A lot of my Scottish reading this year was prompted by the list of 100 best Scottish Books I discovered in February. Those marked below with an asterisk are in that 100 best list. (In the case of Andrew Greig’s Electric Brae I read it before I was aware of the list and for Robert Louis Stevenson his novella was in the book of his shorter fiction that I read.)

Electric Brae by Andrew Greig*
A Sparrow’s Flight by Margaret Elphinstone
The Guinea Stamp by Annie S Swan
The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark
The White Bird Passes by Jessie Kesson*
Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks by Christopher Brookmyre
Buddha Da by Anne Donovan*
Flemington by Violet Jacob*
Tales From Angus by Violet Jacob
Annals of the Parish by John Galt
The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber
Change and Decay in All Around I See by Allan Massie
The Hangman’s Song by James Oswald
Wish I Was Here by Jackie Kay
The Hope That Kills Us Edited by Adrian Searle
Other stories and other stories by Ali Smith
Young Adam by Alexander Trocchi*
The Gowk Storm by Nancy Brysson Morrison*
No Mean City by H McArthur and H Kingsley Long*
Shorter Scottish Fiction by Robert Louis Stevenson*
The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by Tobias Smollett*
Girl Meets Boy by Ali Smith
Fair Helen by Andrew Greig
The Dear, Green Place by Archie Hind*
Fur Sadie by Archie Hind
Greenvoe by George Mackay Brown*
Stepping Out by Cynthia Rogerson
Open the Door! by Catherine Carswell*
The Silver Darlings by Neil M Gunn*
Scotia Nova edited by Alistair Findlay and Tessa Ransford
After the Dance: selected short stories of Iain Crichton Smith
John Macnab by John Buchan
Another Time, Another Place by Jessie Kesson
Consider the Lilies by Iain Crichton Smith*
The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan*
Poems Iain Banks Ken MacLeod
Mistaken by Annie S Swan
Me and Ma Gal by Des Dillon*
Tea with the Taliban: poems by Owen Gallagher
A Choosing by Liz Lochhead
The Cone Gatherers by Robin Jenkins*
Born Free by Laura Hird*
the first person and other stories by Ali Smith

That makes 42 books in all (plus 2 if the Violet Jacob and Archie Hind count double.) None were non-fiction, 3 were poetry, 2 SF/Fantasy, 19 + (4x½ + 3 doublers) by men, 13 + (3 doublers and 1 triple) by women, 2 had various authors/contributors.

Luath Press, 2004, 128 p. One of the 100 best Scottish books. Borrowed from a threatened library.

This story of a day in the life of two boys aged eight and nine, told informally in normal text, italics and with CAPITALS for shouting and emphasis is narrated by (as he puts it) Derruck Daniel Riley and features his friendship and adventures with Steven – withaVnotaPH – Gallacher, the Gal of the title.

Dillon occupies the mind of his narrator brilliantly. I especially enjoyed Daniel’s denunciations of being told off for playing near the burn, physically chastised and verbally berated I TOLD YOU THAT WOULD HAPPEN despite such warnings never having been issued. And when Gal asks Daniel his oldest memory his question degenerates very quickly into Can you ever member sookin yer Maws diddies?

That Dillon manages to encapsulate many aspects of working class (Catholic) Scottish life while using the voice of a child and also incorporates more than a hint of existential danger with the looming presence of serial Killer Strangler Joe is a testament to his skill. Yet the focus of the child’s viewpoint never wavers. Impressive stuff, if a little on the short side.

Pedant’s corner:- The writing is in a West of Scotland dialect with the accompanying spellings (abyuse for example,) but there are some inconsistencies. Span is frequent but spun also appears. I also noted though (thought,) that we we’re movin ahead (that we’re movin,) and “You could see the wall were the nest was from where we were” (that first “were” should be “where”.)