I’m happy to learn, inside your latest article touring us around Arcachon’s ‘less known heights’, that old villas of the area had a Scottish link!

Great discovery my friend .

And I just love the black & white postcards you showcased, as they romantically travel us back into time …

The following excerpt from your post caught my attention:

So, here we were, in Alley Faust, just in front of  “Craigcrostan”, the beautiful neo-Palladian villa built in 1880 by a London architect for William Laird Mac Gregor, a wealthy Scottish lord. The fact that he had renamed villa “Eugénie” into villa “Glenstrae”, after the name of a land occupied by the MacGregor clan in Scotland, shows how deeply attached he was to his Scottish roots. Why he did change “Hermosa’”, the name of his other villa, into “Soleil Levant” I don’t know, but what is sure is that from the “belvédère” (gazebo) of Craigcrostan he could admire the sun rising and setting on the beautiful Arcachon Bay.

Villa Glenstrae in Arcachon, France - Old postcard - Scotiana library

Used to come there for health problems William Laird MacGregor had finally settled in Arcachon. I’ve read that at that time there was an important English and Scottish community there.  He was known as an eccentric man, never breaking his daily ritual ride in a horse car, beginning its trip snugly wrapped in a lot of blankets which he took off one after the other at defined ‘checkpoints’ where a servant was waiting for him to fetch the blankets back home.

Source:  A Mysterious William Laird Mac Gregor in Arcachon… Mairiuna, Scotiana

You mention above that William Laird Mac Gregor renamed villa “Eugénie” into villa “Glenstrae”,  ‘after the name of a land occupied by the MacGregor clan in Scotland, ..(…)...’

That’s what triggered my curiosity. Glenstrae? Don’t recall reading about or viewing this part of Scotland. Where is it located?

Off am I to research about this piece of land and the relationship it has with the clan Mac Gregor.

Collins Guide To Scots Kith & Kin - Harper Collins Publisher - Glsgow - c1989

I found a little book in the Scottish Clans section of my library, bought while shopping at “The Book Shop” in Wigtown, Scotland, a few years ago, titled “Collins Guide To Scots Kith & Kin – A Guide To The Clans & Surnames of Scotland“, inside which there’s a fold-out color map of Scotland showing the homelands of the clans and illustrating significant events in Scottish history.

Fold-out Color Map Od Scotland Clans Homelands - from Collins Guide To Scots Kith & Kins

From it I cropped the image below to show the MacGregors homeland. It clearly indicates they were nested in between the Campbells and the Stewarts of Balquhidder lands.

Clan Mac Gregor homeland on Scotland's map

But what I am now looking for is a map that displays geographically the Glen.

On Hal MacGregor’s website, I collected a little bit more info,

By the beginning of the 16th century, there were five main  MacGregor geographical districts, in valleys (Glens):  Glen Dochart, Glen Orchy, Glen Lyon, Glen Strae, and Glen Gyle.  There were also adjacent areas where the Gregor clan was prevalent.

and I was glad to come across John Hennessy’s beautiful landscape photography of the glen. Contemplating this photo brings me into calmness of mind. Can’t wait to go back to this marvellous country…

Photo by John Hennessey | Source:http://www.johnhennessy.co.uk

Still looking for a geographical map, I googled my way around.

Ah! Getting closer…here’s an aerial view of the area:

Glen Strae-Scotland| Source:http://www.scottish-places.info| Click On The Image For Larger Size

It’s near Stronmilchan, encapsulated between Beinn Eunaich and Beinn Donachaine. There we go!

It will now be easier for me to imagine the scenes, in those not so far away times, when the Scottish Clans were focusing on territorial possession.

Flipping through the pages of the book, I found another reference to Glenstrae under the MacGregor descriptive text. I’ve scanned it for you below:

Scottish Clan MacGregor Spreading To Glenstrae and Perthshire

MacGregor Scottish Clan Crest - 'Our Race is Royal'

Convinced that Nigel Tranter (23 November 1909 – 9 January 2000) had written something about the MacGregors, I grabbed “The Nigel Tranter Bibliography” from the bookshelf, as it compiles all his writings.

By the way, this is such a great book for bibliophiles, as it contains every single edition of every single work published (more then 137) by Nigel Tranter during his career! Quite impressive.

The Nigel Tranter Bibliography - Colin Mills - Underhill Publications 2003

This compilation is an ‘extraordinary labour of love’ and I am grateful to Colin Mills for undertaking this great project thus giving us the opportunity to grasp the intensity of Nigel Tranter’s writing career and have such a great reference available. If not on your bookshelf yet, it’s a must, especially if you’re a fan of Scottish history.

On page 104 of the book, there’s a reproduction of the text printed on the front flap of the 1st edition of his book: ” Children Of The Mist”. It goes like this:

”

Children Of The Mist by Nigel Tranter 1st Ed Hodder&Stoughton 1992

“Our race is royal” was the proud claim of the MacGregors. Yet as resounding as was their background, and far from negligible their fighting qualities, they were small as highland clans went and they had the misfortune to occupy lands fairly close to the great Clan Campbell.

“By the end of the sixteen century Alastair MacGregor of Glen Strae, the young chief, fell heir to a dire heritage indeed. With little left to his clan save Glen Strae and some smaller lairdships, where once they had owned more than half of Scotland, he is faced with a challenge. And although no warlike character, he sought to meet that challenge

“The principal threat was Black Duncan of the Cowl, Campbell of Glenorchy, a dangerous foe indeed, clever as he was unscrupulous, and with the ear of King James the Sixth. This is the story of their conflict, of intrigue and folly, courage and treachery, and sheerest drama, which shows Nigel Tranter at the peak of his form, unveiling the heart and fascination of Scotland’s history.”

You know what? From all the books written by Nigel Tranter housed in my library,  I don’t have ‘Children Of The Mist‘ ! Amazon, here I come

Children of the Mist by Nigel Tranter - Coronet Books 1998

The MacGregors have such an important role in Scotland’s history, that I think we should write some articles on Scotiana , dwelving even deeper into the dramatic events that took part in those late 16th century years amongst the ancient Scottish clans. It’s a very complex system and it would be worthwhile to give some writing time to the subject.

MacGregor's Gathering by Nigel Tranter - 1st Paperback Edition Coronet 1974

MacGregor's Gathering - Nigel Tranter- Coronet Books - 1993 Reissue

What do you think Mairiuna?

Until next, all the very best.

Janice

PS:  You might also want to check out Bookabus’s Ebay Store for gorgeous Canvas Art Print on MacGregor Tartan

As mentioned in my previous post, Donald Alexander Smith (1820-1914), 1st Baron Strathcona, was famously known for having created, at its own expense, the most illustrious military regiment, the Lord Strathcona’s Horse (Royal Canadians).

Born on Scotland’s northeast coast, in the small town of Forres, Morayshire, in Scotland, he really had simple personal taste.

Sleeping no more than six hours a day, preferring soda water to whisky and citing porridge as his favourite dish, his endurance was remarkable.

He had unusual courteous manners, was never rude but always managed by his evasiveness to subtly get out of all kinds of situation.

Donald Alexander Smith had always been interested in Scotland’s most popular glen, Glencoe, that was owned by the McDonalds of Glencoe until 1894, when Archibald Burns McDonald put the land up for sale.

The Pap of Glencoe, Scotland © Scotiana 2007

He probably heard about the sale of the Glencoe Estate while working at the Hudson Bay Company in Canada from the mouth of a colleague who happened to be the son of Archibald McDonald of Glencoe.

Upon taking possession of the Glencoe Estate in 1895, he moved from Canada to Scotland with his wife Isabella Sophia Hardisty and built a very imposing house, the Glencoe House.

Even though he planted a Canadian-like  tree forest on the Estate to resemble his wife’s native land’s environment, she could not overcome home sickness. They consequently moved back to Canada and a portion of the land was transformed into a beautiful park offering three different walking trails, known as the Glencoe Lochan Walks.

The Glencoe House was subsequently transformed in a hospital for elderly people. In 2009 , the Glencoe Hospital last three patients were transferred to a nearby nursing home as the building is in the process of being sold.

Old Glencoe House, now Glencoe Hospital © Scotiana 2007

Donald Alexander Smith - 1st Baron Strathcona (Source: www.glencoe-heritage-trust.com)

When news leaked out that he had chosen the title Lord Glencoe, after a glen where Scottish chieftains had been slaughtered in 1692, a glen he had only recently acquired, colleagues prevailed on him to reconsider. He created the name Strathcona, a Gaelic variant on Glencoe.

Lobbying by Tupper and Chamberlain allowed his first peerage to be superseded by a second, created on 26 June 1900, permitting the title to pass to the male heirs of his daughter. Smith delivered his maiden speech in the House of Lords in the summer of 1898.

He was named a fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1904, when he was given the Albert Medal for his services to railways. He was made a GCVO in 1908 and a knight of grace of the Order of St John of Jerusalem in 1910.

“In 1935, the Strathcona family sold most of the estate to a number of buyers, retaining a portion for themselves. In 2001 the last remaining part of the Glencoe Estate was put up for sale by the descendants of Lord Strathcona.

The land comprised of about 130 acres, including the largest stretch of the River Coe;   a half share of the historic Eilean Munde (traditional burial place of the McDonalds of Glencoe); The ruined Old Mill of Glencoe;  the Crofters Common Grazings;   the last remaining Ancient Woodlands of Glencoe;  Fishing rights on Loch Triachtan; plus 8 miles of Salmon netting rights on Loch Leven”

Glencoe Lochan Trail, Scotland © Scotiana 2007

“Owing to the historic nature of the land, the sale generated much interest, and was complex. Alistair MacDonald, a descendant of the McDonalds of Glencoe, realized that the only way to save this land was by raising private funds, as government support was highly unlikely.

At the eleventh hour, Alistair secured the sum of £105,000 from family & friends by way of unsecured loans, and after careful consideration by the sellers, his bid was accepted; he immediately formed The Glencoe Heritage Trust, who own the land.

A worldwide appeal was immediately set up to repay the six donors, and to date £49,000 is required to ensure that these historic lands never come up for sale again.”

Source: http://www.glencoe-heritage-trust.com

Glencoe Lochan Trail © Scotiana 2007

No wonder the MacDonalds were eager to buy back the ancestral land!

The Guide to Glencoe & Loch Leven qualifies the walking trails of Glencoe Lochan as  “the most idyllic settings one can come across”.

The Guide To Glencoe & Loch Leven

Do not hesitate to tour the site if you happen to be near. We had the pleasure of doing so in 2007 and brought back wonderful memories.

I personally appreciated the “Canadian” look of the trail as it reminded me of lakes from my native country.

Talk soon.

Janice

So eager were we, on opening our blog, to speak about Scottish people, beautiful landscapes, mysterious castles, towns and villages that if somebody had told me then that we were to devote so much time to Scottish crime fiction, I wouldn’t have believed him. But here we are and here we will go on, trying to cope with our growing pile of detective novels and thrillers to read. Mind you, we’re taking notes. After some hours of suspense, time to reflect!

The atmosphere of the place being a key ingredient in crime fiction recipes, no wonder Scotland is being so successfully chosen as a place for that kind of fiction. So, it is with great enthusiasm that, yesterday, I discovered Ann Cleeves, a British crime fiction writer whose “Scottish sense of place” seems to be particularly developed.

Among other books, Ann Cleeves wrote a collection of four novels entitled The Shetland Quartet . She is not a native of the place nor even of Scotland mainland but having lived some time on Fair Isle, where she met her husband, an ornithologist from the west of England, she knows her subject perfectly.

Each title of The Shetland Quartet evokes a colour which can easily be linked to Scotland : black, white, red and blue while the synopsis of the stories reveal the importance of specific themes : day and night, dark and light, the seasons. Take a look how beautiful and expressive the book jackets are.

As written by Anna Burnside in an article entitled “Ann Cleeves unveils Shetland murder mystery” published in The Sunday Times of 20 April, 2008 : “As a location, it’s perfect – an enclosed community, a dramatic landscape, incomers versus the established community, a summer season of tourists to add new flavours to the mix. It is the traditional village mystery transplanted to the North Sea, with the remnants of the oil industry and vast trawlers as a backdrop.”

Source: Shetlopedia.com & AnnCleeves.com

On her  website the author has included a map of Shetland that was cleverly modified to situate the stories.

Raven Black - Ann Cleeves

It is a cold January morning and Shetland lies buried beneath a deep layer of snow. Trudging home, Fran Hunter’s eye is drawn to a vivid splash of colour on the white ground, ravens circling above. It is the strangled body of her teenage neighbour Catherine Ross. As Fran opens her mouth to scream, the ravens continue their deadly dance …The locals on the quiet island stubbornly focus their gaze on one man – loner and simpleton Magnus Tait. But when police insist on opening out the investigation a veil of suspicion and fear is thrown over the entire community. For the first time in years, Catherine’s neighbours nervously lock their doors, whilst a killer lives on in their midst. Raven Black is a haunting, beautifully crafted crime story, and establishes Ann Cleeves as a rising talent in psychological crime writing …’A riveting read. Ann Cleeves probes beneath the surface of a community to reveal the darkness that can fester when everyone thinks they know each other’s secrets’ -  “Val McDermid”.  Source: Amazon

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White Nights - Ann Cleeves

“It’s midsummer in Shetland, the time of the white nights, when birds sing at midnight and the sun never sets. Artist Bella Sinclair throws a party to launch an exhibition of her work and to introduce the paintings of Fran Hunter. The Herring House, the gallery where the exhibition is held, is on the beach at Biddista, in the remote north west of the island. When a mysterious Englishman bursts into tears and claims not to know who he is or where he’s come from, the evening ends in farce. The following day the Englishman is found hanging from a rafter in a boathouse on the jetty, a clown’s mask on his face. Detective Jimmy Perez is convinced that this is a local murder. He is reinforced in this belief when Roddy, Bella’s musician nephew is murdered too. But the detective’s relationship with Fran Hunter clouds his judgement. And this is a crazy time of the year when night blurs into day and nothing is quite as it seems.” Source: Amazon

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Red Bones - Ann Cleeves

“Spring: a time of rebirth and celebration. And a time of death…for April is the cruellest month. When a young archaeologist studying on a site at Whalsay discovers a set of human remains – the island community is intrigued. Is it an ancient find – or a more contemporary mystery? Then an elderly is shot on her land in a tragic accident and Jimmy Perez is called in by her grandson – his own colleague Sandy Wilson. He finds two feuding families whose envy, greed and bitterness has divided the surrounding community. With Fran in London, and surrounded by people he doesn’t know and a community he has no links with – Jimmy finds himself out of depth. Then another woman dies and as the spring weather shrouds the island in claustrophobic mists the two deaths remain shrouded in mystery. ” Source: Amazon

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“Shetland Detective Jimmy Perez knows it will be a difficult homecoming when he returns to the Fair Isles to introduce his fiancee, Fran, to his parents. It’s a community where everyone knows each other, and strangers, while welcomed, are still viewed with a degree of mistrust. Challenging to live on at the best of times, with the autumn storms raging, the island feels cut off from the rest of the world. Trapped, tension is high and tempers become frayed. Enough to drive someone to murder…When a woman’s body is discovered at the renowned Fair Isles bird observatory, with feathers threaded through her hair, the islanders react with fear and anger. With no support from the mainland and only Fran to help him – Jimmy has to investigate the old-fashioned way. He soon realizes that this is no crime of passion – but a murder of cold and calculated intention. With no way off the island until the storms abate – Jimmy knows he has to work quickly. There’s a killer on the island just waiting for the opportunity to strike again…” Source : Amazon

I’ve already bought Raven Black and I’m looking forward to reading it. I had to refrain from buying the first three volumes at the same time but I hope to get and read them before Blue Lightning is published.

On 29 June 2006, Ann Cleeves won the inaugural Duncan Lawrie Dagger, the biggest crime writing prize in the world for Raven Black, published by Macmillan. Peter Ostacchini, Deputy Managing Director, Duncan Lawrie Bank, presented her with the dagger and her £20,000 prize at the 2006 Dagger Awards ceremony, which took place at the Waldorf Hilton in London’s Aldwych on Thursday 29 June. In all, seven daggers were awarded on that night.

Given our focus on crime fiction it could be interesting to give our readers a list of these awards. Hey Janice, isn’t that a good idea? Let me know.

A bientôt !

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Glasgow Coat of Arms - 2007

This is the tree that never grew.

This is the bird that never flew.

This is the bell that never rang.

This is the fish that never swam.

(Traditional rhyme associated with the symbols of Glasgow’s coat of arms)

Glasgow ! YOUPI, Janice ! YES, let’s go to Glasgow ! You know, I was looking forward to writing about this big welcoming city we do love !  Count on me to give our readers an idea of what “sense of place”  they can get there, but it will take several posts !

Aerial View of Scotland - 2003

Jean-Claude and I landed at Paisley airport on our first journey to Scotland, in June 2000, after a breathtaking fly over the country… our first view of it… the green hills…the lochs… the towns and villages… it was all there, on a most lively map!

After a turn giving us a bird’s view of the whole area the plane finally began its descent…

I’ll never forget our first impressions of Scotland… maybe not the kind that would please the amateurs of bright sun and blue sky. Nevertheless, there we were, in Glasgow, dressed as for a beach day at Arcachon, with our maps, our rented car, our luggage, and no idea of what we were going to find on our road in this unknown country.

City of Glasgow - 2000

We had started early in the morning, on a very sunny day, and we arrived in the afternoon in the midst of a very cloudy, windy atmosphere… much traffic and noise, big buildings and a hurrying foreign crowd speaking… hum… what language were they speaking exactly ? Double Dutch for us ! After so many years of English course back to square one… but… it took not long for us to fall under the spell… it was love at first sight… we had heard so many dark things about Glasgow, that “Scottish Chicago”, that it came as a surprise for us to discover a multifaceted, very cheerful and dynamic town. Dark and light for sure, but is not that part of the game in Scotland ?

No where else have we seen so many people smiling in the rain and always a Glaswegian around to help us each time we were unfolding a map !

But let us begin with the beginning !

With about 600,000 inhabitants, Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and the third most populated in the United Kingdom. Its name means “dear green place” and its history can be traced back to very ancient times. From its origins when Glasgow was only a tiny village on the bank of the river Clyde to the modern city we know today, there has been a long road. During the 6th century, a holy man appears to have walked on this road, whose life would become linked forever to the city of Glasgow. He was called St Kentigern and is also known as St Mungo, Glasgow’s patron saint. The legends which have surrounded his life gave birth to the colourful coat of arms of the town which we can see everywhere, sometimes together with the famous motto “Let Glasgow flourish”…

Cathedral Square-Glasgow-2000

Since our readers must begin to be used to our way of introducing books in our posts let us end with a book. This time I have chosen one we have in our personal library. Its title is Glasgow’s Glasgow. It is a very interesting and rather big book with a lot of illustrations. It was published in 1990, the very same year when Glasgow was chosen as the European City of Culture. Have a good reading ! A bientôt.

Glasgow's Glasgow -Published by The Words And The Stone-Back Cover

Glasgow's Glasgow -Published by The Words And The Stones-1990

It is so interesting that I will continue on the same path for a while and explore how the unique atmosphere of a particular place provides inspiration to an author. And come to think of it, to capture such “sense of place” is a great way to export cities and places unto the literary map.

Now that we covered Edinburgh in the last posts, what about Glasgow ? As much as Edinburgh, the city should be able to acclaim it’s own “sense of place” under the pen of many crime novels writers.

As I did for Edinburgh, I started my quest by researching crime fiction novelists born in Glasgow and having chosen Glasgow as the setting to their plots.

First, I went down the list of the 52 Crime Novels set in Glasgow on BooksFromScotland website and from these 52 novels, I drilled down a list of Glasgow’s natives.

They are:

- Denise Mina

- Caro Ramsay

- Alex Gray

- Campbell Armstrong

- Christopher Brookmyre

- Hugh Collins

Did I miss anyone ? Kindly let me know if the case may be.

Scottish crime fiction author Denise Mina, while being interviewed by Stephanie Padilla of the New Mystery Reader, said about  ” a sense of place ” :

S.P. : Your previous 4 novels, as this one, take place in Glasgow. You paint a dark and gritty picture of this city so vibrantly that it feels as if it’s a character in itself, but it also seems to be infused with a love-hate type of vibe, so which is it, really?

Denise Mina-Scottish Crime Fiction Author

D.M. : Glasgow is hard going. I love it here and find it a very honest city, I share a lot of its values and love that people talk to each other and enjoy fighting. It’s very like New York in fact. I remember a carton about New York and LA. In the LA one the person say ‘have a nice day’ but means ‘fuck you’. In the New York one the person says ‘fuck you’ but means ‘have a nice day’. Glaswegians are mad about courtesy but will shout at you in the street if you make the mistake of being a little rude to them. I keep setting books here because I think most cities are universal. They’re organic and many features of one city will in variably be true of any other. Except for restaurants and the quality of the coffee.

Sue Walker is a popular Scottish crime fiction writer.  As she was born and has lived for some time  in Edinburgh she is particularly well placed to speak of this town as an inspiring place for creating the setting of her novels, the importance of which she clearly underlines when she says : ‘Location, location, location” …

Sue Walker - The Dead Pool

(published in May 2005, February and October 2007)

Sue Walker - The Burning

So far Sue Walker has published 3 novels and a fourth one is about to come out on October 1st, 2009 . The action takes place in Edinburgh and the neighbourhood, as it has been the case with Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus stories. To give ourselves an idea of the importance of the setting in her crime stories, let us read two extracts from The Reckoning and The Dead Pool.

Fidra in the Firth of Forth is one of a group of five small islands dotted along Scotland’s East Lothian coast. It is commonly held to have been the model for R. L. Stevenson’s Treasure Island (…)

“Treasure Island“

Historians, archaelogists and local folklore have created a rather colourful picture of this little island. Fidra has seen immense activity over the centuries, much it spiritual. There is evidence of what was thought to be a medieval monastery. There are also the ruins of a chapel, built by the monks and used as a place of pilgrimage for local nuns. The monastery building is believed to have served as a hospital during times of plague. Unsurprisingly, given its history, there are tales of the island being haunted by a hooded figure – ‘The Dark Monk of Fidra”.

(Extract from Fidra- An Island History, by Duncan Alexander, Whitekirk Publishing, 1st edition,1978. Page quoted in the Prologue of The Reckoning)(…)

Four months later.

How Well Do You Know Edinburgh’s River ?

Why not Enjoy a Guided Walk Along the Water of Leith ?

Whether you were born and bred here, or you are a tourist from another part of the world, all should sample the delights of the Water of Leith, the river that winds through Edinburgh. From its source in the Pentland Hills, the river meanders through some of the most beautiful parts of the city, ending its 35 km journey down at the port of Leith, where its waters pour into the Firth of Forth.

And you can share that journey with one of the great authorities on the Water of Leith, Jamie Munro.  A former lawyer and well-known face in the Scottish courts, Jamie has owned a riverside house for more than thirty years.  He has spent his retirement getting to know our river intimately, and Jamie now heads up our team of volunteers who patrol the Water of Leith and offer guided walks.

Kirstin Rutherford folded the bright green A5 flyer, put it back in her pocket, and knelt down to tend the rose bush she’d planted a few minutes earlier.

‘Christ, Jamie; What the hell happened to you ? ‘ She lost her balance as the tears started………(…)

(The Dead Pool – Chapter 1)

A Sense Of Place - Book Cover

This fine collection of evocative essays and stories ranges widely across Scotland from Assynt in the far North to the Solway Firth in the Border country, from the cities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee to the small villages and farms of Scotland’s rural regions. The writing is diverse, sometimes lyrical, often factual and perceptive, occasionally humorous. What comes through is a veritable kaleidoscope of views on “a sense of place” in Scotland at the beginning of the new millenium. ( A Sense of Place – A collection of new Scottish writing – 2005 – Foreword by Tom Devine)

The  “sense of place”,  the right kind of  feeling to be cultivated by the traveller whatever his road.  In our quest for Scotland, as soon as we began to  travel there, we felt that there was something very special about it and as we got to know the country better our “sense of place”  grew stronger …

Edinburgh close 2006

No wonder Scotland has inspired so many authors for it is really a fascinating country.  You  can feel its very specific atmosphere in town as well as in the country. It’s not only a question of lansdcape, whatever varied and beautiful it may be, it’s also the  light. The weather is of such a changing nature there, that dark and light are constantly playing on the setting, giving birth to the most beautiful and unexpected spectacles. Nowhere else have I seen so many beautiful rainbows drawing their perfect curbs in the sky. And there is the mist too, which so greatly contributes to create mystery everywhere.

In towns, when suddenly confronted to the gloomy atmosphere of  an old street, a narrow close or some dilapidated and seedy area, one can easily understand why dark and crime fiction proliferates here. But there is always something bright to lighten the darkest place.   In Scotland, anyway, and perhaps more than anywhere else, you can  expect to find the best and the worst. Don’t forget  you are in the country that gave birth to such stories as James Hogg’s The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner and Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mister Hyde .

Ballachulish 2006

Let us give the final word to Sue Walker :  “More than one person has remarked that I seem to like using the most beautiful locations and turning them into places of hell. ‘You put the dark into light’, as someone told me not long ago.”

Glen Etive 2007

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Yes, Scotland is a fascinating country and maybe the best way to discover it is to try to feel the sense of place … so let us immerse ourselves in the country while letting it have its say.

A bientôt!

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Sue-Walker-Scottish-Crime-Fiction-Author photograph by A Hargreaves

(…) “I was asked by an acquaintance recently how the inspiration for my novels came about. A common enough question and I had a straightforward reply. ‘Location, location, location.’ And that answer, to a great extent, is the whole truth. It is certainly the case that the locations used in The Reckoning (the island of Fidra and the East Lothian coast) and the forthcoming The Dead Pool (the Water of Leith in Edinburgh) inspired me long before I had even conceived of a single character or plot line. At some point I knew, just knew, that these places had to be central to my stories. But then that begs the question of why some locations inspire and others do not? What exactly is it about a particular place that sparks off an idea? In some ways I’m rather loathe to over-analyse this. Does it matter if it works and keeps working for me? On the other hand, there is obviously a pattern there and maybe it’s worth looking at. It would appear that in my case the answer to what sparks it all off is beauty. More than one person has remarked that I seem to like using the most beautiful locations and turning them into places of hell. ‘You put the dark into light’, as someone told me not long ago.”

Location, Location, Location… Putting the Dark into Light

Sue Walker on the three Ls of writing a great crime novel

Source: http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Author/AuthorPage/0,,1000066312,00.html

Mairiuna, the above quote from Sue Walker got me thinking…

Even though 71 Scottish crime fiction novels have their adventure plot set in Edinburgh, how many Scottish crime fiction authors were actually born in Edinburgh?

After researching the internet, surprisingly enough, I found less than a dozen!

The Reckoning - Sue Walker

-Sue Walker

-Paul Johnston

-Grace Monroe

-Helen and Morna Mulgray

-Robert Louis Stevenson

-Arthur Conan Doyle

-Irvine Welsh

Am I missing someone …?

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England Motorways

Take a good detective novel with you in the car, read it or listen to it and you’ll soon forget bad weather, heavy traffic and  long hours of driving on dull motorways. As Janice mentioned it to you, in her last post, that’s exactly what we did on our long journey from Bordeaux to Scotland.

Motorways being not the best way to discover a country we buried ourselves in our book quite remorseless, with only a few breaks when the landscape happened to be worth a glimpse outside.….which, fortunately enough, did happen a number of times in France, England and of course in Scotland!

Ian Rankin - Du fond des ténèbres

We had chosen Ian Rankin’s Du fond des ténèbres and it fell to me to read it to my fellow travellers, but so eager was I to arrive at the end of the book, that I read it too fast.

Many detective novels need not to be read a second time but Ian Rankin’s Rebus stories well deserve it.  We finally come to think it would be a good idea to re-read Du fond des ténèbres, and still better to read it in English, so we’ve bought Set in Darkness and we’ll read it as the 11th  story of our Rebus reading list of 17 novels.

Ian Rankin - Set In Darkness

What we’ve liked best so far  : Inspector Rebus and his acolytes surrounded by many characters so true to life we could have met them in the street, the twists and turns of a gripping plot and the deep sense of place which pervades the whole book making  us eager to follow the steps of Colin Brown in his famous Rebus guided tour in Edinburgh and to feel the dark side of the town, Auld Reekie’s (*) gloomy atmosphere.

But there seems to be much more to discover in the great crime novels of Ian Rankin than Edinburgh. Indeed, Edinburgh is not the author’s native town. Ian Rankin was born in Cardenden, Fife, on April 28 th 1960.  I like the image of a “jigsaw” given by the author. Let us listen to him…

(*) The city is affectionately nicknamed Auld Reekie (Scots for Old Smoky), because when buildings were heated by coal and wood fires, chimneys would spew thick columns of smoke into the air. Source: Wikipedia.

I’ve said in the past that I started writing the Rebus books in order to make sense of Edinburgh, my adopted home. But Fife plays a major role in several of Rebus’s adventures, and comprises the majority of his memories. I wonder now if all this time, I’ve really been trying to make sense of my own upbringing, in order better to understand myself.

‘I started writing novels while an undergraduate student, in an attempt to make sense of the city of Edinburgh, using a detective as my protagonist. Each book hopefully adds another piece to the jigsaw that is modern Scotland, asking questions about the nation’s politics, economy, psyche and history…and perhaps pointing towards its possible future.’

A Sense Of Place - Book Cover

A Sense of Place - Back Cover

Some time ago, I discovered a quite interesting little book entitled ‘A Sense of Place’. It had been published in association with Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature ! Remember how, in December 2004,  the town had won the title of  the first ever UNESCO City of Literature.

The mission statement was  : “UNESCO City of Literature now seeks to build on this honour, to deliver clear benefits for the city and for Scotland, to promote our country through literature and to establish the city as an example for all the other cities of literature that follow’.

Let me tell you that the town well deserves its title and  that it has not rested on its laurels since this memorable date. The city  has launched a great number of very interesting literary projects of which we’ll soon tell you about and published a number of books among which in 2005, The Full Story oF Edinburgh’s Past And Present…

The Full Story of Edinburgh's Literary Past and Present

Finally we’re very happy to share with you the announcement of the coming out of Crimespotting, a book introduced by Irvine Welsh, the Scottish author of Trainspotting. This book should prove to be soon a must for the amateurs of the so-called “Tartan Noir” crime stories taking place in Edinburgh.

Crimespotting introduced by Irvine Welsh

It will come out on August 1st… don’t miss it !

‘All the short stories are brand new, specially commissioned for the title. The authors were asked for a story which features a crime and is set in Edinburgh. The results range from hard-boiled police procedural to historical whodunit and from the wildly comic to the spookily supernatural. Contributors are Lin Anderson, Kate Atkinson, Margaret Atwood, Christopher Brookmyre, John Burnside, Isla Dewar, A L Kennedy, Denise Mina, Ian Rankin and James Robertson, with an introduction by Irvine Welsh’   Source: Amazon.co.uk

A bientôt.