A Working Class State of Mind

by Colin Burnett 

“Telt in his ain Embra Scots, Colin’s chairacters’ lifes spairkle wi the language o thaim thit belang tae the toon.”

Written entirely in East coast Scots A Working Class State of Mind, the debut book by Colin Burnett, brings the everyday reality and language of life in Scotland to the surface.

Colin's fiction takes themes in the social sciences and animates them in vivid ethnographic portrayals of what it means to be working class in Scotland today.

Delving into the tragic exploits of Aldo as well as his long time suffering best friends Dougie and Craig, the book follows these and other characters as they make their way in a city more divided along class lines than ever before.

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"The reader is already familiar with Aldo. Adlo is the ballast that makes most stories work; he appears as a wee skinny Asian kid with a kick-ass attitude. He’s a familiar figure in any working-class community. The hardman that takes nae shite. But he’s also funny, but not deliberately so. And he has a heart."

Review on ABCtales

From The Midlothian Advertiser - "A Bonnyrigg author’s debut novel of short stories about local working class characters written in their native dialogue is proving popular all over the world." (FULL ARTICLE)

From SNACK magazine: "Colin Burnett’s debut short story collection introduces a new and vibrant to Scottish writing. What follows are tales fro success and failure often arrive hand in hand and coping mechanisms include pills, pubs piss taking. It does take time to adjust to Burnett’s Scots, but that is in no small part the point. Colin Burnett is not only demanding that his voice be heard, but that none should be silenced or denied. There is a call for cultural legitimacy, which lifts a working class state of mind to another level."  SNACK Magazine August 2021.

 Published with support from the Scottish Language Publication Grant