Book Week Scotland – November 18-24, 2024

History of Book Week Scotland

Scotland has a rich history of literature and authors. The earliest extant literature written in what is now Scotland was composed in Brythonic speech in the sixth century and has survived as part of Welsh literature. The Brythonic languages — from Welsh — are or were spoken on the island of Great Britain and consist of Welsh, Cornish, and Breton. 

In the following centuries there was literature in Latin, under the influence of the Catholic Church, and in Old English, brought by Anglian settlers. During the eighth century, there was a flourishing literary elite who regularly produced texts in both Gaelic and Latin, as the state of Alba developed into the kingdom of Scotland. This elite shared a common literacy culture with Ireland and elsewhere throughout the period.

By the thirteenth century, French language culture predominated, while Norse literature was produced from areas of Scandinavian settlement. The first surviving major text in Early Scots literature is the fourteenth-century poet John Barbour’s epic ‘Brus’, which was followed by a series of jargon versions of medieval romances. More Scottish prose works joined these medieval romances in the fifteenth century.

There was a huge surge of activity in Scottish literature — known as the Scottish Renaissance — in the twentieth century. The leading figure, Hugh MacDiarmid, attempted to revive the Scots language as a medium for serious literature. Members of the movement were followed by a new generation of post-war poets including Edwin Morgan, who was appointed the first Scots Makar by the inaugural Scottish government in 2004. 

From the 1980s Scottish literature enjoyed another major revival, particularly associated with writers including James Kelman and Irvine Welsh. Scottish poets who emerged in the same period included Carol Ann Duffy, who was the first Scot to win the UK Poet Laureate in May 2009. Now, the Scottish Book Trust holds the Book Week Scotland every November. The week features hundreds of free events with authors across the country, as well as an associated writing project in which the public can participate in.