Victorian SF

Very interesting article by Claire Smith on the Scotsman here about a rare Victorian SF novel by a little-known Scottish author Jay McCullough entitled Golf The Year 2000. It revolves around a Rip Van Winkle-type character who falls asleep in the 1890s (just when my Edinburgh home was being built) and awakes in the year 2000 and includes ‘futuristic’ inventions such as flat-panel TVs, bullet-trains and digital watches as well as changes in gender roles in society.

It has a surprising number of predictive hits but the thing that surprised me was that there was a Scottish SF writer and book I had never heard of! Pleasantly surprised, I must add, although I doubt I’ll be in a position to bid for it at auction!