A Scots Quair
Literary trilogy by Lewis Grassic Gibbon
A Scots Quair is a trilogy by the Scottish writer Lewis Grassic Gibbon, describing the life of Chris Guthrie, a woman from the north-east of Scotland during the early 20th century.
It consists of three novels: Sunset Song (1932), Cloud Howe (1933), and Grey Granite (1934). The first is widely regarded as an important classic (voted Scotland's favourite book in a 2005 poll supported by the Scottish Book Trust and other organisations).
Sunset Song
The central character is a young woman, Chris Guthrie, growing up in a farming family in the fictional community of Kinraddie in The Mearns (Kincardineshire) in north-east Scotland at the start of the 20th century. Life is hard, and her family is dysfunctional. She marries a farmer, Ewan Tavendale, who dies in World War I.
Cloud Howe
Cloud Howe continues the story of Chris Guthrie. She marries for a second time to Robert Colquhoun, a Church of Scotland minister. At the end of the novel, he dies in the pulpit while delivering a sermon.
Grey Granite
Grey Granite takes the story of Chris Guthrie further. She moves to the fictional city of Duncairn, which was earlier called "Dundon" in Cloud Howe; Gibbon points out in the introduction that Dundon/Duncairn is based neither on Aberdeen nor on Dundee (as some reviewers had surmised) but is "merely the city which the inhabitants of The Mearns (not foreseeing my requirements in completing my trilogy) have hitherto failed to build".
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “A Scots Quair” as literary trilogy by Lewis Grassic Gibbon. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as literary trilogy by Lewis Grassic Gibbon. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3602725. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1932, 1933, 1934 and 2005.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “A Scots Quair”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow A Scots Quair primary sources, A Scots Quair archive and Scots research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “A Scots Quair”?
- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
- Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “A Scots Quair” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.