Glaikit, mockit, droukit, drouthy, couthy, scunner, thrawn - the Scots language is rich with words too gallus not to glory in, dialect terms that deserve better than to be boxed away as precious oddities. Here we've collected some of the strangest writers of Scottish descent to bring these terms to life - that's Scottish by heritage or residence, adoption or initiation...

'Dada Hue, dada Tza...surreal grandeur from every corner of Europe's sunken wens. Dark and absurd fiction that penetrates the subcutaneous fat of our psychosphere - writing that curves and bends the branches of the Pluplusch. Welcome to dada bourgeoisie, honoured poets and fictionists, who are always writing with words but never writing the word itself....' Feat: Joe Ambrose, Rhys Hughes, Neil Williamson, Seb Doubinsky, Krsysztof Dabrowski, Claude Pelieu, Achilleas Kyriakidis, John McNee, Lee Kwo, Mike Jansen, Mary Beach, Matthew Bialer, Charles Plymell, William Burroughs, Love Kolle, m Mike...