INTRODUCTION AGAINST THE ODDS


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and publishers were learning to work from home... and figuring out how to unmute themselves on Zoom. The books world in Scotland looked like it was in for quite the white-knuckle ride in 2020.


Yet for all the tumult of the past 12 months, the Scotish trade was able to make an excellent fist of it. Nielsen Book’ stats show Scotland bucked the pandemic, w th book sales up 6.2%. This didn’t just happen: the success was down to some great publishing, canny r tailing and innovative events as companies and organisations pivoted to adapt to the difficult conditions. And they worked together, as evidenced by Wee Three Indies, the series of popular virtual author events curat by The Edinburgh Bookshop, Linlithgow’ from the Madding Crowd and Biggar’ Atkinson-Pryce Books.


It was a particularly ripe year for Scotish authors, too. The crowning achievement was Douglas Stuart’s début Shuggie Bain winninginning the Booker Prize, almost bewilderingly just


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2 months, the Scotish ofit. Nielsen Book’s demic, wiith book n: the success was nny retailing and nd organisations ditions. And they Three Indies, nts curated ow’s Far iggar’s


e published the previous Books From Scotland special last year with, in all honesty, much trepidation. Covid-19 restrictions had just kicked in and bookshops were shuting, festivals were closing, distributors had stopped shipping books romhome...andfiguring


Zoom. The books world quite the white-knuckle


the second Scot to win the gong, following James Kelman’s How Late it Was, How Late in 1994. (How, for example, four-time shortlistee Ali Smith has not won yet is a mystery.)


Yet the Booker, to mix our metaphors, was just the tip of the iceberg for Scots authors and publishers. Anthony McGowan s McGowan’ Lark won the CILIP Carnegie Medal, with publisherk won the Barrington Stoke becoming the first Scotish firm to win the prize in the gong’s 84 Freddie Wilde’s Cricke home both the Wis Cricket Book of t O’F


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prize in the gong’s 84-year history. Tom Wigmore and Freddie Wilde’ Cricket 2.0 from Polaris Publishing took home both the Wisden Book of the Year and Telegraph Cricket Book of the Year. Edinburgh resident Maggie ell’s Ham


Fiction. And on One of the m


One of the most cheering things of the year was


seeing strong outings from so many new and emerging writers, such as poet-turned-suspense star Francine Toon with her Highlands-set Pine; Andrew James Greig, who with the acclaimed Whirligig became a début author at the tender age of 65; and Edinburgh’s Olga Wojtas’ second instalment in her comic crime series, Miss Blaine’s Prefect and the Vampire Menace. With talent across the board like this, Scotland’s book trade will be able to handle anything 2021 throws at it.


seeing strong emerging writ star Francine Andrew Jam Whirligig


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age of 6 second Miss B Menac this, hand


O’Farrell’ Hamnet claimed the Women’s Prize for Fiction. And on and on.


DOUGLAS STUART


BECAME THE SECOND SCOT TO WIN THE BOOKER PRIZE


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