‘A vivid story, packed with the wild hopes, the doomed dreams, the cruelty and licentiousness of the time.’ – Evening Standard
‘It would be impossible to overestimate Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s importance . . . A Scot’s Quair is a landmark work; it permeates the Scottish literary consciousness and colours all subsequent writing of its kind.’ – David Kerr Cameron
The uprising of the slaves against the Romans in 73 BC, led by the gladiator Spartacus, has been an inspiration to generations of people who have stood up against oppression. By the time he was captures by Marcus Licinius Crassus in 71 BC and crucified, his army of around 90,0000 slaves and dispossessed and defeated several Roman armies and devastated much of the southern part of the Italian peninsula.
This marvellous historical novel, based on an intimate knowledge of the historical background and a perceptive understanding of human nature, is wonderful to read as fiction, as adventure, and as a history of people in the grip of exploitation and oppression. It is undoubtedly a masterpiece from one of Scotland’s greatest writers.
Lewis Grassic Gibbon (James Leslie Mitchell) was one of the finest writers of the twentieth century. Born in Aberdeenshire in 1901, he died at the age of thirty-four. He was a prolific writer of novels, short stories, essays and science fiction, and his writing reflected his wide interest in religion, archaeology, history, politics and science. The Mearns trilogy, A Scots Quair, is his most renowned work, and has become a landmark in Scottish literature. His novel Sunset Song, one of the Scot’s Quair trilogy, was voted number one in the List/Orange Best Scottish Books of All Time.
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