And the Land Lay Still

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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) Most novels I’ve read don’t dig quite as deeply into the past as this, and the few that do don’t in …

Hex can be read in a single sitting, and in that time it will take you on a journey through time; teach you about the plight and pain of womankind over centuries. 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 the novel’s first part, Leigh joins an expedition to the north Atlantic ocean, to explore a deep sea vent that might tunnel deeper than the Mariana Trench, and therefore house life never seen before. Zoë Strachan’s latest novel is an immersive, finely-drawn family saga. Following the lives of Rena a … The unlikely pair meet on the Deep Wheel Orcadia, a distant space station fighting for survival as the pace of change threatens to leave the struggling community behind entirely.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) 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. Comments ranged from how much readers enjoyed the fact that all the story strands wove together so satisfyingly at the end, to one lady who admitted that, being English, not only had she gained an interesting slant on recent history as an “outsider”, but she had also learned new Scots words she had never heard before. Pat: This is a powerful story of Scotland and of the growth of Scottish Nationalism from the 1950s to the present day, evoking strong nostalgic memories of life during these times.

This occasionally stilted inter-meshing of Scottish politics and fiction has much to do with our own historical moment. As several articles in this issue of C21 Literature suggest, recent Scottish fiction and its critical reception are strongly conditioned by ongoing constitutional debate (see Hames 2012, Hames 2013). In accounting for links between Scottish literary and political developments of the past few decades, the scholar – like the historical novelist – faces a range of interpretive challenges and ambiguities. But they also encounter an established literary-critical discourse tending to draw strong and clear connections across the same doubtful terrain, lines guided by the paradigm of ‘cultural devolution’. This article condenses the findings of a two-year research project exploring the emergence and legacy of this paradigm. 1 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.

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Without any knowledge of the language or his new home whatsoever, Fagan’s experiences in the seven years he lives in this small Japanese fishing village are humorous and offer countless moments of learning. The Royal Lyceum Theatre Company and the National Theatre of Scotland will present an online discussion inspired by James Robertson’s acclaimed novel And The Land Lay Still streaming online from Wednesday 5 May at 7.30pm until Friday 7 May 2021. The evening will feature extracts from a reading of playwright Peter Arnott’s stage adaptation of the novel, which is currently in development, presented by the National Theatre of Scotland. Written by Scottish author Martin MacInnes, In Ascension is a literary sci-fi epic that has the potential to change the way you think and feel about the world around you, about what we are, where we came from, and where we might go. Longlisted for the Highland Book Prize 2020, Grimoire is a new and thrilling take on Scottish folk tales. Narrated by a doomed shape-shifter, Grimoire tells folkloric tales of violence and magic, witches and selkies, and of the beauty and hostility of the Scottish landscape itself, which is as much a character as any of the creatures of this book.

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.As one of Scotland’s most celebrated writers, Fagan deserves to make this list twice, and her novella Hex is one of the most impactful modern Scottish books you’re likely to read. Alongside the recovery and ‘filling-in’ of Scottish cultural identity were several literary interventions which urged caution about national tradition and pre-given modes of belonging. At the 2014 workshop, critic Eleanor Bell surveyed small experimental magazines of the 1960s including New Saltire and Scottish International. These magazines contain a range of cultural explorations which clearly anticipate the debates of the following decades, without being yoked to, or delimited by, the national question as a salient political issue (which was yet to fully emerge). Scottish International magazine (1968–74), for example, set its store on newness and exploration, not recovery of the past. In Bell’s words, Knots and Crosses, the premier novel in the Inspector Rebus series, introduces Inspector John Rebus. He’s retired from Britain’s elite SAS and now serves as a cop in Edinburgh. Home> Fiction from Scotland> And the Land Lay Still And the Land Lay Still By (author) James Robertson