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Reading lists

Six funny books set in Scotland

To Be Continued

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WODEHOUSE COMIC FICTION PRIZE 2017 
 
An utterly mad, entirely heart-warming Highland adventure from the Man Booker-longlisted author of And the Land lay Still 
 
Douglas is fifty years old - he's just lost his job, been kicked out by his girlfriend and moved back into his dad's house. Just when things are starting to look hopeless, he makes a very unexpected new friend: a talking toad. 
 
Mungo is a wise-cracking, straight-talking, no-nonsense kind of toad - and he is determined to get Douglas's life back on track. Together, man and beast undertake a madcap quest to the distant Highlands, hot on the trail of a hundred-year-old granny, a beautiful Greek nymph, a split-personality alcoholic/teetotaller, a reluctant whisky-smuggler, and the elusive glimmer of redemption . . .

A real romp of a road novel featuring a talking toad. I can't wait

Publisher's description.  A madcap Highland adventure about midlife crises, new friends, and second chances.  Douglas Findhorn Elder is fifty years old, recently dumped and suddenly jobless. Mungo Forth Mungo is a talking toad. And as luck would have it, this toad is determined to help his hapless human chum to sort his life out...

Joyful, warm-hearted, funny ... but buried within are serious points about the stories we tell about ourselves, how history shapes our identity, scarred landscapes and self-selecting communities. In heartsore times we need more books like this.

Funny and fun ... To Be Continued manages to be sad and happy at the same time. You can engage with the post-modern games and references if you like, or you can just sit back and laugh, and cry. A Scottish baroque novel, full of tricks and trinkets, written with warmth and wit.

Robertson manages to skilfully join the quirky with the serious; the surreal with the real. His take on contemporary Scotland is insightful, eccentric and highly readable.

To Be Continued, with its harem-scarem scenarios and surreal twists, was written to entertain.

A wildly eccentric tale laced with dry, deprecating wit

James Robertson is the author of The Fanatic, Joseph Knight, The Testament of Gideon Mack, And the Land Lay Still, The Professor of Truth and To Be Continued. Joseph Knight won the Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year and the Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year, The Testament of Gideon Mack was longlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize, and And the Land Lay Still won the Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year. Robertson is also the author of four short story collections, most recently 365: Stories, five poetry collections and numerous children's books written in English and Scots. He runs the independent publishing house Kettillonia, and he is co-founder and general editor of the Scots language imprint Itchy Coo, which produces books in Scots for children and young adults.

Douglas is fifty years old - he's just lost his job, been kicked out by his girlfriend and moved back into his dad's house. Just when things are starting to look hopeless, he makes a very unexpected new friend: a talking toad. 
 
Mungo is a wise-cracking, straight-talking, no-nonsense kind of toad - and he is determined to get Douglas's life back on track. Together, man and beast undertake a madcap quest to the distant Highlands, hot on the trail of a hundred-year-old granny, a beautiful Greek nymph, a split-personality alcoholic/teetotaller, a reluctant whisky-smuggler, and the elusive glimmer of redemption . . .

Stories

365 is James Robertson's innovative collection of 365 stories, each 365 words long. 
 
In 2013, James Robertson wrote a story every day. Each was exactly 365 words long. A year later, on a daily basis, the stories were published on the Five Dials website. Now the 365 stories are gathered together in one volume. Some draw on elements of ancient myth and legend, others are outtakes from Scottish history and folklore; there are squibs and satires, songs and ballads in disguise, fairytales, stories inspired by dreams or in the form of interviews, and personal memories and observations. 
 Underpinning all of them are vital questions: Who are we? What are we doing here? What happens next? 
 
 'Wow. James Robertson wrote a 365-word short story each day in 2013. They'll be posted throughout 2014' Ian Rankin, via Twitter 
 
 'A great storyteller' The Times 
 
 'One of Britain's best contemporary novelists' Irvine Welsh, Guardian 
 
 James Robertson is the author of five novels, The Professor of Truth, And the Land Lay Still, The Testament of Gideon Mack, Joseph Knight and The Fanatic. The Testament of Gideon Mack was longlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize and selected for Richard and Judy's Book Club the following year. Joseph Knight was the Saltire Scottish Book of the Year in 2003 and And the Land Lay Still was recipient of the same prize in 2010.

A masterclass in the ventriloquism of fiction . . . a fertile mind and a great generosity of ideas

An anthology of possibility about what the short form can do

the sheer diversity on display. . . keeps us turning the pages and trawling the  months.

There is a huge diversity of subject matter and form across these stories,  demonstrating the Scottish novelist's wide-ranging eye, and there is also a  lightness; a wink and a playful nod that perhaps Robertson doesn't get to  display in his more serious, longer pieces of fiction.

If you're looking for a Christmas present that keeps on giving . . . or if you fancy this yourself and can drop huge hints in someone's ear, then I don't think you could go wrong with 365

What can you say in a few words? Everything, it seems. 365 worlds pressed between two covers

In 2013, James Robertson wrote a story every day. Each was 365 words long. A year later, on a daily basis, the stories were published on the Five Dials website. Now the 365 stories are gathered in one volume. Some draw on elements of ancient myth and legend, others are outtakes from Scottish history and folklore; there are squibs and satires, songs and ballads in disguise, fairy tales, stories inspired by dreams or in the form of interviews, and personal memories and observations. 
 
 Underpinning them all are vital questions: Who are we? What are we doing here? What happens next?

The Professor of Truth

The Professor of Truth is James Robertson's acclaimed novel about grief, truth and justice. 
 
Twenty-one years after his wife and daughter were murdered in the bombing of a plane over Scotland, Alan Tealing, a university lecturer, still doubts the official version of events surrounding that terrible night. Obsessed by the details of what he has come to call The Case, he is sure that the man convicted of the atrocity was not responsible, and that he himself has thus been deprived not only of justice but also of any chance of escape from his enduring grief. 
 
When a terminally ill American intelligence officer arrives on his doorstep with information about a key witness in the trial, Alan decides to act. Will this lead to the truth for which he has waited so long? 
 
'Superb. A mystery thriller, a haunting evocation of grief' Daily Mail 
 
'A great storyteller. It is a tense and gripping read, beautifully imagined' The Times 
 
'Powered by action and mystery, and profoundly invested in the lives of its characters' Scotsman 
 
James Robertson is the author of four previous novels, The Fanatic, Joseph Knight, The Testament of Gideon Mack and And the Land Lay Still. The Testament of Gideon Mack was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, picked by Richard and Judy's Book Club, and shortlisted for the Saltire Book of the Year award. And the Land Lay Still was the winner of the Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award 2010.

A great storyteller . . . It is a tense and gripping read, beautifully imagined'

Sensitive but provocative . . . confirms Robertson as one of Scotland's great contemporary storytellers

Powered by action and mystery, and profoundly invested in the emotional lives of its characters

Robertson again proves himself to be one of Scotland's best writers and one of the best writers in the world at exploring the traumas, upheavals, and political currents that form modern Scotland

Superb. A mystery thriller, a haunting evocation of grief

Twenty-one years after his wife and daughter were murdered in the bombing of a plane over Scotland, Alan Tealing, a university lecturer, still doubts the official version of events surrounding that terrible night. Obsessed by the details of what he has come to call The Case, he is sure that the man convicted of the atrocity was not responsible, and that he himself has thus been deprived not only of justice but also of any chance of escape from his enduring grief. 
 
When a terminally ill American intelligence officer arrives on his doorstep with information about a key witness in the trial, Alan decides to act. Will this lead to the truth for which he has waited so long?

And the Land Lay Still

And the Land Lay Still is the sweeping Scottish epic by James Robertson 
 
And the Land Lay Still is nothing less than the story of a nation. James Robertson's breathtaking novel is a portrait of modern Scotland as seen through the eyes of natives and immigrants, journalists and politicians, drop-outs and spooks, all trying to make their way through a country in the throes of great and rapid change. It is a moving, sweeping story of family, friendship, struggle and hope - epic in every sense. 
 
The winner of the Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award 2010, And the Land Lay Still is a masterful insight into Scotland's history in the twentieth century and a moving, beautifully written novel of intertwined stories. 
 
'Toweringly ambitious, virtually flawlessly realized, a masterpiece and, without a doubt, my book of the year' Daily Mail 
 
'A jam-packed, dizzying piece of fiction' Scotland on Sunday 
 
'Gripping, vivid, beautifully realized' The Times 
 
'Engrossing' Daily Telegraph 
 
'Powerful and moving. A brilliant and multifaceted saga of Scottish life in the second half of the twentieth century' Sunday Times 
 
'Brilliant and thoughtful. Eminently readable, subtle and profound' Independent on Sunday 
 
'Bold, discursive and deep, Robertson's sweeping history of life and politics in 20th-century Scotland should not be ignored' Ian Rankin, Observer Books of the Year 
 
James Robertson is the author of three previous novels: The Fanatic, Joseph Knight and The Testament of Gideon Mack, which is available in Penguin. Joseph Knight was awarded the two major Scottish literary awards in 2003/4 - the Saltire Book of the Year and the Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year - and The Testament of Gideon Mack was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, picked by Richard and Judy's Book Club, and shortlisted for the Saltire Book of the Year award.

Wonderful, brilliant, panoramic, illuminating. A joy to read

Powerful and moving. A brilliant and multifaceted saga of Scottish life in the second half of the twentieth century

Toweringly ambitious, virtually flawlessly realized, a masterpiece and, without a doubt, my book of the year

Big, ambitious, intricately organised . . . it's some achievement

Dizzying . . . subtle and profound . . . And The Land Lay Still reads like an alternative history of Scotland told by its everyday people instead of its movers and shakers . . . eminently readable

Both epic and domestic, it delivers a wonderful lifelikeness

A hugely ambitious and compassionate novel . . . a jam-packed, dizzying piece of fiction . . . already it's being spoken of as the most important novel about Scotland since Lanark

And the Land Lay Still is nothing less than the story of a nation. James Robertson's breathtaking novel is a portrait of modern Scotland as seen through the eyes of natives and immigrants, journalists and politicians, drop-outs and spooks, all trying to make their way through a country in the throes of great and rapid change. It is a moving, sweeping story of family, friendship, struggle and hope - epic in every sense.

The Testament of Gideon Mack

From one of Scotland's most celebrated writers: a mesmerising, astonishing novel which grippingly tests both faith and belief

The Testament of Gideon Mack is James Robertson's acclaimed novel exploring faith and belief. 
 
For Gideon Mack, faithless minister, unfaithful husband and troubled soul, the existence of God, let alone the Devil, is no more credible than that of ghosts or fairies. Until the day he falls into a gorge and is rescued by someone who might just be Satan himself. 
 
Mack's testament - a compelling blend of memoir, legend, history, and, quite probably, madness - recounts one man's emotional crisis, disappearance, resurrection and death. It also transports you into an utterly mesmerising exploration of the very nature of belief. 
 
'Fascinating, extraordinary, strange, rich' Sunday Telegraph 
 
'Overwhelmingly compassionate and thought-provoking. Demands another read' Irvine Welsh, Guardian 
 
'Hugely enjoyable, very funny, deeply refreshing . . . its touch of devilry makes it even more of a joy' Herald 
 
'Fabulous . . . a work of the highest literary quality' Scotland on Sunday 
 
'Astonishingly accomplished, utterly compelling from start to finish . . . could well be the best novel published anywhere this year' Big Issue 
 
'James Robertson is a brilliant novelist. It's a long time since I read a novel in which the contemporary notions of faith and belief were so frankly tested' Ali Smith 
 
James Robertson is the author of the novels The Fanatic, Joseph Knight, The Testament of Gideon Mack, And the Land Lay Still and The Professor of Truth. The Testament of Gideon Mack was longlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize, picked by Richard and Judy's Book Club, and shortlisted for the Saltire Book of the Year award, and And the Land Lay Still was the winner of the Saltire Book of the Year Award 2010.

Overwhelmingly compassionate and thought-provoking . . . In the hands of great writers the unlikeliest stories are generally the most rewarding

Robertson is a true descendant of James Hogg &ndash; this is a superb piece of Scottish Gothic

A rich novel of ideas about faith, Scotland and the ways in which fictions shape our lives

Artful and lyrical . . . you are under the influence of a master storyteller . . . this book promises to become a Scottish masterpiece

If the devil didn&rsquo;t exist, would man have to invent him? 
 
For Gideon Mack, faithless minister, unfaithful husband and troubled soul, the existence of God, let alone the Devil, is no more credible than that of ghosts or fairies. Until the day he falls into a gorge and is rescued by someone who might just be Satan himself. 
 
Mack&rsquo;s testament &ndash; a compelling blend of memoir, legend, history and, quite probably, madness &ndash; recounts one man&rsquo;s emotional crisis, disappearance, resurrection and death. It also transports you into an utterly mesmerising exploration of the very nature of belief.

James Robertson

A haunted, haunting, and deeply humane book

It's like some beautifully ornate kist or jewel-box that for most of the encounter you admire for its own sake, only to find a key, near the end, that opens onto even more treasure

It is another wonderful piece of storytelling from James Robertson, offering a penetrating exploration of the complexities of collective memory and the tenacity of tradition, all played out through a thousand years of life in a single glen. It has all the makings of a timeless classic in its own right.

James Robertson is an extremely fine novelist . . . This is a superb book. . . It is not a book anyone will forget quickly.

One of Robertson's skills as a novelist is to make both events real and imagined feel equally convincing.

Subtly explores the relationship between place and identity

Hidden in the breath-taking mountains of wild Scotland, Glen Conach is the home of secrets and stories, of fables and folklore. Over hundreds of years, three lives are woven together. In ancient Britain, the hermit Saint Conach performs impossible miracles, which survive as legend in 'The Book of Glen Conach'. Generations later in the nineteenth century, the book is rediscovered by charlatan Charles Gibb, who hustles his way into the big house at the heart of the village. 
 
In the present-day, young Lachie whispers to Maja of ghosts he has seen in the glen. Reflecting back on her long life, Maja believes him, as she has some ghosts of her own. News of the Dead is a captivating examination of the distance between the stories we tell of ourselves and the way in which we are remembered.

James Robertson

Praise for News of the Dead

A haunted, haunting, and deeply humane book

It's like some beautifully ornate kist or jewel-box that for most of the encounter you admire for its own sake, only to find a key, near the end, that opens onto even more treasure

It is another wonderful piece of storytelling from James Robertson, offering a penetrating exploration of the complexities of collective memory and the tenacity of tradition, all played out through a thousand years ...

A haunted, haunting, and deeply humane book

It's like some beautifully ornate kist or jewel-box that for most of the encounter you admire for its own sake, only to find a key, near the end, that opens onto even more treasure

It is another wonderful piece of storytelling from James Robertson, offering a penetrating exploration of the complexities of collective memory and the tenacity of tradition, all played out through a thousand years ...

A haunted, haunting, and deeply humane book

It's like some beautifully ornate kist or jewel-box that for most of the encounter you admire for its own sake, only to find a key, near the end, that opens onto even more treasure

It is another wonderful piece of storytelling from James Robertson, offering a penetrating exploration of the complexities of collective memory and the tenacity of tradition, all played out through a thousand years ...

Books by James Robertson

Articles featuring James Robertson

Six funny books set in Scotland

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