Scot’s Quair (Collectors Edition Boxset)
A Scots Quair is revolutionary – innovative in its form, deft and humorous in its use of the Scots language, courageous in its characterisation and politics. Central to the trilogy is Chris Guthrie, one of the most remarkable female characters in modern literature. In Sunset song, Gibbon’s finest achievement, the reader follows Chris through her girlhood in a tight-knit Scottish farming community: the seasons, the weddings, the funerals, the grind of work, the gossip. As the Great War takes its toll, machines repalce the old way of life.
Sunset Song is the first book of the trilogy A Scots Quair and widely regarded as one of the most important Scottish novels of the 20th century. Chris Guthrie, the female protagonist, is a strong character who grows up in a dysfunctional farming family. Life is hard after her dad’s death and she must take some tough decisions to save her farms under the inevitable threat of World War I.
Cloud Howe is the story of Chris Guthrie and her second husband Robert. They move to Segget, a mill town where a class struggle is taking shape and Robert is at the helm of political affairs.
Grey Granite is the final book of the trilogy and the story of Ewan, Chris’s son in the depression era. Ewan is forced to become a communist activist due to violence and police brutality. But everything is threatened when the cause becomes bigger than the people around him.
About the author:
Lewis Grassic Gibbon (1901-1935)
Lewis Grassic Gibbon, born James Leslie Mitchell on February 13, 1901, in Auchterless, Aberdeenshire, was a Scottish writer whose works have had a lasting impact on Scottish literature. He is best known for his Scots Quair trilogy, which includes the novels Sunset Song (1932), Cloud Howe (1933), and Grey Granite (1934). These books vividly depict the life and struggles of the Scottish rural working class in the early 20th century and are considered some of the most significant works of Scottish fiction.
Gibbon was a versatile writer, known not only for his exploration of Scottish rural life but also for his forays into speculative fiction. Writing under his real name, James Leslie Mitchell, he produced several science fiction novels, including Gay Hunter (1934) and Three Go Back (1932) – both available from www.neosome.com. These novels, though less known than his Scots Quair trilogy, demonstrate his imaginative scope and willingness to tackle complex social and philosophical issues.
Despite his relatively short life—he died of peritonitis at the age of 33—Gibbon’s work has endured, securing his place as one of Scotland’s greatest literary figures. His ability to capture the voice and spirit of Scotland, combined with his innovative approach to narrative and genre, has left a lasting legacy. Today, his work is celebrated for its emotional depth, linguistic richness, and its powerful evocation of a way of life that has largely disappeared.
Gibbon’s influence extends beyond literature, inspiring adaptations in theater, film, and television, and continuing to be studied and cherished by new generations of readers and scholars. His work, particularly Sunset Song, is often included in discussions of the greatest Scottish novels of all time.
