Five Without Honour: Justified Sinners

by Chris Kelso, Christopher Young, Graham Rae

"Five writers who have traversed the Scottish landscape in relative anonymity finally approach the swire at the head of the dell, their works collected here for all to see. Prepare to be struck motionless." — Chris Kelso, author of The Black Dog Eats the City

“Scotland is a country full of stories and I couldn’t live anywhere else. We tell stories every day on buses, trains, and cars. Stories come before and after the New Year bells. They bring different communities closer together. Even the walk we take for a pint of milk or a packet of cigarettes has a story to be told. It’s part of our culture, something deeper than DNA. I’ve been to funerals where stories have left the mourners in tears and laughter, as we talk our way out of grief into joy. Each word that makes up every sentence of all the paragraphs in this book is pure Scotland, full of myths of modern living. No story is the same as the other, each tale a trip taking you to all the different places our country has to offer, new worlds close to home. These stories will burn themselves into your brain. I hope you enjoy the feeling.” — Kirkland Ciccone, author of Happiness is Wasted on Me

117 pages, Paperback

Published February 21, 2023

About the author

Chris Kelso is an award-winning genre writer, editor, illustrator, and musician from Scotland. His work has been published widely across the UK, US and Canada.

Reviews

[Thomas Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

From Christopher Young's unflinching and often poignant "The Successful Passing of a Frog" with its beautiful language and emotional depth, to Andrew Coulthard's "Three Thousand Words" told from the point of view of a troubled protagonist experiencing the world as it is presented and a possible reality beneath, this book is full of gems. Young's poetic prose continues in the brief insight into tiredness which is "Knackert" while Callum McSorley delivers a creepy yet creepily relatable tale with "Ye Tak the Ghost Road", where a young parent struggles with tiredness brought on by a newborn refusing to sleep, and what they may be willing to do for some peace and quiet when the universe offers a possible solution in the form of a group of cloaked crones. It was a fantastic read in such a short form. Overall the book is a great introduction to some great writers.

[Matthew Kinlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

From Christopher Young’s ill-starred genealogy to R.G. Robertson’s unsettling descent into neurological disruption, Five Without Honour: Justified Sinners offers five myths of modern Scotland: eerie, mercurial, often darkly funny. Graham Rae vividly portrays a frustrated Scottish care worker as he navigates his role in Chicago, whilst Callum McSorley recants his fireside tale of a new and exhausted parent sleepwalking into a ghostly encounter, culminating in Andrew Coulthard’s poetic, inter-dimensional epilogue Three Thousand Words. The anthology presents the future of new Scottish literature as a fork in the road: expansive and generative. As McSorley’s wanderer describes: “Ye cross the threshold.”