The Tale of How Evan Evans Scrapped wi Evan Nichols

by Jo Higgs

In the heart of Edinburgh, two inseparable friends, both named Evan, live side by side in neighboring houses. Evan Evans, short, stout, and overflowing with flamboyant verbosity, is a lover of big words and even bigger gestures. Evan Nichols, his polar opposite, is a towering, no-nonsense man of few words, preferring simplicity over spectacle. Together, they form an unlikely yet unshakable bond—until a gleaming meat cleaver comes between them.

What begins as a seemingly innocent desire spirals into a full-blown feud of epic proportions. Evans’ flowery pleas to possess Nichols’ cherished cleaver are met with stubborn refusals, culminating in an offhand insult that shatters their decades-long friendship. From a towering toolshed built out of spite to a courtroom drama involving a law-eating ferret named Thelonious, their battle escalates into a riot of absurdity, where no gesture is too petty and no word too sharp.

Told in vibrant Edinburgh Scots dialect, The Tale of How Evan Evans Scrapped wi Evan Nichols is a riotous exploration of pride, language, and the ridiculous lengths we’ll go to for the things we think we deserve. Brimming with humor, heartbreak, and unforgettable characters, this modern Scots translation of Gogol’s wonderful old classic The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich won Sloan Prize for prose or verse composition in Lowland Scots, and transports readers to a world where the smallest of misunderstandings can tear apart the largest of friendships.

Take your sides in the epic scrap. Perfect for fans of sharp wit, Scottish banter, and timeless tales of human folly, available in pamphlet supported by The Scottish Book Trust's Scots Language Grant.

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Jo Higgs is a freelance publisher and writer covering music, football and literature. He is a published fiction writer, and winner of The Sloan Prize, as well as having placed stories in both online and in print journals.

His undergraduate and masters degrees were both at the University of Edinburgh, where his dissertation and thesis covered modes of power within the novels of James Kelman and the concept of resistance within the novellas of Agnes Owens. He is working on his first novel.

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This book will be made on environmental materials. Guilt-free, bonnie Scots pamphlets, very much in this country’s publishing tradition. Modern, well designed and a credit to their authors who write in Scots. Supported by The Scots Language Publication Grant from The Scottish Book Trust.