Scottish Story Trails – A Literary Landscape

By William Steven £9.99 NEIL WILSON PUBLISHING

COMBINING biography and resumé with tourist information, this book will satisfy those wishing to extend their knowledge of certain Scottish writers – 17 authors from past and present are explored in alphabetical format.

Story Trails opens with Iain Banks, who sadly died in 2013. Banks’ biographical details are fairly brief, but they do offer a window into his creative life. Steven has chosen to feature The Crow Road as Banks’ “story trail” novel, with a six-page summary of its storyline, along with related details for location visits.

James M Barrie is next with a

Authors past and present are explored here”

10-page biography and a resumé of Peter Pan, plus comprehensive information for visitors.

John Buchan’s best-known work The Thirty Nine Steps form the following chapter, ahead of Arthur Conan Doyle of Sherlock Holmes fame, with a lengthier biography and a summary of The Hound Of The Baskervilles.

An enigmatic and less-known female author, Rowena Farre, merits inclusion for her best-seller Seal Morning (1957) set in the Highlands. The Story Trail travels on, featuring Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Kenneth Grahame, Alasdair Gray, Muriel Spark, Neil Gunn, and Compton Mackenzie – English-born but famed for Whisky Galore.

Contemporary writers Ian Rankin, whose character Inspector Rebus is extensively known, and Irvine Welsh of Trainspotting fame also gain Mr Stevens’ attention.

Harking back to earlier times Sir Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson, James Hogg, and Tobias Smollet are given an airing. Smollet, born in 1721, is considered the father of travel writing through his praise of Scotland described in The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker.

Many other writers could have qualified for inclusion, but perhaps Steven intends to furnish a further volume or two. He has clearly spent a considerable amount of time in research, and the finished product works well as a neatly-woven tapestry of Scotland’s diverse literary creativity through three centuries.

Ian Neilson