But he’ll never be fully recognised, because Scots literature these days is all about complaining and moaning and being injured in one’s soul.

A memory, long buried, sprang up of her father warning her never to cross the stream and go into the forest.”The Dragonwood,” she mumbled.How could she have forgotten the Dragonwood?Her father had explained that it...

In prehistoric times, early man was bowled over by natural events: rain, thunder, lightning, the violent shaking and moving of the ground, mountains spewing deathly hot lava, the glow of the moon, the burning heat...

It washed all over me and through me, into the floor and then it was gone. I never cried for my Da again after that, and God’s presence has been with me ever since.” –...

Another lesson to file away about Scotland: insulting other people in a childish manner was the national pastime.

Darnley, who, like Banquo’s ghost, seemed to play a much more effective part in Scottish politics once he was dead than when he was alive.

She drank in the sight of him, the power, the virility, the sheer sexiness. She knew just how well those lips of his kissed, how gentle and coaxing his hands could be, and how mouth-watering...

One of Scotland’s most important cultural exports – stories.

People didn’t really like McDonald’s, same as her mum didn’t really like Catholicism, but when you were new in town, at least it was a known quantity. So that’ll be a Quarter-Pounder and a Communion...

Though the continued march of intellect and education have nearly obliterated from the mind of the Scots a belief in the marvelous, still a love of the supernatural lingers among the more mountainous districts of...

Americans may say they love our accents (I have been accused of sounding ‘like Princess Di’) but the more thoughtful ones resent and rather dislike us as a nation and people, as friends of mine...

I stood still, vision blurring, and in that moment, I heard my heart break. It was a small, clean sound, like the snapping of a flower’s stem.

It was early evening twilight when we came around a corner… and there in the road was a red deer stag. He leapt up the bank beside the road and then paused, looking back over...

Scotland can exist fully if we dream hard enough, Julie. I just can’t relate to that Scottish deep-fried-chip-on-the-shoulder. Trainspotting was wrong: it feels fucking great being Scottish. We’re becoming something, Julie. I can feel it....

Her dark eyes slid to him. “I can’t remember the last time I felt so good in clothes.”And he wanted to get her out of them.

My father could talk about the Romany way of life and its culture. He could talk about freedom and the Scottish spirit. But that was all he could talk about. I was desperate for someone...

Kenny Dalglish was the greatest to play for Liverpool and Scotland, so for someone like that to sign me was an honour.

I doubt very much we will have to worry about that after today!

We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation.

To see the years touch ye gives me joy”, he whispered, “for it means that ye live.

The Scottish sun, shocked by having its usual cloudy underpinnings stripped away, shone feverishly, embarrassed by its nakedness.

Are ye always standing like a stallion?”His low chuckle brought another wave of gooseflesh across her skin.”Only when Ye’re near.

An enemy is always an enemy, even when they’re an ally.” – Taraeth

For me, writing stories set, well, wherever they’re best set, is a form of cultural curiosity that is uniquely Scottish – we’re famous for travelling in search of adventure.

But I despised men who accepted their fate. I shaped mine twenty times and had it broken twenty times in my hands.

Brentwood stands on that fine and wealthy slope of country, one of the richest in Scotland, which lies between the Pentland Hills and the Firth. In clear weather you could see the blue gleam-like a...

Even the pious Scots, locked throughout history in a long-drawn-out battle with their arch-enemies the Scots, managed a few burnings to while away the long winter evenings.

I thought the force of my wanting must wake ye, surely. And then ye did come. . .” He stopped, looking at me with eyes gone soft and dark. “Christ, Claire, ye were so beautiful,...

No, you wouldn’t. You love my arse, darling!”, he walked backwards few feet in front of me.His big smile was enough to make me grin and roll my eyes again at him.

Her breath caught when his erection shot to rigid. “Merciful Father, Ye’re like a stallion with a mare in heat.

Laith took off his boots and set them next to a tree. “We’ve been here since the dawn of time. We’re no’ going anywhere, Rhys. We’re supposed to be protecting the humans, remember?””The humans doona...

Scotland consistently produces world-class writers.

For 3 million you could give everyone in Scotland a shovel, and we could dig a hole so deep we could hand her over to Satan in person (on Margaret Thatcher)

The village lay in the hollow, and climbed, with very prosaic houses, the other side. Village architecture does not flourish in Scotland. The blue slates and the grey stone are sworn foes to the picturesque;...

Bite me, love.

A peaceful refuge in which to rediscover each other, we thought,, not realizing that, while golf and fishing are Scotland’s most popular outdoor sports, gossip is the most popular indoor sport.

We Slovenians are even better misers than you Scottish. You know how Scotland began? One of us Slovenians was spending too much money, so we put him on a boat and he landed in Scotland.

Were ye sent by the fairy folk? Do no’ lie to me.

I doona understand them,” Ryder said as he stopped beside Laith. “Doona get me wrong. I love the feel of a woman’s thighs around me, but to be bound to a single woman for eternity?”...

An I mo chridhe, I mo ghraidh. – In Iona that is my heart’s desire, Iona that is my love.

Ah sortay jist laugh whin some cats say that racism’s an English thing and we’re aw Jock Tamson’s bairn up here . . . it’s likesay pure shite man, gadges talkin through their erses.

Doomed to Hell. Every last one of you.

You need to wear less clothing, lass.

If I ever see an alien fishing in Scotland, and witness it catching the Loch Ness Monster, I’d probably assume the world would want me to write a poem about the event, rather than take...

My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here;My heart’s in the Highlands a-chasing the deer;A-chasing the wild-deer, and following the roe,My heart’s in the Highlands wherever I go.

I do no’ think ye should lick me leg.

You keep doing that, and you’ll find yourself mated quick enough.””It’s no’ for me. I’m perfectly content just as I am.”Ryder made a face. “Are you insane? why say something like that and temp the...

I’m proud of the culture I come from – we’re a small country and a close-knit community.

In the Scotland of the early seventeenth century, an old woman living alone in Kirkcudbrightshire was accused of witchcraft and on conviction was rolled downhill in a blazing tar barrel. One of the charges against...

The drinking dens are spilling outThere’s staggering in the squareThere’s lads and lasses falling aboutAnd a crackling in the airDown around the dungeon doorsThe shelters and the queuesEverybody’s looking forSomebody’s arms to fall intoAnd it’s...