Scotiana

Up Helly Aa – Lerwick’s Night of the Year!

MAJA — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 22:39:30 +0000

Bonjour! Hello again from Scotland, Marie-Agnès, Janice and Jean-Claude!

We both wish you – and all of Scotiana’s readers – bon courage and many happy times in the year ahead, which promises to be quite a difficult one.

Snowdrops from Blaikiewell Animal Sanctuary, in Deeside, Aberdeenshire, UK - Source: Wikipedia

As we write, the garden snowdrops are in full bloom, yet winter is not over. There’s a very welcome ‘stretch’ to the days, however, with an extra hour of light mornings and evenings; but how we wish Spring would hurry up! January can seem a dull month in Scotland, with the weather at its worst (mercifully, this year’s has been remarkably mild!) – and only the Burns events around the 25th to break the monotony.

Shetland Map - Source: Wikipedia

Dear Friends, we’ve often remarked in our regular messages how curious it is, that a small country like Scotland should have a separate Lowland and Highland culture – to which, arguably, could be added the distinctive cultures of Orkney and the Shetland Islands! It’s to Shetland that we go today, to see how the folks of Lerwick deal with a long, dark January night; is there anything in Europe – anything in the world, we wonder – to match the scale and spectacle of Up Helly Aa?

From modest beginnings in the 1880′s, Up Helly Aa has grown to become Lerwick’s biggest event of the year, surpassing Christmas and the New Year festivities put together. Traditionally, the fire festival begins on the evening of the last Tuesday in January – followed by a night of celebration and revelry – for the very good reason that it is convenient to have a Public Holiday next day, so that everyone can rest and recover!

Jean-Claude, Janice, Mairiuna – we’re fortunate to have seen Up Helly Aa several times, and will try to give you a flavour of the excitement that’s in the air on Lerwick’s night of the year ..

Up Helly Aa - 2011 Lerwick Procession. Photo by Robert Perry - Source: Shetlopedia.com , courtesey The Scotsman

“From grand old Viking centuries Up Helly Aa has come,
Then light the torch and form the march and sound the rolling drum .. .. “

Cowboys, an Arab sheikh and his harem, a team of ‘schoolgirl’ hockey players with curiously broad shoulders – just some of the 900 men who have formed two long lines at the Hillhead, ready to walk in procession. Suddenly, Lerwick is plunged into darkness – it’s the moment everyone has been waiting for. At 7.15 precisely, there’s a blaze of torches as the Guizer Jarl and his squad of Vikings pass swiftly through the ranks to head the march. Then, as the Town Hall clock strikes the half hour, a coastguard rocket is fired – the signal for lighting up! In seconds, guizers and spectators are bathed in an orange glow as the flames of 900 flickering torches leap up into the night sky.

And they’re off, singing as they march to the Up Helly Aa Song behind the beautifully built replica galley.

This is no ordinary torchlight procession. Up Helly Aa traditionally marks the end of ‘Yule’ and the ‘holy days’ of Christmas; preparations have gone on all year. Gales and driving rain can be expected in Shetland in January, but the festival is never postponed; the torches are just made larger! Each one is six feet long and weighs a stone – and has been soaked in paraffin until a gallon has been absorbed. It takes a fit young man to carry this kind of load for an hour – which is one reason why an attempt by feminists in 1986 to bring women into the procession came to nothing.

Now the guizers are marching and counter-marching, six abreast, in King Erik Street, below the Town Hall. In the King George V Playing Field, the drama is moving towards its climax. Some people become quite tearful as the galley is completely encircled by flaming torches.

The Guizer Jarl’s squad march around the proud longship. A bugle call is sounded, and as the last note dies away, the torches thud one after another into the doomed vessel.

Fascinated, we watch until the last moments when her back breaks and the tottering mast falls amid a shower of sparks into the inferno!

The day of Up Helly Aa had started early. We had our first sight of the galley at 10am, as it was towed to the harbour for a photo-call – escorted by the Guizer Jarl, his full squad and the brass band. Vikings large and small are everywhere – did you ever see so many bearded men? The jaws of the ship’s dragon head gape open, the Raven Banner thrashes in the wind. Everyone, it seems, has a camera; while the professionals mount their stepladders, the amateur snappers point this way and that, trying to get everything in.

A great cheer goes up as the new Jarl makes his first public appearance. Above all, Up Helly Aa day belongs to him; he and his squad have the privilege of inviting their younger male relatives to join them on the big day, and only they may wear Viking costume.Each year a new Guizer Jarl is elected from the 15 members of the organising committee (generally by rotation; he then retires from office). But for each man it is a tremendous honour – a day to remember, as for 24 hours he impersonates one of the great heroes of the old Norse sagas.

The Guizer Jarl must attend to ‘affairs of state’ at the Town Hall; he meets civic dignitaries and receives messages of congratulation from Shetland exiles all over the world. (One of them comes from a ship in the Antarctic – Shetlanders have the sea in their blood.) And he drinks the Up Helly Aa toast from the goblet, in the shape of a galley, that was a gift from Maaloy, the community in western Norway with which Lerwick is twinned.

Up Helly Aa Jarl 's Toasting Cup - Photo by Kozetland - Shetlopedia.com

We join the queue at the newsagent’s in Commercial Street to buy the official Programme, containing information that has been top-secret until that morning – here are the names chosen by the 50 squads of guizers who will follow the galley in the torchlight procession. They give a clue – just a clue – to the sort of stunts and humorous sketches each squad will perform during the night-long revelries. Most importantly, if you should be a visitor, a plan shows the exact route of the procession to the burning site.

A short fireworks display follows the burning of the galley. At 9pm the first squads are ready to visit the dozen or so halls, all over Lerwick, as the celebration continues. Among the guests inside, the girls are wearing their best party dresses, hoping to be chosen for a dance once the guizers have performed their ‘acts’.

The most amusing of these little plays often have to do with local Shetland events or matters in the news. Chers Amis, we can still remember one of the sketches quite clearly – it had to do with a young couple who wanted to make their home in an abandoned church in the country, which happened to have a burial ground around it! So, enter the squad with a complete church – in modular form – gravestones, flowers, the lot. Two men played the parts of the young homemakers, others were the planning officials from the Town Council. The remainder, as you might imagine, wore ghostly white sheets over their heads!

Just one of almost 50 acts on Lerwick’s night of the year. Up Helly Aa is great fun!

A bientôt, Marie-Agnès, Jean-Claude et Janice!
Margaret, Iain.

Discover Scottish Landscapes and Wildlife with Nature Lovers…

MAJA — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 22:06:45 +0000

The Scots Magazine January 2012

Hi everybody,

I’m always looking forward to receiving The Scots Magazine. Its covers are generally gorgeous and its wee size allows me to take it with me in the tram. Indeed, so deeply immersed I often get in my reading that I soon forget where I’m going to… last time I missed two stations

What I like most in this magazine are the articles devoted to Scottish landscapes and wildlife. No risk for their authors to suffer from white page syndrome for Scotland is a paradise for lovers of Nature. There is a good audience too for everybody seems to be in love with Nature there. I’ve selected two articles in the last issue of the magazine (January 2012).

The first article, “Jay is for January” was written by Jim Crumley, one of the best nature writers in the UK and as the title indicates it should appeal to birdwatchers.

This well-known nature writer regularly writes in The Scots Magazine and he is the author of about 20 books, mainly about Scottish landscapes and wildlife.

Jim Crumley’s very lively style, full of humour and poetry, is irresistible. His article begins like that :

“One of those half-dark-at-noon January days moved sluggishly through the afternoon, fuelled by that lethargic species of rain that makes almost no sound but has the capacity to saturate in minutes everything and everyone in its path. It was falling when I was having breakfast, mid-morning coffee, lunch and mid-afternoon-coffee (long sessions at the writing desk are punctuated with excuses for getting up and crossing the room to the kettle), but just when I was thinking I needed the full-blown exercise of going downstairs to the bar where I might have the day’s first conversation with another human being, I glanced out of the window and saw pale light. The rain had stopped and the last hour before dusk promised to be the brightest – or rather the least dark – of the day, so I postponed the pleasures of the bar, stepped into wellies, grabbed a jacket and binoculars, and went out into the sodden world.

It was good to be out, but there was an unease about the forest in such a mood, and it communicated itself effortlessly into the mind of a solitary walker. Then the forest screamed.” (…)

“The forest screamed”! What an image!

Now, don’t you feel like following the “solitary walker” in the woods? I do.

The covers and titles of Jim Crumley’s books are very inspiring… Something Out There, The Winter Whale, The Last Wolf, Days with the Golden Eagle, The Great Wood, The Isle of Skye …

A deep sense of place, a poetic approach of nature with a touch of mystery… I like that and I’ve just ordered three of Jim Crumley’s books. I will tell you more about these books as soon as I have read them. The Great Wood, with its beautiful engraving-style cover, is Jim’s Crumley last published book. Yes, there must be “Something Out There” !!!

Jim Crumley Something Out There Whittles Publishing 2002.

‘Like many a Highland glen, the Fathan Ghlinne should be wooded but isn’t. But I have sat long and often and listened to the ancient river speech, to the windsong of three birches and a rowan, the rowan above a meeting of waterfalls which should be a portentous place. And the word on the wind and in the speech of the river is that the trees and wolves and the people will be back.’ Thus Jim Crumley concludes this remarkable book of nature writing. The setting is largely Highland Perthshire (there are startling asides to Mull and Alaska), the author’s home for several years, and where, having ‘chased a rainbow’ that faded early he stayed on and put down a root that nourished his nature writer’s instincts. Something Out There is Jim Crumley’s account of his quest to rediscover something of the ancient bond between man and nature. It is told in prose that is three-quarters of the way to poetry, and in the process gives the art of nature writing a bold new standard bearer for the 21st century.

Jim Crumley The Last Wolf Birlinn August 2010

In The Last Wolf, Jim Crumley explores the place of the wolf in Scotland – past, present and future – and challenges many of the myths that have been regarded for centuries as biological fact. Bringing to bear a lifetime’s immersion in his native landscape and more than twenty years as a professional nature writer, Crumley questions much of the written evidence on the plight of the wolf in light of contemporary knowledge and considers the wolf in today’s world, an examination that ranges from Highland Scotland to Devon and from Yellowstone in North America to Norway and Italy, as he pursues a more considered portrait of the animal than the history books have previously offered. Within the narrative, Crumley also examines the extraordinary phenomenon of wolf reintroductions physically transforming the landscapes in which they live that even the very colours of the land change under the influence of teeming grasses, flowers, trees, butterflies, birds, and mammals that flourish in their company, Crumley makes the case for their reintroduction into Scotland with all the passion and poetic fervour that has become the hallmark of his writing over the years. This is an elegant, erudite and imaginative account that readdresses the place of the wolf in modern Scotland.

The Great Wood Jim Crumley Birlinn September 2011

The Great Wood of Caledon – the historic native forest of Highland Scotland – has a reputation as potent and misleading as the wolves that ruled it. The popular image is of an impassable, sun-snuffing shroud, a Highlandswide jungle infested by wolf, lynx, bear, beaver, wild white cattle, wild boar, and wilder painted men. Jim Crumley shines a light into the darker corners of the Great Wood, to re-evaluate some of the questionable elements of its reputation, and to assess the possibilities of its partial resurrection into something like a national forest. The book threads a path among relict strongholds of native woodland, beginning with a soliloquy by the Fortingall Yew, the one tree in Scotland that can say of the hey-day of the Great Wood 5,000 years ago: ‘I was there.’ The journey is enriched by vivid wildlife encounters, a passionate and poetic account that binds the slow dereliction of the past to an optimistic future.

I invite you to read the Australian reader’s comment of the book on Amazon, and his page of comments too

The Isle of Skye Text by Jim Crumley Photograpy by Colin Baxter 1st edited by Colin Baxter in 2005

The Isle of Skye off Scotland’s West Highland seaboard, is renowned for the dramatic beauty of its landscape, and as the setting for some of the darkest moments to Scottish history. Today the island is buoyant again, and new generations of islanders and visitors fall uner the spell of its quicksilver light, its quick-change weather, and at the heart of it all, the ancient lure of the Cuillin Hills.
I’ve read The Isle of Skye before going back there in 2007. It’s a little gem! Added to the stunning photographs taken by Colin Baxter, it contains a detailed chronology and a very useful relief map of the island* with its main points of interest.

Cameron McNeish Gore -Tex Experience Tour Source: Mountain Equipment

The second article I’ve chosen in The Scots Magazine was written by Cameron McNeish and is entitled “Westward Ho” ! The mythical West call! The stunning landscapes of the western coast of Scotland are worth the effort of a 10-day walk especially when the walker can admire them from the heights of a Munro!

I turned away from the waves and faced west, my direction of travel for the next 10 days or so. Celtic traditions have it that in the far West, off the edges of all maps, lay the Otherworld, or Afterlife. (…)

I’d walked coast-to-coast across Scotland before, but the other way, from west to east, a direction that seemed to go against all my natural inclinations. (…)

(…) I was making a television programme for BBC Scotland, a coast-to-coast walk which I hoped would showcase the diversity of landscapes that we have here in Scotland and you probably couldn’t get more diverse sights than the beach at Aberdeen and my ultimate destination, the rugged hills of Knoydart.

Cameron McNeish is a wilderness hiker, backpacker and mountain walker, author and broadcaster. His programme “Coast to Coast” was diffused on 27 December 2011. I’d like to have stamina enough to follow Cameron McNeish in one of his walks, along some of the most beautiful landscapes of Scotland. It must be very hard to the legs but good to the mind !

The Skye Trail Cameron McNeish and Richard Else Mountain Media 2010

Of all Scotland’s islands none casts its spell quite as dramatically as the Isle of Skye. Celebrated in song and story, Eilean a’Cheo is a place of astonishing natural beauty and attracts climbers and walkers from all over the world. The 70-mile long Skye Trail connects two of the island’s most extraordinary landscapes; the world-famous Cuillin, the most rugged mountain range in Britain, and the Trotternish ridge, a rolling escarpment of basalt hills that look over the sea to the tumbled landscapes of mainland Scotland. This long walk through the island, the ‘Skitis’ of the Celtic world, follows ancient byways, cattle drovers’ routes, mountain footpaths and an old railway line, through a land where the first inhabitants sensed the presence of their gods in every nook and cranny, on every hill and crag, in every corrie and loch. Landscape and weather and an affinity with wild nature made up the very fabric of their lives. The route visits castles, takes in geological gems like the Quiraing and the Storr, follows rivers and loch-side paths and recalls those who were brutally removed from their homes during the Highland Clearances. It visits the site of the ‘last battle on British soil’ and climbs Bla Bheinn, surely the finest mountain on this island of fine mountains. The route then takes its finale along the old Marble Line to Broadford, and the end of a magnificent island journey. The Skye Trail is destined to be one of the most popular long distance walks in Britain. Adopted by the Highland Council as an official long distance walk, it was brought to life by BBC Scotland’s often repeated “Skye Trail” presented by Cameron McNeish. This illustrated book is based on the broadcast and Cameron’s experiences of the trail, the island, its people and its history and environment.

The Munros Scotland's Highest Mountains Cameron McNeish Lomond 1996

We have this book on our shelves… not that we intend to climb the Scottish Munros but why not dream of trying one or two little ones some day?

To give some more breadth to this article just have a look at some videos made by Cameron McNeish. They will show you Scotland as you’ll probably never see it !

I hope you’ve enjoyed these few moments in company of Jim Crumley and Cameron McNeish. What a better way to discover Scottish landscapes and wildlife than to listen to such great Nature lovers !

A bientôt. Mairiuna

* no longer an island for some people the opening of the Skye bridge in 1995. The toll was abolished in 2004.

Scottish Photographer Richard Shucksmith Wins 2011 British Wildlife Photography Award

MAJA — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 22:03:06 +0000

Just stumbled upon this article about the 2011 British Wildlife Photography Award and being a photography lover, I’m very excited to share it with you.

Especially that it reports that the overall winner is Scottish Photographer Richard Shucksmith, who lives on the beautiful Shetland Islands!

Richard Shucksmith Scottish Photographer | Source: blipfoto.com

The winners in twelve categories of the 2011 British Wildlife Photography Awards (BWPAs) have been announced.

Aiming at honoring talented wildlife photographers, this year’s competition attracted thousands of photographers across the country and was considered as “a special opportunity to give the natural world that surrounds us the recognition, and reverence, it deserves.”

Jellyfish in the Blue Sea of Sula Sgeir, Scotland by Richard Shucksmith

Richard Shucksmith is the 2011 BWPAs overall winner with his photos of a jellyfish entitled “Jellyfish in the Blue Sea of Sula Sgeir, Scotland”. He captured the image at Sula Sgeir, a small uninhabited Scottish island, 41 miles north of Lewis.

This photo secured the £5,000 first prize. It’s also the winning photograph of the Coast and Marine category.

3. Where are you based?

I live on the beautiful and wild Shetland Isles. Over 2000km of coastline with a diverse range of marine habitats. One day in a sheltered voe watching otters and the next day on an exposed cliff watching orcas.

There is so much to see and photograph around Shetland I never feel the need to travel elsewhere although I do love the west coast of Scotland too. I work in Shetland as a marine/terrestrial ecologist working closely with industry in reducing their ecological impact during their development stage.

I have my own company and work short term contracts – I have chosen to work this way so I can spend more time undertaking my photography.

It also allows me to live in places that I find inspirational.

In other words, I live amongst the wildlife and wild landscapes that I love.

Don’t get me wrong, its sound great but this way of living is not for everyone as there is a lot of insecurity.

Source: Ten Questions To Richard Shucksmith – Interview

SGreg Armfield, Photography and Film Manager from WWF said “A truly beautiful shot of a jellyfish that perfectly captures its iridescent colours and magical qualities. All the more remarkable that it exists in UK waters. Fantastic.”

Source: BWPAWARDS.ORG

Below are the other winning photographs from all categories.

Stunning!

“Mystical Deer” taken by Mark Smith in Richmond, Surrey, England, wins Animal Portraits category

“Champagne Starling” captured by David Biggs in Bayston Hill, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, wins Urban Wildlife category

“Grey Heron Walking on Water” photographed by Andrew Parkinson in Derbyshire, England, wins Animal Behaviour category

“Busy Wasp on Blackberries” taken by Rana Dias in Horley, Surrey, England, wins Wildlife in My Backyard category

“Hare in Morning Light with Hoar Frost” posed by Ian Paul Haskell in Norfolk, wins Habitat category

“Scorpion Fly on a Leaf” captured by Leslie Holburn in County Durham, England, wins Hidden Britain category

“Thick-legged Flower Beetle on Corn Marigold” posed by Ross Hoddinott in Pentire Point, near Newquay, Cornwall, England, wins British Seasons category

“It’s Only a Game” photographed by Neil Aldridge in Hertfordshire, England, wins Documentary Series category

The winner of Young British Wildlife Photographers, Up to 11 Years category, is Walter Lovell, 8, with “Frog Checking Its Frogspawn”

The winner of Young British Wildlife Photographers, 12 to 18 Years category, is Oliver Wilks, 16, with “Red Fox Yawning After His Afternoon Nap”

“Ladybird on Rose” taken by William Richardson in London, England, is highly commended in Hidden Britain category

Summer Wildlife 2011

Source of the article: Ezimark.com

To get your own copy of the fantastic coffee table book of all the BWPA win, simply click on the cover image below. It will navigate you to Amazon SuperStore where you can shop with confidence.

Briitsh Wildlife Photography Awards - Aa Publishing (September 30, 2011) - 224 pages

Enjoy!

Janice

PS: If you would like to view 2010 Best Wildlife Photos, click here.

St Trinian’s, Ronald Searle’s famous cartoon set in Edinburgh…

MAJA — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 22:00:40 +0000

One of the many Ronald Searle's cat drawings

Pourquoi les dessinateurs dessinent-ils des chats ? Parce qu’ils les aiment.

(Le Monde 2012-01-10)

Hi everybody !

A few days ago, Iain and Margaret sent us this message from Scotland :

You probably know that the cartoonist Ronald Searle (whose death was announced today) is believed to have found the inspiration for his dreadful St. Trinian’s schoolgirls – wise far beyond their years! – in the real-life Edinburgh school, St. Trinean’s. Searle’s cartoons inspired in turn such films as (I think, Iain!) - The Belles of St. Trinian’s and The Pure Hell of St. Trinian’s, comedies of the 1950′s .. .. Searle, a war-prisoner of the Japanese, did much else, but is best remembered for his nubile schoolgirls!

Ronald Searle's 2012 New Year card dedicated to his wife Monica who died in July 2011

Though he was living in France since 1961 and died at Draguignan on 30 December 2011, I must admit I knew nothing about Ronald Searle before our friends’s message triggered my curiosity . I soon got deeply immersed in the reading of a number of pages devoted to him on the web for many newspapers have paid tribute to the satirist whose drawings had made famous, in the 1940s, St Trinean’s College.

Ronald Searle - The Terror of St Trinian's and Other Drawings - Modern Classics Penguin 30 november 2011

The school is the antithesis of the Enid Blyton or Angela Brazil-type posh girls’ boarding school; its pupils are wicked and often well armed, and mayhem is rife. The mistresses (as female teachers in Britain were known at the time) are also disreputable. Cartoons often showed dead bodies of girls who had been murdered with pitchforks or succumbed to violent team sports, sometimes with vultures circling; girls drank, gambled and smoked. It is reputed that the gymslip style of dress worn by the girls was closely modelled on the uniform of the school that Searle’s daughter Kate attended, JAGS in Dulwich. The films implied that the girls were the daughters of gangsters, crooks, shady bookmakers and other low-lifes and the institution is often referred to as a “female borstal”. (Source: Wikipedia)

GEE WIZZ, as would say Janice, how “dreadful” are St Trinian’s illustrations !

But, whether we like or not the devastating style Ronald Searle uses on his most famous cartoon it’s quite interesting to inquire about the artist’s life and works not only because of the large scope and graphic quality of his drawings but also because St Trinian’s, which Michael McNay described as a ‘home of little monsters, wicked as sin’, happens to be set in Edinburgh…

St. Leonard's Hall, Pollock Halls of Residence, Edinburgh University - Source Wikipedia

The first full-blown St Trinian’s cartoon in Lilliput came after his release from Changi and was based on a real school (now defunct), St Trinean’s, in Edinburgh, which Searle had heard of when he was posted to Scotland during the phoney war. Much later, he turned down an invitation to stand for rector of Edinburgh University because, he said, he had done enough damage already to the city’s academic reputation.

(Ronald Searle obituary by Michael McNay (The Guardian 3 January 2012 )

The above photo shows the gothic style building, situated in Edinburgh, which once sheltered St Trinean’s, the old girls boarding school which inspired Ronald Searle’ for the drawing of St Trinians…

Ronald Searle (March 3,1920-Dec 30,2011)

On ignore si cela déclencha sa vocation, mais toujours est-il que la main de Ronald Searle se lance sur le coup des cinq ans : “Toutes les possibilités que pouvaient me donner une simple plume, un simple crayon, exercèrent sur moi une sorte de fascination qui tourna vite à l’obsession. Personne ne s’intéressait particulièrement à mes dessins, personne ne semblait choqué par leur caractère spontanément grotesque. Tout cela paraissait bien naturel pour un garçon qui se servait de sa main gauche…” Car la main de ce gaucher ne courait pas sur la feuille, elle dansait. (Le Monde 2012-01-10)

Searle was born on March 3rd 1920 in Cambridge, England, where his father worked as railwayman. He started drawing at about 5 and after leaving school at 15 he trained at Cambridge College of Arts and Technology for two years. At the outbreak of WWII, he enlisted in the Royal Engineers, one of the corps of the British Army. He was soon made prisoner which didn’t prevent him from drawing. He survived the “Death Railway“, the line built during WWII by the Empire of Japan between Bankgok, Thailand and Rangoon, Burma and during which more than 6,000 British workers died (and many others from other countries).

Railway of Death Ronald Searle - Source: Perpetua

I started this blog in 2006 as a fan of the work of Ronald Searle. Dissatisfied by what was available online at the time I decided to do it myself! Initially it began as a collection of choice scans from my collection of books illustrated by Ronald Searle.
Most of these books are out of print so I thought sharing them online might encourage a community of Searle fans to contribute too. Over the past 4 years other fans have sent me interesting material, even Ronald Searle himself has passed photographs & videos to me from his personal archive. The site has coalesced into a sprawling archive of Searle’s oeuvre which I someday hope to organize chronologically-for now the best I can do is point you to some of the main sections in the links list on the right. (Matt Jones, author of the blog Perpetua)

The sketchbooks Searle brought home from Changi constitute a remarkable document of survival in the face of the grossest inhumanity and are probably the best visual record of war in the Imperial War Museum; they formed the basis for a book, To the Kwai and Back: War Drawings 1939-45 (1986). His mastery of the fine balance between description and expression was by now fully achieved. He had become, almost incidentally, one of the finest topographical artists of the century. (The Guardian 3 January 2012 )

In 1947, Ronald Searle married the journalist Kaye Webb; they had twins, Kate and Johnny. In 1961, he moved to Paris, leaving his family and later marrying Monica Koenig, a painter, theatre and jewellery designer. After 1975, Searle and his wife lived and worked in the mountains of Haute Provence.

Ronald Searle worked for many magazines : Life, Holiday, Punch, The New Yorker, the Sunday Express, News Chronicle, Le Monde, Le Figaro Littéraire…

Searle received many awards for his work, he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2004 and Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur in 2007.

Let us watch the TV interview he gave in 2010, on the eve of his 90th birthday…

Ronald Searle's illustration - The Fall of St. Trinian's

St Trinian’s became a national institution, to the point where Searle began to hate his creation. He said later that he had never drawn that many St Trinian’s cartoons but that the impression was abroad that he did little else. In fact, after the popular success of the novel The Terror of St Trinian’s (1952), Searle balked at producing another in the sequence and instead, with his friend Geoffrey Willans, a BBC journalist, he devised Nigel Molesworth, semi-literate antihero of Down With Skool (1953) and its sequels; the gentler humour (some said whimsical) seemed to suit Searle better and his public lapped it up.

(The Guardian 3 January 2012 )

Molesworth Geoffrey Wilans and Ronald Searle Penguin Modern Classics 2000

I would certainly prefer Ronald Searle’s ‘gentler humour’ and I definitely love his animal pets drawings

Dessin de Ronald Searle Source Télérama © Estate of Ronald Searle and the Sayle Literary Agency

Like this one I’ve found on the blog of Télérama ©Reproduced by kind permission of the Estate of Ronald Searle and the Sayle Literary Agency.

The St Trinian's Story 1959,Perpetua Ltd.,London, first UK edition

Here’s the list of the St Trinian’s cartoons:

Hurrah For St Trinians, 1948
The Female Approach: The Belles of St. Trinian’s and Other Cartoons, 1950
Back To The Slaughterhouse, and Other Ugly Moments, 1951
The Terror of St Trinian’s, or Angela’s Prince Charming, 1952 (with Timothy Shy (D. B. Wyndham-Lewis))
Souls in Torment, 1953 (preface by Cecil Day-Lewis)
The St Trinian’s Story, 1959 (with Kaye Webb)
St Trinian’s: The Cartoons, 2007
St. Trinian’s: The Entire Appalling Business, 2008

They proved to be so successful that, in the 1950s, a series of comedy films was made on the subject. Two of these films featured Alastair Sim, the well-known Scottish actor who played Miss Fritton, the headmistress as well as her brother

The Belles of StTrinians - Alastair Sim - Film 1954

Here’s the list of St Trinian’s films :

The Belles of St Trinian’s (1954, the first film)
Blue Murder at St Trinian’s (1957, the second film)
The Pure Hell of St Trinian’s (1960, the third film)
The Great St Trinian’s Train Robbery (1966, the final film of the quartet)
The Wildcats of St Trinian’s (1980, with Maureen Lipman taking on the Joyce Grenfell role)
St Trinian’s (2007)
St Trinian’s 2: The Legend of Fritton’s Gold (2009)

I’ve found on You Tube a video which gives a good idea of St Trinian’s atmosphere in The Belles of St Trinian’s film and of the talent of the Scottish actor who plays a double part in this film.

I’ve learned that though he was Scottish, Alastair Sim had turned down the lead role in Whisky Galore saying that he couldn’t bear professional Scotsmen !

Alastair Sim

This is the theme from the original 1950s St. Trinians film from the original soundtrack, which starred Alastair Sim & George Cole, with Joyce Grenfell. The dual role of headmistress Millicent Fritton and her twin brother Clarence, was one of Alastair Sim’s most memorable performances, George Cole’s portrayal of Flash Harry was later to inspire His role as Arthur Daley in Minder. (You Tube summary)

Alastair Sim A Christmas Carol 1951

As Christmas is not far behind us I’d like to end my post on an extract from an old version of the film A Christmas Carol. Alastair Sim is at his best in this film !

Enjoy !

A bientôt. Mairiuna

Scottish Gifts under the Christmas Tree…

MAJA — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 22:00:33 +0000

Hi everybody,

BONNE ANNEE A TOUS !!!

We’re just coming back from Sologne where we spent the New Year holidays not far from Aubigny-sur-Nère and a few kilometers from two of the most famous châteaux de la Loire: Chambord and Cheverny.

Cheverny is the castle which served as a model to the Belgian comic book creator Hergé for the drawing of his fictional “Château de Moulinsart” (“Marlinspike” in English), Capitaine Haddock’s estate, in the Adventures of Tintin books. Moulinsart castle first appears in The Secret of the Unicorn.

Hergé's "Château de Moulinsart" in The Adventures of Tintin - Source : Wikipedia

On Hergé’s Moulinsart there are no outermost wings but the central tower and the two inner wings have been kept.

With its beautiful and well-furnished interiors, its magnificent painted ceilings recalling those of Crathes Castle in Scotland, the Château de Cheverny is very interesting to visit. The personal touch given by its owners can be seen in each room and its decoration which changes according to the season still adds to the very lively and cheerful atmosphere of the castle. We’ve visited it several times and it’s one of our favourites.

Château de Cheverny hunting dog © Marie Lorchat 2012

The Château de Cheverny is also famous for its pack of hunting dogs (beagles). I like very much Marie’s photo . The dogs are fed daily, and this time we arrived on time to assist to their dinner. It’s quite impressive !

Today, I’m going to tell you a few words about some of the gifts I’ve found under the Christmas tree … those with a Scottish touch

I can’t remember of any letter written by me to Santa Claus when I was a little girl though I’m pretty sure there must have been one at least ! But Father Christmas seems to be well-informed Otherwise, how could he know that I’m collecting teddy bears, that I’m a fan of Scotland and that I do love books and… chocolates! This year, he has been particularly kind and generous with me for among the many marvellous presents which were waiting for me under the Christmas tree I didn’t find a single one which did not appeal to one of my favourite tastes. Stuck on some of them I found a little envelope with a message full of humour and tenderness. Dear Père Noël, many many thanks …

Now, just have a look at my Christmas presents !

Oeuvres de Walter Scott Histoire d'Ecosse Traduction AJB Defauconpret Furne 1835

Un chef d’oeuvre en péril !

Il faudrait un miracle pour le restaurer.

Inutile d’appeler l’éditeur, car le téléphone n’existait pas lors de l’impression!!!

Seul un miracle…

(Le Père Noël)

The missing book ! That’s the first one…

A few years ago I had found on Abebooks a rather cheap but incomplete French edition of Sir Walter Scott’s books, translated by A.J.B. Defauconpret. This illustrated collection was composed of 30 violine half-shagreen volumes and had been edited by Furne, Ch. Gosselin, Perrotin in 1835, three years after Sir Walter’s death. Five volumes were missing (I’m still looking for them) : I : Waverley, IV : Rob Roy, VI : La prison d’Edimbourg, VII : La fiancée de Lammermoor and volume XXVII : Histoire d’Ecosse 2ème série, the famous Tales of a Scottish Grandfather. The seller had been very kind to give me seven extra books, wee odd volumes (about 14 x 9 cm) from another collection (I’m also looking for the missing books ) : La prison d’Edimbourg (2 volumes), Le nain noir (1 volume), Les puritains d’Ecosse (2 volumes), Ivanhoe (first volume). These last ones had been edited by Librairie de Lecointe Paris 1830 (Sir Walter was still alive then !).

Oeuvres de Walter Scott Histoire d'Ecosse 2ème série Traduction AJB Defauconpret Furne 1835

So… the book I’ve found under the Christmas tree belongs to a sister edition of my own 1835 edition of Paris, Furne, Ch. Gosselin, Perrotin. Only the cover is different. There seems to have been many editions of Sir Walter Scott’s books at that time in English and in French too. M. Defauconpret was a great admirer of Sir Walter Scott and he was invited to Abbotsford with his wife. I’m very impressed by the huge work of translation he did in so little time. He was helped in this work by his son. I’ll try to know more about these translators…

Journal des voyages et des aventures de terre et de mer n° 826 mai 1893 - Les Superstitions d'Ecosse by F. Morans © 2012 Scotiana

Les prédictions de la Gypsie :

Epreuve de la pomme et du miroir – Epreuve de la graine de chanvre

Le chou arraché – Epreuve de la meule de foin – Epreuve du van dans la grange.

(…) La superstition a peuplé les clairières et les solitudes de spectres ou de génies tutélaires, et le “Shellycoat”, – génie des eaux, qui égarait les voyageurs attardés, après les avoir fascinés par le cliquetis de son armure, – a laissé son nom à plus d’un rocher et plus d’un écueil dangereux.

Le foyer domestique a perdu peu à peu ses dieux, avec les ruines moussues, les bruyères et les grèves. L’Elf seul a bravé le “chant du coq” qui, dans Shakespeare, “dissipe les illusions et les esprits nocturnes” ; il hante encore les vallées perdues au fond des cantons montagneux et boisés ; s’il n’a plus de fidèles que chez les hommes de moeurs simples et de foi traditionnelle, – que n’a point encore atteint le scepticisme moderne, – son souvenir s’y conserve, indécis et vague, abrité par le sentiment national.

Le voyageur rencontre bien sous les hêtres et les chênes séculaires des ombres épaisses et mystérieuses, mais rien qui ressemble aux êtres surnaturels dont nous entretient la légende. Les arbres contemporains du “Conquérant” étalent fièrement leurs membres tordus et leur feuillage sombre, qui se détache sur les fauves bruyères ; un léger nuage plane au-dessus d’un feu grêle, alimenté de bois vert, qui jette plus de fumée que de flamme ; mais ce n’est point “la braise de minuit”, allumée par le “brownie” fantastique et capricieux ; les rayons de la lune tombent avec une sérénité blafarde sur le toit rond ou pointu de deux ou trois tentes dont la toile grossière frissonne au souffle du vent ; un âne, parfois un vieux cheval, broutent paisiblement en liberté l’herbe courte ; un hibou glapit par intervalle sous la futaie ; hommes et femmes en haillons sont accroupis autour des coquemars et chantent une vieille ballade, interrompue souvent par les faibles aboiements des chiens hargneux ; ce ne sont point les sorcières de Macbeth, ni les génies protecteurs de la forêt, c’est un clan de gypsies, de “Rums” et de “juwas” ; à défaut des fées, on y trouve des devineresses olivâtres et des diseuses de bonne aventure (…)

(F. Morans)

L’Ecosse est un pays de traditions…

Il est de tradition chez certains de chercher des introuvables, tout en évitant les doublons !!!

(Le Père Noël)

Sur les bruyères d'Ecosse P. Kinsbourg et M. Gratiot Paris 1893

Un voyage d’Ecosse raconté en 140 pages !… Disons bien vite que ce récit est simplement l’itinéraire de la sixième de nos excursions. Vous ayant ainsi prévenus, nous serons sûrs, au moins, de ne pas vous tromper.

Dans vingt ans, en relisant ces petites feuilles, nous nous souviendrons de tout ce qui nous a charmés dans le pays de Walter Scott et des Highlanders. Et c’est là notre seule pensée. D’ailleurs le voyage que nous voulons vous tracer n’a pas été seulement une longue pérégrination pédestre à travers coteaux et montagnes : les lacs écossais ont fait plus souvent de nous des navigateurs que des marcheurs. – Que de fois, depuis deux années, nous parlions de cette Ecosse qui semblait toujours nous échapper ! Retardée déjà à deux reprises, cette excursion passait presque à l’état de chimère, et voilà qu’elle nous semble maintenant un ancien souvenir…

(P. Kinsbourg et M. Gratiot -1893)

And last but not least… look at what dear Québécoise Mère Noël brought to me ! An Amazon Kindle… WOW !!!… it arrived only two days ago but Mr Kindle is already a great friend of me. For somebody who has always been a book addict and who owns hundreds of old and new books it comes as a surprise ! I can’t believe it. It doesn’t replace my books but it is quite complementary to them… Just imagine : no more need to take with me a heavy suitcase full of books when I travel… Mr Kindle has already ingested lots of books and my virtual library is growing rapidly. And guess what were the first two collections to enter Mr Kindle’s library? The Complete Works of Sir Walter Scott (Illustrated) and of Robert Louis Stevenson

Now, let us end this post with Scotiana’s good resolutions for 2012 :

Happy Hogmanay, Bonne Année , Happy New Year!

MAJA — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 21:28:16 +0000

Wishing You A Great 2012!

Great Britain Postage Stamp

Hogmanay is the Scots word for the celebration of the New Year in the Scottish manner. Its official date is the 31st of December. However this is normally only the start of a celebration which lasts through the night until the morning of the 1st or, in many cases, the 2nd of January.

There are many customs, both national and local, associated with Hogmanay. The most widespread national custom is the practice of first-footing which starts immediately after midnight. This involves being the first person to cross the threshold of a friend or neighbour and often involves the giving of symbolic gifts such as coal or shortbread, intended to bring different kinds of luck to the householder. This may go on throughout the early hours of the morning and well into the next day.

Immediately after midnight it is traditional to sing Robert Burns’ “For Auld Lang Syne”. Burns claimed it was based on an earlier fragment and certainly the tune was in print over 80 years before he published his version in 1788.

“Should auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot and auld lang syne
For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne,
We’ll take a cup o kindness yet, for auld lang syne.”

And it is worth remembering that January 2nd is a holiday in Scotland as well as the first day of the year – to give us all time to recover from a week of merry-making and celebration, all part of Scotland’s fascinating cultural legacy of ancient customs and traditions surrounding the pagan festival of Hogmanay.

Source: Scotlandia

Greeting Stamps - France

All the very best from Scotiana’s Team

Scotiana Wishes You a Very Happy Holiday Season!

MAJA — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 05:10:12 +0000

May the bells of Happiness ring merrily for you at Christmas.

Nollaig chridheil agus Bliadhna mhath ùr! ( Merry Christmas! in Gaelic)

Festive Greetings

From everyone at Scotiana, we wish you and yours a happy holiday and a healthy and prosperous new year. We are honored to have you as loyal readers and truly look forward to blogging along with you for years to come.

Scottish Christmas Stories for Christmas Time…

MAJA — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 02:05:17 +0000

Tombe la neige Source: Le portail anti-crise

Joyeux Noël à tous !!!

Santa Claus will very soon be at our doorstep or should I say up on the roof, ready to drop precious little presents into our chimney, ‘wee surprises’ as Iain and Margaret would say . Why not read or re-read some good Scottish Christmas stories while waiting for him?

Storytelling has always been very popular in Scotland and indeed the country has given birth to some of the greatest storytellers: Sir Walter Scott, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson first come to my mind but there are so many others…

George Mackay Brown being my favourite storyteller, I’ve chosen him to illustrate my purpose. He wrote a number of Christmas stories, some of them being very thrilling ghost stories which I’m particularly fond of. Most of these stories were first published in the newspapers in very attractive Christmas special issues. Some of them have been collected in Winter Tales. The two book covers I’ve inserted below are quite expressive of the contents of this marvellous book which I intend to re-read during Christmas holidays:

Winter Tales George Mackay Brown Flamingo 1996

Light and darkness are common themes in these tales, which all have a fireside ambience.

It is easy to imagine Mackay Brown… enthralling all before him as the peat crackles and another bottle of malt is broached.

(Sunday Express)

It was in winter that the islanders gathered round the hearth fire to listen to the stories (…)

Going over tales I’ve written during the last decade or so, I was not too surprised to see that many of them are calendar tales, that yield their best treasure in midwinter when the barns are full.

The mystery of light out of darkness has been with us since the builders of Maeshowe five thousand years ago. The Celtic missionaries gave the mystery breadth and depth.

I like to think I am part of that tradition.

(George Mackay Brown - Winter Tales)

I am a raving fan of gorgeous book cover designs as those of Winter Tales, for example, and I always like to anticipate my reading on catching a glance at the contents of a book even before buying it. Below is the contents of Winter Tales :

Foreword
The Paraffin Lamp (first published in Hydro Electric Magazine – 1975)
Lieutenant Bligh and Two Midshipmen
The Laird’s Son (1989 in The Scotsman )
The Children’s Feast (1989 in The Tablet)
A Crusader’s Christmas
The Lost Sheep (1990 in The Tablet)
A Boy’s Calendar (1990 in The Scotsman )
The Woodcarver (1991 in The Scotsman )
Three Old Men (1991 in The Tablet)
Ikey (1992 in The Scotsman)
A Nativity Tale (1992 in The Tablet)
Dancey
Shell Story (1993 in Xanadu, USA)
The Architect (1993 in The Scotsman)
St Christopher (1993 in The Tablet)
The Sons of Upland Farm (1994 in the Daily Telegraph)
The Road to Emmaus
The Fight in the Plough and Ox

Winter Tales George Mackay Brown Polygon 2006

Winter Tales is a superb collection of tender and compassionate tales, focusing on light and darkness, winter and its festivals,

by one of the greatest story-tellers of the twentieth century.

Through a variety of characters from shipwrecked Scandinavians to an Edinburgh gentleman,

George Mackay Brown looks at the impact of new ways of thinking on the traditional way of life of Orkney.

(From the back cover of Winter Tales Polygon 2006 )

Christmas Crime Stories The Folio Society London 2004

In my Folio Edition of Christmas Crime Stories I’ve found The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle (L’escarboucle bleue, in French), written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This story was first published in Strand Magazine in January 1892.

Below is the summary I’ve found in Wikipedia:

“Watson visits his friend Holmes at Christmas time and finds him contemplating a battered old hat, brought to him by the commissionaire Peterson after it and a Christmas goose had been dropped by a man in a scuffle with some street ruffians. Peterson takes the goose home to eat it, but comes back later with a carbuncle. His wife has found it in the bird’s crop (throat). Holmes makes some interesting deductions concerning the owner of the hat from simple observations of its condition, conclusions amply confirmed when an advertisement for the owner produces the man himself: Henry Baker.

Holmes cannot resist such an intriguing mystery, and he and Watson set out across the city to determine exactly how the jewel, stolen from the Countess of Morcar during her stay at a hotel, wound up in a goose’s crop. The man who dropped the goose, Mr. Henry Baker, clearly has no knowledge of the crime, but he gives Holmes valuable information, eventually leading him to the conclusive stage of his investigation, at Covent Garden. There, a salesman named Breckinridge gets angry with Holmes, complaining about all the people who have pestered him about geese sold recently to the landlord of the Alpha Inn. Clearly, someone else knows that the carbuncle was in a goose and is looking for the bird.
James Ryder imploring Holmes’ mercy

Holmes expects that he will have to visit the goose supplier in Brixton, but it will not be necessary: The other “pesterer” that the salesman mentioned shows up right then, a cringing little man named James Ryder whom Holmes prevails upon to tell the whole sordid story, by first mentioning that Ryder is probably looking for a goose with a black bar on its tail, a remarkable bird that “[laid] an egg after it was dead”. Of course, Holmes has already deduced most of it.

Ryder, believing he was being pursued for the theft, fed the carbuncle to a goose being bred by his sister Maggie Oakshott. He was to have that goose as a gift, but lost track of which one it was.

Thus, when Ryder cut open the goose and found no gem, he went back to his sister, who had provided the Alpha Inn geese, and asked if there was more than one goose that had a black bar on its tail. She said there were two, but he was too late: she had sold them all to Breckinridge at Covent Garden. Breckinridge already sold the geese to the Alpha Inn, and the other goose with a black bar on its tail found its way to Henry Baker as his Christmas fowl. Ryder and his accomplice — the countess’s maid, Catherine Cusack — contrived to disguise the crime to frame John Horner, a plumber who worked at the same hotel as Ryder and had previously been imprisoned for robbery.

Holmes, however, does not take the standard action against the man, it being Christmas, and concluding that arresting the clearly anguished Ryder will only make him into a more hardened criminal later. Ryder flees to the continent and Horner will be freed as the case against him will collapse without Ryder’s perjured testimony. Holmes remarks that he is not retained by the police to remedy their deficiencies.”

You can read the whole story on Gutenberg website=> http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1661/1661-h/1661-h.htm#7

Christmas Crime Stories The Folio Society London 2004 Michael Foreman Illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle

It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an absolutely innocent man,

who had no idea that the bird which he was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made of solid gold.

(Arthur Conan Doyle The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle)

I would like to end this Christmas post on one of the most remarkable stories I’ve ever heard about. It’s a mystery story but also a true story, the kind of story that can only happen in Scotland . It took place in Edinburgh, the Unesco City of Literature, the very place which gave birth to Sir Conan Doyle, Sir Walter Scott, Robert Luis Stevenson…

Edinburgh mystery sculpture 1 Source Edinburgh City of Literature website

Just try to imagine: since the month of March 2011 where the first sculpture had been dropped on the doorstep of The Scottish Poetry Library, seven beautiful and very elaborate book sculptures have been left all across the City of Literature by an anonymous artist, all wearing the same tag with the words “in support of libraries, books, words, ideas.”

I invite you to read the whole story on the Edinburgh City of Literature website. George Mackay Brown would certainly have found this story ‘marvellous’ and written about it in the Orcadian .

Ian Rankin and Edinburgh mystery sculpture Source Edinburgh City of Literature website

‘Ian Rankin, ex-board member of the Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature Trust, drops in to marvel at the sculpture that was left for them.’

Edinburgh mystery sculpture 2 Source Edinburgh City of Literature website

Isn’t that an extraordinary story to enjoy at Christmas, an opportunity to rejoice at the end of a year which has given us so many occasions to be sad and last but not least, in our never ending quest, an invitation to discover more about Scotland and its amazing capital, Edinburgh, the UNESCO City of Literature…

Happy Christmas to everybody!

A bientôt.

Mairiuna

Glasgow Necropolis: A Monument to ‘Child Migrants’…

MAJA — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 00:21:05 +0000

Here fond affection

rears its sculpted stone…

(from John Henry Alexander’s epitaph – Glasgow Necropolis)

“CEMETERIES ARE FOR THE LIVING. Sure, the dead are the permanent residents and the living merely visitors but the Necropolis and every other burying ground in the world were imagined, designed and built for the benefit of other living people. Time, as we are always reminded in graveyards, marches on and one generation of living people is replaced by another, over and over, time without end, amen.”

(Death by Design – The True Story of the Glasgow Necropolis – Ronnie Scott )

………………………….

Hi everybody!

It’s always with much anticipation that I’m waiting for a new post by Janice or a new ‘Letter from Scotland’ by Iain and Margaret . In her last post, Janice mentioned an article she had just read in Celtic Life , a popular Nova Scotia magazine which aims “to celebrate the living culture of the Seven Celtic Nations (Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, Galicia in Spain and the Isle of Man), to “share the culture, traditions, history, music, books, art, stories and language of all Celtic people.” The article is entitled ‘Child Slaves From Scotland; A Story rarely told‘ . The very name of this article conjured up a lot of unforgettable memories which brought me back instantly to Glasgow Necropolis, in front of a monument erected in memoriam of the unhappy children who came to be called “Child Migrants”. When we discovered the monument, quite by chance I must say, our first thought was that it was the grave of a much beloved child and it’s only on reading a board nearby that we learned the sad fate of those unfortunate children to which it is dedicated.

At the end of a grey and rainy day, on August 2007, we had been haunting the alleys of the “silent city”, as Ronnie Scott calls the Necropolis in his very interesting little book Death by Design. This strange city counts no less than 50,000 residents, a figure which would suggest a great density of population and much noise on the ‘Grey Rock’ if we didn’t know that its inhabitants aren’t taking much place and that they aren’t making much noise… or at least that’s what we’re expecting from them !

With this post, I’m introducing a series of articles about Scottish graveyards. It had not escaped to me, when we were planning our first visit to Scotland, in 2000, that we would find there some of the most ‘romantic’ churchyards we would ever see. In their silent and peaceful atmosphere, just try to decipher what the old stones have to say. Each of them has its secrets and stories to tell, some graves are true works of art and poetry, others read like pages of history and you will find expressed on many of them a unique and irresistible kind of humour… finally, in this realm of death what we discover is a quite astonishing celebration of life…

Always a dog in the neighbourhood … no Greyfriar’s Bobby in the Necropolis but we’ve met a friend anyway. So dogs seem to be welcome here. No wonder, it’s a magnificent park to take a walk and, up the ‘Grey Rock’, you can get a magnificent panoramic view of Glasgow and the whole area, if the weather is fine, of course!

We discovered Glasgow Necropolis on the very first day of our arrival in Scotland, in June 2000, and quite by chance I must say, after a short visit to the cathedral had left us very frustrated (closing time at 5.30 ) but we did not regret our walk in the solitary and labyrinthine city of the dead (the Necropolis is open from 7.00 till dusk daily). Our first trip to Scotland did not last long but it began in Glasgow and though we only stayed two days there, we could visit a number of very interesting places (Kelvingrove Art and Museum – the old Glasgow Transport Museum – St Mungo’s Museum of Religious Life and Art with Dali’s famous “Christ of St John of the Cross” - Glasgow Cathedral). We immediately loved the big city even if when we arrived a cold and wintry atmosphere made it rather gloomy after a sunny departure from Bordeaux. In 2000, our aim was to go as far as Bettyhill in the north of Scotland and as we intended to visit a number of places on the road there was not much time left for Glasgow and still less for Edinburgh which we finally did not visit on this first trip.

In 2006 and 2007, when Janice joined us in our Scotland travelling journeys, our interest for Scottish funerary art expanded since she was looking for her Scottish ancestors and consequently we visited a number of graveyards all around Scotland.

Death by Design, The True Story of the Glasgow Necropolis - Ronnie Scott - Black & White Publishing 2005 front cover

To visit the Necropolis is to travel back in time, to dip into the Victorian world-view, where the heroes or robber barons (take your pick) of capitalism and the winners and losers of various religious disputes rub shoulders with long-forgotten poets and novelists. It provides a powerful sense of the transience of all things, the fads and fashions that pass into the mists of time, like the Clyde shipyards, the locomotives makers, the shipping lines and the importers of sugar, tea, tobacco and rum.

(Death by Design – The True Story of the Glasgow Necropolis – Ronnie Scott)

This very interesting and well-written little book of 122 pages is illustrated and we find in it a few remarkable epitaphs.

“Modelled on Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, the Glasgow Necropolis first opened for burial in 1832 and has been a haunt for cemetery tourists ever since. Dominated by its memorial obelisk to John Knox, the Necropolis is a living testament to Victorian funerary excesses and the nineteenth century’s obsession with death, sometimes referred to as the Cult of the Dead. Here, Ronnie Scott surveys the architecture of the Necropolis’s monuments, graves and mausoleums and the architects who built them. And he also tells the stories of the folk who inhabit the Necropolis or City of the Dead, as the word necropolis translates. Unlike Pere Lachaise, the Necropolis in Glasgow may not be able to boast of being the last resting place of anyone quite as famous as Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison or Edith Piaf but it does have its share of celebrity corpses. By the middle of nineteenth century, anyone who was anyone in Glasgow was buried there or had a Necropolis monument erected to their memory. The designer of the Royal Yacht Britannia, industrialists like Charles Tennent and Lord Kelvin, a Polish freedom fighter, they’re all here and all have their own interesting stories – as do some of the rather less well-respected occupants, such as the professor of anatomy who encouraged body-snatching. The architecture of the tombs, gravestones and memorials is as varied as the lives the citizens of the Necropolis led – and sometimes just as flamboyant. The men, such as Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson, who designed Glasgow’s city-centre buildings during the period when it was second only to London in terms of prosperity also had a hand in creating the Necropolis and their life stories are covered here too.

Ronnie Scott is a cemetery historian who has spent four years researching the Glasgow Necropolis for his PhD thesis. He regularly leads guided tours of the Necropolis and gives presentations on cemetery development and body-snatching.”

(Source: Amazon)

Here’s the contents:

Introduction

Building the Silent City
Pure Dead Brilliant
On the Tourist Trail
History Set in Stone
Making a Grand Exit
From the Cemetery to the Nursery
The Bodysnatcher and the Brewer
It’s All Greek to Me
Ascending Towards Heaven
The Clyde Built Men
From Common Graves to the Royal Yacht
All Human Life is Here
The Words and the Stones

A Short Glossary

What Some of the Symbols Mean

Glagow Necropolis Heritage Trail - Glasgow City Council leaflet

We visited the Necropolis in 2000, 2001 and 2007 and the place was never the same. In 2007, we stayed longer there as if we wanted to miss no grave, no inscription, no symbol. At the entrance, we had been given a very interesting leaflet with a detailed map in it and it proved quite useful to us. We were probably the last people to leave the Necropolis that day and we were quite surprised to see that cars were patrolling the park (the park is patrolled regularly by the Ranger Service) and we were asked several times if all was right with us. We would soon appreciate that reassuring presence for, as time was passing, we began to feel unsafe as if a vague danger was looming, not coming from the dead but from the living for at this late hour we began to meet strange people, and to feel that we were followed..

For sure, next time we’ll join a guided visit… and why not a ghost walk I think I’ve found a guide who doesn’t lack panache ! We’ll certainly book a tour of the Necropolis with this noble mousquetaire in the very atmospheric video below!

At the end of our visit of the Necropolis we fell on the Child Migrants monument. It was not mentioned on our leaflet and we had not seen it on our previous visits of the Necropolis. At first, we thought it was a child’s grave for it was surrounded by teddy bears and all sorts of colourful and fluffy toys but it was not, as we soon learned on the nearby board.

This poignant monument is dedicated to the British children who were sent to other commonwealth countries, known as the « child migrants ».

Inscribed on the monument, in golden letters, is a quotation from Isaiah 49-15:

“I will not forget you…

Glasgow Necropolis 'Child Migrants' monument detail - 'In the palm of my hand' © 2007 Scotiana

I have held you in the palm of my hand” …

Has not this child on the engraving a little air of Saint Exupéry’s ‘Petit Prince’ ?

Little presents, full of tenderness and symbolizing childhood, have been laid by anonymous visitors in front of the monument…

… showing that there are still people who want to know and not to forget…

Below is the story of these children as we discovered it on the weatherbeaten board, nearby the monument.

It reads:

(…) Many children left in homes, due to broken marriages or family pressures, were shipped overseas.

The reasons behind the scheme were practical. It helped populate the Commonwealth with white children and it relieved Britain of the burden of looking after them. At the time the organisations involved also thought that the children were likely to have a better life abroad.

Classified as orphans, although the majority were not, many children were often sent away without the knowledge of parents or relatives and were denied details of their family. Brothers and sisters were separated and some children faced appaling conditions in large institutions or were forced to work for long hours and little pay.

Rose Kruger, a former child migrant, met her sister for the first time in 50 years in 1997. She was one of group of 40 women who returned to Britain to be reunited with lost family members or just to visit the country they once called home.

Rose was deported when she was 11 years old. She lived in a Catholic orphanage in Scotland and one day was told she was going on holiday. Her sister, who was three years older, did not know where Rose had been sent until nine years ago.

The trip, which the 40 former child migrants dubbed “the sentimental journey”, was partially funded by Catholic charities and the Australian Child Migrant Foundation.

The Catholic Church now acknowledges that in many cases the migrant policy had a “profoundly adverse effect” on the children. Many of the organisations like Barnados and the Salvation Army, which originally sent the children overseas, now try to help reunite former child migrants with relatives, wherever possible.

The Child Migrants Trust.

Glasgow Necropolis The children Britain did not want article photo © 2007 Scotiana

Thirty years after Britain stopped sending its children overseas to other commonwealth countries, an investigation gets underway into the practice. It follows a legal battle by what become known as the ‘child migrants’

More than 130,000 children were ‘exorted’, over a period of more than 100 years. The practice was only stopped in 1967. Many of those who were migrants themselves say it had a devastating effect on their lives.

A Health Committe inquiry, which opens on Wednesday, is to hear evidence from people who, as children, were deported to Australia, Canada, New Zealand or the former Rhodesia.

The Commons inquiry will try to establish how the British Government should help former child migrants «come to terms with their childhood experience and establish contact with their surviving relations in the U. » . One of the questions it will be considering is whether they are entitled to any form of compensation.

(BBC News)

We were all deeply moved by this story and stayed silent for a long moment in front of the monument. Then we passed along the Garden of Roses , crossed the Bridge of Sighs and found ourselves again in the big busy city of Glasgow where there is still so much to discover …

Bye bye doggy friend…

A bientôt chers lecteurs.

Mairiuna.

Opera Tells Story of Scottish Slaves Hekja & Haki

MAJA — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 22:55:54 +0000

Celtic Life - 25th Anniversary - Special Edition

On this beautiful sunshined day, while reading away stories from Celtic Life - 25th Anniversary Special Edition which compiles the “Best of the Best” articles published in the last quarter century, a title grabbed my fullest attention: Child Slaves From Scotland; A Story rarely told . !!??

Child Slaves From Scotland by Douglas MacGowan - Source: Celtic Life (celticlife.ca)

Written back in 2001 by Douglas MacGowan, it’s an horrific account on Scottish slavery. Slavery was dubbed “the most profitable evil in the world”.

In his article, Douglas McGowan talks about:

An Opera telling the story of two slaves from Scotland: Haki and Hekja who journeyed to North American shores with a group of Vikings
The practice of selling children into slavery as portrayed in Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel Kidnapped
Peter Williamson’s memoirs written in 1756 which got him arrested for publishing his ordeal of being forced into labour

Took me only two seconds to raise from my reading chair and get in front of my computer to google away about the Opera!

Not that I’m a fanatic of Operas, but because I wanted to know more about the legend and eager to discover what triggered Michael Parker’s mind to compose an Opera around Haki and Hekja’s legendary story.

Here’s what I found…

THE LEGEND

Haki and Hekja

Together since childhood, they were captured in their late teens by Viking raiders on their home island of Stronsay, taken to Norway, and sold to King Olaf Tryggvason who gave them as a gift to Leif Eiriksson when he was visiting Norway.

Leif Eiriksson took Haki and Hekja back to Greenland with him and later loaned them to Thorfin Karlsefni to aid him in his expedition to Vinland, which is where we find them in this opera.

Leif Ericson Discovers America - Source: history-world.org

They are in a sense one person and rely on each other’s companionship to endure their slavery and exile. Their slavery, however, which has lasted for over ten years, is somewhat paradoxical because, being swifter than deer, they could simply run away from the Vikings on one of their scouting missions.

Part of the problem has been that in the rugged countries of Iceland and Greenland where the Vikings have taken them, Haki and Hekja have had nowhere to run to where they could survive on their own.

The other factor is that running together gives them a sense of freedom which allows them, temporarily at least, to transcend their pain and deny the real condition of their lives.

Hekja especially has entrenched in her character the state of shock they experienced when their families were slaughtered and they were taken to a foreign country in chains.

Their exceptional ability as runners, in fact, is an outgrowth of that shock, an expression of their desire to escape the horror the Vikings brought on them. Thus, ironically, they have accommodated their slavery.

Their skill as runners that has made them valuable to their masters has also been their own solace. But in Vinland Hekja sees the possibility of escape and transformation.

Although Haki is deeply tempted, he continues to be more inclined to accept the conditions of Viking society and to hope for freedom within it. What he longs for is to return to their ancestral island in Scotland, to continue their family’s interrupted history there.

Hekja still feels herself propelled away from her old home by the horror that destroyed it; only more distance and more change will satisfy her.

They both vacillate in their wishes; both feel they have been weakened by collusion and dependency.

Source: http://www2.swgc.mun.ca/mparker/visitor.htm

THE IDEA FOR AN OPERA

As mentioned below, Michael Parker was commissioned by Music Canada 2000 and the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra to write an opera to commemorate the 1000th anniversary of the Viking arrival in Newfoundland.

The Visitor: an Opera in Five Scenes with Prologue. Op. 58 (2000)

Curtain Calls -Opera- The Visitor- Source: www2.swgc.mun.ca

In 1998, the Newfoundland Symphony and Music Canada 2000 commissioned me to write an opera to be premiered in 2000 to commemorate the millenium anniversary of the discovery of Newfoundland by the Vikings.

I approached Newfoundland writer John Steffler to produce the libretto. He went to the Vinland Sagas and found a reference to three obscure characters: two Scottish slaves named Hekja and Haki, and a German rune-stone carver named Tyrkir.

John Steffler (L) and Dr. Michael Parker - Source: www.mun.ca/gazette/2000-2001

These became the focus of the libretto and the opera.

The Visitor is scored for Mezzo-Soprano (Hekja), Lyric Baritone (Haki), Bass Baritone (an Icelendic Bard, Tyrkir, Decker) and Speaking Part (an Interpreter, Agnes), and chamber orchestra consisting of 2 Violins, Viola, Violoncello, Contrabass, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, Piano and 2 Percussion.

The plot is a simple one on the surface.

The first three scenes take place in AD 1000 as the Vikings are about to return to Europe from Vinland (Newfoundland).

In the last two scenes, the setting suddenly changes to AD 2000 although Hekja and Haki remain.

The two Scottish slaves, brought to Vinland by the Vikings to reconnoite the place, are trying to decide whether to return to Europe with their Viking masters or to escape from them to take their chances in the new world.

As they ponder these choices, they encounter several other characters.

In Scene II, they encounter Tyrkir, a German rune-stone carver. He is disgusted with life in the new world and longs to return to his wife in Europe.

In Scene IV Hekja and Haki meet Agnes, a modern doctor who has come to Vinland to escape painful memories of the brutal murder of her family in Africa.

They also meet Decker, an archaeologist who sees in the 1000-year-old artefacts of the Vikings a chance to better his position in his job.

In the end, Hekja and Haki make their decision.

At its heart, The Visitor is an opera about home, about where we all belong, about wishing for better things somewhere else while perhaps not recognizing those precious things that are right at hand.

The opera was written between January 1999 and March 2000. It received two very good concert performances in September 2000. As a result of those performances, I have decided I would like to revise some of the work.

I look forward to doing that in the near future.

http://www2.swgc.mun.ca/mparker/opera.htm

THE AUTHOR/COMPOSER

Michael Parker - Composer - Source: www2.swgc.mun.ca

Welcome to my homepage.

I am a composer of contemporary concert music. I was born in Toronto but have been living in Newfoundland since 1976. The next few years will see some important anniversaries for me.

2006 will mark my 30th year living in Newfoundland.

2007 will mark my 30th year of teaching at Grenfell College, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Finally, 2008 will mark my 60th year of living on this planet. What I’ve been doing during all this time is documented throughout this site. I hope you enjoy it.

This webpage will provide you with detailed information about all of the compositions I have written. It will also give you some insights into my live outside of composing. (…)

Newfoundland 1941 Sir Wilfred Grenfell Stamp Commemorates His Hospital Ship: Strathcona II

THE VIKINGS, NEVIL SHUTE AND CAPE COD

Cape Cod was discovered by the Vikings a thousand years ago. That is what is believed by many researchers after reading the Vinland Sagas. The geography fits perfectly. It is also what Nevil Shute believed when he wrote his novel, An Old Captivity in 1940 and his screen play, Vinland the Good in 1946 about Leif Ericsson’s visit to Cape Cod.

(…)

Nevil Shute visited Cape Cod in 1939 and described Cape Cod as one of the most beautiful places in the world. Interested in the Viking sagas, Shute wrote his sixth novel, An Old Captivity, about the Vikings discovering Cape Cod. It is set in the 1930s and is about an archeologist who explores the Viking sites on Greenland. He hires a pilot to take him there from England in a seaplane. The pilot, overworked and under great stress, cannot sleep so he takes sleeping pills and dreams about Leif Ericsson and two Viking slaves, Haki and Hekja.

http://www.nevilshute.org/cc05.php

I’m now going to dig into the other two aspects of slavery mentionned in Douglas MacGowan’s article: the practice of selling children into slavery and the story of Peter Williamson’s book: The Life and Curious Adventures of Peter Williamson, Who Was Carried Off from Aberdeen, in 1744, and Sold for a Slave , and will come back with more.

A bientôt!