Favourite Scottish writers?

VisitScotlandJulie

I would love to know who your favourite Scottish writers are. There are plenty to choose from. Perhaps I can discover a new writer to fall in love with.

My favourite is Lewis Grassic Gibbon (also known as James Leslie Mitchell). He was born in Auchterless in 1901 and is most known for his now classic trilogy A Scots Quair. I'm very proud to be a relative of his but I would love his work anyway . If you read one book from him, make it Sunset Song. It perfectly captures the time and place of the North East of Scotland during World War 1 through the eyes of a young woman Chris Guthrie. You can also visit the Grassic Gibbon Centre in Arbuthnott (25 miles from Aberdeen) to find out more about his life and works.

Ivor Cutler is also a particular favourite of mine - pretty surreal but very funny.

I'd love to know your favourites, old and new, alive or dead.

VisitScotlandSheena

Hi @VisitScotlandJulie - you're right, there are so many to choose from!

If you're looking for some suggestions, check out the brilliant Timeline of Scottish Literature eBook which highlights a few of the country's literary greats through the ages.

You'll also find suggested attractions connected to the different authors, so you can follow in their footsteps and see what inspired them too.

VisitScotlandHeather

It's got to be JK Rowling!  She used to live in my part of town (Edinburgh) so it was quite common to see her wandering around, minding her own business. I also love how the Elephant House on George IV Bridge is now known as the "birthplace of Harry Potter".

VisitScotlandJohn

When I was doing some research on Harry Potter and Edinburgh recently, I was amazed by how many things I never knew. For example, I had never noticed the plaque at 2 Nicolson Street above the Black Medicine Coffee Company, which commemorates that the first floor restaurant (now called Spoon) was back in the day a very popular restaurant called Nicolson's, and it was in Nicolson's that, so the story, goes much of the first Harry Potter novel was written.
I had also not been aware of the connections with Greyfriars Kirkyard. Where not only can you find graves for Joseph Black and William McGonagall, with Sirius Black and Minerva McGonagall of course important figures in the Potter universe, but most intriguingly of all there is a grave for a certain Thomas Riddell, otherwise known as 'He Who Must Not Be Named'!
All very intriguing, and I am sure there are other Potter-Edinburgh connection still to be revealed

VisitScotlandJoanne

Josephine Tey was a crime/mystery novelist from Inverness whose books are currently on my to-read list! There was recently a celebration of her work at Inverness Museum & Art Gallery where they had an exhibition featuring her personal items and a lecture from her biographer to launch her new book 'Josephine Tey: A Life' - another book also on my to-read list!

Samantha_Grant

I love Grassic Gibbon too but James Hogg aka the Ettrick Shepherd is my favourite. I love how he weaves Scottish folklore into his tales.  So many to choose from though. 

Leodhasach

Iain Banks or Iain M Banks depending whether you're reading his sci-fi stuff or other fiction. I love sci-fi and his Culture novels are some of the most original in the genre. They tend to be quite long books too which is always comforting, I can never be doing with wee 150 page novellas

Samantha_Grant

Plus George Heriot's School that sits right next to Greyfriars Kirkyard is the inspiration for Hogwarts. A beautiful old building and like Hogwarts reputed to have a ghost so a fitting inspiration for Hogwarts. @VisitScotlandJohn

laretour

@VisitScotlandJulie SUCH a good question! I love talking about books just as much as I love talking about Scotland (or maybe more...  ) 

A few of my favourites are Alasdair Gray, Louise Welsh and Ali Smith. Alasdair Gray is a bit of a legend, and - along with his novels - he's also designed the Hillhead Subway mural and Oran Mor ceiling in Glasgow along with other artworks! My partner used to see him all the time in Glasgow's west end and to say I was jealous is a mild understatement. Welsh and Smith are also great writers; Welsh's work is gritty whilst Smith's is really poetic and pushes boundaries.

Another fantastic novelist who writes beautifully about Scotland is Maggie O'Farrell. Although she isn't Scottish, she was brought up in the country and so a fair few of her novels are set in, or partly based, in Scotland. One of my favourites is 'The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox', which is set in Edinburgh. I'm not one for re-reading but her writing is so simple yet evocative that you always discover something new when you go back!

P.S. Shamefully I've never read LGG... Bad Scot?!

Leodhasach

laretour said:

P.S. Shamefully I've never read LGG... Bad Scot?!

Nope. Overrated in my opinion. 

Samantha_Grant

Great shout Laura, love Alasdair Gray.  Lanark is an amazing book. I studied it and Scots lit at university as well as my other passion - history.  I must dig it out and re-read it as it's been a long time. What an imagination he has.  A talented man.  We have a rich literarary history in this country which we should be rightly proud of.  There's something to suit all tastes.  If we all liked the same thing the World would be a boring place.  @laretour ;

OutandaboutElaine

Val McDermid Scottish crime writer best known for a series of suspense novels featuring Dr. Tony Hill are worth checking out. Agree with @laretour
 on Ali Smith's books definitely worth a read. 

VisitScotlandEsther

Ooh, I love Alasdair Gray's Lanark, and Ian Banks. If you're into nature and wildness, I read Gavin Maxwell's Ring of bright water when I was about 12,  and have loved it ever since. It's about a man living in near isolation with two beautiful otters, with lovely descriptions of the Scottish landscape.

thesugger76

I'm a big fan of Ian Rankin and the Rebus novels - great read.  I also like the Stuart Macbride books

ElaineR

Alistair Moffat paints many wonderful historical pictures of the Scottish Borders through the narratives in his books

thetinberrytravels

I'm going to go with non-fiction and suggest John Muir. Though the father of the National Parks in the USA he was born here in Scotland and has very interesting views on nature, conservation and wilderness. I've read some of his work as university research but hope to read more for interest. 

Hammy

Christopher Brookmyre is great. Such funny and quirky crime novels. I'd recommend either Quite Ugly One Morning or One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night. 

Beachcomber149

Try Katherine Stewart's A Croft in the Hills. A classic of its genre.

VisitScotlandJulie

Thanks everyone. My list of books to read is getting longer by the day.  

raynayday

Ian Banks, of course, Margaret Skea and Nigel Tranter, if you like historical fiction, as I do, For Faerie tales and fantasy try Robert Anderson or Raymond Walker and there are oh so many more but I think I would bore you to death.

ScottieDoll

For me it has to be Robert Louis Stevenson. 'Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!'

KatieMacLeod

Ooh I agree with @laretour - I love Ali Smith! I also read a lot of Jenny Colgan's novels (her most recent one was set in the Scottish countryside), and two good fiction writers from Lewis are Kevin MacNeil ('The Stornoway Way' is a favourite), and Malcolm Mackay - his crime trilogy set in Glasgow will have you on the edge of your seat!

Izzwizz

All suggestions I have seen so far are great. Hadn't heard of one or two writers so off to find them now. But don't forget Peter May. The Hebridean trilogy and Entry Island in particular are great and I love the Enzo Macleod character and series. Great summer reads. 

3penny

One of my favourites which hasn't been mentioned yet is Neil Gunn.  Butcher's Broom, Sun Circle and Silver Darlings must be the ones I prefer.  All set in the North East of Scotland.

Fishjagger

@VisitScotlandJohn I used to work in that Black Medicine coffee Co. On the corner of Nicholson st/Drummond street many years ago while a student and not long after the first Harry Potter book came out. Her brother in law was one of the owners I believe, so she was well looked after to write that first chapter. Loved working there - every piece of furniture hand made also in Scotland! 

Fishjagger

Would have to be Ian Rankin with Rebus. Especially when living overseas to read about "Edinburgh" as I knew it! 

Bushman

Well why not try Thomas the rhymer. Fascinating character. Based on an actual person who hailed from the Borders village of Earlston known as Erceldoune in the 13th century.

SuzieD

I love Christopher Brookmyre's novels, because I can recognise many of the locations, even East Kilbride in one of them!! Peter May's Hebrides books are very evocative. For detective stories, Rebus of course, and James Oswald's DI McLean books.

ShetlandSoph

A very popular writer in recent times has been Ann Cleeves, although she is not a Scottish writer, she did live in Fair Isle for a while. Her crime thrillers were based here in Shetland which were then turned into an even more popular tv series shown all over the world! We have many tourists and locals alike intrigued as to where DI Jimmy Perez' house (the main character) is located, and finding out where some iconic buildings were such as; The Lounge, the Sumburgh Hotel and even the police station!  

BertVerninsk

Gibbon is a true favorite Scottish writer of mine since learning of his life and works at school.. But to choose just one Scot literary writer between various periods in Scottish history with favor is difficult. Thrre that sum up recent time of literature for me would be Stevenson, Scott and Oor Bard Burns! Most importantly their lives make the books they wrote ans just like Mitchel which is what I respect about them. Robert Louis Stevensons Treasure island is my fav.

Fofoma

A favourite of mine is James Oswald - he's a farmer from Fife whose character Insp Tony MacLean is also an Edinburgh Detective - like the Rebus books I love hearing the Edinburgh locations mentioned and I can just picture them in my minds eye.