We begin to sense the challenge of imposing a narrative teleology on these developments, key episodes having been driven (quite nakedly) by short-term electoral calculation. Thus, Craig argues, an historical account centred on political parties and positioning will take us only so far. After a précis of the Campaign for a Scottish Assembly (from 1980) and its successor the Scottish Constitutional Convention (from 1989), and the emergence of a pro-devolution consensus in Scotland during the Major government, Craig draws a clear and even provocative conclusion: In the sections in Chapters 4 and 5 on the Scottish and Welsh peoples, more emphasis should be laid on the fact that the differences described were historical and had been narrowing over time. The Polish scholar of language nationalism Tomasz Kamusella added that ‘most states and nations extant at present in the world do not have and do not aspire to spawn their own national literatures’. But in Sassi’s view, the fierce contestation of Scottish literature’s legitimacy and importance was itself strong evidence of its political significance: ‘The degree of denial and denigration suffered by Scottish literature in the twentieth-century is in fact directly proportional, I believe, to the perceived political power of an independent national literary canon’ (ibid.).

A gorgeous feat of verse, Deep Wheel Orcadia weaves a story of place and belonging while introducing a compelling cast of characters that you’re sure to resonate with. When Glaswegian ex-con Sammy awakens in an alley, disoriented and confused, he struggles to remember the events that happened during his two-day drinking binge. After fighting with some soldiers, Sammy finds himself in a jail cell, badly beaten and completely blind. Showing no regret for his actions, however uncharacteristic, Eric is taken in a taxi to a remote hotel in the Scottish highlands; a place that never sees any guests and the snow never stops falling.

Devolution’s Backstory: Managing ‘National Feeling’

James Robertson’s And the Land Lay Still is a quintessential novel of the story of modern Scotland. It’s one of the few books set in Scotland on our list. We begin at a Christmas market in Edinburgh, where protagonist Eric is suddenly and inexplicably drawn away from his fiancee by the allure of a woman named Delia.

Don has two sons, the sweet-mannered CND activist and teacher Billy, and Charlie, a wayward gangster-soldier from bad-boy central casting, who is probably the novel's least convincing character. Charlie's relationship with feisty journalist Ellen, her brutal rape, pregnancy, and most of all, her and rebound partner Robin's reaction to all of this, didn't quite ring true for me. Perhaps paradoxically, I completely believed in the drunken spy, called James Bond. An embittered servant of the British state, Bond takes his revenge on his patronising superiors by bringing down a disgraced Tory MP, David Eddlestane, one of the party's last representatives in Scotland. Eddlestane is so well observed as to become an integral part of the book, not just the plot-device he might have been in less capable hands. Rather than revel in the sleaze of his demise, Robertson brilliantly wrongfoots us by letting Eddlestane emerge as one of the novel's most sympathetic characters, with a marvellous, dignified telephone confrontation with the man who ruined him. We’ve got a few gothic novels, some science fiction, and modern Scottish literature. Find several books set in Scotland while others are written by Scottish authors — all under the beautiful umbrella of Scottish books.

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You may also opt to downgrade to Standard Digital, a robust journalistic offering that fulfils many user’s needs. Compare Standard and Premium Digital here. Change the plan you will roll onto at any time during your trial by visiting the “Settings & Account” section. What happens at the end of my trial? Set in the run-down public houses of 1980’s Glasgow just before the notorious drug epidemic hits the city, Shuggie Bain tells the story of Hugh “Shuggie” Bain, a sweet and shy boy whose siblings leave him to care for their alcoholic mother.

There’s no getting away from it, the nights are fair drawing in. So embrace the falling leaves, cold … Craig’s foreword to the Determinations series he edited for Polygon: ‘the 1980s proved to be one of the most productive and creative decades in Scotland this century — as though the energy that had failed to be harnessed by the politicians flowed into other channels’. The first three books of the Determinations series were published in 1989, making the foreword evidence of the cultural phenomenon on which it claims to reflect. ( Thomson 2007)

Literary Nationalism and its Discontents

And the Land Lay Still is the fourth novel by Scottish novelist and poet James Robertson. Upon publication in 2010 it was widely praised for its breadth of exploration of Scottish society in the latter half of the 20th century. Winner of the Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year 2010, And The Land Lay Still is a panoramic exploration of late 20th Century Scotland through the eyes of James Robertson’s characters; natives, immigrants, journalists and politicians, dropouts and spooks making their way in a changing country. Robertson’s And the Land Lay Still is the most fully realised attempt to make a cohesive national story of the period and forces of devolution. Having been politically active in the 1980s, notably through the pro-devolution magazine Radical Scotland (1983–91) – thinly disguised in the novel as Root & Branch – Robertson naturally began with events and debates he had experienced first-hand. But on beginning to revisit this period he encountered a historical problem: The destructive obsession with the need to emphasise and preserve the ‘Scottishness’ of our writing far beyond what comes naturally and truthfully to writers will persist for as long as Scotland remains in a political limbo; in other words, it will last until Scotland either becomes a full nation-state, or loses its sense of nationhood altogether. ( McMillan 1983, 70)

Whether circular or not, we should notice that the culturalist narrative includes ample room for historical contingency and the unexpected twist. In a 2014 essay Craig observes that ‘in 1990 no political party in Scotland was in favour of the Parliament that actually came into existence in 1999’ ( Craig 2014, 1). 3 Robertson, James (5 August 2010), And the Land Lay Still (1sted.), London: Hamish Hamilton, ISBN 978-0-241-14356-8 Irvine Welsh enjoys a sweeping look through a Scottish lens at a turbulent era". The Guardian. UK. 24 July 2010 . Retrieved 1 July 2011. James Crawford is a writer and broadcaster, and the publisher at Historic Environment Scotland. Born in the Shetlands in 1978, he studied History and Philosophy of Law at the University of Edinburgh, winning the Lord President Cooper Memorial Prize. Ja …Janice Galloway’s debut novel was first published in 1989. It’s a painful tale of the struggles of mental health and the difficulties of surviving trauma.