James Kelman famously brought Scottish vernacular to the Booker Prize in 1994. James Robertson, however, has gone further: he publishes Scots-language books for children.

Robertson, books and Scotland are inextricably entwined. As well as his own fiction - which reflects the areas of Scotland he knows best - he has a doctorate on the fiction of Walter Scott, was assistant manager of Waterstones in Glasgow, runs an independent publishing company as well as Itchy Coo, his Scots-language imprint, and has translated Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal into Scots (Fae the Flouers o Evil). In 2004, he became the first writer-in-residence at the Scottish Parliament building, later turning the experience into a sequence of sonnets.

James Robertson

All nominated books

The Testament of Gideon Mack