to ask for your Scotland/Scottish fiction recommendations?

[RobbieBurnsAteMyHamster]

I'm going to stay in the Highlands for a three weeks next month and would like to take some reading that is set in or related to Scotland in some way.

I'm looking for either classic fiction or something cosy & light - but good writing and good plot rather than standard airport blockbuster. Nothing too heavy going or depressing (none of that Irvine WelshTrainspotting stuff!)

I've already read most of Rosamunde Pilcher including September but that would have been ideal.

Any suggestions please?

Outlander books, they are excellent

Cosy and light - Alexander mccall smith
TBH we do a lot of crime fiction - I recommend Ian rankin, Christopher brookmyre and Ian Banks.

Definitely Alexander McCall Smith - particularly the Scotland Street series and the Isabel Dalhousie series.

Denise Mina is good I hear

His bloody project -title is a bit off putting but great story though not light reading ,set in highlands

The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan is a short classic thriller largely set in Scotland. Also I think (from memory) that The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is set in Scotland and it’s a lovely read.

What about the penguin classic ‘The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie’

Christopher Brookmyre - starting with Quite Ugly one Morning. Might not fit into your criteria but I found the books v funny!

Peacock’s Alibi

Or if you’re not averse to getting caught up in all the hype then the first book in the Outlander Series.

The Hamish McBeth books are quite good holiday reading. Christopher Brookmyre is also good.

If you want well written don't read Outlander, it's trashy shite. Ian Banks, Christopher Brookmyre and Iain rankin are all great. Have you read Sal by Mick Kitson?

Light, set in the Highlands, engaging writing, gotta be the Hamish MacBeth books by M C Beaton.

Oh yes and the Scotland Street series

Ah, missed the 'cosy&light' bit - maybe not Denise Mina then...

We went up to the far north of Scotland a few years ago and there were some Hamish MacBeth books in the holiday house - they were perfect holiday reading....funny and light but well written and absorbing.

Also second His Bloody Project.

Or Ian Banks? The Crow Road has the most fantastic first line :

'It was the day my grandmother exploded. I sat in the crematorium, listening to my Uncle Hamish quietly snoring in harmony to Bach's Mass in B Minor, and I reflected that it always seemed to be death that drew me back to Gallanach.'

Not quite sure why this is in AIBU. There is a recent thread in What we're reading that has some good suggestions

Not set in Scotland, but by a Scottish writer, the wonderful Janice Galloway, all her work is interesting, but "Foreign Parts", about two Scottish women on holiday in France, would be a good holiday read.

I've enjoyed all her books, especially "Clara", but that's quite an intense read, not lighter holiday material.

I'd really recommend Kate Atkinson, not exactly light but really well written.

Brookmyre is fantastic. If you're not so much into the serious crime genre,(I'm not), go with titles by 'Christopher' rather than 'Chris'. Same person at different stages of writing. Very Scottish, very clever and very funny. But to be avoided if sweariness isn't your thing.

@CountFosco

Not quite sure why this is in AIBU. There is a recent thread in What we're reading that has some good suggestions

Thanks for that link CountFosco. I posted it here really for traffic because whenever I've posted anything on a specialised thread I usually get zero responses or about two responses 6 months later. Maybe just me.

Ta for all the other ideas - I will check them out.

Most of my favourites set in the Highlands are children's books - things like Orders to poach and the Alison adventure series but I also really like The Glenvarroch Gathering and The Brighouse Hotel both by Susan Pleydell and Mary Stewart's Wildfire at Midnight and Storm Petrel. These are all quite old-
fashioned though!

This is why I hate MN deletion policy!!!

After Count's post I searched for more threads on Scotland fiction and found this in What Were Reading.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/what_were_reading/3259664-please-recommend-me-a-good-scotland-book

and I get:

Thread deleted

This thread has been deleted by MNHQ because, let's face it, it turned into a bit of a bunfight.

How can a thread about books warrant deletion? and even if it did, I bet it was only some posts and that there were recommendations on there that had been lost.

Grrrrr.

A new Scottish writer - Jan McPeake, recently wrote a novel called “Transference”. It’s bloody excellent

Christopher Brookmyre is good but does not fit into “cosy and light”.

Funny though, darkly funny.

OP what about getting into Lewis Grassic Gibbon? Not light per se but a literary triumph

The Sopranos by Alan Warner - teens from an all girls school in an unnamed highlands town go on a trip to the Big Smoke of Edinburgh to compete in a choir competition and get into various scrapes.

Hilariously funny but with also really poignant moments. I picked it up randomly in an airport bookshop and didn't put it down til I'd landed 8 hours later

Outlander is trashy shite but somehow captivating. Well worth a look as holiday reading.

How about The Blackhouse by Peter May which is set on the Isle of Lewis?