Making Memories

The new year is often a time for reflection and planning. And if you're after reading recommendations for 2020, you've come to the right place. This month BooksfromScotland looks at new books and new talent in fiction, poetry, memoir and childrens' books, and there is a lot to get excited about. So, get cosy, settle down and discover some new books to while away the rest of the winter. It's the perfect way to look forward to the new year.

Who We’re Watching in 2020

Your future favourites . . .

There are so many books to look forward to in the coming year, so we thought we’d pick 10 authors on their first or second books to watch out for. They’re future superstars!

Martin MacInnes

We’re very much looking forward to Martin MacInnes’s second novel, Gathering Evidence, after the success of his debut, Infinite Ground. He’s a writer who defies description, and likes to push boundaries in genre and form, while exploring ideas of technology, the environment and the world(s) we live in. In Gathering Evidence, ...

David Robinson Reviews: Pine

David Robinson speaks to Francine Toon about the inspiration and setting behind her first novel, Pine.

Pine By Francine Toon Published by Doubleday

If they ever make a film of Pine, Francine Toon’s debut novel, it will probably begin much the same way as her book. The opening shot will establish the setting: a village in a wooded Sutherland valley, with adults shepherding oddly dressed children from door to door. It’s Hallowe’en. Of course it is. When else would you want to set a Gothic novel?

We don’t need to notice too much about the villagers, but we’ll let the camera pan on their faces just long enough for us to recognise them in later scenes: a ceilidh, perhaps, or the hunt for a missing teenager. Most of the time, though, the film will focus on a ten-year-old girl called Lauren and try to work out what she makes of the world. Take, for example, th...

The Highest Apple

‘I found the body and I found the ants and I found the true face of my community and my culture as it is today. And I’m not going to accept it.’

The Book According to…Mark Douglas-Home

‘“Have you,” he said after consideration, as if proposing a soloution “ever had a crazy, stupid dream that, one day, someone will take you from here, will ask you to run away?”’

Jane Eyre: A Retelling

‘I adored Jane’s righteous fury, her wild passion, her sense of injustice: I absolutely identified with her.’

The Boxing Diaries

‘Something must change, I think, as the bell rings and rings and the fourth round starts. For the first time ever, I actually start to engage my boxing brain.’

When the Dead Come Calling

‘My hiding place is not a cave. It is a shrine.’

Our Fathers

‘Tom knew that he had not enjoyed that afternoon, or that morning, whichever it was, playing with Angus. He had thought of his mother the whole time, of how angry she must be, and worse, how hurt. Get …

Hotel du Jack

‘After I gave birth to the twins, you surprised me with a feast of things I’d had to give up while pregnant: bubbly, Brie and prawns.’

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