Photograph by Zach Dyson. The choice: James Leslie Mitchell, Spartacus (London, 1933) Chosen by: Ian Scott, Curator in General Collections Read or download this book from the Lewis Grassic Gibbon page on our digital gallery http://digital.nls.uk/lewis-grassic-gibbon-books/archive/205174226 where you will find this novel alongside the other books James Leslie Mitchell published during his lifetime both under […]
Author: Ian Scott
Curators’ Favourites: J. Leslie Mitchell’s The Thirteenth Disciple
The choice: J. Leslie Mitchell, The Thirteenth Disciple: Being Portrait and Saga of Malcom Maudsley in His Adventure Through the Dark Corridor. (London, 1931). Chosen by: Ian Scott, Curator in General Collections Read or download this book from the Lewis Grassic Gibbon page on our digital gallery http://digital.nls.uk/lewis-grassic-gibbon-books/archive/205174226 where you will find this novel alongside […]
Lewis Grassic Gibbon: the road to Sunset Song
In August 1932 a new Scottish literary star was born when the novel “Sunset Song” by Lewis Grassic Gibbon was published. An instant critical and commercial success it was reprinted multiple times that year in the UK as well as being published in North America and quickly translated into other European languages. Gibbon’s novel tells […]
Lockdown reading: Alistair MacLean’s “When eight bells toll”
In order to build and promote the Library’s collections you need to have at least some familiarity with them which means doing a bit of reading. Sadly contrary to what some might think National Library of Scotland staff don’t spend their working days reading the collections, we have too many other things to do. So […]
Archiving Scotland’s response to COVID-19
If you look at traditional media such as newspapers and magazines just now it often feels like everything is about coronavirus. The National Library of Scotland as you would expect will collect the newspapers, official publications and magazines that appear during the pandemic and when they are published the inevitable books that will chronicle this […]
Sunset Song is now available to read on our website
We have just made available all the books published by James Leslie Mitchell (1901-1935) during his lifetime on our website. Included are the three novels he published under the pseudonym Lewis Grassic Gibbon namely “Sunset Song” (1932); “Cloud Howe” (1933) and “Grey Granite” (1934) which are collectively known as “A Scots Quair”. http://digital.nls.uk/lewis-grassic-gibbon-books You can […]
The Key: inhouse magazine of the Special Unit at Barlinnie
Is the purpose of prison rehabilitation, punishment or to remove dangerous people from society or a combination of all of these and more? How can prisons manage violent prisoners and minimise the danger they pose to themselves, staff and other prisoners? Can these violent prisoners ever be rehabilitated and reintegrated into society? The Special Unit […]
The Man Booker Prize at 50: Scottish authors and publishers that made the shortlist
In 2018 the Man Booker Prize celebrates its 50th anniversary. The first award was made in 1969 but most of the novels shortlisted were published in 1968. The 2018 shortlist will be announced on 20th September and the 2018 winner on the 16th October. To mark fifty years of the prize we thought we would […]
Virago Modern Classics celebrate 40 years of rediscovering forgotten novels
When Hilary Mantel returned to Britain in 1982 after living in Botswana for five years she noticed unfamiliar green book spines everywhere. She discovered that these were Virago Modern Classics and recognised them as a change for the better in the world of publishing. Virago was founded in 1975 by Carmen Callil, Marsha Rowe and Rosie […]
Happy Birthday Beano!
The Beano is Britain’s longest running comic and celebrated its 80th birthday on 30th July 2018. So a slightly belated happy birthday. We did though throw a party for the Beano at our Kelvin Hall premises in Glasgow on Saturday the 28th of July. We showed for one day only our copy of Beano issue […]