News of the Dead

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Generations later, in the early nineteenth century, self-promoting antiquarian Charles Kirkliston Gibb is drawn to the Glen, and into the big house at the heart of its fragile community. There’s no getting away from it, the nights are fair drawing in. So embrace the falling leaves, cold … Conach told Talorg that ten years was a long time to a youth, but little more than a short sleep to an older man, and less than the blink on an eye to God’ I liked that about the book: it's place, and it's description. And I like stories which, without being too prescriptive about it, interlink a few different things. I also like historical fiction. In the film, Baxter follows Robertson from his home in Newtyle to Glen Esk in search of an ancient cross stone captured in a postcard, once given to the novelist by a neighbour. The stone is said to have been carved by a pupil of the real life seventh-century Glen Esk hermit, Saint Drostan.

James Robertson wins Sir Walter Scott prize - BBC Scots author James Robertson wins Sir Walter Scott prize - BBC

What a marvellous novel this is. Three different time periods mostly presented to us though the Book of Conach, the journal of Gibb, and Maja’s letter. Each have found refuge in Glen Conach, each is known to us through stories presented. And each story is incomplete. What do we really know about Conach? How much can we rely on Gibb’s incomplete journal? And, while Maja is still alive, her own early childhood is lost to her. Welcome to the Siren Book Club! Whether you’re looking for your next steamy romance, an excuse to cry ugly tears or want to be whisked away to a new magical realm, we have something for you. All the characters you’ll meet along the way are strong women who know what they want. Whether it’s reclaiming […] Reading Scotland is an innovative Edinburgh International Book Festival project to find new ways to understand Scotland in a post-Covid era. Six Scottish authors were each invited to work closely with a filmmaker to create a short film inspired by their book. The films will be presented at the Book Festival this month alongside a conversation with each of the authors. This project is intended as a collaborative, internationally-minded exploration of how new Scottish writing and film-making can help citizens understand this country, its writing and its identity. Reading Scotland is supported by the Scottish Government’s Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund.A good story… had to have some element of truth in it, even if he had made it up or stolen it. If it did not have that truth, even if it was the best tale of them all, it would fail.” There’s a lot to enjoy in Greig’s novel (Romance! Witchcraft! Golf! Theology! Reivers! High politics! Assassinations!) but for me none of it would work if it hadn’t already passed what I shall call the Hilary Mantel Uncertainty Test. It’s quite simple. Does the book make the past feel as alive and uncertain as the present? Remarkably – and wonderfully – all three of this crop of Scottish novels do just that. But the story really starts with Lachie, the eight-year-old son of the present day laid telling Maya, the oldest inhabitant of the glen, that he has seen the ghost of the “dumb girl”. This ghost is a newcomer to the glen. She is not part of Conach’s story. Her tory is important and will be woven into the tale of Glen Conach, and will become part of its history. Most novels I’ve read don’t dig quite as deeply into the past as this, and the few that do don’t in …

David Robinson reviews: News of the Dead, Rizzio and Rose David Robinson reviews: News of the Dead, Rizzio and Rose

We ask experts to recommend the five best books in their subject and explain their selection in an interview. Deep down, I knew that Henry VIII couldn’t possibly have died while jousting because it was only 1536 and he still had another four and a half wives to go, but such was the clarity of Mantel’s depiction of the scene and the confidence of her writing from within Cromwell’s skull that it excised this knowledge from my own. The king had indeed been seriously wounded – so much so that it altered his whole character – but he was merely unconscious, not dead. Cromwell, taking command of the scene, shouted out the news. ‘“Long live the king!” Thomas bellows (thinking “God save Thomas Cromwell”).’In ancient Pictland, the Christian hermit Conach contemplates God and nature, performs miracles and prepares himself for sacrifice. Long after his death, legends about him are set down by an unknown hand in the Book of Conach.