A Scots Quair is revolutionary - innovative in its form, deft and
humorous in its use of the Scots language, courageous in its
characterisation and politics. Central to the trilogy is Chris Guthrie,
one of the most remarkable female characters in modern literature. In
Sunset song, Gibbon's finest achievement, the reader follows Chris
through her girlhood in a tight-knit Scottish farming community: the
seasons, the weddings, the funerals, the grind of work, the gossip. As
the Great War takes its toll, machines repalce the old way of life.
Cloud Howe and Grey Granite take Chris from her rural homeland to life
in an industrial Scotland and hte desperate years of the Depression. The
triology as a whole is a major achievment, a picture of society
undergoing traumatic and far-reaching transformation. Always readable,
never sentimental, A Scots Quair is one of the most important works of
Scottish literature.