Debatable Land

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Debatable Land is a Guardian Fiction Prize winning novel by Scottish author Candia McWilliam. The novel seeks to raise questions about the direction in which Britain (and more specifically the devolution project) is moving in the 21st century. The title refers to the debatable lands, land lying between Scotland and England when they were distinct kingdoms which perennially switched between English and Scots rule, before becoming an independent lawless territory ruled buy warring clans. Set on a boat on the beautifully evoked South Pacific, the relations between the characters mirror contemporary devolutionary debates between the constitutive Britsih states, particulalrly the relationship between England and Scotland.