This week sees the release of the highly anticipated film adaptation of Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s Sunset Song. This seminal 1932 novel is widely regarded as one of the most influential Scottish texts of all time, beloved by readers, including First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

In celebration, Francesca Street has drawn up a list of 14 acclaimed Scottish novels which made the move from page to screen. From the Oscar winners to the cult favourites, the cheesey to the dramatic, check out our round-up of the best.

1) Trainspotting (1996)

For many, Danny Boyle’s Oscar-nominated Trainspotting is the definitive movie of Scottish cinema. Based on Irvine Welsh’s cult 1993 novel, Trainspotting was a generation-defining hit, propelling Boyle and a then-unknown Ewan McGregor into the Hollywood mainstream.

Equal parts compelling and disturbing, Trainspotting follows McGregor’s Renton, an Edinburgh drug addict trying to turn his back on the city’s drug scene. Notably, in September of this year Boyle confirmed his plans to make a Trainspotting sequel, loosely based on Welsh’s 2003 novel Porno. With original cast members McGregor and Robert Carlyle firmly on board and Boyle once again at the helm, Trainspotting 2 will check back in with the characters twenty years later and looks set to repeat the success of the original.

2) The 39 Steps (1935)

Thrilling, sensational and cinematically striking, Alfred Hitchcock’s film adaptation of John Buchan’s The 39 Steps has all the elements of the Hitchcockian classic. The 1935 movie is widely regarded as the best adaptation of Buchan’s novel; what it lacks in loyalty it more than makes up for in flair.

Interweaving espionage, romance and thrills, The 39 Steps follows hero Richard Hannay (Robert Donat) as he attempts to clear his name of murder and stop the reveal of an important military secret. The film was largely filmed on location in Scotland and its most memorable scene features the Forth Rail Bridge. Hannay precariously hangs off the iconic Victorian structure as he attempts to escape from a moving train. The 39 Steps may be eighty years old this year, but Hitchcock’s skill and Buchan’s compelling story ensure it remains a must-see.

3) The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)

Edinburgh author Muriel Spark published The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie in 1961 and the acclaimed film adaptation by Jay Presson Allen followed eight years later. Maggie Smith won an Academy Award for her portrayal of Miss Brodie, an idealistic, fascist-supporting high school teacher who lords over a group of young Edinburgh girls.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie largely dispenses with the novel’s innovative use of flash forward, but retains the essentials of plot and character. Thanks to Spark’s astute characterisation and Smith’s masterful performance, Miss Jean Brodie remains one of the most iconic characters in Scottish literary and cinematic history.

4) Rob Roy

1995’s Rob Roy is a not particularly faithful, but commercially successful, reworking of Sir Walter Scott’s 1817 historical novel. Michael Caton-Jones’ movie version cast Irish actor Liam Neeson in the titular role and was shot entirely on location in Scotland.

Rob Roy chronicles the life and times of the eponymous folk hero, set against the backdrop of sweeping shots of Glen Nevis, Glen Tarbet, Glen Coe, Castle Tioram and Drummond Castle. The film is praised for its scenery and battle sequences, but not for historical accuracy. Nevertheless, Sir Walter Scott, although a stickler for historical detail, advocated storytelling over historical fact. Despite the liberties taken with the source material and period, Rob Roy was a commercial hit which rejuvenated Scottish tourism.

The Herald:

Scarlett Johansson in Under the Skin

5) Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1931)

Robert Lewis Stevenson’s 1886 novella The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is one of the most famous Scottish texts. This gothic-horror-come-detective tale has an unparalleled hold over the collective imagination. Dr Robert Jekyll and his fatal potion have become the basis for dozens of films, television series, stage shows, radio programmes and songs.

Rouben Mamoulian’s 1931 film Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is perhaps the most celebrated cinematic take on Lewis Stevenson’s text. As Jekyll/Hyde, Fredric March received widespread praise, and an Academy Award for Best Actor. The way March differentiated between the two very different sides to the human character set the precedent for later adaptations.

6) Under the Skin (2013)

Michael Faber’s Under the Skin is a 2000 surrealist novel which follows an alien who conceals herself in the form of a human female and drives around the northern Scottish countryside picking up men, whom she then drugs and delivers back to her home planet. This 2000 Whitbread award winner is regarded as one of the most influential Scottish novels of the past fifteen years.

A film adaptation of Under the Skin was released in 2013, directed by Jonathan Glazer and starring Scarlett Johansson as the seducing extraterrestrial. Notably many characters in this acclaimed adaptation were played by non-actors; scenes were Johansson’s character entices men were often unscripted conversations with ordinary people, filmed with hidden cameras. Glazer uses this hidden camera element to add realism to this supernatural story and ensures his movie to present a compelling outsider’s perspective on our modern world.

7) Young Adam (2003)

Glaswegian author Alexander Trocchi’s Young Adam was published in 1954 and tells the story of Joe, a listless young river barge labourer in Glasgow who discovers a corpse in the canal. The text focuses on the complicated relationship between Joe and his employers, a husband and wife who live with him on the barge. As the novel progresses, it gradually becomes clear that Joe is connected to the dead young woman in complicated and alarming ways.

The 2003 film adaptation stars Ewan McGregor as Joe, alongside Tilda Swinton and Peter Mullan. A dark and engrossing adaptation, the movie is often praised for its commanding performances and was shot on location on the Union Canal.

8) Whisky Galore! (1949)

Compton Mackenzie, co-founder of the SNP, published Whisky Galore in 1947. The novel reworks the real life story of the SS Politician, which shipwrecked on the island of Eriskay in the Hebrides in 1941. The story of how the Scottish islanders raided the shipwreck for its whisky consignment became a local legend.

The novel became an Ealing Comedy in 1949, entitled Whisky Galore! and filmed on the island of Barra. Fun and frivolous, the film appealed to a British public in the midst of rationing and became a great success. It has since become the basis of a Tennent’s Lager advert and is currently the subject of a soon-to-be-released remake starring Eddie Izzard.

9) Macbeth (2015)

William Shakespeare may not be Scottish-born, but his tragedy Macbeth is firmly associated with Scotland. Loosely based on the life of the legendary medieval king, Macbeth is a violent, dramatic piece of theatre with a firm emotional core.

Shakespeare’s Scottish play has been adapted for cinema numerous times, but Justin Kurzel’s recent film perhaps best highlights Scotland’s inextricable importance to Macbeth. Kurzel has said importance of location in the film is comparable with a Western. The film’s visuals and cinematography are crucial to Kurzel’s interpretation of the play: war and murder dominate the proceedings, but Scotland’s rolling hills remain unaffected and constant. Macbeth was filmed on location on Skye and across Scotland.

The Herald:

James McAvoy in Filth

10) Filth (2013)

In 2013, seventeen years after the success of Trainspotting, a second Irvine Welsh novel made the successful transition from page to screen. Director Jon S. Baird adapted Welsh’s 1998 novel Filth, a comedy-crime drama about Bruce Robertson, a corrupt Edinburgh policeman played by James McAvoy.

Hollywood star McAvoy won a Scottish BAFTA for Best Actor for his role in the movie, which also attracted praise for its black comedy and surrealist elements.

11) The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)

Sherlock Holmes writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born and bred in Edinburgh. In fact, the extraordinary London detective was said to be to based on Doyle’s meticulous university lecturer at the University of Edinburgh.

The Sherlock Holmes tales, first published between 1887 and 1925, have been adapted across mediums and today form the basis of the BBC’s highly successful Sherlock series, starring Benedict Cumberbatch. The most acclaimed cinema adaptation of Doyle’s novels was 1939’s The Hound of the Baskervilles, which saw Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce team up to play the iconic roles of Holmes and Dr Watson for the first time.

The pair went on to reprise these roles in 13 more films between 1939 and 1946. The Hound of the Baskervilles took liberties with its source text, but for many Rathbone’s performance is indivisible with Sherlock Holmes.

12) Complicity (2000)

Iain Banks published Complicity in 1993. Set in Edinburgh, the novel follows Colley, a journalist who becomes mixed up with murder. The novel examines greed, corruption and what drives people to violence.

In the 2000 film adaptation, directed by Gavin Miller, Jonny Lee Miller takes on the role of Colley. The movie was filmed on location in Edinburgh and the Firth of Forth and locations across Scotland, including Glen Coe. The film retains the themes and spirit of the original and is one of Lee Miller’s earliest starring roles, following his earlier turn in Trainspotting. Interesting, Lee Miller now plays his own modern-day Sherlock Holmes on American TV series Elementary.

13) Morvern Callar (2002)

Alan Warner’s first novel Morvern Callar tells the story of Morvern, who wakes up one morning to find her boyfriend has killed himself in their kitchen. The novel proceeds to chronicle the aftermath of this death and Morvern’s life in Oban.

The film adaptation casts Samantha Morton as Movern, a role for which she won the British Independent FIlm Award for Best Actress and the Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress. This character-driven piece is well-suited to cinema and shows off the directing talents of Lynne Ramsay, fresh off her success with Ratcatcher.

14) Kidnapped (1960)

Robert Lewis Stevenson’s classic adventure novel Kidnapped was published in 1886, but is set some one hundred years previously, in the aftermath of the Jacobite rising. The novel follows the fortunes of seventeen-year-old David Balfour, who is kidnapped and taken aboard the Covenant ship, and his friendship with an exiled highlander Alan Breck Stewart.

This historical adventure has been the subject of numerous film adaptations, but in 1960 Kidnapped got the Walt Disney treatment. Disney were keen to cash in on the success of their 1950 live action adaptation of Treasure Island. The film was filmed in the UK and, despite being an American production, cast several Scottish actors, including Peter O’Toole in his first film role.