It's only a book!

Good article in Saturday's Herald Scotland by Ian Bell:

http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/columnists/no-crime-to-move-on-from-all-embracing-scottish-novel.21176823

Novelist Alexander McCall Smith has expressed dismay at the large number of crime novels being published in and about Scotland. He feels they give the wrong impression of the place. I think he's right and he's wrong. There are an awful lot of Tartan Noir books around. I've just declared them a no-go area after reading 5 on the trot: 2 by Denise Mina and 3 by Alex Gray. I was reading them as a change from the Scandinavian Noir books of Camilla Lackberg, which I was starting to mix up. But then I found myself convinced I'd read one of the Denise Mina books already.....

However, they don't give the wrong impression of Scotland: readers know the difference between a story and real life. For example, I know the characters of 44 Scotland Street (created by - ahem - Alexander McCall Smith) are as phoney as all get out. Ian Bell's too nice a man to call them twee, but I will. Once in a while I'll zip through one in a couple of hours just for fun but I don't imagine the whole of Embra lives in the New Town and has a private income or a rich daddy who can set them up with a wee art gallery of their own. And I don't think there's a wee boy of 6 there who talks like a Cartesian philosopher.

I like the Peter May books, set in Lewis, because I've been there and I think he captures the atmosphere very well, although I'm sure residents of Lewis won't agree.....And I also like the Anne Cleeves books set in Shetland because I haven't been there and she lets me imagine the surroundings easily. (I have to say I'm dead jealous of people who live in a place where you seem to be able to walk down to the pier and get on a boat at the drop of a hat - and, more important, where the boats always go. No booking, no bread shortages - Colonsay were 5 days without a boat last week.)

I think what I'm getting at is that I like the idea of every part of Scotland being celebrated in writing in a story of some kind. This is, I'm convinced, a very important time in Scottish writing and not just for crime stories.

We have James Robertson, who describes the bigger Scottish picture: our history and our future. If you haven't read Joseph Knight or The Land Lay Still or The Fanatic, you've a treat in store. Then there's the poetry of John Burnside, which I seriously recommend.

I could go on but you can look up the Scottish Review of Books yourself if you want to know more.