- Winner – Scots Book o the Year
- Sausages and Syzygy
- Scots Book of the Year 2025
- A Jambalaya of Many Ingredients
- Authentic Voices
- Inspiration to write comes from reading
- Beginning to Write
- This Is What You Get
- What fiction means to me
A Jambalaya of Many Ingredients
writing has to be honest, and that genuine emotion has to come from the writer
Authentic Voices
It wasn’t just the Scots in which Irvine Welsh delivered Trainspotting and subsequent novels, it was the colloquial mannerisms, the vernacular of a demographic in a certain time and place.
Inspiration to write comes from reading
I can’t think of a more obvious way to be inspired to write than to love reading. Even if you have a story to tell, you must still need inspiration of how to tell that story? My mother encouraged me to read, and read I did. I love to read, I read every day and…
Beginning to Write
As a child I read at the kitchen table with my fingers in my ears and held the book open with my elbows. I read Roald Dahl and Agaton Sax and The Hardy Boys. I found a friend in Charlie Bucket and Danny, The Champion of the World. I found suspense and excitement with Agaton…
What fiction means to me
When I was young, fiction was about escapism. To be lost in a book that was exciting and filled with adventure and populated with larger than life heroes helped me to forget about poverty and bullying. While reading fiction I was carried away on voyages; my imagination would be fired and I would be lost…
Iain Mac Lachlainn 