Scotland's Stories of Home

by Alan Warner, Uuganaa Ramsay, Margaret Boyce

A pot of soup. The kitchen sink. A duvet cover. 'The Talk' from your dad. A kiss from your love. Help from a neighbour. 1970s brown and orange wallpaper. An air-raid shelter in 1941. A country remembered from far away. Home means different things for the people of Scotland, but these stories remind us of the things that form the foundations of our homes - our families, our friends and our memories.

Including stories from well-loved writers Alan Warner, Beatrice Colin, Vic Galloway and Kirsty Logan, this collection shows us what makes a place into a home.

Genres: Short Stories

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Note: There is more than one Alan Warner, this is the page for the award-winning Scottish novelist. For books by other people bearing the same name see Alan Warner

Alan Warner (born 1964) is the author of six novels: the acclaimed Morvern Callar (1995), winner of a Somerset Maugham Award; These Demented Lands (1997), winner of the Encore Award; The Sopranos (1998), winner of the Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award; The Man Who Walks (2002), an imaginative and surreal black comedy; The Worms Can Carry Me to Heaven (2006), and The Stars in the Bright Sky (2010), a sequel to The Sopranos. Morvern Callar has been adapted as a film, and The Sopranos is to follow shortly. His short story 'After the Vision' was included in the anthology Children of Albion Rovers (1997) and 'Bitter Salvage' was included in Disco Biscuits (1997). In 2003 he was nominated by Granta magazine as one of twenty 'Best of Young British Novelists'. In 2010, his novel The Stars in the Bright Sky was included in the longlist for the Man Booker Prize.

Alan Warner's novels are mostly set in "The Port", a place bearing some resemblance to Oban. He is known to appreciate 1970s Krautrock band Can; two of his books feature dedications to former band members (Morvern Callar to Holger Czukay and The Man Who Walks to Michael Karoli). Alan Warner currently splits his time between Dublin and Javea, Spain.

Reviews

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great short stories. I found some of them really lovely.
I really enjoyed reading this little book :-)

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very sweet and nostalgic collection of stories focused on scotland and the idea of home, and the diversity of its residents. Reminds me why this country is so beautiful.

[James Kemp · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good collection of wee stories and poems. Most of the content only uses a couple of pages in print, so there is a lot of content crammed in from a variety of sources. Some of it is from established writers but most seems to be from ordinary people sharing their memories of what home means to them, whether now or when they were growing up in Scotland. There's a high level of social history from the mid to late 20th century baked in here. Primary sources rather than analysis bit worth reading nevertheless.

It's well put together and an easy read, although there are a few thought provoking bits. For example, how many people really died during the Clydebank Blitz?

[Shahrun · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anthologies like this are an important part of our social history. Each piece of writing was a wonderful surprise to me and covered such a diverse range of subjects! In this small book, so much life has been captured. It amazes me how much can be said with the right combination of just a few words. I would definitely love to read more from quite a few of the authors.

[ChroniclesofTania · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some great short stories. I liked the pot of soup reminding of home, the horrid rainy day out leading to meeting her future husband and Oor Street which I enjoyed reading aloud to sound like a Scot! I never spoke Scottish before. With the help of phonetic stories, I sounded Scottish! Hilarious! It's good to try out with friends.

[Grim-Anal King · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seem to go downhill as I read through it, becomingly increasingly mawkish. Perhaps the early stuff benefited from being read at five in the morning in a cold tent high in the Argyll mountains.

[Julie Thomason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of these were lovely, others even a few pages were a bit of a slog but I enjoyed most of them.

[Kori Lumsden · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars