James Robertson

James Robertson is a Scottish novelist, short story writer, and poet born in 1958 in Bridge of Allan. He studied at Edinburgh University and has been a central figure in Scottish literature for over three decades. His novels include The Fanatic (2000), Joseph Knight (2003), The Testament of Gideon Mack (2006), And the Land Lay Still (2010), The Professor of Truth (2013), and To Be Continued (2021). News of the Dead (2021, Hamish Hamilton) consists of linked stories set at different points in Scottish history — from a Roman soldier on Hadrian's Wall to the present day — connected by a mysterious carved stone figure found in a Highland glen. The novel meditates on continuity, identity, and the endurance of Scotland's landscapes and peoples across millennia. It won the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction in 2022. Robertson is co-founder of Itchy Coo, a publisher of books in Scots for children, and has been a key advocate for the Scots language in contemporary literature.