And the Land Lay Still

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The basis for one of the most popular television series of our time, Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander is the first book in the series that follows Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, and her adventures in love and war throughout time. And the Land Lay Still - covers major transformations that have taken place in Scottish society over the past 60 years One of the more disturbing yet intriguing Scottish books, The Wasp Factory, is a true dark comedy. All kids go through phases. But, are Frank’s bad decisions childlike mistakes or something more? While perhaps best known for his science fiction books, Banks here turns his eye homeward to Scotland. It was not politics that was the cause of this huge shift in public opinion and political intention: if it had been, the politicians in favour of a ‘yes’ vote [in the 1997 referendum on devolution] would not have waited so nervously for the outcome, fearful of a repeat of the inconclusive vote of 1979. Something more profound was the cause of the enormous shift in Scottish sentiment that brought about the devolved parliament between 1979 and 1997 and that cause, I want to suggest, was the transformation in Scotland’s national self-perception brought about by a profound reorientation in the value of its culture. Between 1979 and 1997 Scotland underwent a cultural revolution and it was that cultural revolution, rather than the decisions of the political parties, that was the effective cause of the political outcome in the 1997 referendum. ( Craig 2014, 5)

In 1910, when the devil’s daughter rows to Edinburgh in a coffin to work for the Minister of Culture, a series of events are set off that curse the eccentric residents of the tenement building for the next nine decades. The definition of a cult classic, Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting, is one of the most well-known Scottish books. Following the turbulent lives of a group of boys who both do terrible things and experience terrible things, Trainspotting is a masterpiece of authentic writing and paints a tragic portrait of its characters’ lives.A groundbreaking novel in an unexpected format, Ali Smith’s How to be Both comes in two parts to allow you to choose how you read this novel about art’s versatility. It’s 4 am, and St. Andrews School is blanketed in mid-December snow when Alex and his three friends are heading home from a party. Suddenly, they discover a girl’s body. There was tension in the air: identity politics versus class consciousness. The one policy that offered some prospect of common ground, devolution, was once again being squeezed from all sides. Nobody loved it, and nobody had much of a good word to say for it. ( Robertson 2010, 532) James Robertson's new novel is a highly ambitious work spanning 60 years, looking at the world through a Scottish lens – almost literally, for its framing device is a retrospective exhibition of pictures taken by a renowned Caledonian photographer. And the Land Lay Still examines how the postwar aspirations of many Scots for a socialist Britain gave way to a resurgent nationalism, and a greater demand for home rule. Over the past few months library staff and book group members have been looking at titles by just some of the authors who are set to appear.

In contrast, Alex Thomson offered a sceptical view of national literary history and its critical methods, so often employed to justify the canon (and discipline) in ways which tend to inhibit critical enquiry: The majority report, we believe, has the effect of magnifying the extent of the social and cultural differences between Scotland, Wales and England. This is partly because of the way it handles in the historical section the concept of ‘nationhood’ – with Scotland and Wales thus appearing as separate nations with distinctive values and ways of life ‘struggling to be free’. In contrast there is no matching study of the more homogenous contemporary pattern of social and cultural values and behaviour which characterise all the different parts of the United Kingdom. ( Royal Commission 1973, II, vii) Bold, discursive and deep, Robertson's sweeping history of life and politics in 20th-century Scotland should not be ignored' Ian Rankin, Observer Books of the Year

If for Craig the ‘effective cause’ of devolution’s endorsement in 1997 was cultural revolution, there is little doubt that the proximate cause was electoral. This part of the story is well-trodden ground, and vividly told in Robertson’s novel: Winnie Ewing’s sensational victory for the SNP in the 1967 Hamilton by-election, and growing alarm within the Labour government at the threat posed by the nationalists, rising sharply after the discovery of North Sea Oil in 1970. Both to allay and defer these pressures, Harold Wilson announced his intention to appoint a Royal Commission on the Constitution in late 1968. If you do nothing, you will be auto-enrolled in our premium digital monthly subscription plan and retain complete access for 65 € per month.

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Scotland’s stories tell us about who we are and where we come from, reveal our relationship to this here land and memorialise the melting-pot of our cultural ecology. In these tales we catch sudden glimpses of ourselves within wild, weird and wonderful worlds, bearing witness to hushed conversations between our past and present. Magic meets science fiction in this unique verse novel by Harry Josephine Giles. Readers can experience science fiction written in an Orkney dialect for the first time ever. JAMES Robertson's fascinating and multi stranded novel is proving a huge hit with Scottish book groups - and Strathblane is no exception.