Shona MacLean
@shonamaclean.bsky.social
Scottish writer. Not sure about this at all.
Frost on the ground and all the car windows. Time to bring out the big guns. Knitted years ago by my mother-in-law to a pattern for Sara Lund's jumper from The Killing. And no, I'm not ironing it first.
November 14, 2025 at 7:50 AM
Frost on the ground and all the car windows. Time to bring out the big guns. Knitted years ago by my mother-in-law to a pattern for Sara Lund's jumper from The Killing. And no, I'm not ironing it first.
I went to see someone today, to return some documents they had lent to me for a research project. We talked of many things and then I came away with a string of onions that they gifted to me, that they had grown and strung themselves, and something in the skill of it all astonishes me.
November 11, 2025 at 2:37 PM
I went to see someone today, to return some documents they had lent to me for a research project. We talked of many things and then I came away with a string of onions that they gifted to me, that they had grown and strung themselves, and something in the skill of it all astonishes me.
New breakfast read. Nothing quite like that moment when you decide on your next book.
November 7, 2025 at 7:12 AM
New breakfast read. Nothing quite like that moment when you decide on your next book.
This is my new book (26/026). It's the 1st time in years that I'll be published as 'Shona' rather than 'S.G.'and I am very happy to be reclaiming my name. It's about a reading society formed in a northern Scottish town in the 1830s. Drama ensues. (My mother-in-law crocheted the shawl 🧶)
October 27, 2025 at 4:53 PM
This is my new book (26/026). It's the 1st time in years that I'll be published as 'Shona' rather than 'S.G.'and I am very happy to be reclaiming my name. It's about a reading society formed in a northern Scottish town in the 1830s. Drama ensues. (My mother-in-law crocheted the shawl 🧶)
The Seeker series, books 1-3. New covers out today for stories of espionage and other 17th Century shenanigans in Cromwellian London and York.
October 23, 2025 at 1:51 AM
The Seeker series, books 1-3. New covers out today for stories of espionage and other 17th Century shenanigans in Cromwellian London and York.
View from an Edinburgh bus stop.
October 22, 2025 at 1:18 PM
View from an Edinburgh bus stop.
Don't think I will ever see these old engine sheds and not think about Thomas and Henry and Gordon.
October 22, 2025 at 6:56 AM
Don't think I will ever see these old engine sheds and not think about Thomas and Henry and Gordon.
It's very refreshing to read a contemporary novel - Anna Beer's 'Death of an Englishman', where the protagonist travels the country by train or bike as she attempts to solve the mystery, and where her most important bit of tech is her paper notebook.
October 20, 2025 at 3:06 PM
It's very refreshing to read a contemporary novel - Anna Beer's 'Death of an Englishman', where the protagonist travels the country by train or bike as she attempts to solve the mystery, and where her most important bit of tech is her paper notebook.
I would love the Scottish Parliament to be sovereign, but credit where credit's due: the HP are pretty impressive. Also, it's an amazing, multicultural city with less and less car traffic every time I visit. It's an argument against the peddlers of prejudice and ignorance - long may it hold out.
October 19, 2025 at 5:20 PM
I would love the Scottish Parliament to be sovereign, but credit where credit's due: the HP are pretty impressive. Also, it's an amazing, multicultural city with less and less car traffic every time I visit. It's an argument against the peddlers of prejudice and ignorance - long may it hold out.
Yesterday's programme from the Cromwell Association's 2025 Study Day in London, where it was joyous to be able to express my sheer bewilderment at popular culture's never-ending obsession with the Tudors. My fellow-panellists gave much more coherent answers to the question.
October 19, 2025 at 7:54 AM
Yesterday's programme from the Cromwell Association's 2025 Study Day in London, where it was joyous to be able to express my sheer bewilderment at popular culture's never-ending obsession with the Tudors. My fellow-panellists gave much more coherent answers to the question.
I love that if you know where to look, you will see that the city of Aberdeen has positioned its statues of Scottish heroes Denis Law and Robert Bruce so that they are saluting each other.
October 15, 2025 at 4:51 PM
I love that if you know where to look, you will see that the city of Aberdeen has positioned its statues of Scottish heroes Denis Law and Robert Bruce so that they are saluting each other.
Preparing for a panel discussion next Saturday at the Cromwell Association day in London by re-reading this novel I wrote over 10 years ago, I'm thinking, 'Where on earth was I going with that?' and having rising anxiety about the amount of things I was going to have to tie up by the end.
October 13, 2025 at 6:16 AM
Preparing for a panel discussion next Saturday at the Cromwell Association day in London by re-reading this novel I wrote over 10 years ago, I'm thinking, 'Where on earth was I going with that?' and having rising anxiety about the amount of things I was going to have to tie up by the end.
So utterly sick of the religion of 'Digital '. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?
September 25, 2025 at 4:31 PM
So utterly sick of the religion of 'Digital '. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?
"I must now endeavour to write a few lines to my mother, to thank her for her great kindness in writing to me so often." John Murray, apprentice publisher to his father, John Murray, publisher, 1827, in the days before the invention of the text emoji.
September 21, 2025 at 6:53 AM
"I must now endeavour to write a few lines to my mother, to thank her for her great kindness in writing to me so often." John Murray, apprentice publisher to his father, John Murray, publisher, 1827, in the days before the invention of the text emoji.
The programme for this year's Bookmark Blairgowrie book festival. A really excellent, high quality book festival in the heart of Perthshire. This year feat. @seanluskauthor.bsky.social @linanderson.bsky.social @billykayscot.bsky.social @florajowriter.bsky.social and many others. Well worth a visit.
September 16, 2025 at 7:53 AM
The programme for this year's Bookmark Blairgowrie book festival. A really excellent, high quality book festival in the heart of Perthshire. This year feat. @seanluskauthor.bsky.social @linanderson.bsky.social @billykayscot.bsky.social @florajowriter.bsky.social and many others. Well worth a visit.
In tears at the culmination of a 30 page section on a shepherd and his dog fighting their way through a snowstorm with their flock. Genuinely one of the most gripping passages of fiction I've ever read.
September 15, 2025 at 12:45 PM
In tears at the culmination of a 30 page section on a shepherd and his dog fighting their way through a snowstorm with their flock. Genuinely one of the most gripping passages of fiction I've ever read.
A stellar month's reading in August. Some books for our time - Ali Smith's 'Gliff' in particular is terrifyingly prescient, but hopeful. I found Solvej Balle's book compellingly brilliant, The Benefactors, with similar themes to Dream Count, totally engaging. Carr and Taylor were revelations.
August 30, 2025 at 10:20 PM
A stellar month's reading in August. Some books for our time - Ali Smith's 'Gliff' in particular is terrifyingly prescient, but hopeful. I found Solvej Balle's book compellingly brilliant, The Benefactors, with similar themes to Dream Count, totally engaging. Carr and Taylor were revelations.
Seen at a local museum exhibition today: from Miss McLean's Fancy Repository and Library. More of this sort of thing.
August 30, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Seen at a local museum exhibition today: from Miss McLean's Fancy Repository and Library. More of this sort of thing.
General Register House, Edinburgh, home to the National Records of Scotland. Big wee country.
August 28, 2025 at 8:24 PM
General Register House, Edinburgh, home to the National Records of Scotland. Big wee country.
'On the Calculation of Volume ', by Solvej Balle.
August 28, 2025 at 7:57 PM
'On the Calculation of Volume ', by Solvej Balle.
So far this week, this wee apple has travelled on the train to Edinburgh, spent a day in a fridge in Leith then another in a locker at the National Records of Scotland, before going to an art exhibition then back to Leith on the tram. It's a very tired wee apple and I think I should eat it now.
August 28, 2025 at 6:10 PM
So far this week, this wee apple has travelled on the train to Edinburgh, spent a day in a fridge in Leith then another in a locker at the National Records of Scotland, before going to an art exhibition then back to Leith on the tram. It's a very tired wee apple and I think I should eat it now.
Light playing about on the Cairngorms as the train rolls south.
August 26, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Light playing about on the Cairngorms as the train rolls south.
Recommended by a friend: JL Carr's 'A Month in the Country'. I've just read a passage so good it makes you wonder that anyone ever bothered trying to write a pastoral scene again.
August 26, 2025 at 7:14 AM
Recommended by a friend: JL Carr's 'A Month in the Country'. I've just read a passage so good it makes you wonder that anyone ever bothered trying to write a pastoral scene again.
2 luckless days I've spent, searching the attic by torchlight for my notebooks for my 1st novel, from 20 years ago. I found a 40+ year old higher history essay, my folder of agent and publisher rejection letters for said book, but no notes. Because, it seems, they were hidping under the study bed.
August 24, 2025 at 3:02 PM
2 luckless days I've spent, searching the attic by torchlight for my notebooks for my 1st novel, from 20 years ago. I found a 40+ year old higher history essay, my folder of agent and publisher rejection letters for said book, but no notes. Because, it seems, they were hidping under the study bed.
Bench of the day.
August 13, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Bench of the day.