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?

The Lewis trilogy by Peter may is really excellent - I don’t usually enjoy crime fiction but thought this was very readable!

Lewis Grassic Gibbon every time!

You might like Aline Templetron's DI Marjory Fleming series too - about a police inspector living in Dumfries and Galloway and married to a sheep farmer

I love Isla dewar, her books are wonderful reading, books to get lost in.

Robin Jenkins is one of the best Scottish writers, but not much of it is light.

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.

Janice Galloway's memoir This is Not About Me is one of my favorite memoirs of all time, but again, like many memoirs, it has darker moments.

I'm going to say Outlander too, somewhat trashy but I'm on my second read of all 8 books

The Hamish Macbeth books are very light fun!

Eleanor oliphant is completely fine. Brill book set in west end of glasgow

This thread has made me notice a gap on my bookshelves, Ian Rankin's Rebus books are the only books I have set in Scotland. I love books with a strong sense of place so I must be missing out on some great writers.

James Robertson - The Testimony of Gideon Mack is good, Joseph Knight is excellent but pretty harrowing in places, so not exactly light.

For a classic, how about James Hogg's Memoirs & Confessions of a Justified Sinner, that is as Scottish as you can get. Also, not everyone’s taste but I enjoyed Walter Scott’s Heart of Midlothian

Buddha Da by Anne Donovan set in Glasgow is another favorite of mine.

Do you like crime fiction?

Pat McIntosh's mediaeval Glasgow mysteries are great reading, well-researched and you really can put yourself into the story. The series starts with 'The Harper's Quine' which is currently at £0.99 on Kindle.

Another one for Chris Brookmyre - start with Quite Ugly One Morning, it's hilarious, his debut, and quite a short one.
Similar (though Irish!) is Caimh McDonnell

Be careful of McCall Smith & MC Beaton if you're a fast reader - they go down like sherbet, with about as much staying power - fun, but very light. I got stuck on Arran with nothing to read after first day having taken a McCall Smith. I loved Hame by Annalena McAfee, set in a recognisable composite of the outer isles/Edinburgh, and Andrew Greig did a nice modern sequel to a John Buchan, called The return of John MacNab - that's a bit more of an adventure.

Adore Chtistopher Brookmyre, esp The case of the unshrinkable rubber ducks ' about debunking psychics - and it's set in much old uni!
Yes to Janice Halloway ( The trick is to keep breathing/ Blood). Rankin is good , as is Ian McEwan ( esp Amsterdam). Grassic Gribbon's Sunset Song gets into your bones as does Crichton- Smith's Consider the Lillies ( set during the Highland Clearances).

Finally, the author escapes me but ' Buddha Da" . HtH

I know not everyone's into Philippa Gregory, but if you like easygoing historical novels then The Other Queen and Three Sisters, Three Queens are partially set in Scotland. They're more Central Scotland than Highlands but plenty of Scottish castles in there.

Whisky Galore is another classic, though I can't remember what the writing style's like. (If anyone can help me out, do jump in!)

Another mystery writer, but cosier than most Tartan Noir: A.D. Scott. They are set in the Highlands in and around Inverness. The first in the series is A Small Death in the Great Glen.

Ah, cross post, Anne Donovan. Her short story ' Hieroglyphics' is phenomenal.

Sal
Isabel Dalhousie by Alexander McCall Smith
The Lewis trilogy by Peter may

If you like crime then
Anything by Stuart Macbride
The Jackson Brodie books by Kate Atkinson

Christine Marion Frasers “Rhanna” series is a bit old granny fiction but I love them!! I’d expect you could get them second hand off amazon or abe books etc. Read in order though!!

Absolutely second The Sopranos by Alan Warner, as well as the sequel, The Stars in the Bright Sky. Really underrated writer - one of his earlier ones, Morvern Callar, was made into a film with Samantha Morton - also fab 😊

I love Isla dewar, her books are wonderful reading, books to get lost in

Came on here to recommend her! I really like Giving Up on Ordinary and especially Getting Out of the House. She's kind of like the Scottish Marian Keyes - she slips these sort of quite serious issues in under the radar of it being light and humorous.

Having read the suggestions and had a look I realise that what I really want is to not have read September by Rosamunde Pilcher!!

I think I want something more set in the Highlands than in Edinburgh (which alot of McCall Smith seems to be) with descriptions of rolling Highland scenery, kilts and whisky and with a good plot - sort of cosy reading but not crappy trashy reading.

I do read crime but I don't think I want crime for this trip. Just to snuggle up with a light read.

Has anyone read Nancy Mitford's Highland Fling? Any good?

Not strictly light, but Gracekeepers by Scottish author Kirsty Logan is glorious, moving, beautiful and tender.