Books about Edinburgh

[redbamboo82]

Feeling terrible nostalgic about this city at the minute, where I spent some of the best years of my life. Am thinking a good read is cheaper than a visit. These are my favourites but have I missed any gems?

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
...Jekyll and Hyde
All Ian Rankin Rebus novels
Anything by Irvine Welsh
One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson

[hannahsaunt]

I like the Isabel Dalhousie ones by Alexander McCall Smith as well as the 44 Scotland Street ones. They are very Edinburgh.

Another very good crime series are the Bob Skinner books by Quintin Jardine - almost as good as Ian Rankin.

HTH

[TwoIfBySea]

I'm reading 4th 44 Scotland Street book at the moment. Agh, Irene!

[pointydog]

I recently read Scotland Street. Felt it was a bit aimless, didn't tie up. All very nice but...

[ScottishMummy]

when i think of auld reekie i read REBUS,Miss JBrodie,IWelsh

[pointydog]

just read op - yes, scotland street good for someone feeling nostalgic for edinburgh

[expatinscotland]

how about some non-fiction, too?

i've got The Town Under the Ground and Ghostly Tales and Sinister Stories of Edinburgh and Curious Edinburgh.

[ScottishMummy]

oh interesting must check them out - ta

[expatinscotland]

Oh, I like Alexander M-S!

[ScottishMummy]

expat aye the books - must check them out

[expatinscotland]

Wanna know something really eerie?

One of the chaps who wrote Ghostly Tales and Sinister Stories, Alan Wilson, was once a history teacher at Gillespie.

Then it was discovered he was luring his teenage male students to his Royal Mile flat, plying them with alcohol and molesting them.

He was disgraced and sent to jail for a time, and met a lot of really rogue characters there.

A couple of years after his release, his body was discovered, chopped into bits in a communal garden in Merchiston. Some bloke he'd met in jail had done him in.

He effectively became a Sinister Story.

[ScottishMummy]

Ach my god news to me just asked ma man and he kens it well

[expatinscotland]

alanwilson

[expatinscotland]

i wonder if any harm ever came to these two chaps for messing with Mackenzie's tomb?

Mackenzie's reburial was shown in the Edinburgh series of 'Life of Grime'.

[expatinscotland]

There are some who still think Mackenzie's spirit is responsible for the most recent fire in the Cowgate back in 2002. I don't recall if there was ever a very definitive explanation for how it started.

[ScottishMummy]

awww i love macabre stuff

[TwoIfBySea]

I remember that story expat, about the body, and that was him? Woah, I think I have that book somewhere in the house.

[expatinscotland]

Yes, it's the same dude!

It was all in the papers.

Now everytime I see that book I shiver.

My boss was living in the stair where he was murdered and at first it was so terrifying, thinking some wild murderer was running round loose aroudn there.

But the murderer was caught soon after.

[skybright]

Body politic by Paul Johnston is a really great book.

[FlossieTCake]

Lizzy's Literary Life is doing Edinburgh at the moment - the festival rather than the city-in-literature, but the two do tend to overlap at various points.

[elkiedee]

I like Paul Johnston's series set in near future Edinburgh too. Joyce Holms' books are hard to find but they're set in Edinburgh - crime fiction though different in tone from Ian Rankin.

[MorrisZapp]

In Bridget Jones, they make a trip the festival, and BJ has a baked potato from my fave baked potato shop!

[Kevlarhead]

You forgot Maisie comes to Morningside...

[Kevlarhead]

More seriously, The Bridge (iain Banks) has a lot of edinburgh in it.

Well, some anyway.

[RaggedRobin]

the fanatic by james robertson is set in edinburgh - it has two plotlines running through it, one set in modern edinburgh and one set during the witch trials of the 1600s. it's very good.