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Favourite Scottish writers?
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.
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Comments
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.
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
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/@leodhasach
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?!
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Nope. Overrated in my opinion.
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/@leodhasach
on Ali Smith's books definitely worth a read.
Check out the tinberry travels - sharing stories, adventures and travel related nonsense as I explore the world bit by bit
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