Book picks similar to
Islanders by Margaret Elphinstone


historical-fiction
scottish
scottish-literature
rereading

Sunset Song


Lewis Grassic Gibbon - 1932
    Yet World War I and the changes that follow seem to mock the emotions and experiences of her youth.

The Good Sister


Maggie Christensen - 2017
    A lifetime of regret. A love that spans the yearsIn 1938, as the world hurtled towards war, twenty-year-old Isobel MacDonald fell madly in love. But fate and her own actions conspired to deny her the happiness she yearned for. Many years later, plagued with regrets and with a shrill voice from the past ringing in her ears, she documents the events that shaped her life.In 2015, sixty-five-year-old Bel Davison returns from Australia to her native Scotland to visit her terminally ill aunt. Reading Isobel’s memoir, she is beset with memories of her own childhood and overcome with guilt. When she meets her aunt’s solicitor, events seem to spiral out of control and, almost against her will, she finds herself drawn to this enigmatic Scotsman.What is it that links these two women across the generations? Can the past influence the future?

Boyracers


Alan Bissett - 2002
    It is a totally fresh, savvy and supremely honest take on being young, naive and hopeful, and the pains of living life at hyperspeed in a mad pop-culture world. It is fast, pacy and funny - an exhilarating joyride through the formative years of four Falkirk teenagers.'A terrific yarn... superb from start to finish' - FHM 'There is real emotion here, and gutsiness... a feeling for language so passionate it shames the dullness of so many sentences that make it into print' - Sunday Herald 'Required reading for those who understand and live its message' - The Herald

The Sense of Paper


Taylor Holden - 2006
    How ubiquitous it is in everyday life….A material of paradoxes, it can be used and abused in a thousand ways and still be the same under its skin. It is the embodiment of man’s achievement, yet it is as transient and as flimsy as tissue…. In its strengths and weaknesses, faults and flaws, it is intensely human….”A lush and intoxicating blend of art history, eroticism, and suspense, Taylor Holden's The Sense of Paper is like no other debut novel you’ve ever read. An enthralling exploration of the role of paper in art, it is also the sumptuous story of a woman living on the dangerous edge of obsession, passion, and murder.

Lady Rose and Mrs. Memmary


Ruby Ferguson - 1937
    But one day she meets someone on a park bench in Edinburgh. This novel is about dreams and the hard world of money and position and their relations to one another.

Beyond Cutting


Vicki Clifford - 2013
    This is no ordinary hairdresser. Viv Fraser Ph.D and stylist to the Edinburgh establishment, has a double life as an investigative journalist and finds herself involved in some hair-raising, not to mention explosive scenes, as she trawls the seamier side of her city. In this fast-paced mystery Viv investigates the case of a missing teenage boy, but her efforts are hampered by people trying to save their own skin. Always top of his class, Andrew’s school blazer turns up on a river path without him. As she picks at the veneer of the Capital’s gay scene Viv discovers an unsavoury mix of lies, jealousy and sexual deceit. Determined to find Andrew, she ignores threats on her life and continues to dig in places that even Detective Marconi has yet to explore.

Highland Sons: The Mackay Saga


Dawn Ireland - 2012
    . . BANE’S BELIEF Kenzie McCleod thought the witch-hunting frenzy would never find her in the Highlands. Her un-natural connection to animals and her bothersome beauty could be hidden, as long as she and her mother kept to themselves. So what had prompted her to accept the invitation of the compelling, and wickedly handsome, Laird of the Mackays? Laird Bane Mackay knows he should marry a woman of his clan, but none have sparked his curiosity like the black-haired lass with the winning smile. Why can’t he ignore his attraction to this unsuitable stranger whose haunting violet eyes and strange abilities make him rethink magic in the world? In following his heart, he may very well bring the wrath of the Witch Pricker (hunter) down on them all. WANDERING HEART Sharing a soul-searing kiss with the most devastatingly handsome man she’s ever met was not part of Fiona Keenan’s plan. Neither was stealing an ancient family heirloom out of his pocket. When Cameron Mackay decides to pursue the ring, neither one of them is prepared for what happens between them. For, in a rough and tumble mining town, where everyone is a fortune hunter and a gambler, love might just be the one risk no one is willing to take.

What the Duke is Hiding


Edith Byrd - 2021
    And so, he is given a job working the vineyards, despite the secrecy surrounding his fate and his past…Johnathan Bashford is grateful for the opportunity to hide in the small property of the Tillmans. A Duke he may be, but lately, the attempts of his life have been more frequent, and laying low is his only option…But in an unexpected twist of fate, Johnathan and Madeleine will turn out to be each other’s perfect match. The only thing standing in their way are the secrets of his past, and when those come to the surface it may be too late for them both…Johnathan and Madeleine might not get a chance to untangle this mess, as those on the hunt for the lost Duke have finally caught his scent and they are closing in…And this time they are determined to finish what they started.*If you like engaging characters, heart- wrenching twists and turns, and lots of romance, then you’ll love “What the Duke is Hiding”!