Incomers and Settlers: Nomadism and Entanglement in Contemporary Scottish Fiction

In the summer of 2020, Val McDermid and Jo Sharp published a collection of over one hundred short pieces by 'a cross-section of Scottish society' asking them to describe, in a few hundred words, 'a country where you'd feel truly at home' (2020:1). The majority of contributors were writers, particularly novelists, although the volume includes a wide array of voices. Not surprisingly, many of the pieces emphasize ideas of community, defined most frequently in terms of shared responsibility and stewardship of the land, as well as a welcoming ethos.