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The Heart of Mid-Lothian
The Heart of Mid-Lothian
Nov 30, 2025 3:40 AM

Author:Walter Scott,Tony Inglis,Tony Inglis

The Heart of Mid-Lothian

Jeanie Deans, a dairymaid, decides she must walk to London to gain an audience with the Queen. Her sister is to be executed for infanticide and, while refusing to lie to help her case, Jeanie is desperate for a reprieve. Set in the 1730s in a Scotland uneasily united with England, The Heart of Mid-Lothian dramatizes different kinds of justice - that meted out by the Edinburgh mob in the lynching of Captain Porteous, and that encountered by a terrified young girl suspected of killing her baby. Based on an anonymous letter Scot received in 1817, this is the seventh and finest of Scott's 'Waverley' novels. It was an international bestseller and inspired succeeding novelists from Balzac to George Eliot.

Reviews

Sensational... Another exemplary tale of suffering from one of the best writers of our time, who dares to articulate our incomprehensible existence, and manages it with extraordinary and sensitive eloquence

—— The Times

[Slow Man] finds the Nobel laureate on top form... A consummate writer of fiction

—— Observer

Coetzee is a unique voice; no novelist explores the ideas and the power of literature and the sense of displacement so boldly. Slow Man will add to his immense reputation

—— Independent on Sunday

Remorselessly human, it is also funny and touching: Coetzee the artist remains the complete novelist

—— Irish Times

A tremendous and startling novel... Coetzee is a novelist who cares about every word. Slow Man confirms him as among our greatest living authors

—— The Times

Compelling

—— Woman's Own

Joughin's characters are always tangible. Yet while her dialogue has the ring of authenticity, the inclusion of selected lines from Larkin, Hughes and Yeats ensures an appealing languor

—— The Observer

Joughin's second novel confirms her gift for mining tragi-comic gems from outposts of shabby bohemia

—— The Independent

Joughin's poetic prose perfectly conveys the delicacy of human emotion, and the frequent disjunction between art and life'

—— Choice Magazine

Like a cross between Margaret Drabble and Francoise Sagan

—— The Times

Joughin has an appealing darkness and urgency, as she potently conveys the pleasures and pains of human interactions

—— The Sunday Times

Adeptly written and enjoyable... Ruth's childhood perspectives are extremely well captured

—— Telegraph

Striking story of Ruth and Gray under the spell of famous poets' lives

—— Good Housekeeping's 8 Great Reads

Reading Joughin's second novel is like immersing yourself in a cool pool at a hazy summer party ...as addictively abrasive as a shot of cold vodka, this wil leave you both refreshed and gasping for stability

—— Time Out

This darkly comic story about unpredictable love is perfect if you're looking for some intelligent chicklit

—— Family Circle
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