Linmill Stories

Introduced by J.K. Annand. Best known as the playwright of Jamie the Saxt and Jeddart Justice, Robert McLellan has been called the finest writer of Scots prose in our time. His ‘Linmill’ stories were broadcast by the BBC, one of which, ‘The Donegals’ was made into a film. But for the most part McLellan’s prose work has appeared in magazines or anthologies without being fully collected in book form. Their popularity has endured and now all twenty-four of his tales are available in one volume. Based on the author’s youthful memories of his grandparents’ fruit farm near Lanark, these finely observed stories give us a priceless insight into a generation now lost to us, and a timeless evocation of the world seen through the eyes of a young boy. There is honesty, compassion, harshness and humour in these stories, and McLellan’s quiet voice adds a unique wit and an unsentimental authenticity to the telling. ‘This must rank [among] the finest prose-poetry of Scottish childhood that we have.’ Douglas Gifford ‘It is possible to find light and depth in each of these stories, yet their common engine is neither plot nor character, but McLellan’s use of language. It is hard not to agree with J.K. Annand’s final assessment that Robert McLellan is “the greatest writer of Scots prose in the twentieth century”.’ Books in Scotland