James Robertson (novelist and poet)

For other people named James Robertson, see James Robertson (disambiguation).

James Robertson (born 1958) is a Scottish writer who grew up in Bridge of Allan, Stirlingshire. He is the author of several short story and poetry collections, and has published three novels: The Fanatic, Joseph Knight, The Testament of Gideon Mack, and And the Land Lay Still. The Testament of Gideon Mack was long-listed for the 2006 Man Booker Prize. Robertson also runs an independent publishing company called Kettillonia, and is a founder and general editor with Matthew Fitt of the Scots language imprint Itchy Coo, which produces books in Scots for children and young people.

Early life

Educated at Glenalmond College and Edinburgh University, Robertson attained a PhD in history at Edinburgh on the novels of Walter Scott. He also spent an exchange year at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Robertson worked in a variety of jobs after leaving university, including a member of staff at a wildlife park and the book trade, as a sales rep and assistant manager of the Glasgow branch of Waterstone's Booksellers.

Literature

Robertson became a full-time author in the early 1990s. During the same period he became the first writer in residence at Hugh MacDiarmid's house outside Biggar, Lanarkshire. Robertson was heavily influenced by MacDiarmid and MacDiarmid's Scots language poetry during this time. Robertson's early short stories and first novel used contemporary and historical life in Edinburgh as a key theme, drawing on the fact he lived there intermittently during his PhD and during the later 1990s before moving to Fife, and subsequently Angus. Each of his three novels have been influenced to a degree by where he was living when he wrote them. Joseph Knight revolved around a slave from the Caribbean who came to Scotland, but the novel revolves primarily around the cities of Dundee, near where Robertson was then living, and Edinburgh. The Testament of Gideon Mack, meanwhile, is set in a fictitious rural village that resembles the villages of eastern Scotland bordering the Highlands between Dundee and Aberdeen where Robertson currently lives. His novels, therefore, feature the Scottish urban and rural landscape as prevalently as Scottish history between the 17th and 20th centuries.

While Robertson's first two novels featured the Scottish past (The Fanatic merged a story of contemporary Scotland in the months surrounding the 1997 election with a story of Scotland in the 17th century, while Joseph Knight was purely historical) he is not a historical novelist, and Gideon Mack was set in Scotland between the 1950s and the present day.

The other side of Robertson's career since circa 2000 has been Itchy Coo, a publisher of children's books in the Scots language. Initially funded by the Scottish Arts Council, Itchy Coo has proved to be a popular enterprise. Robertson's interest in and use of Scots is also featured heavily in his poetry and prose, and notably in his first two novels, which blend modern English with Scots.

Personal life

Politically, Robertson was involved in the Scottish Constitutional Convention in the 1980s.

Publications

Novels

• The Fanatic (Fourth Estate, 2000)

• Joseph Knight (Fourth Estate, 2004)

• The Testament of Gideon Mack (Penguin, 2006)

• And the Land Lay Still (Hamish Hamilton, 2010)

Short Stories

• The Ragged Man's Complaint (Black and White Publishing, 1993)

Poetry

• I Dream of Alfred Hitchcock (Kettillonia Pamphlet)

• Stirling Sonnets (Kettillonia Pamphlet)

• Sound-Shadow (Black and White Publishing)

Children's Books

In Scots unless indicated.

• A Scots Parliament (English, Itchy Coo, 2002)
• Eck the Bee: A Scots Word Activity Book (Ann Matheson and James Robertson, Itchy Coo, 2002)
• The Hoose o Haivers (Matthew Fitt, Susan Rennie and James Robertson, Itchy Coo, 2002)
• Tam O'Shanter's Big Night Oot: Wee Plays in Scots (edited by Robertson and Fitt, Itchy Coo, 2003)
• King o the Midden: Manky Minging Rhymes in Scots (edited by Robertson and Fitt, Itchy Coo, 2003) (also in a digest format, The Wee King o the Midden, Itchy Coo, 2008)
• The Smoky Smirr O Rain: A Scots Anthology (edited by Robertson and Fitt, Itchy Coo, 2003)
• A Moose in the Hoose: A Scots Counting Book (Robertson and Fitt, Itchy Coo, 2006)
• Katie's Ferm: A Hide & Seek Book for Wee Folk (Robertson and Fitt, Itchy Coo, 2007)
• Blethertoun Braes: More Manky Minging Rhymes in Scots (edited by Robertson and Fitt, Itchy Coo, 2007)
• A Wee Book O Fairy Tales in Scots (Robertson and Fitt, Itchy Coo, 2007)
• Rabbie's Rhymes: Robert Burns for Wee Folk (edited by Robertson and Fitt, Itchy Coo, 2008)
• Katie's Moose: A Keek-a-boo Book for Wee Folk (Robertson and Fitt, Itchy Coo, 2008)
• The Sleekit Mr Tod by Roald Dahl (Scots translation, Itchy Coo, 2008)
• Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne (Scots translation, Itchy Coo, 2008)
• Katie's Year: Aw the Months for Wee Folk (Robertson and Fitt, Itchy Coo, 2009)
• Precious and the Puggies by Alexander McCall Smith (Scots translation, Itchy Coo, 2010)

Edited Works

• A Tongue in yer Heid (Black and White Publishing)

• The Dictionary of Scottish Quotations (with Angela Cran) (Mainstream Publishing)

Translations

• Fae the Flouers o Evil (Scots trans. Robertson of Baudelaire) (Kettillonia Pamphlet)

• La A'Bhreitheanais or The Day o Judgment (Scots trans. Robertson of Dugald Buchanan) (Kettillonia Pamphlet)

Websites

• scotgeog.com (A website spin-off from the Testament of Gideon Mack, 2006)

External links

• Itchy Coo, educational Scots language publisher for younger readers, founded by Robertson
• Kettillonia, independent publisher run by Robertson
• scotgeog.com, website authored by Robertson