Rosalind Porter
Nation In Waiting
And the Land Lay Still is enormous in both length (it’s just under 700 pages) and scale. It’s clear that James Robertson has set out to write something in between the definitive Scottish novel and the definitive novel of Scotland – and to achieve this, he unapologetically renders the recent history of his country as his plot.
The book’s clever organising principle is an exhibition of photographs documenting fifty years of Scottish life curated by Michael Pendreich, the son of one of the most celebrated photographers of his time. His father, Angus Pendreich, seems to have been present at every formative event in recent Scottish
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
From the archive: Kenneth Rose on the life of Princess Alice of Battenberg
https://literaryreview.co.uk/she-trumped-them-all
'The trick of a successful mercenary ... was somehow to get on almost as well with your enemies as your allies, since those two positions could be reversed at dizzying speed.'
Sarah Dunant on the life of Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/scholar-in-arms
'McDormand has come closer to Lady Macbeth in some of her previous grimly comic performances ... Here she can convey only the banality of evil, as when she fussily curtails the banquet after Macbeth’s hallucination.'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/come-thick-night