Cold days, warm memories

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This article was published 24/01/2026 (211 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For Scottish crime writer Val McDermid, January’s short and often gray days are the perfect time to conjure up tales of dark deeds. When bleak winter weather keeps all but the hardiest souls indoors, she huddles in her cozy home, deciphers scribbled words in her notebooks and creates her next novel.

“I don’t think that it’s any coincidence that the places where the shortest days last longest have such rich veins of noir fiction. Noir, after all, speaks of the physical dark as well as the psychological,” she writes in Winter: The Story of a Season.

McDermid has written over 30 novels, many of which fall under the “tartan noir” genre as coined by American writer James Ellroy. Her bestselling novels have won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller and the Crime Writers’ Association’s Gold Dagger and Cartier Diamond Award for outstanding achievement. Her Karen Pirie novels have been adapted into an Edgar Award-nominated ITV/Britbox show.

In her slim memoir, McDermid recounts stories from her childhood growing up in Kirkcaldy on Scotland’s East Coast. She includes personal stories and tidbits on the history of traditional autumn and winter celebrations in Scotland.

The book is highlighted with illustrations by Philip Harris, who also took inspiration from winter’s landscapes.

McDermid says she loves winter’s Janus-faced opposing forces that are similar to the Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde nature of Scottish winter traditions. Halloween starts the winter festival season. As a child, she and her peers went out guising, dressed in homemade costumes and carrying hand-carved turnip (neep) lanterns.

She also fondly recalls her grandmother’s lively Halloween parties featuring dooking (dunking) for apples and syrup-filled scones strung up on a line for children to try to eat.

In Edinburgh, Samhuinn is also celebrated on Oct. 31 with a fire festival — a modern take on the ancient pagan rite of summer and winter battling for nature’s dominance. Cailleach, a one-eyed hag who brings winter and storms, always defeats summer.

Scotland is well-known for its Hogmanay (or New Year’s Eve) traditions, although McDermid says some customs have disappeared during her lifetime. On Auld Year’s Day, another name for Dec. 31, the house was cleaned and most men and boys had their hair trimmed. Children had an afternoon nap so they would be awake to usher in the New Year.

After bathing and dressing in their best clothes, the family gathered to watch TV as midnight approached. Glasses were filled with whisky for the men, sherry for the women and non-alcoholic ginger wine for the children.

After toasting the New Year, the family would wait to see who their “First Foot” would be. If their first visitor in the New Year was a dark-haired man, he would bring good fortune for the year ahead. More drink, food and performances of songs and poems would last until the wee hours. McDermid says large-scale public celebrations with fireworks displays have gradually replaced these family traditions in cities.

Jan. 25 is marked by Scots around the world as Burns Night, with dinners featuring haggis, mashed neeps and tatties (potatoes) washed down with whisky in tribute to immortal poet Robbie Burns. McDermid says she has recited Burns’ poems and sung his songs in many locations over the years.

Spring arrives in Scotland in March as snowdrops, irises and daffodils emerge. McDermid writes the final pages of her book as the days grow longer and warmer.

In Winter, McDermid shows her ability to write entertaining anecdotes without the bloody corpses of her “tartain noir” books.

Andrea Geary is a freelance writer in Selkirk.