Val McDermid, author
"What keeps Scotland in the front of my heart is the music of the words, written and spoken. Dialects as diverse as Doric and Weegie ring in my ears, telling their stories, shaping the world inside my head. Words entirely precise, words that have no equivalent in English – scunner, numpty, douce and dreich. Words that take so much more delight in themselves than their English equivalent – bubblyjock, houghmagandie, watergaw and corriewheechit. Magic and music, that's what the words are."
