Scotiana

 
 
‘Books!’ says Tuppence in Agatha  Christie’s Postern of Fate
(Chapter 1: ‘Mainly Concerning Books’)

“Is there anything I can take down for you?”
“Well, I wish you would”, said Tuppence. “I’m falling off those chairs. Some of their legs are very wobbly, some of them rather slippery.”
”Any book in particular?”
”Well, I haven’t got on very far with the [...]

I would like to begin this post with a few words about Lettres de Gourgounel (1979), one of the first books written by Kenneth White (his first book of prose) and also the first book I‘ve read by this author. The title of the original English edition is Letters from Gourgounel (1966) but it has [...]

Scotiana readers who have followed us on our ‘blue road’, in Quebec, already know we are great admirers of Kenneth White. Now, we would like to share with you what we know about the well-known Scottish-French poet, academic and writer.
Open on my desk are the last two books published by Kenneth White : La carte [...]

A colder spell had set in. It had been a summery Autumn, but now suddenly there was a sharp Winter’s bite in the air.
‘November chill blaws lood wi’ angry sugh…’
Funny how a line of Robert Burns should come into my head. Maybe the ghost of some Scotsman who trekked up here before me? I was [...]

I’ve always delighted in the reading of old geographers and explorers.You feel in their texts the first tentative steps, see the earliest visions, register the initial astonishment at the appearance of the world in all its phenomenal strangeness.
(Kenneth White – ‘Along the Atlantic Coast’ – The Wanderer and his Charts – 2004)

In the morning, I’m [...]