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100 Best Scottish Books

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Children of the Dead End - Patrick MacGill (1914)

Patrick MacGill - Children of the Dead End (1914)

1 Jan 2005

Patrick MacGill’s autobiographical novel roams from the tenant farms of Ireland and the grinding poverty of Dermod Flynn’s childhood, to the byways and backroads of Scotland and the navvying life. Leaving home at the age of 12 to seek work ‘beyond the…

The Citadel - AJ Cronin (1937)

AJ Cronin -The Citadel (1937)

1 Jan 2005

In recent years, Jed Mercurio’s novel Bodies and its subsequent television adaptation have provided shocking insight into the mental and physical strain suffered by overworked medical staff, including consequent fatal lapses in judgement. Rewind some 70…

A Concussed History of Scotland - Frank Kuppner (1990)

Frank Kuppner - A Concussed History of Scotland (1990)

1 Jan 2005

The kind of exercise in post-modernity that makes traditionalists drop their monocles in disbelief at the self-indulgence of it all, A Concussed History of Scotland earned Kuppner huge critical acclaim but, perhaps understandably, didn’t trouble any…

The Cone-Gatherers - Robin Jenkins (1955)

Robin Jenkins - The Cone-Gatherers (1955)

1 Jan 2005

In what circumstances is kleptomania acceptable; almost certainly when a nation’s culture is at stake? It hardly rates as the crime of the century but I once stole a conifer from the floor of the Tramway, after a memorable production of Communicado’s…

Confessions of an English Opium-Eater - Thomas De Quincey (1822)

Thomas De Quincey - Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1822)

100 Best Scottish Books of all Time

1 Jan 2005

Thomas De Quincey’s debut is an intense exploration of the liminal, from the evanescing ‘beatific druggist’ and the illuminatus prostitute of Oxford Street to the phantasmagoric godfather of logos revolutionaries such as Baudelaire, Kafka, Woolf…

Consider the Lilies - Iain Crichton Smith (1968)

Iain Crichton Smith - Consider the Lilies (1968)

100 Best Scottish Books of all Time

1 Jan 2005

Iain Crichton Smith was, and is, lovingly acknowledged as one of modern Scotland’s foremost writers, wits and all-round ‘characters’. Generations of readers have grown up holding close to their hearts (and exam cram sheets) one or other of his terse…

The Coral Island - R. M. Ballantyne (1858)

R. M. Ballantyne - The Coral Island (1858)

100 Best Scottish Books of all Time

1 Jan 2005

Reading The Coral Island after a 40-year gap, I found I knew whole passages almost by heart. Had I read it that often? Ballantyne's stories, which began with his own adventures as an employee of the Hudson's Bay Company, successfully nourished…

The Cutting Room - Louise Welsh (2002)

Louise Welsh - The Cutting Room (2002)

100 Best Scottish Books of all Time

1 Jan 2005

A host of successful new authors has sprung from Glasgow University’s highly productive creative writing course over the last few years, with Louise Welsh at the front of the pack. The Cutting Room was Welsh’s 2002 debut novel and it is a book that has…

Robert Alan Jamieson - A Day at the Office (1991)

100 Best Scottish Books of all Time

1 Jan 2005

‘We should be free to wander,’ says the unnamed narrator early on. And that’s exactly what the author goes on to do. Pity the poor typesetter: each page of this book – a precursor to much modern experimental Scottish fiction – looks more like a work of…

The Dear Green Place - Archie Hind (1966)

Archie Hind - The Dear Green Place (1966)

100 Best Scottish Books of all Time

1 Jan 2005

There are two kinds of books in this list: great fiction by people who happen to come from Scotland, and great fiction influenced by and composed with Scotland in mind. The Dear Green Place is perhaps the best example of the latter. From renditions of…

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