Welcome to this quick tour through the greatest names in Scottish fiction, poetry and drama. For a much more detailed account look at my History Of Scottish Literature, which includes background information on historical events and the development of the Scots language. You'll find hundreds more Scottish authors listed at the Index. Enjoy!
John Barbour (c1320-1395) is often called the "father of Scottish literature". He was born probably in Aberdeen, where he spent most of his life, and he was Archdeacon there from 1357 until his death on 13 March 1395. He owes his fame to his great verse narrative "The Bruce" (written in the 1370s), which tells the story of Robert the Bruce (King Robert I of Scotland). Barbour follows the tradition of chivalric romance as he describes Robert's fugitive years, the War of Independence, and the victory at Bannockburn. Although his portrait of the king is certainly idealised, Barbour's account is considered to be largely faithful to historical fact.
Similar literary treatment was given to Sir William Wallace by Blind Harry (c1440-c1492). "Wallace" is less historically accurate than "Bruce", but formed the basis for the romantic image which has continued down to "Braveheart".
The early Scottish poets are often called "the makars". Robert Henryson (c1420-c1490) is remembered for "The Testament of Cresseid", inspired by Chaucer's "Troilus and Criseyde", while William Dunbar (c1460-c1513) enjoys the interesting distinction of having been the first author to use the word f*** in print (1508), and is considered to be one of the very finest of the makars. Gavin Douglas (c1476-1522) made a celebrated translation of Virgil's Aeneid into Scots, and Alexander Scott (c1515-83) is renowned for his love poems.
Sir David Lyndsay (c1486-1555) was primarily a poet, but is regarded as the founder of Scottish theatre thanks to his play, "Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaits". He was a native of Cupar and probably studied at St Andrews University before entering the service first of King James IV, and then of his son James V. Lyndsay was involved in preparations for the latter's marriage to Mary of Guise-Lorraine in 1538, and it was for the royal court that he wrote his political morality play in which the "three estates" are the clergy, the nobility, and the burgesses or craftsmen.
Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots (1542-87), arguably the most famous Scot of all time, can also be considered Scotland's earliest female author. The daughter of James V and Mary of Guise, she grew up in the French royal court, and French was her first language, though she learned to speak another five. She modelled her verse on that of French writers such as her friend Pierre de Ronsard, and she surrounded herself with poets, several of them women, among whom was her lady-in-waiting Mary Beaton (c1543-c1597). Mary Stuart was a Catholic, and this brought her into conflict with the Reformers led by the Calvinist John Knox, who expressed his hostility to women monarchs in his tract, "The First Blast Of The Trumpet Against The Monstrous Regiment Of Women". Another of Mary's enemies was the Latin scholar George Buchanan (1506-82), who was tutor to Mary (he had also taught Montaigne in Bordeaux). Buchanan became the first Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1567, and following Mary's downfall in the wake of her husband's assassination, Buchanan published a denunciation of her which included some of her poems as evidence of her adultery. More famous than Mary's own verse, however, is the anonymous ballad "The Queen's Maries", in which Mary Beaton appears alongside Mary Seaton and the fictitous Mary Carmichael and Mary Hamilton.
William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585-1649) is the most important Scottish poet of the seventeenth century; he can also be regarded as the first Scottish poet to write in English. This was partly because of his own very European outlook, but also indicates the decline during this period of Scots as a distinct language, for reasons explained in my History. Drummond was a reclusive scholar somewhat in the manner exemplified by Montaigne. Sir Thomas Browne provides another comparison, and Drummond was a friend of Ben Jonson.
Sir Thomas Urquhart (c1611-1660) a native of Cromarty, is one of Scottish literature's great eccentrics. He is chiefly remembered as the translator of Rabelais, his version of the first three books of "Gargantua and Pantagruel" (1653) having lasted for many years as the standard translation; but he also wrote the mathematical treatise "Trissotetras" (1645); proposed a universal language in "Logopandecteision" (1653); and, in "Pantochronochanon" (1652), traced his ancestry back to Adam, via a third century BC prince called Esormon of Achaia. His prose romance "Ekskybalauron, or The Jewel" (1652), which has as its hero the real-life figure known as the Admirable Crichton (1560-c1585), can be regarded as the first Scottish novel. Much involved in the politics of his day, Urquhart died in exile in Europe, supposedly of laughter on hearing of the restoration of Charles II.
Allan Ramsay (1684-1758) was a wigmaker before turning to literature. He tried to open a theatre in Edinburgh at a time when such things were banned, but had greater success in founding Britain's first lending library at his bookshop in Edinburgh's High Street in 1725. He did much to revive interest in traditional ballads through the collections he published, and his own poetry in Scots kept alive a tradition which would have its greatest flowering in the work of Robert Burns.
James Thomson (1700-48) was one of the most renowned poets of his day, though his reputation has since dimmed considerably. He wrote in English as opposed to Scots, and this was one reason why he was prized so highly by the self-styled "Literati" of the Scottish Enlightenment. It also helps to account for his subsequent fall from favour. Thomson's great contribution was to turn towards Nature as a source of poetic inspiration, thus foreshadowing the Romantic movement. His most famous work is the poem sequence "The Seasons", which formed the basis for Haydn's Oratorio. He also wrote the words to "Rule Britannia".
The philosopher David Hume (1711-76) was the greatest figure of the Scottish Enlightenment, a period of intense cultural activity which made Edinburgh one of the great European capitals of the age. Other luminaries were the philosophers Adam Smith (1723-90) and Adam Fergusson (1723-1816); the biographer and diarist James Boswell (1740-95); the critic Hugh Blair (1718-1800); the architect Robert Adam (1728-92); the painter Sir Henry Raeburn (1756-1823); the scientists Joseph Black (1728-99) and James Hutton (1726-97); and the law lords Kames, Hailes and Monboddo. Lord Monboddo (1714-99), whose title is used as the name of a character in Alasdair Gray's "Lanark" (1981), was born James Burnett, and is famous for his far-sighted theory that the orang-outan is related to humans. However he was a bit wider of the mark in his other famous theory, that all humans are born with tails which get quietly removed as part of a worldwide conspiracy of midwives.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica was founded in Edinburgh in 1768. The much-enlarged second edition was edited by James Tytler (1747-1805), who became Britain's first balloonist in August 1784 when he ascended 350 feet over Scotland's capital. One of the greatest literary hoaxes of all time was the epic of "Ossian" (1761), supposedly translated from ancient Gaelic texts but actually composed by James Macpherson (1736-96). Important publishing enterprises from later decades included the Edinburgh Review founded in 1802 by Francis Jeffrey (1773-1850) and Blackwood's Magazine founded 1817 and edited by John Wilson (1785-1854).
Upwardly mobile Scots at this time were particularly keen to rid their speech and writing of "Scotticisms"; though the Enlightenment didn't mark the beginning of this process, nor of course its end. Public lectures were given on "correct" English, elocution lessons became popular, and James Beattie (1735-1803) published a dictionary of Scotticisms for the benefit of those who had "no opportunity of learning English from the company they kept".
Henry Mackenzie (1745-1831) was the favoured novelist of the Literati, and enjoyed huge success with "The Man Of Feeling". Scott dedicated "Waverley" to Mackenzie, calling him "our Scottish Addison"; Burns said he prized Mackenzie's novel next to the Bible.
Tobias Smollett (1721-71) has lasted far better than Mackenzie, however. Born at Renton and educated at Glasgow University, he became a surgeon's mate in the navy, and in 1744 began practice as a surgeon in London. He was a short-tempered man who lost friends easily, but put his satirical sense of humour to good use in his writing, producing a series of comic picaresque novels which often draw on his experiences of seafaring. Their success enabled Smollett to give up surgery, and he indulged his taste for travel, ending his days in Italy.
Robert Fergusson (1750-1774) had a tragically short poetic career, but his poetry in Scots was well received and paved the way for Robert Burns (1759-96). Burns was inspired as a child by reading William Hamilton's translation of Blind Harry's "Wallace", and he became the first indisputably great poet of the Scots language since the age of the Makars. Burns described his own literary language as "Lallans" (ie Lowland Scots, as opposed to Highland Gaelic), and the word was revived by Hugh MacDiarmid in the 20th century. Burns' early death has helped contribute to the sentimental mythology which surrounds him, but he remains a major figure of world literature. James Hogg (1770-1835) was equally famous as a poet, but "The Ettrick Shepherd" is now remembered as the author of one of the greatest of Scottish novels, "The Confessions Of A Justified Sinner".
Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) was born in Edinburgh, and at the age of 18 months his right leg was left permanently lame by polio. He trained as a lawyer and pursued this career throughout his adult life. He also found time for a busy social life, as well as being an important collector of Scottish ballads, and a translator of German literature. Scott enjoyed enormous success as a poet, and began to build a gothic castle, Abbotsford, in the Borders. It was partly to raise money for the project, and also so as to ensure his literary supremacy over Byron, that Scott turned to fiction, initially publishing anonymously. The financial crash of 1826 made him bankrupt; he spent his last six years paying off his debts through writing.
Edinburgh's Scott Monument, and the nearby Waverley Station, bear witness to his extraordinary status in Victorian Britain; it was Scott who largely defined Scotland's image in the last century, even including the "clan tartans" which he helped invent for the occasion of a royal visit. Though tartan was a traditional pattern on the plaid or kilt worn loosely round the waist and over the shoulder by Highlanders, there do not seem to have been fixed designs for particular clans prior to Scott's stroke of inspiration.
Among Scottish novelists of the nineteenth century were John Galt (1779-1839), Susan Edmonstone Ferrier (1782-1854), William Alexander (1826-1894), and the extraordinarily prolific Margaret Oliphant (1828-1897). Many of the great "men of letters" of the age were Scots, or had Scottish connections, including Thomas Carlye (1795-1881), Lord Macaulay (1800-59) and John Ruskin (1819-1900). The anthropologist and critic Andrew Lang (1844-1912) wrote on everything from history to fairies; George MacDonald (1824-1905) also had a taste for the fantastic, and is remembered for his children's books.
James Thomson (1834-82) wrote under the pseudonym "B.V." and is remembered for the long poem "The City Of Dreadful Night" (1874). Thomson's life was haunted by depression and alcoholism, which ultimately killed him. John Davidson (1857-1909) was another writer of apocalyptic vision; his life ended in suicide.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-94) initially planned to become a lighthouse designer like his father, but at the age of 21 he announced his intention to write. His output included travel books, poetry and of course classic adventure novels; and his novella "The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1886) is possibly the most universally familiar story by any Scots writer. Stevenson spent much of his life outside Scotland, and died in Samoa.
Neil Munro (1864-1930) is remembered for his Para Handy stories, but Munro's early work was in the mystical "Celtic Twilight" style exemplified by William Black (1841-98) and William Sharp (1855-1905). Sharp wrote under the pseudonym "Fiona Macleod", and invented an elaborate fake biography for his female alter-ego.
J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) is remembered as the creator of "Peter Pan" (1906); he was also a novelist of the so-called "Kailyard school", a style of sentimental fiction whose other practitioners included S. R. Crockett (1859-1914), Ian Maclaren (1850-1907) and Annie S. Swan (1859-1943). Maclaren's book "Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush" (1894) took its title from Burns' "There grows a bonnie brier-bush in our kail-yard", prompting the critic J. H. Millar in 1895 to coin the pejorative term which has stuck ever since.
A similar spirit of mawkishness haunted the four "Whistle-binkie" poetry anthologies, published between 1832 and 1890, whose contributors included Alexander Rodger (1784-1846), James Ballantine (1808-77), William Thom (1798-1848) and William Miller (1810-72), author of "Wee Willie Winkie".
Popular children's books of the period include "Coral Island" (1858) by R. M. Ballantyne (1825-94), "The Wind In The Willows" (1908) by Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932), and the now-infamous "Little Black Sambo" (1899) by Helen Bannerman (1862-1946).
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) partly based the character of Sherlock Holmes on Dr Joseph Bell (1837-1911), a pioneer of forensic medicine who was one of Doyle's teachers in his native Edinburgh. John Buchan (1875-1940) had a distinguished political career which culminated in his becoming Governor-General of Canada. His best known book is "The Thirty-Nine Steps" (1915); his sister Anna wrote under the name "O. Douglas".
George Douglas Brown (1869-1902) reacted against Kailyard sentimentality in his grim and masterly portrayal of Scottish small-town life, "The House With The Green Shutters" (1901). "Gillespie" (1914) by John Macdougall Hay (1881-1919) is in a similar vein, heralding a new realism in Scottish fiction.
Scotland produced some notable war poets, the most well known being C. H. Sorley (1895-1915) and Ewart Alan Mackintosh (1893-1917). The travel writer Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham (1852-1936) tried to enlist, but at 62 was declared too old. He was co-founder (with Keir Hardie) of the Scottish Labour Party, and also first president of the Scottish National Party.
The poet Helen Cruickshank (1886-1975) was a Suffragette and nationalist who helped many younger writers. Catherine Carswell (1879-1946) was encouraged to write her first novel "Open the Door!" (1920) by her friend D. H. Lawrence, of whom she later wrote a memoir. 1920 also saw the publication of the science fiction novel "A Voyage To Arcturus" by David Lindsay (1876-45).
Hugh MacDiarmid (1892-1978) was the dominant figure of the "Scottish Renaissance" which flowered during the 1930s. The movement aimed to revive the Scots language, which MacDiarmid called "Lallans", and one of his stated principles was the "Caledonian antisyzygy" or "zig-zag of contradictions" which supposedly lay at the heart of Scottish identity. Poets associated with the movement included Alexander Gray (1882-1968), William Jeffrey (1896-1946), Lewis Spence (1874-1955) and William Soutar (1898-1943). The latter succumbed to a crippling disease, and recorded his experiences in "Diaries of a Dying Man".
MacDiarmid inspired many poets to use Scots in their verse; eg J. K. Annand (1908-93), Robert Garioch (1909-81), Maurice Lindsay (b1918), A. D. Mackie (1904-85), Alexander Scott (1920-89), Tom Scott (b1918) and Sydney Goodsir Smith (1915-75). However MacDiarmid's advocacy of Lallans had a significant opponent in the Orcadian Edwin Muir (1887-1959), who was one of the century's greatest poets, and also a distinguished translator in collaboration with his wife Willa Anderson (1890-1970).
Dramatists of the Scottish Renaissance include John Brandane (1869-1947), James Bridie (1888-1951), Robert McLellan (1907-85), Robert Kemp (1908-67) and Alexander Reid (1914-82).
Fionn MacColla (1906-1975) and Neil Miller Gunn (1891-1973) were novelists associated with the Scottish Renaissance; but the most important fiction writer was James Leslie Mitchell (1901-35), who wrote his novel trilogy "A Scots Quair" under the pseudonym Lewis Grassic Gibbon. The title resurrects the word "quair" or "quire" (a collection of pages, a book) used by James I in his romance "The Kingis Quair". Many regard the trilogy as the greatest achievement of Scottish fiction in the 20th century.
The thirties was an extraordinarily rich period in Scottish fiction. "A Scots Quair" was published 1932-34, Gunn's "Highland River" in 1937. Other novels of the decade are "The Corn King and the Spring Queen" (1931) by Naomi Mitchison (b1897); "Juan In America" (1931) by Eric Linklater (1899-1974); "Hunger March" (1934) by Dot Allan (1892-1964); "Shipbuilders" (1935) by George Blake (1893-1961); "The Citadel" (1937) by A. J. Cronin (1896-1981) and "Land of the Leal" (1939) by James Barke (1905-58).
Alexander McArthur (1901-1947) became famous with "No Mean City" (1935), a novel about Glasgow slum life written with ghostwriter H. Kingsley Long. In a lighter vein, a hugely successful novel of the post-war years was "Whisky Galore" (1947) by Sir Edward Montague Compton Mackenzie (1883-1972).
The leading poets of the decades following the Second World War were Norman MacCaig (1910-96), Sorley MacLean (1911-96), W. S. Graham (1918-86), George Mackay Brown (1921-96), Edwin Morgan (b1920) and Iain Crichton Smith (b1928). Pre-eminent among novelists of this generation are Robin Jenkins (b1912) and Muriel Spark (b1918), author of "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" (1961).
Notable novelists of the sixties include Jessie Kesson (1916-94) and James Kennaway (1928-68). Alistair MacLean (1922-87) found enormous success with an adventure formula he described as: "A hero, a band of men, hostile climate, a ruthless enemy and, as often as not, a Judas figure who almost upsets the mission". Alexander Trocchi (1925-84) was Scotland's leading representative of the Beat generation. Heroin addiction was a major factor in his life and work (he forced his own wife into prostitution to support his habit), and his novels include "Cain's Book" (1960). Trocchi's life provided the basis for the 1995 play "A Meeting With The Monster" by David Millar (b1955) and, more loosely, for Barry Graham's novel "The Book Of Man".
Hugh C. Rae (b1935) began as a crime novelist but went on to write romance under the name Jessica Stirling. Another romance writer with a huge following is English-born Rosamunde Pilcher (b1924), many of whose novels are set in Scotland where she has lived for many years. The historical novels of Dorothy Dunnett (b1923) and Nigel Tranter (1909) also enjoy enormous popularity.
In 1971 the English-born director John McGrath (b1935) founded the 7:84 Theatre Company in Glasgow. Their agit-prop extravaganza "The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil" (1973) was typical of a growing new confidence among artists in Scotland. Writers who first came to note in this decade include the novelist William McIlvanney (b1936) and poet Douglas Dunn (b1942).
1971 also saw the formation of a writing group in Glasgow which was attended by Alasdair Gray (b1934), Tom Leonard (b1944), James Kelman (b1946) and Liz Lochhead (b1947). All went on to have distinguished careers, and Alasdair Gray's "Lanark" (1981) is now regarded as one of the great Scottish novels of the century.
Iain Banks (b1954) had his debut in 1984 with "The Wasp Factory"; the nineties began with the emergence of Janice Galloway (b1956) and A. L. Kennedy (b1965), later joined by Irvine Welsh (b1958) and Alan Warner (b1964) as the best known Scottish writers today.
Finally, a round-up of contemporary Scottish writers under the age of 40, as represented in some recent anthologies.
The Picador Book of Contemporary Scottish Fiction (ed. Peter Kravitz, ISBN 0330335510) includes work by all the big names from Gray to Welsh, and an introduction describes literary developments since the seventies in some detail. Writers born since 1960 whose work is included are:
Andrew Crumey (b1961), Jackie Kay (b1961), A. L. Kennedy (b1965), Gordon Legge (b1961), Duncan McLean (b1964), James Meek (b1962), Bridget Penney (b1964), Ian Rankin (b1960), Frank Shon (b1963), Ali Smith (b1962), Alan Warner (b1964).
The collection "Dream State: the New Scottish Poets" (ed. Daniel O'Rourke, Polygon ISBN 0748661697) contains work by writers born since 1955, including Carol Ann Duffy (b1955), John Burnside (b1955), Robert Crawford (b1959) and David Kinloch (b1959). Each poet provides an introduction to his or her own work. Those born after 1960 are:
Maud Sulter (b1960), Jackie Kay (b1961), W. N. Herbert (b1961), Kathleen Jamie (b1962), Don Paterson (b1963), Raymond Friel (b1963), Angela McSeveney (b1964), Alison Kermack (b1965), Richard Price (b1966), Rody Lumsden (b1966), Stuart A. Paterson (b1966), Anne C. Frater (b1967).
"Children Of Albion Rovers" (ed. Kevin Williamson, Canongate ISBN 0862417317) comes from the same stable that produced Irvine Welsh, and includes work by Welsh, Alan Warner, Laura J. Hird, Paul Reekie, James Meek and Gordon Legge.
The Flamingo Book of New Scottish Writing has been an annual event since 1974. The 1997 and 1998 editions are both available (1997: Flamingo ISBN 0006550509; 1998: Flamingo ISBN 0006551181).
Further Reading
(ISBN numbers are in brackets).
Maurice Lindsay's "History of Scottish Literature" (0709048025) is an excellent one-volume survey. A more detailed account is provided by the four-volume history published by Mercat: "Vol 1: Origins to 1660" (0080377254); "Vol 2: 1660-1800" (0080377262); "Vol 3: Nineteenth Century" (0080377270); "Vol 4: Twentieth Century" (0080377289). On a much smaller scale, "Discovering Scottish Writers" (1898218846) is an attractive introduction which includes pictures of the eighty classic writers featured.
"Scottish Literature Since 1707" (0582028922) is an extremely useful study; "Ten Modern Scottish Novels" (0080284930) looks at specific works from the fifties to mid-eighties, and "The Modern Scottish Novel" (0748608931) analyses the most recent developments.
"A History of Scottish Women's Writing" (0748609164) gives a comprehensive analysis of the subject, looking at themes, literary movements and particular authors. It's a magnificent book (more than seven hundred pages long), and will be the standard academic work for many years to come.
For reference, Trevor Royle's encyclopaedic "Mainstream Companion to Scottish Literature" (1851585834) is indispensable, with articles on authors, key works and other topics arranged alphabetically. Also excellent (and a real bargain at the price) is "Waterstone's Guide to Scottish Books" (1902603001), which is particularly useful with regard to contemporary writers, and also for finding out if older books are still available in print. The ISBN numbers quoted here are all taken from the Waterstone's guide.
Andrew Crumey ©1998
History Of Scottish Literature