James Robertson (1) (1958–)

I find it hard to know what to say about this because the story is really about a pretty ordinary life - obviously the devil meeting story is important but it's a small part of the story and you shouldn't go in expecting much fantasy type stuff. It's a fictional memoir of an ordinary person, a particular way of life, a particular location, told from a maybe not completely reliable perspective. The events are mostly pretty ordinary yet the writing makes them really come alive and it's easy to get emotionally wrapped up in it, feel all the little details which feel real. Along the way there's a good amount of thoughts and conversations about "deep" questions - eg does god exist, what does it mean to believe, what should life be about, how we relate to stories, what history means today, what sort of life you should choose, the way life inevitably involves "settling" for stuff that's not your ideal. It's all done in a very natural style that doesn't feel out of place or pretentious and it's all pretty interesting and thought provoking. It's hard to get across the feel and plot of the book because so much relies on very good writing and well thought out scenes. I just think it's really good if the description takes your fancy, as long as you're willing to read more about the life of the minister than that of the devil (although that bit is very very good too). Highly recommended, very human, very emotional, very sad, very thought provoking. There's lots of questions I could think of about the plot but it wraps itself up well enough and the questions are interesting to think about - how much "really" happened within the story? what was going on in Gideon Mack's mind? It's very good anyway… (more)

In recent months I have read several books providing insights into Scotland and slavery: Sudhir Hazareesingh: 'Black Spartacus - The epic life of Toussaint Louverture'; Kate Phillips: 'Bought and Sold, slavery, Scotland and Jamaica'; Trevor Royle: 'Culloden - Scotland's last battle and the forging of the British Empire', all worth reading. Although I did not particularly warm to any of the characters in "Joseph Knight", a fictionalised account of the true story of a slave brought to Scotland from Jamaica, it paints a vivid picture of the consequences (moral, financial, &c) to both Scotland and its plantations of an economy based on the transportation of slaves.… (more)