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100 Best Scottish Books

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Garnethill - Denise Mina (1998)

Denise Mina - Garnethill (1998)

100 Best Scottish Books of all Time

1 Jan 2005

There was a time when the Glasgow-set detective story meant little more than the adventures of one craggy-faced chief inspector, handy with his fists, the originator of that oft-recited catchphrase: 'There's been a murrrder … ' From the late 90s…

The Golden Bough - James Frazer (1890)

James Frazer - The Golden Bough (1890)

100 Best Scottish Books of all Time

1 Jan 2005

Though largely debunked as anthropology, the legacy of James Frazer's The Golden Bough remains incalculable. Tracing humanity's belief in magic through religion to scientific rationality, across a staggering array of ancient and developing cultures…

The Gowk Storm - Nancy Brysson Morrison (1933)

Nancy Brysson Morrison - The Gowk Storm (1933)

100 Best Scottish Books of all Time

1 Jan 2005

The Gowk Storm is the story of three close-knit sisters, the daughters of a minister, living in a remote parish on the fringes of the Highlands. Narrated by Lisbet, the youngest sister, the novel is written mainly in English, but given a strong sense of…

Bernard MacLaverty - Grace Notes (1997)

Bernard MacLaverty - Grace Notes (1997)

100 Best Scottish Books of all Time

1 Jan 2005

Writing outside the gender barrier is a tough business. There's always the risk that the relationship between author and subject strays too close to that of puppeteer and marionette. To attempt this creative leap demonstrates a writer's confidence in…

Greenvoe - George Mackay Brown (1972)

George Mackay Brown - Greenvoe (1972)

100 Best Scottish Books of all Time

1 Jan 2005

Transposing the Orcadian rhythms of his critically-acclaimed poetry to a prose work which focuses on the dissipation of an island community proved a masterstroke for George Mackay Brown. In the absence of any real plot, we find ourselves embroiled in…

Alistair MacLean - The Guns of Navarone (1957)

Alistair MacLean - The Guns of Navarone (1957)

100 Best Scottish Books of all Time

1 Jan 2005

It will doubtless surprise many to find this most pulp of World War II action-adventures included in a compendium of Scotland's most accomplished fiction. But cast out Gregory Peck and J Lee Thompson's plodding, waterlogged film adaptation from your…

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - J.K. Rowling (1997)

J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997)

100 Best Scottish Books of all Time

1 Jan 2005

Before the Empire - the midnight queues round the block, the merchandise, the films and 800-page sequels - there was The Philosopher's Stone. It's easy to forget just what a phenomenon it is, and why. The story begins with Hagrid taking an 11-year-old…

Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness (1902)

Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness (1902)

100 Best Scottish Books of all Time

1 Jan 2005

In the heyday of British Imperialism, Blackwood's Magazine in Edinburgh published a great number of stories of life and adventures in various colonial outposts. Much of this dated very quickly and is of only minor historical interest today. A novel…

The Highland Clearances - John Prebble (1963)

John Prebble - The Highland Clearances (1963)

100 Best Scottish Books of all Time

1 Jan 2005

Although born in Middlesex, John Prebble grew up in Sutherland, a town in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It was amongst the descendants of Scottish emigrants - offspring of the crofters who had been forced to leave the Highlands by landlords…

Hotel World - Ali Smith (2001)

Ali Smith - Hotel World (2001)

100 Best Scottish Books of all Time

1 Jan 2005

‘Woooooooohooooooo what a fall what a soar what a plummet what a dash into dark into light …’ So opens Hotel World, as Sara Wilby’s ghost remembers her body plunging to its death down a lift shaft in a branch of the Global Hotel chain. Right away we…

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