to raise a titter or two and has already proved popular on social media. Think Pam Ayres meets Charlie Dimmock meets ‘Brenda’s Beaver Needs a Barber’ and you have ‘Lizzie who passionately believes that nature should simply be allowed to do it’s thing when it comes to her lady garden. Underscored by the merest hint of a feminist call-to-action, Lizzie comically inspires ladies far and wide to set their lady gardens free.

Thomas Maggs, the son of the local publican, lives with his parents and sister in a village on the Suffolk coast in 1914. He is the youngest child, and the only son surviving. Life is quiet - shaped by the seasons, fishing and farming and the summer visitors.Then one day a mysterious Scotsman arrives. To Thomas he looks for all the world like a detective, in his black cape and hat of felted wool, and the way he puffs on his pipe as if he's Sherlock Holmes. Mac is what the locals call him when they whisper about him in the inn. And whisper they do, for he sets off on his walks at unlikely hours, and stops to examine the humblest flowers. He is seen on the beach, staring out across the waves as if he's searching for clues. But Mac isn't a detective, he's the architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and together with his red-haired artist wife, they soon become a source of fascination and wonder to Thomas.

Bringing together six short stories – two of which are previously unpublished – One Last Dram Before Midnight is the perfect Christmas gift for fans of Denzil Meyrick. These tales take us from DCI Jim Daley’s early days pounding the beat in Glasgow as a young constable to a light-hearted whisky smuggling romp involving Hamish and some ghostly pipers.

 

Includes four previously eBook exclusive stories: Single End, Two One Three, Dalintober Moon and Empty Nets and Promises

When the body of a man in eighteenth-century Highland dress is discovered on the site of the Battle of Culloden, journalist Rebecca Connolly takes up the story for the Chronicle.

Meanwhile, a film being made about the '45 Rebellion has enraged the right-wing group Spirit of the Gael which is connected to a shadowy group called Black Dawn linked to death threats and fake anthrax deliveries to Downing Street and Holyrood. When a second body - this time in the Redcoat uniform of the government army - is found in Inverness, Rebecca finds herself drawn ever deeper into the mystery. Are the murders connected to politics, a local gang war or something else entirely?

Vinland follows the turbulent life of Ranald Sigmundson, a young boy born into the Dark Ages when Orkney was torn between its Viking past and its Christian future. Struggling to understand the conflicts of his home, Ranald seeks adventure and knowledge across the seas, his journeys taking him as far as Norway, Iceland and Ireland. Through Ranalds story, many elements of early mediaeval life 'of seamanship, marriage customs, beliefs and traditions' are brought vibrantly to life, and the traditional poetry interwoven through the prose adds a richness and poignancy to the tales he tells. In Vinland, Mackay Browns fourth novel, lore and legend, the elementary pull of the sea and the land, the sweetness of the early religion and the darker, more ancient rites, create an exquisite celebration of Orcadian history.

A Croft in the Hills, first published in 1960, is now acknowledged as a classic among Highland books.  It captures, in simple, moving descriptions, what it was really like trying to make a living out of a hill croft near Loch Ness fifty years ago.  A couple and their young daughter, fresh from city life, immerse themselves in the practicalities of looking after sheep, cattle and hens,  mending fences, baking bread and surviving the worst that Scottish winters can throw at them.

Their neighbours are  few, but among them they find the generosity and community spirit that has survived in the Highlands for generations.  Working as a tight family unit, they learn to cope, and in time grow to love their little croft.

This gripping novel follows Forbes Fogerty, a senior international airline pilot, through his flight experiences and tense moments, while trying to keep his family together at home. His interfering mother-in-law, social climbing wife and anti-establishment daughter, all combine to test his 'safe pair of hands'.

Arguably Scott's finest novel, and the last of his major Scottish novels, Redgauntlet centers around a third, fictitious, Jacobite rebellion set in the summer of 1765. The novel's hero, young Darsie Latimer, is kidnapped by Edward Hugh Redgauntlet, a fanatical supporter of the Stewart cause, and finds himself caught up in the plot to install the exiled Bonnie Prince Charlie on the British throne. First published in 1824, this is perhaps Scott's most complex statement about the relation between history and fiction. This new edition features the Magnum text of 1832, the last to be corrected by Scott, and it includes Scott's own notes. This reissue is the only available critical edition and it includes a fine introduction by Kathryn Sutherland, who examines the historical context, the novel's structure and style, and the story itself. The book also includes an up-to-date bibliography, a timeline of Scottish history in the period relating to the novel, a chronology of Scott's life and work, full explanatory notes, and a glossary of Scots words.

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When Patrick Gillies graduated from the University of Edinburgh's distinguished school of medicine with honours in 1890, a high profile career as a surgeon lay ahead of him. Any city across the world would have welcomed him, and his university mentors, including the famous Joseph Lister, urged him to take up one of these opportunities. Gillies defied them all and returned to his home town of Easdale, determined to continue the work his father had begun as a physician to the parishioners of the Slate Islands. Over the next 40 years Patrick Gillies worked tirelessly to sustain and improve the community services available in Argyll. Although he worked as a General Practitioner, Patrick involved himself in every aspect of the community, joining the Cullipool School Board, where he was determined to protest against its closure - a fight he eventually won. This early battle is indicative of the rest of Gillies' life which he spent investigating everything, from the drainage systems to preventative medicine, and fighting for improvements, such as an isolation hospital for the Slate Islands and better medical provisions for school children. In later years he was able to apply his determination and sense in Army service in two wars.

I loved her from the moment I saw her, and that love has never wavered. It has encased every choice I have ever made, and I have never done anything in my life which didn't involve her image somewhere... I'm so sorry for it all This is the latest English-language novel from award-winning Gaelic poet, novelist, journalist, broadcaster and actor, Angus Peter Campbell, and the first to be published simultaneously in Gaelic and English. Vividly evoked Scottish tale of chance encounters and of family memories, regret, love and loss. Combines myth, music and linguistics to recount the memory of a hazy summer's day on the Isle of Mull.