The News of the Dead is a cleverly almost classicesque written piece which is thought provoking and moving. Delving into the people of our past and the stories that are passed down through generations. These stories are the way in which people are remembered for years after they leave this earth. But how much of these stories are true? And as they are passed down throughout the generations and rewritten, how much is added to it by the new narrator of its time. One day you will wake up and it will be the last day of your life. You may know this or you may not.’ It is another wonderful piece of storytelling from James Robertson, offering a penetrating exploration of the complexities of collective memory and the tenacity of tradition, all played out through a thousand years of life in a single glen. It has all the makings of a timeless classic in its own right. Professor Gary West

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In ancient Pictland, the Christian hermit Conach contemplates God and nature, performs miracles and prepares himself for sacrifice. Long after his death, legends about him are set down by an unknown hand in the Book of Conach . I liked that about the book: it's place, and it's description. And I like stories which, without being too prescriptive about it, interlink a few different things. I also like historical fiction. This book is set in one of the Angus glens and tells three different stories set in in different times, one at the time of the arrival of Christianity in Scotland, the second in the early 1800's, and the third in the present day.The first of these stories is of the Christian hermit Conach. In ancient Pictland, Conach contemplates God and nature. For a while he is accompanied by Talorg who serves him. Conach performs miracles and prepares himself for sacrifice. And after his death, legends about him are written by an anonymous person in the Book of Conach. I interview James about his bok in the first episode of The Big Scottish Book Club which you can view on BBC iPlayer or follow this link: Deep in the mountains of north-east Scotland lies Glen Conach, a place of secrets and memories, fable and history. In particular, it holds the stories of three different eras, separated by centuries yet linked by location, by an ancient manuscript and by echoes that travel across time. This is also a book with a strong sense of place, in this case Glen Conach. Finding your place to belong is a key theme. As Maja says “everyone has a place, a real place or a memory of a place, or a dream of a place.” The use of dialect firmly rooted this book in the Scottish glens. I really enjoyed the use of dialect which appears in some parts of the book though it may pose a challenge to non-Scots. Even I had to look up some words! But don’t let that put you off, as it adds to the richness of the narrative.

News of the Dead (Short 2021) - IMDb News of the Dead (Short 2021) - IMDb

A sweeping novel from critically-acclaimed author James Robertson, displaying centuries of change in the atmospheric Scottish highlands Welcome to the Siren Book Club! Whether you’re looking for your next steamy romance, an excuse to cry ugly tears or want to be whisked away to a new magical realm, we have something for you. All the characters you’ll meet along the way are strong women who know what they want. Whether it’s reclaiming […]

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Gibb keeps his head down translating the Book of Conach and shows his face at mealtimes. After a while he becomes fond of the Baron and his family – his wife Margaret, his daughter Jessie – and deceives them to extend his stay. But when Jessie rumbles him, he finds himself under her sway and faced with an offer he is unable to refuse. What a marvellous novel this is. Three different time periods mostly presented to us though the Book of Conach, the journal of Gibb, and Maja’s letter. Each have found refuge in Glen Conach, each is known to us through stories presented. And each story is incomplete. What do we really know about Conach? How much can we rely on Gibb’s incomplete journal? And, while Maja is still alive, her own early childhood is lost to her. Speaking to Baxter by Loch Lee in the film, Robertson says, “You come to a place like this and you find that your fiction is echoing things that really did happen.” Robertson is telling us many things as he weaves his tale round the various inhabitants of the glen over the last thousand or so years. He is telling us that the oral tradition is important. Of course, some details have been forgotten, some details embellished and some invented. The mythology of our past forms us as much as the actual events. We were not witnesses of the actual events. We have to rely on documents which may or may not be accurate. Oral accounts can be lost, unless they are recorded at which point, they become a document. This book looks at the ways stories are passed on through generations, how they connect the past and present, how they change and evolve with each retelling. And yet there is still that principle of truth which validates them. James Robertson weaves a compelling story with legends, beliefs and traditions from three different time periods. There was an element of mystery as I wondered what connected the three parts of the story, with Maja’s story from the contemporary strand being particularly intriguing.

James Robertson Something happened here: the fiction of James Robertson

News of the Dead is a captivating exploration of refuge, retreat and the reception of strangers. It measures the space between the stories people tell of themselves - what they forget and what they invent - and the stories through which they may, or may not, be remembered. Details of that stay are filtered to us through Gibb’s warts-and-all journal. Two other main narrative threads are woven around it. One is Gibb’s translation of the Book of Conach. Originally written in Latin about 800 years ago, the book chronicles the life of the “blessed and venerable” Conach, who performed miracles for his fellow Picts in “the north country” before devoting himself completely to God by becoming a hermit. Interestingly the book had me thinking about faith also and how it is important especially when faced with the prospect of death or loss. How someone dies two deaths; one when their soul leaves this earth and one when their name is said for the last time. The only way to preserve someone’s legacy is to write it down. To pass on long after even you have left this earth. To ensure you leave your mark in this world. Isobel McDonald is Curator of Social History at Glasgow Museums. Having originally studied archaeology at Edinburgh University, she had expected to go into fieldwork, however a chance conversation with a friend about job opportunities at the British Mu … The stories are of a modern day old lady, and how she got there; a three hundred year old diary of a traveller to the glen, and a historical tract about a saint from the Pictish times which said traveller is translating.Jasami Publishing takes talented new writers on the journey to becoming published authors. By publishing a myriad of genres Jasami offers a stellar variety from contemporary writers; From Scotland these include a crime writer, poet, photographer, and c … The challenge for the reader is all the more invigorating when characters are uncertain as to what is real and what isn’t. As Maja says of her life-story: “It comes to this in the end – a mixture of memories and imaginings and I’m not sure which is which.” What is clear to us, though, is that her creator has written a wise and hugely satisfying novel about stories, sanctuary and, to quote the Baron, the “strange, heeliegoleerie world we bide in”. Not sure why that matters either but there is a real sense of place to this book. I'd describe it as a set of stories around a fictional, very remote Glen near Forfar, and it's history and legend. And it's also about history, and what that means: what we can read and trust, and what we read and have to decide if we trust or not. We ask experts to recommend the five best books in their subject and explain their selection in an interview.

News of the Dead - Five Books Expert Reviews News of the Dead - Five Books Expert Reviews

Reading Scotland is an innovative Edinburgh International Book Festival project to find new ways to understand Scotland in a post-Covid era. Six Scottish authors were each invited to work closely with a filmmaker to create a short film inspired by their book. The films will be presented at the Book Festival this month alongside a conversation with each of the authors. This project is intended as a collaborative, internationally-minded exploration of how new Scottish writing and film-making can help citizens understand this country, its writing and its identity. Reading Scotland is supported by the Scottish Government’s Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund. In the early nineteenth century, self-promoting antiquarian Charles Kirkliston Gibb has himself invited to Glen Conach, to the big house where the laird, his lady and daughter live. Gibb undertakes to translate the Book of Conach. It is in Gibb’s interest to prolong the translation for as long as possible: he has nowhere else to stay. And in time he becomes involved with Jessamine, the laird’s daughter. Jessamine convinces Gibb to include some stories from the local oral tradition. Most novels I’ve read don’t dig quite as deeply into the past as this, and the few that do don’t in … Catholicism hasn’t, however, been completely banished: people like Will’s mother still attend clandestine masses. Mary, Queen of Scots has stayed loyal to the Old Religion and although she has abdicated the Scottish throne, stands a chance of taking over the English one. Meanwhile, Esme Stuart, James VI’s mentor, makes no bones about being a Catholic, and may even be plotting a Counter-Reformation. Scotland looks like being Protestant, but what kind of Protestant: Puritan or humanist? And could it not just as easily be Catholic, English (like the 1574 troops pulling the cannon to lay siege to the Castle) French (like the Queen) or (a bit of a push, this) British?News of the Dead is certainly far from dull and the author manages to pull off several different styles, including passages in Scots dialect for the stories told by the irrepressible and accommodating Geordie Kemp, who never likes to disappoint a listener. I’ve been thinking about it for about five years, so it’s taken a while for it to come together. I wanted to write a novel that was set in one place, but that took place over a huge amount of time. So I invented this glen, Glen Conach, which is, in my head, not far from where I live. There are three stories going on: the story of Conach himself, an 8th-century Christian missionary to the Picts who becomes a hermit in the glen; then a story set in the early 1800s, where Charles Gibb comes to the big house in the glen to look at this manuscript about the life of Conach; and finally a modern story narrated by a woman called Maya, one of the oldest residents of the glen in the year 2020. In the present day, young Lachie whispers to Maja of a ghost he thinks he has seen. Reflecting on her long life, Maja believes him, for she is haunted by ghosts of her own.