The Fanatic by James Robertson7/7/2023 ![]() You’ve published Scots children’s books, and in your latest novel News of the Dead, some of the characters speak in Scots. I know you do a lot of work in promoting Scots–which one might call a dialect, or even a language. And I am fundamentally opposed to the political construct that is Britishness. So it was almost like the family was returning, although I personally had never been in Scotland before.Īs I grew up and began to immerse myself in Scottish culture, and particular in languages and literature, I became more convinced that-though there’s an awful lot of close contact-Scottish culture generally, and literature in particular, are best understood if you treat them as something distinctive and separate. ![]() Then my father moved the whole family to Scotland when he got a job here. I’m almost a living embodiment of that idea, because I was born in the south of England, and lived there until I was six. ![]() There was a time when I would have said that-a nesting doll-but I don’t anymore. Foreign Policy & International Relationsīefore we discuss the books you’ve selected, five landmark works of Scottish literature, I’d like to begin with a general question about identity as a writer: do you see your Scottishness as a nesting doll inside your Britishness, or do you feel it to be a separate identity altogether?. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |