A Bute Crucifixion

William Scott

A novel: What is goodness? That is what this is about. Role models these days are so often sportsmen or women, film stars, pops stars, football players, even boxers--extraordinary that we should as a society celebrate the ability of one man to render another unconscious, to his peril medically, as often seen. Instead, our role models should be the best people in our society. One such group are the ministers, who are committed to being good in themselves and to encouraging it in others. Rev Geoff Shaw and Rev John Miller are fine examples. I began to write a book a few years ago to do this, after reading, with veneration and amazement, a copy of a speech given by the latter to intending ministers. Then I realised I had already written the book 15 years ago. This is it. Several people have wept over it, myself many times. Some of them demanded that this be published now.

It is set on the island of Bute around 1962 when the new ideas of Rev John Robinson, in 'Honest to God', first appeared. This was, chiefly, that God was 'the ground of being' and not an old man with a white beard up in the sky. There are two main families in the boook: a clerical family, the Mansons and a business family, the Buchanans, the head of which, George, is a man devoted to making money and very skilful at manipulating his fellows to achieve this. How George is able to subvert the goodness of Rev John Manson is the main theme. There are scenes on the rugby pitch, the Kirk Session, the Council Chambers, the school, the manse, a concert hall and a public house. One child plays the cello, is a poet and has a deep insight into other people and we see her first poems; another suffers from an unusual terminal disease and, because of it, is motivated to become a precocious scholar who understands the true nature of knowledge and academic excellence; a third is a budding mathematician who plays rugby for Scotland but is bedevilled by a concern for appearances, shared by his mother and for glamour and wealth. There are at least two original crimes, which may have been committed in the past without coming to light. These are committed by the businessman, George, who is a consummate hoodlum yet suffers in the end because of his own deficiencies as a father. There is some humour among all the tragedy of a good life gone wrong: when the young hoodlums throw metallic sodium into a new drinking fountain blowing it to bits; when a small artisan, Bucephalus McSween, who cannot hold his drink, fights with a giant and is thrown into the castle moat. The best bit is when the son of the businessman, a runt of a lad, because of the good influence of the clerical family, makes a bid for goodness himself. There are besides arguments and insights about religion, the nature of God and what one ought to do without belief.

What people have said about this:

'A riveting read I must say. A modern tragedy with the energy of Coronation Street, the passion of Dickens and the intellect of Carlyle.' --Rev Jock Stein, Minister and Theology Publisher.

'Award winning author, William Scott explores the relationships in a small community with sensitivity and conviction and produces a superb novel of power and devastating consequences in a titanic struggles between good and evil.' -- David Torrie, an editor, DC Thomson Publications

'What a powerful book! Greek tragedy meets the Book of Job. I hearily recommend it to anyone who has at all pondered the questions of good and evil in the Christian context. it is also a wonderful expose of life in a small Scots town.' --Tom McCallum, MA Hons, Classicist, Stromness.

338 pp paperback Royal Octavo ISBN 9780952191063 published by Elenkus March 2008. Contains 2 mathematical appendices which apply both to this novel and the companion novel: Honour Killing in Argyle & Bute.

A BUTE CRUCIFIXION costs £10.99.

Including postage and packing to the UK £12

Including postage packing to the Rest of the World £15

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