Nothing beats sinking your teeth into a good book in the summertime.
But sometimes, we need a little help choosing our next read.
Thankfully, Aberdour author Jenny Colgan was happy to share her favourite books by Scottish writers – including a well-known Fife name.
Jenny, whose bestselling romantic comedy hits include The Bookshop on The Corner and Little Beach Street Bakery, published her latest novel – Close Knit – earlier this month.
Here’s her recommendations, in her own words:
Sunset Song (Lewis Grassic Gibbon, 1932)
I wasn’t made to study this at school, which is probably why I still love it so much.
It’s heart-breaking and gorgeous and romantic and sad.
Young Mungo (Douglas Stuart, 2022)
Shuggie Bain is great too but Young Mungo is even better, which is hard to do in a second novel when the first has been a great success.
Young Mungo has more hope in it. It’s just so, so good.
Ootlin (Jenni Fagan, 2014)
This is a difficult read but an essential one, an astonishing story of triumph over terrible circumstances.
Black and Blue (Ian Rankin, 1997)
I love all the Scottish crime writers: Denise Mina, and Louise Welsh and Chris Brookmyre and Val McDermid – and it’s really really hard to pick a favourite, but Ian Rankin really stands out; he’s so sharp and the plots and sense of place in the Rebus novels are just brilliant.
Black and Blue is a great place to start.
His Bloody Project (Graeme Macrae Burnet, 2015)
It’s just a brilliant book, full stop. You can’t stop reading it and it sears; what more do you want from a book?
The Secret Life (Andrew O’Hagan, 2017)
With Andy most people would probably recommend Mayflies, but The Secret Life is the one I come back to all the time or press on people; three long essays about surveillance and modern life; they’re erudite, thoughtful and illuminating.
The Harry Potter series (J.K. Rowling, 1997-2007)
They are clearly set in Scotland and written by someone who lives here so I think they count.
Even though they were published when I was already an adult, my friend the writer Sophie Kinsella and I used to await them as anxiously as any bescarfed 10-year-old.
We’d each get one the day they came out then retire to (separate) baths to read them and text each other.
Prisoner of Azkaban the best one, obvs.
Lanark (Alasdair Gray, 1981)
I didn’t really fully understand Lanark when I read it, but I was so thrilled it existed, if that makes sense; something so weird and cool and impressive and it had such a cool cover.
I genuinely couldn’t tell you now what happened in it, just that I was so happy about it at the time.
Selected Poems (Kathleen Jamie, 2018)
I absolutely love Kathleen Jamie; she’s part of the landscape of Scotland; she’s been the poet laureate and she just writes so wonderfully about the land.
I first came across her lovely poem The Crystal Set but I am very fond of all of her work.
The Princess and the Goblin (George MacDonald, 1872)
I loved this, and the Princess and Curdie too.
I think I’ve been trying to replicate the beautiful peace of the star-reflecting water my entire writing life; it was so evocative to me as an imaginative child.
The Book of Strange New Things (Michel Faber, 2014)
It’s hard to pick a Michel Faber because he is such a genius.
Although he said something mean about me in an interview once so I launched a blood feud, but I can’t remember what it was now.
Most people would stay the Crimson Petal and the White, which I also love, but the Book of Strange New Things is just so astonishing and mysterious and completely convincing, I 100% believed I was reading the true memoir of an alien missionary.
- Jenny Colgan’s latest book, Close Knit is published by Hodder and Stoughton.
- The Aberdour author will be appearing at Waterstones Kirkcaldy on 20 August and Toppings St Andrews on 17 September.
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