Sweet Inspiration

2022 is the Year of Stories, a year dedicated to Scotland's stories through the themes of Iconic Stories and Storytellers, New Stories, Scotland's People and Places, Local Tales and Legends and Inspired by Nature. In this month's issue of BooksfromScotland, Sweet Inspiration, we highlight books - both fiction and non-fiction, and for adults and children - that celebrate those moments in life - love, friendship, health, art, beauty - that inspire everlasting memories.

The Book… According to Ali Smith

‘A story is never an answer, a story is always a question,’ according to Companion Piece. Following on from her Seasonable quarter of novels, Ali Smith is back with a brilliant new novel that asks some big questions of living through extraordinary times. To mark publication of her new book, Ali shared some of her definitive reads with BooksfromScotland below.

Companion Piece By Ali Smith Published by Hamish Hamilton

The book as . . . memory. What is your first memory of books and reading?

When I was very small, 3, maybe 4 years old, we were on holiday somewhere and we visited a model village in a place called Bourton on the Water.  You walked about in what resembled a real village, trees and bridges and buildings and streets, but you were a giant, even if you were 3 or 4 years old.  They sold books there in a little kiosk shop about a place visited by a giant called Gulliver, and they sold it in two forms, one for children and one for adults.  I could already read, had older siblings and aspired to them.  I demanded the one for adults. The lady in the kiosk laughed. ‘...

The Arena of the Unwell

The Arena of the Unwell follows twenty-something Noah as he meanders through the London music scene, bouncing between his record store job and NHS allocated therapy sessions. As his favourite band Smiling Politely return after years away, he finds himself swept up with the joy, as well as with the wrong people. You can read the opening to his debut novel below.

Extract taken from The Arena of the Unwell By Liam Konemann Published by 404 Ink

Am I paranoid, or are they really after me? I feel like we’re being hunted in here. This song has the staticky hum of violence at its edges.

Mairead and I are held together by the centrifugal force of the crowd. People swirl around us, long-haired boys and short-haired girls, in vintage t-shirts and high-waisted jeans, all bouncing off each other in time to the beat.

Me and Mairead bounce off each other too, only slightly less ...

Nasim Asl Reviews: Young Mungo

‘Despite the hardships and horror, the fear and danger present in the novel, Stuart has captured what it is to love, in all its complex glory – and more importantly, what it is to hope.’

Homelands: The History of a Friendship

‘It was 1930, the year of the election in which the Nazis, having polled just 2.6 per cent of the vote two years earlier, gained more than six million votes and became the second-largest political par …

Creative Response: Chitra Ramaswamy on Mama

‘I don’t want to be taught how to be a mother. I want to be told what it means, and how it feels’

The Trials of Mary Johnsdaughter

‘A hairst sun was dipping in the west, casting a final evening glow through the schoolhouse at Happyhansel, high on the slope above the Loch o Kurkigart’

Q&A: One Body: A Retrospective by Catherine Simpson

‘In speaking candidly about our bodies, we feel less alone and isolated. It enables us to ask for help when necessary and not be stifled by shame’

Wayward

‘I borrowed some money and booked an hour in a studio where I recorded twelve songs straight, one after another, just voice and guitar’

Q&A: Jim Byers and Jonathan Trew on Edinburgh’s Greatest Hits

‘I think one of Edinburgh’s strengths is its creativity and eclectic spirit.’

David Robinson Reviews: Alternatives to Valium

‘The same school that told him he shouldn’t even sing in a chorus gave the careers advice that he was too intelligent to be a journalist and he should set his sights on becoming an engineer. Fortunate …

Article: Tim Barrow on A War of Two Halves and Sweet F. A.

‘When theatre and football combine, the results are extraordinary’

The Corncrake

‘The fact that the Corncrake is such an unobtrusive, retiring species is both its attraction and its potential undoing’

Article: Andrew Douglas-Home on Fishing

‘Fishing is an escape, a blessed antidote and retreat into another world where all you can think about is what you are engaged in’

Article: Anne Brusatte on Dugie the Dinosaur

‘It’s very exciting to bring real scientific facts to inspire a sweet children’s story’

Cast Long Shadows

‘Bears are our omens, the symbol of my mother’s family and the guardians of women. Thousands of years ago some girl wore this as an amulet’

Life’s Stink & Honey

‘Thi sma snaw o the lambs is later than iver this year, / thi Mey’s near oot, daffies are droonin in rattlestanes’

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