Can you believe we are now halfway through our twenty-fifth anniversary year here at Birlinn with this sixth episode of our podcast The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Scottish Literature? Kristian and I are very much enjoying our travels along the highways and byways of Scottish writing, and we hope you are too. This episode sees us journeying to fantastical worlds, and in particular, taking a look at Naomi Mitchison’s childrens’ fable Travel Light.
Naomi Mitchison was really a force of nature in writing – and in public life – throughout the twentieth century, so it was hard to decide which book of hers to focus on! She’s written classic historical novels, fantastic poetry, powerful plays, fascinating memoir and genre-defying science fiction, as well as very curious children’s tales. And Travel Light is definitely a very curious beast indeed being an intriguing coming-of-age story with a strong dash of Norse legend and Eastern fairy tale.
We stay with the fantastical in an interview with the brilliant Joan Lennon, who has now written two excellent books for us on our BC Books imprint. Her latest novel, Walking Mountain, is set far, far into the future and begins with the end of the world. If you want to find out what happens after that, you’ll just have to listen to the podcast, and buy the book. Joan also treats us with a great reading of that amazing opening.
So, if you want a little break from the real world, have a listen to the podcast. We’ll get your imagination racing!
Vikki Reilly
June 2017
Have a look on our website at some similar titles:
Walking Mountain
Silver Skin
Folk Tales of Scotland
You can listen to the podcast, and catch up on all previous episodes, on iTunes, or listen below on SoundCloud: