THE BEST OF SCOTTISH BOOKS

Callum McSorley is a writer based in Glasgow whose short stories have appeared in Gutter Magazine, Monstrous Regiment and New Writing Scotland. Squeaky Clean was his debut novel, inspired by his years working at a car wash in Glasgow’s East End. With it, Callum won the prestigious McIlvanney Prize for best Scottish crime novel of the year. Paperboy is the second book in his Ally McCoist thriller series.

Karen Campbell is the author of nine novels. A former police officer, then Glasgow City Council press officer, she won the Best New Scottish Writer Award in 2009. She also teaches creative writing and has worked with young offenders, homeless people, refugees and asylum seekers, and was recently Writer in Residence at Dumfries and Galloway Council. She lives in Galloway.

Carrie Marshall is a writer, musician and parent from Glasgow. Her latest book, Small Town Joy: How LGBTQ+ Music Changed the Sound of Scotland, was published in the spring of 2025. Her memoir about coming out as a trans woman, Carrie Kills A Man, was published in 2022 and was picked as a Scotsman book of the year and Damian Barr’s book of the week; it was also shortlisted in the 2023 British Book Awards. She has contributed to two anthologies of LGBTQ+ writing – Twenty-Eight: Stories from the Section 28 Generation (2023) and Fierce Salvage: A Queer Words Anthology (2025) – and has written, co-written or ghost-written over 20 books about technology and music.

Carrie has appeared at festivals including the Edinburgh Book Festival, the Boswell Book Festival, the Paisley Book Festival and the Wigtown Book Festival, and also appears often on radio and podcasts.

David F. Ross was born in Glasgow in 1964 and lived in various part of the city until the late 70’s, before moving to Kilmarnock where he now lives with his wife and their two children. He studied architecture at Glasgow School of Art, and in 1992 graduated from the Mackintosh School of Architecture. He is now the Design Director of one of Scotland’s largest, oldest and most successful practices, Keppie Design.

His debut novel The Last Days Of Disco was shortlisted for the Authors Club Best First Novel Award, and optioned for the stage by the Scottish National Theatre. All five of his novels have achieved notable critical acclaim and There’s Only One Danny Garvey, published in 2021 by Orenda Books, was shortlisted for the prestigious Saltire Society Prize for Scottish Fiction Book of the Year.

Richard Strachan is a former bookseller, who lives in Edinburgh with his family. His short fiction has been published in various magazines including The Dark and Interzone, and by Galley Beggar Press in their digital singles list.

Julian Evans grew up on Australia’s east coast and in the south London suburbs in the 1960s. In 1990 he left his job in London to island-hop across the Pacific Ocean by ship, small plane and boat, a journey that ended five months later at a US nuclear-missile test range at Kwajalein atoll. The book that resulted, Transit of Venus, has been described as “far and away the best book about the Pacific of our times”. He has been reporting as a journalist on Ukraine for 27 years. He is the author of Semi-Invisible Man: the Life of Norman Lewis (Jonathan Cape, Picador). He has also written and presented radio and television documentaries and writes for English and French newspapers and magazines including The Guardian, Prospect, Times Literary Supplemen and L’Atelier du Roman. He translates from French and German and is a recipient of the Prix du Rayonnement de la Langue Française from the Académie Française. He is also a Royal Literary Fund Consultant Fellow. He lives in Bristol and London with his two children.

Iain Maclachlain is an award-winning first-time novelist from Morayshire. He believes passionately in writing in his local North-east Scots. From a working-class background, Iain was shortlisted for the Penguin/ Random House WriteNow programme in 2020.

Fi Buchanan is a food writer and chef who owned Glasgow’s legendary Heart Buchanan café and deli. Winner of a Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland award, she presented the BBC series TeenCanteen, has worked behind the scenes on many tv food shows and has given a TedX talk on courage. She lives in Glasgow. Fi has foraged, cheffed, designed, styled, and thrived on food professionally for the last thirty years.

Barbara Henderson has lived in Scotland since 1991 and has an MA in English Language and Literature. She has previously worked as a relief librarian, receptionist and even a puppeteer. Her historical and eco-fiction for children is widely studied in schools.

Her children’s novels include: Fir for Luck  (2016), Punch (2017), Wilderness Wars (2018), Black Water (2019), The Siege of Caerlaverock (2020), The Chessmen Thief (2021), The Reluctant Rebel (2022), Rivet Boy (2023), The Boy, the Witch and the Queen of Scots (2024) and I Don’t Do Mountains (2025). In addition, she has written two non-fiction books for adults called Scottish by Inclination (2021) and Made from Girders (2023).

Barbara currently lives in Inverness and works as a drama teacher in the beautiful Highlands of Scotland.

Heather Parry is a Glasgow-based writer and editor. Her debut novel, Orpheus Builds a Girl, was shortlisted for the Saltire Society Fiction Book of the Year Award and longlisted for the Polari First Book Prize. She is also the author of a short story collection, This Is My Body, Given For You, and a nonfiction book, Electric Dreams: Sex Robots and Failed Promises of Capitalism as part of 404 Ink’s Inklings series.

Neil Broadfoot worked as a journalist for 15 years, covering some of the biggest stories of the day.

Falling Fast – which was shortlisted for the Dundee International Book Prize and the Bloody Scotland book of the year – is the first in the Edinburgh-set McGregor and Drummond thrillers.

His Stirling-set series, which begins with No Man’s Land and features close protection expert Connor Fraser, has been hailed as “atmospheric, twisty and explosive” with a “complex cast of characters and a compelling hero”. No Man’s Land was also longlisted for the McIlvanney Award.

Alice Feeney is a New York Times million-copy bestselling author of novels including His & Hers, Sometimes I Lie, Rock Paper Scissors and Daisy Darker. Her books have been translated into over thirty-five languages, and have been optioned for major screen adaptations, with His & Hers in production for Netflix, produced by Jessica Chastain, and starring Tessa Thompson and Jon Bernthal.

Alice was a BBC journalist for fifteen years. Her seventh novel, Beautiful Ugly, will be published around the world in January 2025.

Julia is a mother, writer and teacher. She has been longlisted for The Mslexia Novel Prize, The Exeter Novel Prize, Penguin WriteNow and the Bath Novel Award. In 2021 she won the Blue Pencil First Novel Award. Having grown up in a house without television, Julia read anything she could lay her hands on from an early age and as an English teacher, has tried to pass on her love of stories to the next generation of readers and writers. Since becoming a wheelchair user, Julia appreciates even more the journeys the written word can take us on. She lives in Herefordshire with her partner and dog and between them, they have raised five wonderful children. The Fisherman’s Gift is her debut novel.

Gabrielle Griffiths grew up in Aberdeenshire and now lives in Brighton. She was a Madeleine Milburn Agency mentee in 2021 and is a graduate of the Curtis Brown Creative novel writing course. Her short fiction has been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize.

Anna Groundwater is currently the Principal Curator for Renaissance and Early Modern History at the National Museum of Scotland. She previously lectured in early modern Scottish and British History at the University of Edinburgh. She’s the author of works on Scottish & British history, the Scottish Borders, Ben Jonson’s Walk to Scotland in 1618, & Mary Queen of Scots. She appears on national radio & TV (often about Mary Queen of Scots), acts as an historical consultant to TV programmes including the BBC’s Scotland’s Clans, and has reviewed for multiple publications including the English Historical Review, the Innes Review, and the Journal of British Studies.

Allan Gaw studied medicine at Glasgow University and trained as a pathologist. Having worked in the NHS and universities in the UK and the US, he took early retirement and now devotes his time to writing. His published non-fiction works include medical textbooks and magazine articles on topics as diverse as the thalidomide story, the medical challenges of space travel and the medico-legal consequences of the Hillsborough disaster.

The Silent House of Sleep is his debut novel and is the first in the Dr Jack Cuthbert series.

Dan Richards’ first book, Holloway, co-authored with Robert Macfarlane & illustrated by Stanley Donwood, was published by Faber in 2013.

The Beechwood Airship Interviews (HarperCollins, 2015) explored the creative process, head-spaces and workplaces of some of Britain’s most celebrated artists, craftsman and technicians including Bill Drummond, Dame Judi Dench, Jenny Saville, Manic Street Preachers, Jane Bown & Stewart Lee.

Climbing Days (Faber 2016) saw Dan set out on the trail of his pioneering great-great-aunt and uncle, Dorothy Pilley & I.A. Richards. Following in the pair’s foot and hand-holds, he travelled across Europe, using Dorothy’s 1935 mountaineering memoir as a guide. Ending up atop the mighty Dent Blanche in the high Alps of Valais.

Outpost: A Journey to the Wild Ends of the Earth (Canongate, 2019) is an exploration of the appeal and pull of far-flung shelters in mountains, tundra, forests, oceans and deserts; landscapes and which have long inspired adventurers, pilgrims, writers, and artists.

Overnight: Journeys, Conversations and Stories After Dark, a book celebrating the dark hours and exploring the nocturnal operations which sustain, repair and protect the world whilst most of us are asleep, is set to be published by Canongate in March 2025.

Only After Dark, a BBC Radio 4 series with a similar focus to Overnight, was broadcast to acclaim in December 2022.

Dan has written about travel, landscape, and art for various newspapers and magazines including The Guardian, Economist, Esquire, and Monocle.

Chris McQueer is a Scottish writer and spoken art performer. With extensive use of the Scots language, his writings are dark comedy and surreal humour. He is best known for his two published collections of short stories Hings and HWFG. He released his debut novel Hermit in 2025.

Fidan Meikle is an Azerbaijani-British writer, linguist and translator. She writes poetry and prose for children and adults. When she isn’t writing, Fidan can be found teaching languages, indulging her love of Azerbaijani cuisine, or exploring the Scottish Highlands with her husband and children. Her debut middle-grade novel, My Name is Samim, is inspired by the true stories of young refugees who undertake courageous journeys in the hope of finding a safe home. She lives in West Lothian, Scotland.