Martyrs and Other Stories

Eleven stories make up this collection. A number, like ‘The Guiding Hand’ and ‘Unspecified Matters’ are biting satire while others, like ‘A Day Oot’, ‘Window Boxes’ and ‘Martyrs’ are gentler in tone. Covering roughly the period from the early nineteen seventies until the millennium, around half can be termed Scottish and three Irish. The predominant theme is politics – from the sectarianism experienced in (an Irish) childhood through the politics of the workplace to the first elections of the Scottish Parliament. The maverick characters have lifestyles varying from the decadent rich to surviving on the dole but throughout the author’s voice is consistently her own.
‘A Day Oot’ was published in ‘Northwords’ in 2000, ‘Minutes’ was published in ‘Cutting Teeth’ in 2001 and ‘Window Boxes’ was previously published by ‘The Stinging Fly’ (Dublin’s Literary magazine) in 2004. The rest of the stories have not been previously published.
Alexis Scott was born in Derry, N. Ireland but has lived almost all her adult life in Scotland. She trained as a solicitor in Scotland and has worked in many different jobs, including welfare rights and social research. She has written all her life, mostly fiction. Her other works of fiction include EATING WOLVES (print), THE YEARS (e-book) and DEACONSBANK (e-book).
Alexis Scott has also contributed to the anthology ‘True Cat Tales’ (kindle) and ‘The Dynamics of Balsa’ (New Writing Scotland 2007) as well as various academic journals and literary magazines.