Walter Scott was born in College Wynd, Edinburgh, on 15 August 1771. He became one of the most successful Scottish writers of his period, with historical novels that found readers across Europe and America.

Scott contracted polio as a young child and was sent to stay with his paternal grandparents at Sandyknowe Farm in the Scottish Borders. There, his grandmother and aunt told him stories and ballads about the Borders. The nearby Smailholm Tower and surrounding countryside also fed his early interest in Scotland’s past.

Scott first became widely known as a poet. He later turned to fiction, publishing Waverley anonymously in 1814. Set during the Jacobite rising of 1745, it began a series of novels in which historical events, political divisions and social change formed part of the story.

The novels were highly successful. By the early 1820s, Scott had an international reputation, with his Scottish historical fiction widely read in Europe and America.

His writing also affected later popular perceptions of Scotland and its history. Scott did not invent the historical novel, but his success helped establish it as a major form of popular fiction.