The Mannie & Ither Stories

by James Robertson

By: Association for Scottish Literary Studies, 2019
Published in: PDF, ePUB and mobipocket

Click here to watch James Robertson’s talk on Stories in Scots for S1–S3 plus other videos from the 2019 ASLS Schools Conference.

Here are four stories in Scots which will introduce readers – especially readers in secondary school – to fiction in which the base language is Scots. ‘Black Cuddy’ is the shortest and the simplest of the four stories, and should not be too difficult for S1 students. ‘The Mannie’ is a ghost story, and should be accessible to students across the S1–S3 age range. The third story, ‘Naebody’d Seen Him’, has clear demarcations between Scots and English. The final story, ‘The Deil’, is a translation of Guy de Maupassant’s famous tale ‘Le Diable’, and could certainly be taught to, and read by, students in the upper secondary school.

‘Black Cuddy’ and ‘Naebody’d Seen Him’ were originally commissioned and published by Scottish Book Trust for their My Favourite Placeproject in 2012. ‘The Mannie’ was commissioned by BBC Radio Scotland and first broadcast on 31 December 2010. ‘The Deil’, a translation of Guy de Maupassant’s story ‘Le Diable’ (1886), is published here for the first time.

CONTENTS
Introduction
Black Cuddy
The Mannie
Naebody’d Seen Him
The Deil
Glossary

Cover image: “Old Willie – the Village Worthy”, by Sir James Guthrie (1859–1930). © Glasgow Museums.