The picture at the top of this blog is of the first edition of “The Dumb House: A Chamber Novel” (1997). The cover illustration is “The Letter” by Dutch painter Carel Willinik In 2023 Scottish writer John Burnside (1955-2024) won the prestigious David Cohen Prize for Literature. Previous winners of the prize (which is in […]
Tag: Scottish authors
“The Camomile” by Catherine Carswell is back in print
We are delighted to have played a small part in bringing back into print Catherine Carswell’s 1922 novel “The Camomile”. The novel vividly evokes the Glasgow of the early 20th century. It tells the story of Ellen Carstairs, a women in her early twenties who rents a room so she can think, write and just […]
“The Wasp Factory” by Iain Banks celebrates its 40th anniversary
Iain Banks published his debut novel “The Wasp Factory” on 16th February 1984 which was also the author’s 30th birthday. Abacus have slightly belatedly published a 40th anniversary edition which includes a number of interesting design features. As well as a small wasp on the book’s spine it has illustrated endpapers. If you remove the […]
Willa and Edwin Muir bring Franz Kafka to the English speaking world
Pictured above are the first editions of the translations of the works of Franz Kafka by Willa and Edwin Muir in order of publication, left to right. Between 1930 and 1949 Willa and Edwin Muir would bring the fiction of Franz Kafka to English readers for the first time and their translations would become the […]
Two lurid 1940’s paperbacks published in Glasgow
The publisher most associated with paperbacks in the UK is Penguin Books who, changed British reading habits forever when they published their first ten titles in 1935. The ten included literary fiction by Ernest Hemingway and Eric Linklater, crime stories by Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers and the first Penguin book “Ariel” by André […]
Tom Hanlin: Scottish miner and bestselling novelist whose work was praised by John Steinbeck
Scottish literature has a strong tradition of novels of working-class life by working-class authors. Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s ‘A Scots Quair’ (1932-4), William McIlvanney’s ‘Docherty’ (1975), James Kelman’s ‘The Bus Conductor Hines’ (1984) and Irvine Welsh’s ‘Trainspotting’ (1993) are among the classic works of Scottish proletarian literature. The only two Scottish novels that have won the […]
“Christine Strathern imbues this romantic story with all her own abiding love for her native Scotland”
The Scottish author Nancy Brysson Morrison (1903-1986) is chiefly remembered today for her novel ‘The Gowk Storm’ a story about three daughters of a Scottish church minister. First published in 1933, the book was reissued as part of the Canongate Classics series in 1988. Morrison’s first two books were published by John Murray and the […]
A potted history of pen names
A pen name is a literary alias: a variation of a writer’s birth or married name or a completely invented pseudonym. The Library’s exhibition ‘Pen Names’ takes a thematic approach to the subject, looking at how factors such as privacy, gender, reputation, authenticity, and genre have influenced writers’ decision to use a pen name from […]
Zoom into Inverclyde
Part of the historic county of Renfrewshire, Inverclyde is situated in the crook of the upper Firth of Clyde as it bends east toward Glasgow. Its largest towns, Greenock and Port Glasgow, were historic centres of shipbuilding. From the eighteenth century they were key ports for the British trade in goods from overseas, including commodities, […]
Curators’ Favourites: James Leslie Mitchell’s Spartacus
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 […]