Modern Scottish Collections

Next Thursday on December 1 here at the National Library of Scotland, we have the announcement of the Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Awards.

The shortlist for the four categories came out earlier this week and features a wide range of works by or about Scots and Scotland. Competing for the Scottish Book of the Year Award are Scots as celebrated and diverse as John Burnside, Alasdair Gray, Jackie Kay, A.L. Kennedy, Ali Smith, and the late Sorley MacLean.

Publishing Scotland has put together a handy summary of all the shortlisted books in the four categories.

Meanwhile the Costa Book Awards nominations include three distinguished Scots – the novel A Summer of Drowning by John Burnside, and two competing poetry collections Fiere by Jackie Kay, and The Bees by Carol Ann Duffy. All are serious contenders.

Scottish interest material recently received by the National Library of Scotland included Wondrous flitting, a play by Scottish playwright Mark Thomson. Wondrous flitting premiered at the Traverse during the 2011 Edinburgh Festival Fringe in a production by the Royal Lyceum Theatre Company.

Fiona J. Mackintosh’s From the South Seas to the North Sea: the story of Princess Titaua of Tahiti looks at the fascinating story of the Tahitian princess who married a Fifer and is buried in Anstruther. An important figure in Tahitian society, Titaua married George Darsie of Anstruther, manager of a large Pacific trading company, and lived in Fife for the last years of her life. From the South Seas to the North Sea is published by The Kilrenny and Anstruther Burgh Collection.

Scottish ethnicity and the making of New Zealand society, 1850-1930 by Tanja Bueltmann and published by Edinburgh University Press examines the substantial role of Scots immigrants in the shaping of New Zealand society. Community life, ethnicity, integration with other migrants and the romanticised image of Scotland abroad are all considered in this study.

Scottish poet and Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy has been shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize 2011 for her new poetry collection The bees, published by Picador. She’s one of two Scots who are in with a chance of winning the prize; John Burnside has also been shortlisted for his Black cat bone, published by Cape. You can find references to works by and about Carol Ann Duffy and John Burnside on Scottish Bibliographies Online.

Scottish interest items recently received by the National Library of Scotland include Scotland : global cinema : genres, modes and identities by David Martin-Jones. Published by Edinburgh University Press, this book explores film production in Scotland from the 1990s onwards.

A further recent addition was Transport and Communications, volume 8 in the Scottish life and society : a compendium of Scottish ethnology series. Kenneth Veitch is editor of this volume which looks at the growth and development of transport (water, air and land) and communications in Scotland and the impact of these developments on Scottish life.

Also new in this week was Love poems by Carol Ann Duffy, a collection of some of the Poet Laureate’s most popular poems and Waking up in toytown a memoir by Scottish writer and poet John Burnside.

Items recently received by the National Library of Scotland include Sanday voices : an Orcadian oral history published by the Sanday Development Trust. This book is accompanied by an audio CD of Sanday residents talking about life on Sanday, one of the most northerly of the Orkney Islands.

On a similar theme, A Shetland cook’s book by Jenni Simmons provides an illustration of Shetland life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The focus is primarily on traditional food and recipes in Shetland, as well as crofting, fishing and the Shetland dialect. The book contains many fascinating photographs from the period and some traditional recipes are reproduced, should you wish to try your hand at traditional Shetland fare.

Christmas is fast approaching so it is no surprise that related titles have started to appear! We recently received Mrs Scrooge : a Christmas tale by the Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy. This is the Scottish poet’s take on the familiar story of Ebenezer Scrooge, from the point of view of Ebenezer’s wife who is concerned about rampant consumerism and waste.

Also sure to be on many Christmas lists this year is Chris Hoy : the autobiography which charts Chris Hoy’s life from the Musselburgh boy who loved BMX bikes to superhero status as triple Olympic gold medal winner.

This year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival had a strange sense of déjà vu for me, as I found myself attending events with writers I had seen before, probably in the very same tent. That is not to say that Carol Ann Duffy, now of course Poet Laureate, was not as entertaining and moving as usual. Another favourite of mine, Canadian writer Alistair Macleod gave a long reading from No great mischief and answered the questions which followed with modesty, wit, and wisdom. To have a great literary reputation based solely on fourteen short stories and one novel is quite something, as Richard Holloway, who chaired the event, pointed out. I heard Macleod do the same reading at Ullapool. He tells a heart-breaking tale of loss in a deceptively business-like and emotionless tone. The fate of the family dog, descended from the very dog who swam out from the Scottish shore to catch up with the emigrants as they rowed away, gets me every time. And yes, Macleod is still writing.

We’ve just received a major consignment of translations here through an arrangement with the Scottish Arts Council.Who are the popular Scots in Eastern Europe and beyond ? Prolific thriller queen Val McDermid seems to be a star in Bulgarian,with multiple titles, and the versatile Louise Welsh is doing well in Croatian and Serbian, while new Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy’s poems can be read now in Slovak. Good to see some plays travelling too – Sue Glover’s successes, including Bondagers, appear in Czech – and Douglas Dunn’s poetry makes it into Armenian.

Perhaps in the end it was not too much of a surprise to anyone, but it was very welcome all the same to have Carol Ann Duffy confirmed as the new Poet Laureate in succession to Andrew Motion. It was gratifying to see the first woman laureate hailed in the press as the first Scot to be laureate too. Born in Glasgow in 1953 and living in England from a young age, she may not sound like a Scot now, but she does identify herself as Scottish even if she rejects so many other labels, and here at NLS she is one of our treasures. Recently we have been adding the audio versions of her collections to the shelves here. Carol Ann Duffy is that rare thing – a critic’s darling, a popular poet, and a great performer. Most recently spotted in St.Andrews at STAnza earlier this year, Carol Ann Duffy is one of the highlights of Aberdeen’s Word festival on 16 May.