Best books set in Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England

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Reading lists

14 books set in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland

A collage of Harry Styles and Emma Corrin in front of a photograph of Brighton Pier against an orange background

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Features

My Policeman: The unlikely literary inspiration behind the new Harry Styles film

Graceland

A new novel from Bethan Roberts – a brilliant recreation of the early life of Elvis Presley, the making of ‘the King’, and a heartbreaking portrait of the very intense love between him and his mother, Gladys

An immediately convincing evocation of time and place, as well as character, colour, sultry heat and complex emotions... Moving effortlessly between the late 1950s and Elvis's straitened upbringing, it vividly conveys his world

This is an impressive, deceptively gentle novel, full of quiet music and even quieter tragedy

One of the best books about a rock star I've ever read

Bethan Roberts grew up in a house filled with Elvis’s music and pored over her mother’s Elvis annuals and scrapbooks as a child… its emotional range rings true and its fidelity to a certain strain of wistful melancholy might go deeper than facts... an understated, thoughtful novel about a man who wore suits fashioned from gold leaf on stage, which occasionally prompts the reader to burst into song.

Graceland is an astonishing literary achievement. Bethan Roberts somehow manages to unlock the mystery to that beautiful sadness in the voice of Elvis. Utterly heartbreaking.

Roberts has done her research and is a loving curator of the legend, but she’s strong, too on the tiny sensual details, which intensify the up-close feel of this sensitive, measured novel

Roberts is an exceptionally tender and empathetic writer, and the story of Elvis Presley and his relationship with his mother is one ripe for her skills… both epic and intimate

One is always in safe hands with Bethan Roberts, especially when the subject is love.

Roberts is skilled at evoking the sexy, squalid atmosphere of Memphis in the 1950s. There’s a down-at-heel glamour that the reader can smell and taste

Bethan Roberts has published five novels and writes stories and drama for BBC Radio 4. Her books include The Good Plain Cook, which was a Radio 4 Book at Bedtime; My Policeman, the story of a 1950s policeman, his wife, and his male lover (now a major Amazon Original movie starring Harry Styles and Emma Corrin); Mother Island, which received a Jerwood Fiction Uncovered prize; and Graceland, which tells the story of Elvis Presley and his mother, Gladys. She also writes short fiction, for which she has won the Society of Authors' Olive Cook Prize and the RA Pin Drop Award. Bethan has taught Creative Writing at Chichester University and Goldsmiths College, London. She lives in Brighton with her family.

What if your son was the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll? 
 
From the moment she first holds him, Gladys Presley loves her son Elvis ferociously. She is the one by his side when his father is in the jailhouse; as they move from place to place skirting poverty; as Elvis’s obsession with music grows and he begins his whirlwind rise to never-before-seen success. But while he brings audiences across the land to their knees and achieves unimagined wealth and fame, there is another story – of drinking and diet pills, loneliness and loss – and at the height of his power Elvis finds that even kings must go on alone. 
 
‘Roberts is an exceptionally tender and empathetic writer, and the story of Elvis Presley and his relationship with his mother is one ripe for her skills… both epic and intimate’ Grazia

Mother Island

This is the story of two women, Nula and Maggie, joined by old family history and love for the same little boy. 
 
Winner of the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize 2015.

Roberts writes fantastically well about motherhood and the magical, other-worldly atmosphere of Anglesey

More than just a piece of mummy lit, it's particularly good on the multiple tiny stories of hurt and resentments that can make up a family history.

There's little more engrossing than a top-notch psychological thriller. Bethan Roberts's latest novel doesn't disappoint – it's satisfyingly creepy and stimulates that delicious paradox: goose-pimples in summer.

A sharp examination of what it means to be a mother...What makes Mother Island stand out from the crowd, though, is the compassion the author shows for her central characters...A thoroughly cracking read

Cleverly constructed… Skilful unravelling of events… Uncomfortable and gripping in equal measures

A gripping read and perfect page-turner…that manages to combine tension with nuances…of family life with great aplomb

This is a sad and moving tale, written with understanding and compassion. A compulsive page-turner

This is the story of two women, Nula and Maggie, joined by old family history and love for the same little boy. 
 
Nula, struggling with her new baby and feeling alone in her marriage, employs her cousin Maggie as a nanny when she returns to work. But it's not long before Nula finds herself theatened by Maggie's close bond with her son, Samuel. 
 
Nula's outwardly perfect house crackles with unspoken jealousies and rivalry until Maggie's intense love for Samuel tips into obsession and she decides her only option is to abduct the child. As Maggie makes her desperate bid for safety, the women's shared past of trauma and loss comes to the fore once more. 
 
WINNER OF THE JERWOOD FICTION UNCOVERED PRIZE 2015.

A Short Road to Longbrook

With her usual empathy and understanding, Bethan Roberts brilliantly evokes a time – not so long ago – when mental illness carried real stigma and shame

LYNNE TRUSS, author of Eats, Shoots & Leaves

A tender story of mothers, daughters and breaking family patterns, from the author of bestseller My Policeman which became the hit film starring Harry Styles 
 
When Winnie is happy, Lillian is happy, too. 
 
It’s the mid-1960s and Lillian Wells is a clever teenager with a daring pixie cut, tangerine mini-dress and new boyfriend, Jim, who works at the brewery. Even better, he lives across the road, so she’s never far from her bee-hived, high-heeled single mother Winnie, who is prone to attacks of the nerves. But Lillian harbours secret dreams of going to art school in London. When she gets in, how will she tell her mother – and Jim – that she’s leaving Abingdon – and them? 
 
Forty years later, Lillian’s own daughter Rachel is heading off to university, but Lillian is not sure either of them are ready. She sees herself and Winnie in Rachel, who is ambitious and intelligent, but also prone to nervous habits. As Lillian tries to bite her tongue about Rachel’s symptoms, she is reminded of what everyone in Abingdon used to say: It’s a short road to Longbrook… the local institution for the mentally ill. Lillian knows this is all too true, but in a family where secrets run through generations like the rushing waters of the local river, can she bring herself to break the cycle and tell Rachel the truth about her past? 
 
‘Roberts is an exceptionally tender and empathetic writer’ Grazia

Bethan Roberts

The era and the seaside locale are beautifully rendered and observed, not least the social and sexual undercurrents of the time

A humane and evocative portrait of a time when lives were destroyed by intolerance

This spiky portrait of love makes for a gripping read

A moving story of longing and frustration

'I loved it. Devoured it! A wonderful read. Tense, romantic, smart; a beautiful portrait of a seaside town poised at an exact moment in history, with people trapped by laws and mores'

A powerful story of love, shame and jealousy

Roberts gives us two strong, absorbing voices, whose competing claims on our sympathies...make My Policeman a satisfyingly taut and involving read

A powerful story of forbidden love, regret, and living as your true self

Captures the obsessive and destructive madness of sexual jealousy

Roberts deploys her research carefully, honing a novel with a strong period feel and a sprightly structure

Roberts’ sharp, evocative prose renders this simple story complex, enthralling and compelling

This spiky portrait of love makes for a gripping read

A heartbreaking examination of lives and love

A powerful story of sexual jealousy and longing, My Policeman is also a heartbreaking examination of lives and love that has gone to waste in an era in which homosexuality was a prosecutable offence

Discover the exquisitely told tragic tale of thwarted love behind the major new film adaptation 
 
It is in 1950s' Brighton that Marion first catches sight of the handsome and enigmatic Tom. He teaches her to swim in the shadow of the pier and Marion is smitten - determined her love will be enough for them both. 
 
A few years later in Brighton Museum Patrick meets Tom. Patrick is besotted with Tom and opens his eyes to a glamorous, sophisticated new world. 
 
Tom is their policeman, and in this age it is safer for him to marry Marion. The two lovers must share him, until one of them breaks and three lives are destroyed. 
 
'A sensitive, sweeping novel' VOGUE 
 
'A powerful story of forbidden love, regret, and living as your true self' VANITY FAIR 
 
'Tense, romantic, smart...I loved it. Devoured it!' RUSSELL T. DAVIES 
 
'A powerful story of love, shame and jealousy' MOHSIN ZAIDI

Bethan Roberts

Praise for My Policeman

The era and the seaside locale are beautifully rendered and observed, not least the social and sexual undercurrents of the time

A humane and evocative portrait of a time when lives were destroyed by intolerance

This spiky portrait of love makes for a gripping read

The era and the seaside locale are beautifully rendered and observed, not least the social and sexual undercurrents of the time

A humane and evocative portrait of a time when lives were destroyed by intolerance

This spiky portrait of love makes for a gripping read

The era and the seaside locale are beautifully rendered and observed, not least the social and sexual undercurrents of the time

A humane and evocative portrait of a time when lives were destroyed by intolerance

This spiky portrait of love makes for a gripping read

Books by Bethan Roberts

Articles featuring Bethan Roberts

14 books set in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland

My Policeman: The unlikely literary inspiration behind the new Harry Styles film

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