List of best Scottish books surprising

EDINBURGH, Scotland, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- For those who think Scottish literature began with Burns and ended with Scott, a list of the country's 100 best books has some surprises.

Robert Burns, Scotland's national poet and arguably its greatest writer, isn't on the list at all. But Ian Fleming's "From Russia With Love" makes the cut because James Bond grew up in Scotland, as does George Orwell's "1984" because it was written on the island of Jura and Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" because it was published in Scotland.

Scotland on Sunday obtained a copy of the draft list, aimed at providing a basis for a vote in the next few months on the best Scottish book of all time.

Culture Minister Patricia Ferguson is expected to announce the final list on Thursday.

The winner is to be announced at the Edinburgh Book Festival in August.

The ground rules included a limit of one book per author. This might be somewhat limiting, since Scotland has few great writers but those it has have often been extremely prolific, including Sir Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson and, more recently, J.K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame.

That may account for the presence of James Bond, the very English Orwell and Conrad, a native of Poland who lived in England.