Calum and Neil are the cone-gatherers - two brothers at work in the forest of a large Scottish estate. But the harmony of their life together is shadowed by the obsessive hatred of Duror, the gamekeeper. Set during the Second World War, Robin Jenkins' greatest novel is an immensely powerful examination of good and evil, and mankind's propensity for both. Removed from the destruction and bloodshed of the war, the brothers' oblivious happiness becomes increasingly fragile as darker forces close in around them. Suspenseful, dark and unforgettable, The Cone-Gatherers is a towering work of fiction, a masterpiece of modern Scottish literature.

Like all great masters, his skill is lightly worn, his sentences singing with what he does not say. * * The Times * *
... Few novels in our heritage have the bell-like harmonies of this book ... it has a strange haunting poetic quality, conjuring from a few props a fable of eternal significance -- Iain Crichton Smith
Let me alert everyone to the best-kept secret in modern British literature. If you love the novel; if you are interested in books that are humane and wise, not slick and cynical; then treat yourself this year to some Robin Jenkins. -- Andrew Marr
A masterpiece of concision and terrible pathos. -- Isobel Murray

Robin Jenkins has been hailed as 'the greatest living fiction-writer in Scotland' (The Scotsman, 2000). Born in 1912, his first novel was published in 1951; more than thirty works of fiction followed, many of which have been graced with literary awards and have remained in print for decades. Several of his novels have been published in North America and Europe, including the classics, Fergus Lamont (1979) and The Cone-Gatherers (first published in 1955). In 2002 he received the Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun Award for making an outstanding contribution to Scottish life; in 2003 he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Saltire Society.