Mass Market Romance Fiction and the Representation of Scotland in the United States

Author
Publication year
2014
Pages
171-190
Comment

Since the early 1990s there has been a rapid growth in mass market romance novels that have Scottish settings. Attracting primarily female readers, many of these are penned by women, some of whom describe ancestral ties to Scotland on cover biographies and websites. Often heroic in outlook with historical settings (a number of these romance novels use a [...] 'time travel element [...]), kilted warriors seduce women as castles, crags, heather-clad moorland and lochs form the backdrop for the action. Drawing on interviews conducted in 2013 with four popular authors of Scottish romance novels (Terri Brisbin, Blythe Gifford, Susan Fraser King and Margaret Mallory) and another woman integral to their production, historical researcher Jody Allen (who has worked with some of these writers), I explore how these authors came to write about Scotland, represent the country, and interact with readers. (171)