Scottish Short Stories 1979 - Hardcover

This, the seventh collection of new stories by writers born or living in Scotland to be published by Collins in conjunction with the Scottish Arts Council, offers an enormous variety of scope and style. It ranges from thriller to domestic comedy, from political allegory to romance. The settings include a Soho strip club and a suburban semi, and IRA hideout and a haunted seaside guest house. Among the characters are a disturbed schoolboy and his 'imaginary friend from Mars, a pantomime dwarf, a nineteenth-century Scottish gillie and an assistant head waiter who goes in for disguise. But whatever the themes of the individual authors, the collection as a whole demonstrates the continuing vigour of short story writing in Scotland. As in previous volumes, some of the contributors are established writers, and others have never had work published before; but each of their stories, the selectors believe, is in some way outstanding. Together they make this a worthy sequel to the six highly-acclaimed volumes that have gone before. Contents : Preface by Valerie Gillies | Arthur Young - THE LADIES OF GENTLE MIEN | Alasdair Gray - THE ORIGIN OF THE AXLETREE | James Kerman - THE HITCH-HIKER | Scoular Anderson - A DAY BY THE SEA | Duncan McAra - THE LAST DAYS OF DANDY COLDSTREAM | Jeremy Bruce-Watt - THE NATURE TRAIL | Robert A. Crampsey - BATTY AND THE COATBRIDGE GYPSY | Richard Fletcher - IN VODKA VERITAS | Brian McCabe - FEATHERED CHORISTERS | Una Flett - THE BIG TREE | Lorn Macintyre - ROCKFALL | Iain Crichton Smith - THE VISIT | George Mackay Brown - THE LODGING-HOUSE KEEPER | Stanley Roger Green - MR BRAMWELL'S DAY | Deirdre Chapman - INDIAN TEA