Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Trainspotting
(1996): Based on one of the most popular contemporary topics by
Scottish author Irvine Welsh,
Trainspotting
is a gritty and often hilarious account of
a group of unrepentant drug-addled characters in Edinburgh in the late 1980s.
Whisky Galore!
(1949): Retitled
Tight Little Island
in the U.S., this classic
movie is based on a true story. The residents of a small Scottish isle get an intoxicat-
ing windfall when a ship carrying 50,000 cases of whisky crashes off their coast
during World War II.
The Wicker Man
(1973): A cult classic of cinema about a strange New Age
community on a picturesque Scottish island—and the secrets they keep from a
mainland constable.
BOOKS
There are too many topics about Scotland to mention, so this is a concise
list to get interested visitors going.
Black & Blue
—
An Inspector Rebus Novel
(Orion, 1997) by Ian Rankin is one
of many in the best-selling modern crime mystery series by this prolific author. Lots
of fans visit sites in Edinburgh, such as the Oxford Bar, frequented by the fictitious
Rebus and the real Rankin.
The Heart of Midlothian
by Sir Walter Scott (Penguin Classics) was declared
a masterpiece in 1818 and remains Scott's seminal piece of fiction, influencing the
later works of authors such as Balzac, Hawthorne, and Dickens.
Kidnapped
by Robert Louis Stevenson (Penguin Classics) follows the adven-
tures of young David Balfour after he's spirited out of Edinburgh and ends up on the
wrong side of the law in the Western Highlands. The story is as entertaining today
as it was upon publication in 1886.
Lanark: A Life in Four Books
by Alasdair Gray (Pub Group West, 2003) is
perhaps the most important contemporary novel to be published in Scotland in the
last 100 years. Gray is an eccentric of the first order, but this work of fiction (first
published in 1981 and illustrated by the author), despite some fantastical detours,
gets to the core of urban Scotland.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
by Muriel Spark (Perennial Classics, 1999) and
Trainspotting
by Irvine Welsh (W. W. Norton & Company, 1996) are both better
known for their cinematic adaptations, but in their own very different ways, both
novels manage to capture elements of Edinburgh life.
HISTORY
Scotland: A New History
by Michael Lynch (Pimlico, 1992) is a
good take on Scottish history from ancient times up to the 1990s.
The Scottish Enlightenment: The Scot's Invention of the Modern World
by American historian Arthur Herman (Crown, 2001) offers a clear and extremely
readable explanation of the impact that Scottish thinkers had on the world.
The Scottish Nation: 1700-2000
by academic Tom Devine (Penguin, 2001)
is a good, fairly recently published historical overview of Scotland. Devine is one of
the few historians to examine how people were driven from the Scottish Lowlands,
as well as more famous and lamentable clearances from the Highlands.
Stone Voices: The Search for Scotland
by Neal Ascherson (Hill & Wang,
2003) is a quest for the national character of Scotland. In a series of anecdotes and
reflections, journalist Ascherson helps readers understand the worthy sentiments
behind Scottish independence and begins to redress the imbalance of Scottish his-
tories so often written by the English.
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