This study argues that the writing of many Scottish novelists has been formed by a powerful nation tradition, whose distinctive thematic concerns have changed the shape of the novel in English. Craig traces the influence of Scotland’s social and political history on its novelists in the last century. He shows how writers have adopted a specific set of formal techniques to deal with both the dominance of the English language in the media and the Calvinist legacy, and relates the Scottish novel to contemporary post-colonial and post-modern theory.