Novels set in Scotland - recommendations please

[iloveblue]

Hi

I'm looking for one or two novels for my MIL. She is Scottish and thought it would be nice to find one with a Scottish flavour.

I have a few of the Isabel Dalhousie series by Alexander McCall Smith which I know are set in Edinburgh but I don't think they are quite up her street.

To give you an idea of her taste, she really enjoyed The Island by Victoria Hislop and likes Kate Morton.

Would be very grateful for any recommendations. Thank-you

There's a really, really good series of novels set in Scotland, the first of which is called After the Armistice Ball. Catriona McPherson is the author; she's written five so far, I think, plus something else. They're detective novels a la Agatha Christie, only much better written, and set between the wars. Very atmospheric.

I read the thread title and immediately thought of The Crow Road - it really is brilliant. Perhaps best to steer clear of The Wasp Factory however...

ROFL at Irvine Welsh as a MIL present!

More detective fiction: Aline Templeton writes police procedurals set in Galloway.

The Crow Road by Iain Banks is great.

I really like the books by Christopher Brookmyre, but they may be a bit violent and foul for your MIL! But they do make me laugh

Like Vama's the House withGreen Shutters there's A J Cronin - I enjoyed these books as a teenager and he was the originator of Dr Finlay.

I'm spoilt for choice - thank-you

Lanark by Alisdair Grey; A Scot's Quair by Lewis Grassic Gibbon.

I agree with JeffVadar and DandyDan. Sunset Song is a wonderful book - my absolute favourite.

I haven't read the rest of A Scots Quair and almost don't want to, in case it ruins Sunset Song.

I love Sunset Song too. Though I think that for the first time you read it its best to miss out the prologue - seems to put most people off and prevent them from discovering how amazing the rest of the book is.

Lady Rose and Mrs Memmary by Ruby Ferguson - perfect MiL material. It's quite lovely.

Apologies if that has been said, I haven't read the thread, Ian Rankin sets all of his novels (the Rebus series too) in Scotland.

Robert Douglas - Whose turns for the stairs is a fantastic account of life in Glasgow's tenements. Absolutely loved it,

Lots of my favourites, Iain Banks, Alistair Gray, Grassic Gibbon have already been mentioned. Isla Dewar is fab also - intelligent chick lit I think your MIL would like her.

The Glass House by Sophie Cooke.
Also The Tobacco Lords Trilogy by Margaret Thomson Davies.

Denise Mina's - Garnethill Trilogy is very good.

Another vote for A scots Quair(I read it at school as part of my english course but am so surprised many people havent even heard of it-one of my favourite books ever).
Also a book called Another time,another place(sorry cant remember the author) about a young scots girl falling in love with an italian pow(romantic but not trash).

Chritine Marion Frasers Rhanna series- series based on a fictional inner Hebridian island and its community.

Lilian Beckwith's 'The Hills is Lonely' series - English woman needs to convalesce, ends up on an island croft. Hysterically funny, a bit like James Herriot without the vet stuff and being Scottish.

Some of Brookmyre is less violent and more funny.

Ring of Bright Water - Gavin Maxwell. Although not strictly a novel and set on Skye.

Movern Callar set in Oban and The Sopranos (not anything to do with the TV series) both by Alan Warner - great but a bit rude (if it's for your MIL).

Would second the Maggie O'Farrell book.

I like Alisdair Gray, James Kelman, John Buchan's The Thirty-nine Steps, Robert Louis Stevenson, Muriel Spark and one that I'd recommend to anyone - James Hogg's The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner... Consider the Lilies by IaIn Chrichton-Smith is good.

Another vote here for many of the ones mentioned!

A Scots Quair
The Thirty Nine Steps
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Cross Stitch series
Some Walter Scott - Ivanhoe, Rob Roy etc, if she likes classics.

I love Christopher Brookmyre too, but maybe not the best for a MIL!

Robin Jenkins wrote some lovely (well, grim, but beautifully written!) books - Poor Angus and Poverty Castle, and The Cone Gatherers are the only ones I can remember off the top of my head.

Lanark is AMAZING, but not everyone's cup of tea :o

Stuart MacBride writes some wonderfully grim but funny crime fiction based in Aberdeen.

Iain Banks has been mentioned already - The Crow Road is just my favourite book.

Emotionally Weird by Kate Atkinson is set in Dundee.

Alex Gray/Grey writes crime fiction set in Glasgow.

Christopher Brookmyre - A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil (I think it's called that) is a fabulous description of growing up and school in West Central Scotland - scarily accurate, it was like he was in my school playground!! :o