Something for everyone, from gritty realism to dystopian fantasy
This is a quite remarkable debut novel,” wrote Stuart Kelly, in his review of The Voids by Ryan O’connor, published in March, “perhaps the most intriguing Scottish debut since Jenni Fagan’s The Panopticon.” Given that the Panopticon was published back in 2012, that’s praise indeed – and O’connor’s book was by no means the only outstanding Scottish debut of 2022.
In fiction, Allan Massie was won over by Claire Alexander’s first novel, Meredith, Alone; in non-fiction, there were glowing reviews for first books from Anna Fleming, Patrick Galbraith and Thomas Halliday; and in poetry, Jay Gao, Leyla Josephine and Alicia Pirmohamed all impressed with their debut collections.
Why does any of this matter? Well, when people in the financial world apportion value to a company, they don’t just consider its current state of health but also its future prospects, and the same logic can surely be applied to a nation’s literature. Scotland is home to some enormously successful writers, from Ali Smith and Maggie O’farrell to Ian Rankin and Alexander Mccall Smith – all of whom are represented in this supplement. However, while we should certainly celebrate the achievements of the literary stars of today, we would also do well to pay attention to the stars of tomorrow.
This doesn’t just mean those with a first book out, of course, but also those we might describe as early-career authors, and 2022 has been a vintage year for books by Scottish writers who fit this description. In particular, as you work your way through this supplement, look out for reviews of new books by Claire Askew, Ever Dundas, Amy Liptrot, Michael Pedersen, Chitra Ramaswamy and Malachy Tallack – all under 45, all only a few books into their careers and all names to keep an eye on in the future.
It’s also worth noting the enormous range of genres and subjects these younger authors are tackling, from gritty urban realism to wildly imaginative dystopian fantasy and from fishing and rock climbing to conservation and natural history. Something, as they say, for everyone.
This supplement contains a selection of fiction, non-fiction and poetry reviews which have appeared in The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday since the start of the year. The books covered in these pages are either the work of Scottish authors or on subjects which should be of particular interest to Scottish readers. Even with 20 pages, we don’t have anywhere near enough space to revisit every review from 2022 that meets these criteria, so we’ve had to set ourselves some ground rules.
First, only broadly positive reviews have been considered. While this supplement is not intended to be anything as reductive as a “best Scottish books of the year” list (you’ll find plenty of those online), its aim is to draw attention to a selection of books we believe it is worth investing some time in. Our second rule is only one review per author. We have run reviews of multiple books this year by some prolific writers (Jenni Fagan, Alexander Mccall Smith an Denzil Meyrick, please take a bow) but it would seem unfair to include reviews of two books by one author while another misses out. Where two reviews by the same author have received positive reviews, we have selected either the book which has been showered with the most enthusiastic praise, or the book which seems most significant in the context of that writer’s career.
If we’d wanted to, we could have covered many more books in these pages by editing the original reviews more heavily. However, if we’d gone too far down that route we wouldn’t have ended up with much more than a glorified list, and we think our readers might appreciate a more considered view. So, while a few trims have been necessary, as far as possible we have tried to reproduce our critics’ original thoughts in full. We hope you enjoy reading these reviews, we hope some of them inspire you to seek out the books, and if possible, please try to buy from your local bookseller this Christmas,
As well as celebrating the literary stars of today, we should also pay attention to the stars of tomorrow