News of the Dead

Product Information

One of Robertson's skills as a novelist is to make both events real and imagined feel equally convincing. Prospect Robertson’s novel is a much slower burn, but still deeply satisfying. His fiction has often explored the past to great purpose, as in his magnificent The Land Lay Still , about the making of modern Scotland, or the slavery-themed Joseph Knight . Here, though, the focus is on nothing less than on the nature of history itself: its gaps, deliberate myths, accidental lies and time-honoured fictions. While Rizzio is all flashing blades and double crosses, in News of the Dead whole weeks go by in which a mildly dodgy scholar employed by a slightly eccentric laird does little more than go about his business of translating a medieval document about an eight century local holy man. By the end of the novel, though, all these threads through time weave together in a profoundly moving way: think of the end of Middlemarch , transpose it to an Angus glen, and you won’t be too far wrong. Judge for yourself at the end of the month, when it is Radio 4’s Book of the Week.

Book review: News of the Dead, by James Robertson - The Scotsman

Jasami Publishing takes talented new writers on the journey to becoming published authors. By publishing a myriad of genres Jasami offers a stellar variety from contemporary writers; From Scotland these include a crime writer, poet, photographer, and c … News of the Dead is a captivating exploration of refuge, retreat and the reception of strangers. It measures the space between the stories people tell of themselves - what they forget and what they invent - and the stories through which they may, or may not, be remembered.Reading Scotland is an innovative Edinburgh International Book Festival project to find new ways to understand Scotland in a post-Covid era. Six Scottish authors were each invited to work closely with a filmmaker to create a short film inspired by their book. The films will be presented at the Book Festival this month alongside a conversation with each of the authors. This project is intended as a collaborative, internationally-minded exploration of how new Scottish writing and film-making can help citizens understand this country, its writing and its identity. Reading Scotland is supported by the Scottish Government’s Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund. Not sure why that matters either but there is a real sense of place to this book. I'd describe it as a set of stories around a fictional, very remote Glen near Forfar, and it's history and legend. And it's also about history, and what that means: what we can read and trust, and what we read and have to decide if we trust or not. Ian Parsons has spent several years living permanently in Extremadura and now splits his time between his native county of Devon and his beloved vulture landscape, where he leads bird tours introducing people to the birds and the area he clearly loves.

James Robertson wins Sir Walter Scott prize - BBC Scots author James Robertson wins Sir Walter Scott prize - BBC

Speaking to Baxter by Loch Lee in the film, Robertson says, “You come to a place like this and you find that your fiction is echoing things that really did happen.”

I don't see a lot of decent Scottish fiction. I don't know if it's just not there, or I've just not noticed it. You get a few thrillers, and there's been the odd notable one (your Shuggie Bains and My Bloody Projects) but there aren't many. And this is a very Scottish book - in a good way.

News of the Dead (Short 2021) - IMDb News of the Dead (Short 2021) - IMDb

In ancient Pictland, the Christian hermit Conach contemplates God and nature, performs miracles and prepares himself for sacrifice. Long after his death, legends about him are set down by an unknown hand in the Book of Conach .This is also a book with a strong sense of place, in this case Glen Conach. Finding your place to belong is a key theme. As Maja says “everyone has a place, a real place or a memory of a place, or a dream of a place.” The use of dialect firmly rooted this book in the Scottish glens. I really enjoyed the use of dialect which appears in some parts of the book though it may pose a challenge to non-Scots. Even I had to look up some words! But don’t let that put you off, as it adds to the richness of the narrative. But the story really starts with Lachie, the eight-year-old son of the present day laid telling Maya, the oldest inhabitant of the glen, that he has seen the ghost of the “dumb girl”. This ghost is a newcomer to the glen. She is not part of Conach’s story. Her tory is important and will be woven into the tale of Glen Conach, and will become part of its history. This book looks at the ways stories are passed on through generations, how they connect the past and present, how they change and evolve with each retelling. And yet there is still that principle of truth which validates them. James Robertson weaves a compelling story with legends, beliefs and traditions from three different time periods. There was an element of mystery as I wondered what connected the three parts of the story, with Maja’s story from the contemporary strand being particularly intriguing.