Scabby Queen

By Kirstin Innes,

Book cover of Scabby Queen

Book description

'Gripping and moving. A literary triumph' Nicola Sturgeon

'A humane and searching story' Ian Rankin

'Kirstin Innes is aiming high, writing for readers in the early days of a better nation' A.L. Kennedy

A NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR * A SCOTSMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR

Three days before…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

2 authors picked Scabby Queen as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Scabby Queen opens with the death by suicide of Clio Campbell, at different times a popstar, a political activist, a lover of life.

The book stretches back five decades to tell her story, from different perspectives and jumping around between time periods. I really love that such a complicated, strong, and uncompromising woman gets to take centre stage in a story that is both political (poll tax riots, miners’ strikes, Brexit) and personal.

The novel is set in modern Scotland and the wider UK, and the author paints a “state-of-the-nation” portrait of Scotland and its people. Sometimes disturbing and blunt, always with a sly joke and a smirk, this is an unflinching story about a woman struggling to find her place in a society that doesn’t fully get her. We see her struggle through an amazing life, never fully realizing how much she is loved.

Want books like Scabby Queen?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 59 books like Scabby Queen.

Browse books like Scabby Queen

Book cover of Shuggie Bain
Book cover of Lanark: A Life in Four Books
Book cover of And the Land Lay Still

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,580

readers submitted
so far, will you?

Ad

📚 If you like Scabby Queen, you might also like...

Book cover of Follow Me to Africa

Follow Me to Africa By Penny Haw,

Historical fiction inspired by the story of Mary Leakey, who carved her own path to become one of the world's most distinguished paleoanthropologists.

It's 1983 and seventeen-year-old Grace Clark has just lost her mother when she begrudgingly accompanies her estranged father to an archeological dig at Olduvai Gorge on the…

Book cover of Hayley and the Hot Flashes

Hayley and the Hot Flashes By Jayne Jaudon Ferrer,

Country music diva Hayley Swift has fallen off the charts and into a funk. Desperate to regain her place in the limelight, she agrees to a low-budget tour of Southern venues, starting with her 35th high school reunion.

There, in an unexpected but fortuitous reconnection, The Girls Next Door —who…

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in Scotland, the Scottish Highlands, and presidential biography?

Scotland 345 books