Fergus Lamont - Robin Jenkins

'Half Scotland sniggered and the other half scowled, when in letters to the Scotsman and the Glasgow Herald,
I put forward my suggestion that prisoners in Scottish jails be allowed
to wear their kilts as their national birthright if such be their
wish.'

From his origins as an illegitimate child in the slums of
Glasgow, Fergus Lamont sets out to reclaim his inheritance and to
remake his identity as soldier, poet and would-be aristocrat.

Covering
the years from the turn of the century to the Second World War,
Fergus's unforgettable voice recounts a tale of vanity, success and
betrayal which shines its own sardonic light on Scotland and the
cultural and political issues of the day.

At odds with his
origins and unsettled in his aristocratic pretensions, Fergus Lamont
reaches middle age before he is offered at least the hope of redemption
in a love affair with an island woman.

How it turns out and what
he learns too late, adds a tragic dimension to the scathing humour of
this, Robin Jenkins's most searching exploration of the modern Scottish
psyche.