At As You Like It Tours, we believe that anticipating the journey is (almost) half the fun. Certainly, digging into travel guides and news articles, fact sheets and novels, poetry and memoirs whet the appetite for experiencing the country firsthand when you arrive. If you want to begin preparing for the journey by exploring the facts and fiction of Scotland, start here. And along the way, perhaps, you’ll fan to flame your imagination and curiosity…and run across the answers to the preceding quiz.
Nonfiction in/about Scotland
The Diary of a Bookseller (2017; Shaun Bythell)
A Traveller’s History of Scotland (1980; Andrew Fisher)
Mary Queen of Scots (1969; Antonia Fraser)
How the Scots Invented the Modern World (2001; Arthur Herman)
Findings (2005; Kathleen Jamie)
The Living Mountain: A Celebration of the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland (1977; Nan Shepherd)
Fiction set in Scotland
The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915; John Buchan)
Corrag (2010; Susan Fletcher)
Outlander (1991; and others, Diana Gabaldon)
Mary, Queen of Scotland and the Isles (1992; Margaret George)
Sunset Song (1932; and others, Lewis Grassic Gibbon)
The Cone-Gatherers (1955; Robin Jenkins; don’t read the introduction!)
Once There Were Wolves (2021; Charlotte McConaghy)
44 Scotland Street (2004; Alexander McCall Smith)
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961; Muriel Spark)
To the Lighthouse (1927; Virginia Woolf)
O Caledonia (1991; Elspeth Barker)
TV/Film set in Cornwall
The 39 Steps (1935, directed by Alfred Hitchcock)
Brigadoon (1954)
Culloden (1964)
Highlander (1986)
Braveheart (1995)
Rob Roy (1995)
Monarch of the Glen (2000-2007)
A History of Scotland (2008, BBC)
Brave (2012, Disney)
Shetland (2013-)
Skyfall (2012)
Outlander (2014-present)
Mary Queen of Scots (2018)
Outlaw King (2018)
A Very British Scandal (2021)
Fairy Tales, Poetry, and Drama
An Illustrated Treasury of Scottish Folk and Fairy Tales (2012; Theresa Breslin)
The Complete Poems and Songs of Robert Burns (2012; Robert Burns)
Macbeth (circa 1606; William Shakespeare)
Famous Writers from or connected to Scotland
Kate Atkinson
J.M. Barrie
Arthur Conan Doyle
Kenneth Grahame
Andrew Lang
George Macdonald
Ian Rankin
J.K. Rowling
Sir Walter Scott
Robert Louis Stevenson
Before ye cross the sea and enter the magical realm of the Outlander, try yer hand at this wee quiz to see what ye ken (and dinna ken) about Scotland:
1. The national animal of Scotland is the
a. Loch Ness Monster
b. Red Deer
c. Scottish Wild Cat
d. Unicorn
2. Scotland has the highest proportion of _______________ in the world.
a. Psychics
b. Redheads
c. Thimbles
d. Whiskey glasses
3. The Scots are known for inventing
a. Backgammon
b. Badminton
c. Croquet
d. Golf
4. Scotland has approximately 790
a. Cairns
b. Caves
c. Hermits
d. Islands
5. Which of the following is NOT one of the three official languages of Scotland?
a. English
b. French
c. Scots
d. Scottish Gaelic