Agnes Owens Books

Each selection of stories is preceded by a detailed portrait, drawn by Gray, above a reproduction of the writer's signature. The collection ends, as do so many of Gray's books, with a chapter detailing how the book got written. Postscript is a detailed memoir of Gray and Kelman, among others, attending Philip Hobsbaum's writing group in the 70s and their friendship with Agnes Owens. Gray had agreed to produce another collection of short stories, but didn't have enough written to fill a book on his own. So he used his position to help friends that he thoughts deserved the boost of publication by a major London-based publishing house. His decision has since been vindicated and the collection is seen as an early display of three talents that would be of great importance to the boom in Scottish writing in the late-80s/early-90s. Owens has since had several well-received novels published and Kelman has won the Booker prize.

La Scozia sta attraversando in questi anni una fase di risveglio politico e culturale che si manifesta attraverso una notevole fioritura letteraria. Scrive a tale proposito Paola Splendore, curatrice di questa antologia, che "analogamente a quanto accade in Irlanda, anche se con minore visibilità, i narratori esprimono oggi l'esigenza di "parlare" con una voce autenticamente scozzese, di dar voce a una diversità spesso marginalizzata rispetto all'egemonia culturale scozzese". I racconti sono scelti tra le opere di Muriel Spark, A. L. Kennedy, Sylvia Pearson, Agnes Owens, Janice Galloway, Shena Mackay.