Scotland’s Bookshelf
Posted March 16, 2012 7:39 pm by Andrew Martin | Permalink
Glasgow’s Aye Write! book festival comes to an end this weekend. For me one of the most interesting aspects this year has been the launch of Scotland’s Bookshelf.
It is a simple idea – a panel of experts have selected 20 books – 2 per decade of the best of one hundred years of Scottish books. And more than that they have published a free book – introduced by Rosemary Goring - with selections from all of them and the longlists! What a fabulous introduction to modern Scottish literature and more.
Of the 20 names 17 are novelists, 3 are poets, 1 is a historian, 4 are women, 1 is a Gaelic writer, and 7 of them are still writing. Lorna Moon, A.J. Cronin, and Alexander Trocchi are 3 of the welcome surprises perhaps and so is the distinguished historian Christopher Smout who represents the 1960s along with Dame Muriel Spark.
The book can be downloaded from the Aye Write! website.
It is good to see Oneworld Classics have recently brought out a new edition of Man at leisure the little-known collection of poetry by Scotland’s very own underground literary hero and erstwhile pornographer Alexander Trocchi. Trocchi, who died in 1984, is best known for his haunting novel Young Adam, a short but intriguing tale of a a handsome drifter working a barge between Glasgow and Leith, filmed a few years back with a stellar Scottish cast. I re-read it recently and was reminded of its fresh erotic quality – certainly not part of the Scottish kailyard tradition !