Sunset Gong as classic novel edges out RLS in readers’ poll
IT caused such outrage when released that several libraries banned it from their bookshelves.
But 80 years on, Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon has been voted Scotland’s favourite book.
The 1932 classic beat The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks into second place in a top ten of works by writers born or based in Scotland.
Several notable works that failed to make the cut included Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Rob Roy, by Sir Walter Scott.
A panel of experts had first whittled down the contenders to a list of 30, which was then put to an online poll.
Last night, Kirsty Wark revealed the top ten on a special BBC show, Scotland’s Favourite Book.
In the programme, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon revealed she had voted for Sunset Song, which she read as a teenager. She said: ‘It resonated with me firstly because it is a wonderful story, beautifully written, but it also said something about the history of the country I grew up in and it resonated with me very strongly as a young Scottish woman, and I think its themes are timeless to this day.’
Sunset Song – the first in the trilogy A Scots Quair – is regarded as one of the most important Scottish novels of the 20th century.
It tells the story of a young woman, Chris Guthrie, on a farm in the North East of Scotland and takes in such taboos as suicide and incest. It shocked locals in Arbuthnott, where the author grew up.
A film version, directed by Terence Davies and starring Peter Mullan, Kevin Guthrie and Agyness Deyn, was released last year. Last night, Grassic Gibbon’s grandson, Alister Martin, said: ‘I think Sunset Song continues to find a home in Scottish hearts and minds because when you look past the harshness and hardship, it’s essentially a story of love and hope, told in a quiet and lovely corner of Aberdeenshire.’