Scotland Reading List

Below is an expanded, adapted list of Scottish literature. I’m not sure of the origin of the list but suspect it came from Edinburgh newspaper, The Scotsman, which is good reading in its own right. I’ve read the starred ones but have looked over most. I need another trip to read more!

The 44 Scotland Street Series by Alexander McCall Smith:
44 Scotland Street
Espresso Tales
* Love Over Scotland
This serial relates tales of manners and intrigue in Edinburgh’s New Town. Light reading to counteract some of the darker selections here.

Driftnet, by Lin Anderson: This crime book has flown off shelves. When a teenage boy is found murdered in a Glasgow flat, forensic psychologist Rhone MacLeod finds likenesses between herself and the victim. Could he be the son she put up for adoption 17 years before?

* Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon: Recently voted the best Scottish book of all time, Sunset Song remains a classic across the land. What young woman wouldn’t identify with its heroine, Chris Guthrie, torn between the countryside of her birth and the modern world?

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark: As much a time and a place as a character, Spark’s Jean Brodie came to embody a generation of Edinburgh women. Her unconventional ways and blatant favoritism made her both terrifying and alluring.

Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin: This is where it all started for John Rebus – Rankin’s hard-drinking Edinburgh crime-fighter – with the murder of three girls. When messages made of knotted string and matchsticks start arriving, Rebus realizes it’s personal.

Buddha Da by Anne Donovan: This beautiful novel won rave reviews when first published. Though written entirely in Glaswegian Scots, it’s an easy and lyrical read about a decorator who becomes a Buddhist, one of Scottish independent publisher’s, Canongate Books’ selection for the Scottish exhibition.

Whisky Galore by Compton Mackensie: A simply hilarious tale of ill-gotten whisky gain on a Scottish island in wartime.

Boswell’s Edinburgh Journals, 1787 – 1786 by James Boswell: High times and low lifes in the Edinburgh of Enlightenment. Boswell’s diaries were instrumental in documenting 18th-century Reekie as he drank and debated philosophical thoughts with Adam Smith and David Hume, and mixed with the city’s seedier side.

To the Hebrides: Samuel Johnson's Journey to the Western Islands and James Boswell's Journal of a Tour by James Boswell and Samuel Johnson

Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh: When the movie was released, American theaters showed it with subtitles. Despite the language barrier, Welsh enjoys a huge following in the US.

Selected Poems of Carol Ann Duffy: Passed over for Poet Laureate a few years back, Duffy is nonetheless Scotland’s foremost poet. Whether writing about love, loss or childhood, Duffy’s voice is clean, clear and accessible. Many see her as a cheerier, modern-day Sylvia Plath.

* Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson: Bryson always elicits laughter and this account of his trek around Britain is no exception.

Greenvoe by George Mackay Brown: When a mysterious military project threatens his way of life unchanged for generations on th eOrcadian island of Hellya, chaos prevails. Mackay Brown’s evocative writing conjures up the myths and magic as well as the isolation of island life.

* Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson: Revel in young David Balfour’s adventures and marvel at how it engages young and old.

Lanark by Alasdair Gray: A Glasgow institution, Lanark was Gray’s first novel, and arguably his finest.

The Missing by Andrew o’Hagan: Mixing autobiography with social commentary, O’Hagen asks what impact a human being going missing has on kivelihoods and communities. Examining a side of Britain often unseen and unheard, he brings to light a country many would not recognize.

New Selected Poems by Edwin Morgan: His public appearances sell out in seconds, and he is more universally loved by the Scots than the Cairngorns. This includes older poems as well as his more recent work.

The Wasp Factory by Ian Banks: Dark, detached and brilliant, Iain Bank’s first novel remains his finest. Frank is a teenager on a remote Scottish island whose strange obsessions, and the varying degrees of insanity of his family members, become increasingly horrifying. Makes Stephen King look like Beatrix Potter.

The Bridge, also by Ian Banks: This novel is mainly set on a fictionalized version of the Forth Rail Bridge.

Young Adam by Alexander Trocchi: The second book on the list to have been madeinto a film starring Ewan McGregor, Trocchi’s most famous work, set on barges traveling between Glasgow and Edinburgh, has drawn parallels with Albert Camus’ the Outsider. Quite pornographic in parts.

Waverley by Sir Walter Scott: For tourist who have arrived at Waverley station and visited the Scott Monument, this is the real thing, the story of the Jacobite uprising of 1745 and the idealistic young Edward Waverley, drawn in to Bonnie Prince Charlie’s web. A classic of classics.

Mary, Queen of Scots by Antonia Fraser: Perhaps no resident of Edinburgh is more famous than Mary Queen of Scots. Ironically, she lived in the land for only twelve of her forty-four years and her period of personal rule lasted a mere six years, none of which were free from strife.

The Cone Gatherers by Robin Jenkins: Scotland’s Of Mice and Men, Robin Jenkins’ haunting novel is set during WWII on a Scottish country estate and tells the story of two brothers working as cone gatherers. Mysterious and tragic, it remains a classic moral tale.

Divided City by Theresa Breslin: It’s the marching season in Glasgow and young Graham just wants to play football, but he finds himself involved in old rivalries between Catholics and Protestants, and, in newer conflicts, with a young Muslim. This children’s book is a timely insight into sectarianism and racism.

Finally, anything by the Scottish cultural icon Robert S. Burns.