About Scottish Review of Books

Scottish Review of Books is a quarterly print magazine (see note below) distributed in the Saturday edition of The Herald newspaper and an online magazine. Copies are distributed to libraries, bookshops, literary festivals and organisations throughout Scotland. Individual copies are available online and at events, and copies are sold to our cherished supporters on subscription throughout the UK and beyond. Creative Scotland have part funded the magazine over the course of its history but this year, our application for funding was turned down. As a result our print editions are on hold until we find a new source of funding but our online editions are alive and well and we hope you will find much to enjoy here on our website.

Scottish Review of Books was first published in October 2004. Set up jointly by Alan Taylor and Derek Rodger it was originally run through Argyll Publishing. In 2009 it became a limited company with a board of directors, Scottish Review of Books Limited. The publication aims to provide a regular, recognised, quality platform, in print and online, for the review of books and other elements of Scottish culture.

In years of uncertainty, where platforms for literary criticism and general arts coverage are changing, Scottish Review of Books holds firm to the best of the past while pushing and challenging traditional boundaries to establish a secure and exciting future for critical writing in Scotland.

Scottish Review of Books is committed to increasing access to, appreciation of, and investment in Scottish literature. We employ the services of the country’s leading critics, encourage the transfer of skills, and champion the intelligent long-essay platform. We have recently embraced the opportunity to run Emerging Critics, a series of talks and mentoring opportunities designed with the future very much in mind.

Submissions

Scottish Review of Books welcomes submissions from critics. If you have a review that you would like to submit please email a brief synopsis and a very brief biography to the editor, Alan Taylor for consideration via our Contact Us page.

Funding

For fourteen and a half years The Scottish Review of Books has been funded through the support of our cherished subscribers, print and online advertising, the goodwill (and financial support) of its editors and board members, and grant assistance from Creative Scotland. Creative Scotland have turned down our application for funding for 2019 leaving us without support to cover part of the editorial, print, distribution and online costs (please note that our Board members, management team and Editor all work on a voluntary basis and have done since the magazine was launched – our contributors however are paid for all articles in the print editions). We are currently looking for a new supporter(s) for the print edition but in the meantime, the website will offer new articles, news, and articles from our archive.

You can support the publication by becoming a subscriber.

Board Members

Jan Rutherford

Board Chair

An experienced book publicist (25 years+), Jan Rutherford's company Publicity & The Printed Word works across the media, new and traditional, promoting books, authors, reading and writing. Jan worked with Scottish Book Trust for ten years on mentoring and professional development for writers and for the last five years she has chaired the board of the Scottish Review of Books. She is the UK publicist and event organiser for international best-selling author, Alexander McCall Smith, Project Manager for The Great Tapestry of Scotland and non-executive Director at Birlinn Ltd, Scotland’s largest independent book publisher. She is on the steering group for Emerging Critics.

Alan Taylor

Editor

Alan has been a journalist for over 30 years. He was deputy and managing editor at The Scotsman, and Associate Editor of the Sunday Herald. He has contributed to numerous publications, including The TLS, The New Yorker and The Melbourne Age, and edited several acclaimed anthologies – The Assassin’s Cloak, The Secret Annexe, The Country Dairies (Canongate), and Glasgow: The Autobiography (Birlinn). His most recent book is the best-seller Appointment in Arezzo: A Friendship with Muriel Spark (Polygon) and he is the editor of the centenary editions of the Collected Novels of Muriel Spark (Polygon). He has been the editor and board member of the Scottish Review of Books since 2004 and has been involved with Emerging Critics since the beginning.

Rosemary Goring

Editor

Rosemary Goring was formerly literary editor of Scotland on Sunday, followed by a brief spell as editor of Life & Work, the Church of Scotland’s magazine, before returning to newspapers as literary editor of The Herald and The National, and later also of the Sunday Herald. She is the author of several books including: Scotland: The Autobiography: 2000 Years of Scottish History By Those Who Saw it Happen (Penguin), After Flodden, and Dacre’s War (Polygon). And she is on the steering group for Emerging Critics.

Mark Douglas-Home

Board Member

Mark Douglas-Home is a journalist and author. Formerly editor of The Herald for five years and also editor of The Sunday Times Scotland, he previously held senior roles with The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday and was Scottish correspondent for The Independent. His published novels include The Woman Who Walked into the Sea (Sandstone Press) and The Sea Detective (Penguin).

Ian Wall

Board Member

Ian Wall FRSE, Trustee RBGE, Member of the Court of Heriot-Watt University, Board member of Lowther Homes, the Scottish Regeneration Forum, Children in Scotland, the Scottish Council for Development and Industry, the Edinburgh International Science Festival, International Centre for Mathematical Sciences; Chair of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Education Council to the Scottish Government, Board member WASPS Trust and Ltd, Chair of the Scottish Poetry Library and Literary Editor of Property Week.

Anna Marshall

Admin and Board Member

Anna Marshall is an arts administrator, events organiser, publicist and fundraiser. She works closely with Jan Rutherford, at Publicity & The Printed Word. Together they produce the events programme for Alexander McCall Smith, and work on The Great Tapestry of Scotland (delivering thirteen major exhibitions to date, attracting more than 340,000 visitors). She is on the steering group for Emerging Critics and is the newest member of the Board.