Americans go wild for kilt-ripper romances

'SMOULDERING Scottish heroes are sending American women weak at the knees,' according to Christina Stokes in today's Daily Record. 'Bodice-ripper historical romances have been overtaken by the kilt-ripper - featuring heather-covered hills, feisty heroines and brooding kilt-clad hunks.' Read more.

British tabloid journalism. Love it.

For the proper story, here's the broadsheet version. 'Sales of Scottish romance novels are rocketing in the US, where readers lust for a Highland fling,' writes David Stenhouse in The Sunday Times - Scotland. 'American book shops offer delights undreamt of on this side of the Atlantic.'

I suspect it's because our own Brit idea of Scotland is as much about Ian Rankin and Rab C Nesbitt, as it is about hills and heather.

I toyed once with the idea of writing a Regency romance set in Scotland. But my Scottish Regency would be the one of rarified Edinburgh's New Town juxtaposed to learning and commerce, and aristocrats whose fathers were enlightened enough to ditch their draughty castles and employ Adam to design them something contemporary, such as Duff House.