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

Margaret and I would like to begin this first ‘Letter’ of 2011 by sending you all our very best wishes for the New Year. Janice, we send particular greetings and our kindest thoughts to your dear Papa, Jean-Paul, who’s been quite unwell recently. 

Detective-Lieutenant John Thomson Trench - Photo: The Square Mile of Murder by Jack House

Oscar Slater - The "Immortal" Case of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle by Thomas Toughill

It’s pleasing to hear, Janice, that our Oscar Slater post has attracted some interest, and to read the Comments left by Shannon and Colin. I had the idea of sitting down quietly for an hour or two and adding my own thoughts on the matter! 

I first heard the name of Oscar Slater long ago, from a neighbour, a Mr Thompson, with whom my father would often chat when he saw him tending the blooms in his lovely rose garden. As a retired pawnbroker, Mr Thompson had ‘seen life’ and had a marvellous fund of stories. But the one I remember was more personal – when a young man, Thompson had been a Special Constable with the Glasgow police (an unpaid volunteer, employed occasionally alongside an experienced officer). 

Fascinated by the workings of the law, and the whole question of crime and punishment, he’d taken instruction at one time in the grim business of conducting executions. And so he was able to boast that, had the sentence of death imposed on Oscar Slater been carried out, he would have been called upon to serve as hangman’s assistant! A boy does not easily forget such a story. 

No doubt our neighbour took the view that Slater was a ‘notorious rascal,’ lucky to have escaped the rope; most people probably did, at that time. That his sentence of hanging was commuted to one of life imprisonment, would be held to be in recognition of the jury’s narrow decision to convict (by nine to six). 

Edward VII

Only in recent years has it become clear that King Edward VII granted a Royal Pardon to Oscar Slater, for all knowledge of this was denied to the public. And what an odd Pardon it was! Far from setting Slater free, it spared him execution on the express condition that he should spend the rest of his life in prison. The King died soon afterwards, and did not see the terms of his Pardon broken when Slater was eventually released in 1927. 

Alexander Ure - The Lord Advocate- Photo Mitchell Library - Source: Oscar Slater by Thomas Toughill, The "Immortal" Case of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

As a law officer of long experience, Alexander Ure (who led the prosecution) could not fail to have been impressed over the years by the awesome power of a Scottish criminal jury. In the absence of any direction by the judge to find the accused not guilty (and the lack, in 1909, of a Court of Appeal) the jury’s power to decide his fate was well-nigh absolute. Individual jurors were free to show sympathy towards the accused – or prejudice against him – even at the risk of appearing to ignore compelling evidence. Each judged the accused entirely as he saw fit; that was his privilege, and it remains so today. 

Marie-Agnès, Janice, Jean-Claude, I may have implied – wrongly – that the English criminal jury must be unanimous. While unanimity is still the ideal ‘south of the border,’ this rule has now been relaxed, so that after a period of consideration the judge will accept a majority decision of 10-2. (In Scottish terms, this would translate to roughly 12-3; a rather more certain verdict than our possible 8-7! However, in the event that a jury could not agree, a retrial would become necessary.) 

The Scottish justice system relied, too, in 1909 on the good faith of the prosecuting authorities; it was a system open to abuse, and Alexander Ure exploited this weakness. In order to protect his friends, Ure wickedly placed on trial a man whom he knew to be innocent; then used his considerable powers of oratory to persuade nine of the 15 jurors to convict him! 

Oscar Slater

And what of Lord Guthrie? Is it not inconceivable that a judge in the highest criminal court in the land could allow himself to be corrupted and to pervert the course of justice? What are we to make of his prejudicial remarks to the jury, and his apparent willingness to accept the weak identification evidence of Mary Barrowman (the errand girl who claimed to have seen Slater in the street) and of Nellie Lambie, the maid? I doubt that either of these young women gave the impression of being a credible witness; both had been coached and rehearsed by the police in what they would say in court. (And, years later, both were to retract their testimony.) 

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

I’d guess that Oscar Slater had a streak of obstinacy in his makeup; that he was the sort of man who liked to make his own decisions, a difficult man to advise. (He fell out badly with Conan Doyle, as we shall see!) It was essential for the success of Ure’s plan that, having insisted on standing trial, Slater should then be convicted, but not necessarily hanged. And so, within a few days, we find Lord Guthrie campaigning to have commuted the death-sentence that the law had required him to impose on Oscar Slater! Is not the truth stranger than any fiction? 

What could have induced Chief Constable Stevenson of the Glasgow police (apparently in deference to Alexander Ure) to put his professionalism and integrity aside, and conduct such a limited investigation into the Gilchrist murder? No fingerprint evidence was gathered, although the techniques were well established in 1908. The murder scene received only a cursory examination. As far as the more junior ranks of the police were concerned, the word came down from on high, in just a few days: “Look no further, we have our man.” 

The vicious treatment of Detective-Lieutenant John Thomson Trench tends to confirm that all was not well at the top of the Glasgow force. For what was, in reality, a technical offence committed for the highest of motives, Trench had to be severely punished as an example to others who might be tempted to speak out, so was sacked with loss of his superannuation. But his credibility had also to be destroyed, for Trench knew more of the truth about the murder than any other Glasgow policeman; hence the trumped-up charge of dishonesty. 

Now Trench’s name is remembered with honour and respect. “There is a John Thomson Trench Prize in Civics at Glasgow University, and the hero of the Oscar Slater case will be remembered as long as Glasgow and its University last,” wrote Jack House in his ‘Square Mile of Murder’. 

Square Mile of Murder - Jack House

The Go-Between - L.P. Hartley - Hamish Hamilton -1953 1st edition

What a colourful pair Slater and Miss Antoine must have seemed, when they arrived in the grey streets of Glasgow that winter; he with his dark and ‘foreign’ looks and his heavy German accent, she with her French manners and elegant dress and perhaps slightly bohemian air! 

William Roughead

Their flat stood on the edge of Garnethill, Glasgow’s own ‘Montmartre’. With the comings and goings at Miss Antoine’s door, inquisitive neighbours soon concluded that she was entertaining her gentlemen visitors to more than lessons in conversational French! Of course, they disapproved. But they probably kept their real scorn for Slater; he had no ‘proper’ job, but lived ‘on his wits’ and by gambling. And wasn’t he Jewish? I don’t doubt that there was conscious antisemitism in the Glasgow of 1908, as well as much that was unthinking. 

There was a strand of authoritarianism, too, especially amongst the ‘respectable’ classes. This went hand-in-hand with some tendency to be unduly deferential to those of a higher social class; a deference that did not survive undiminished by the First World War. (Grotesque scenes of young upper-class officers ordering their men at gunpoint ‘over the top’ to almost certain death, saw to that.) The Great War changed so much. 

“Had two more jurymen been able to withstand the eloquence of the Lord Advocate (Alexander Ure, the prosecutor) Slater would have been set free,” wrote William Roughead. I’m convinced that the Edinburgh jury’s deference to Ure, so clearly a ‘gentleman’, sealed the fate of Oscar Slater. 

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle campaigned for Slater’s release as a matter of justice, without any particular respect for the man himself; he may have first begun to dislike Slater on learning that he had allegedly left Germany to avoid military service. Slater often chose to reject his advice. Conan Doyle’s last letter was particularly angry: “You are the most stupid as well as the most ungrateful man I have ever met!” 

But Slater was well-liked in Ayr, to where he moved after his release. Some of the older people still have memories of him – it seems that he did not come directly to the bungalow in St Phillan’s Avenue, the house where he died in 1948. 

We have a friend in the town with a personal memory – though faint – of Oscar Slater. As a wee boy of five, out walking with his father, they met the famous man. “Do you remember that gentleman with the bowler hat?” asked his father later. “When you’re grown up, you’ll be able to say that you shook the hand of Mr Oscar Slater!” 

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

Mairiuna, I have a great Sherlock Holmes detective story to share with you today!

To commemorate the 150th Anniversary of Sir Conan Doyle’s birth, (1859-1930), the small island of Alderney, a bailiwick of Guernsey, issued a mystery set of 6 postage stamps beautifully illustrated by Keith Robinson.

The mystery case, written by Keith Robinson, starts with the theft of an Alderney bull, a breed of livestock much valued in the 19th century for the quantity and richness of milk produced by the cows. 

“Sir, a great injustice is about to be done. My name is Alice West. Two nights ago my Father’s prize Alderney Bull was stolen. The police suspect that it was smuggled to an American buyer; a lucrative trade, for the breed is highly prized in New England.

Even now, the police are preparing to arrest our herdsman, Thomas Vine, when he brings the cows down to Marais square for watering.

Mr Holmes, I beg of you; I have known Thomas since we were children and I swear he could never have done such a thing.”

“The bewildered looking herdsman is arrested, shown in the second image, whilst Holmes studies a scrap of paper containing a coded message found in the herdsman’s jacket.

In the third stamp Holmes studies the scene at the old harbour and then visits Alice’s father, shown in the fourth image. The fifth stamp depicts Holmes and Watson observing a half-built lighthouse in the middle of the night where they witness what Holmes believes is a signal.

The final image shows the police restraining a man, whom Holmes had concluded was guilty of the Alderney bull theft.”
Source:  www.trussel.com

To all budding detectives: can you use your powers of deduction to work out “whodunnit”? Suspense…let’s open the Sherlock Holmes Mystery Pack.

By reading the story, studying the pictures and scouring the stamps for clues, you should crack the secret code in Sherlock Holmes curious case of the Alderney bull and beat Holmes to work out “whodunnit”!

Follow the instructions on how to use the special lenses included, then turn the mystery pack upside down to find out how the story ends.

Let’s see what the stats reveal. Suspense….

And the winners are :

Rannoch Moor ©2006 Scotiana

1. Rannoch Moor:  First Steps Into The Scottish Wilderness

 
People seemed to be energized in the clear and fresh atmosphere of the place and everybody looked happy and cheerful, not to say euphoric.

It’s one of our best travel memories. But beware of the appearances!

The weather is very changing in Scotland and Rannoch Moor may suddenly offer a gloomier face to its visitors and even prove to be dangerous for unprepared walkers …

Read more…. | Watch Video ( Royal Scotsman entering Rannoch Station)

The Complete Book of Tartan by Iain Zaczek and Charles Phillips

2. Scottish Tartans: “Children Of The Mist”, The Clan MacGregor

Scottish clans have more than one tartan attributed to their name and the only person to make a clan tartan an “official” one is the chief. Surprisingly enough, the “clan tartans” date no earlier than late 18^th century.

That means this tradition was not in use when the battle of Culloden took place in 1746!.  The clansmen were wearing different tartans….

So how did the clansmen recognize who was who? By the colour of ribbon worn upon the bonnet !

Read more… | Watch video…

Monsieur Mackintosh Robin Crichton Luath Press Limited Edinburgh 2006 Bilingual edition

3.  Charles Rennie Mackintosh Trail In Roussillon, France

Here, under the sunny skies of one of the nicest regions of France, in a last and tearing adieu to the beloved companion with whom she had shared a lifelong passion for art, Margaret MacDonald dispersed the ashes of Charles Rennie Mackintosh … here both artists had probably shared some of their happiest days, five years only but which were full of life and creativity.

Strangely enough, Mackintosh’s very nice watercolours which are the fruit of this period of happiness and which testify to his talent as a painter did not always get the recognition they deserved, his architectural and design masterpieces being better known than his paintings.

But things are changing…

Read more…

Sherlock Holmes - Playing The Violin

4. From Conan Doyle’s Sycamore to Sherlock Holme’s Violin

If you question people about Conan Doyle’s nationality many will probably answer : ‘English’. But let’s try to render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s.

If Conan Doyle did spend most of his life, died and was buried in England, he was born, spent his childhood and studied medicine in Edinburgh.

That is why, on 22 may 2009, the day of his one hundred and fiftieth birth anniversary, he was paid a very moving tribute in Edinburgh, his native town.

Read more…

Art Nouveau in architecture - Princes Square Peacock

5.  Art Nouveau Peacock On Princes Square Shopping Center In Buchanan Street, Glasgow

At the end of the nineteenth century, Art Nouveau transformed towns and countryside around the world.  Even though its style had gained popularity from just the last ten years or so, Art Nouveau permeated many arts & crafts: jewellery, book design, glasswork, textiles, wrought iron, and architecture, to name just a few, with its high Victorian design and craftwork.

The peacock being the most spread Art Nouveau pattern, a great example is the one adorning the Princes Square building facade on Buchanan Street in the heart of Glasgow.

In 1985, Hugh Martin & Partners were commissioned to renovate the Princes Square building. They had several meetings with Alan Dawson to create the Princes’ building decorative art program consisting of gates, balustrades, the famous “Peacock” and other associated decorative ironwork.

Read more… | Watch Video…

The Willow Tea Rooms Flickr ©unresttwothree

6. Teatime At Miss Cranston’s Willow Tearooms In Glasgow

Quite astonishing the modern look of this tearoom! It has been renovated in its original “Modern’ Style” which, as the name doesn’t indicate, dates back to the end of the 19th century.

What we have here is a marvellous example of what we call in France “Art Nouveau” . It’s simply beautiful. No wonder! It is the result of a unique collaboration between two very talented persons : Kate Cranston and Charles Rennie Mackintosh…

On entering the Willow Tearooms, though they have been renovated a number of times since their first opening, in 1903, we immediately feel the peculiar atmosphere Charles Rennie Mackintosh had wanted to create for Kate Cranston. Clear and sober lines – nice colours – beautiful geometrical and floral motifs – a feminine touch – what a feast !

Read more…

The Glasgow School of Art - Scotland © 2007 Scotiana

7.  Glasgow School Of Art An Architectural Expression Of Charles Rennie-Mackintosh Symbolic Art

While studying at the School of Art, Mackintosh met sisters, Frances and Margaret MacDonald and they were to form a group along with Herbert MacNair, to become known internationally as the Glasgow Four.

On our trip to Scotland in 2007, it was with great excitement that we arrived on Sauchiehall Street, to visit and admire one of his greatest masterpiece!  We took pictures of the elements composing the building’s facade, and upon examination of these mysterious, or should I say, mystical elements, I wondered about the meaning that Charles Rennie Mackintosh, his wife Margaret, and the group all together were trying to convey through the symbols of the tree, the rose and the flower heads, to name just these few.

Read more… |  Watch Video…

Art Nouveau Window Art Nouveau Roses Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum © mike.thomson75's on Flickr

8.  Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Modern Style Makes Glasgow Flourish

Our guided visit of the School of Art by a student of the school proved to be extremely interesting, especially that of the library.

It’s no longer a secret, on Scotiana, that we are very fond of libraries.  How we would have liked to be forgotten there…

So, if you intend to visit Glasgow don’t forget to put Mackintosh on your agenda. There is really something magical in his art!

There are many places designed by or devoted to Mackintosh in Glasgow, so you will need to plan your Mackintosh trail very carefully. We didn’t and we lost precious time.

Read more…  | Watch Video

The Lore of Scotland - Jennifer Westwood & Sophia Kingshill - 2009

9. The Lore of Scotland Fairy Tales Myths And Legends

Hey Janice, did I tell you I had received The Lore of Scotland, by Jennifer Westwood and Sophia Kingshill?

When I was a little girl, I used to come back from our local library, a very old building situated in a picturesque cobbled street near the big and dark cathedral, carrying in my arms a treasury of books which had been carefully chosen, one after the other and in very different genres.

Rules have changed since that time for then you could not borrow many books at the same time and the choice always proved to be a dilemma.

Read more…

Glencoe Lochan

10.  Lord Strathcona’s Glencoe Estate Bought Back By Macdonalds of Glencoe Descendance

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.

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.

Read more…

Edmund J Sullivan, the man behind the beautiful illustrations contained in Thomas Carlyle’s Sartor Resartus.

Born in London in 1869, he studied art with his father. He was only 20 years old when he began contributing to various magazines including the Daily Chronicle, The Daily Graphic, The Pall Mall Gazette and Punch magazine.

To give you an example of his unique style, take a look at this superb drawing to illustrate one of the characters of the book, Blumine. (page 169, of the 1898 George Bell and Sons edition of Sartor Resartus, see book cover at the end of the post)

Read more… (includes links to 79 illustrations!)

Multicoloured Glasgow © 2007 Scotiana

12.  Buchanan Street: Up and Down One of Glasgow’s Most Popular and Coloured Streets

We never stayed long enough, alas, to be able to visit all the treasures hidden in the rich and fascinating Scottish metropolis but it did not take long for us to feel the sense of place there and to love it. Glasgow speaks with a very specific accent which mixes with many other ones due to its cosmopolitanism.  A harsh accent, not easy to understand for foreigners

I never saw a town singing in the rain as Glasgow does with its coloured umbrellas. “Can I help you ?” will say the Glaswegian to the drenched visitor desperately looking for his way on a map. For that and for many other reasons too, we do love Glasgow and it was love at first sight when we got out of the plane, at Paisley, one wintry day, in may 2000.

Read more… | Watch Video…

Jane Haining

13.  Jane Haining, Auschwitz’s Scottish Christian Martyr

(…) Jane declined to return to Scotland when war broke out in 1939; later, it was reported that she’d cut up her suitcases, using the leather to repair the girls’ shoes. Abandoning the children was never in her mind.
‘If they need me in days of sunshine,’ she wrote in one letter home, ‘how much more do they need me in days of darkness?’

The Scottish missionary must have felt in particular danger – if, indeed, she thought of herself at all – after the Nazis invaded Hungary in March 1944. Very soon she was under arrest. The incident that prompted her seizure by the Gestapo seemed trivial enough in itself – she’d challenged a young man, Schreder by name, who’d been helping in the kitchen, accusing him of stealing from the girls’ meagre supply of food. But this fellow was an ardent Nazi, a member of the Hungarian Nazi Party, and he denounced her. From the ‘Gestapo Villas’ in the Buda Hills, Jane was taken to the ‘Fo utca Prison’ (Fo Street Prison) in Budapest, then to the dreaded Auschwitz camp.

Read more…

Painting by Sir Francis Grant of "Sir Walter Scott in his study at Abbotsford writing his last novel 'Count Robert of Paris' ", 1831. Source : SCRAN

14. A Writing Day For Walter Scott In Company of His Favourite Dogs

(…) to help us trigger our imagination, let us open again A Day with Scott. In this little old book I had mentioned in my last post,  May Byron seems to have catched the sense of the place particularly well. I still don’t know when this book was published, but I will check that soon in our Sir Walter Scott Bibliographical History. For biographical purposes we’ll also make some incursions in Lockhart’s Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart.  The author of this very interesting biography happens to be Sir Walter’s son-in-law, so he must know better.

(…) I’ve often wondered how a man like Sir Walter Scott can have posed for so many long hours with his dogs, keeping still and quiet …But I let the master speak for himself and for the dogs.  In his Journal, on 7 saturday 1826, Sir Walter has written something full of humour and tenderness about the question…

Read more…

I’d like to write a word or two today about the world-famous Scottish tenor, Mr Kenneth McKellar, who sadly died last week in the USA at the age of 82. Following a short but serious illness, Mr McKellar passed away at the home of his daughter, Jane, in Lake Tahoe, California, on 9th April. Scotland has lost a most worthy and distinguished ambassador.

I find it tremendously sad when a great singer leaves the stage; it’s as though a bright light has gone out.

I’m reminded of the words of John McCormack, quoted by his wife Lily in her memoir, ‘I Hear You Calling Me’ : “I live again the days and evenings of my long career. I dream at night of operas and concerts in which I have had my share of success. Now, like the old Irish Minstrels, I have hung up my harp because my songs are all sung.”

Read more… | Watch Video 1 / 2 / 3 / and 4/…

We wish to thank everyone who visits and reads, on the site or via email or RSS feed. Your feedback/comments on the blog are very much appreciated and we love to hear from you.

I’d also like to call your attention to Mairiunas’s series-of-posts (7) featuring our travel on the ”Blue Road” through the Province of Quebec, inspired by Kenneth White’s novel: The Blue Road

Following the Blue Road on the Steps of Kenneth White in Quebec =>

Episode 1 | Episode 2 |  Episode 3 |  Episode 4 |  Episode 5 | Episode  6 |  Episode 7  (coming soon)

As soon as Mairiuna recuperates her voice, we will continue the ongoing audio recording of Walter Scott’s most popular novel: Rob Roy

We’re looking forward to an even more active 2011. Stay tuned for more reporting on our favourite Scottish authors and themes.  We’ve already introduced a few of them on Scotiana but there is so much more to read and share with you.

Of course, we’ll go on with our reading of Sir Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson, Iain Rankin, Thomas Carlyle, Kenneth White but we also intend to introduce many other Scottish writers (Neil Gunn, Iain Crichton Smith, George Mackay Brown, Margaret Oliphant, George Douglas Brown, Lewis Grassic Gibbon…)

We are also eager to introduce on Scotiana some of our favourite subjects in the historical and archaelogical fields (The Pictish Stones – The massacre of Glencoe…) and, while preparing our next trip to Scotland, we will share with you many more photos of our previous Scottish travels. There is so much to say about the Scottish landscapes, cities and towns, the old abbeys and castles…  and what about Scottish lifestyle : whisky and food…  and delicious recipes : scones, pancakes, soups!

If there is a subject you would like us to tackle, do not hesitate to contact us and share your thoughts.

Have a wonderful 2011!

Best,

Mairiuna and Janice

Hotel Marbella, Biarritz - September 2010 © Scotiana 2010

Please let me begin today, Marie-Agnes et Jean-Claude, by recalling that joyful, sunny day in late summer when Margaret and I met you for the first time, at Biarritz on the Atlantic coast. From the deserted street on a quiet Sunday morning, you appeared as if by magic at the doorway of Hotel Marbella; and what an unforgettable day we spent together! Although it feels like only yesterday, weeks have now passed – and last Saturday we re-set our clocks and watches to ‘winter’ time.

Janice, Jean-Claude, Marie-Agnes, it’s now a little over a year since we exchanged messages on the distinguished writer and broadcaster, Sir Ludovic Kennedy, who had just died – and who brings us to our tale! (Sir Ludovic died on 18th October, 2009, aged 89. He’d been married for 56 years to the ballerina Moira Shearer, star of the film ‘The Red Shoes,’ who predeceased him.)

Moira Shearer & Ludovic Kennedy (Source: www.dailymail.co.uk)

“I can’t think of anyone in the media more universally admired,” I remember writing. He was a charismatic and most attractive figure, as one might say in French, ‘un monsieur fort sympathique.’ Throughout his life, he campaigned against injustice in criminal cases. We quoted a sentence or two, I think, from the introductory pages to Ludovic Kennedy’s book, Thirty-six Murders and Two Immoral Earnings (a fascinating book, giving an account of Kennedy’s lifework in exposing injustices).

Belgrave Crescent Edinburgh - Source: Google 2010

Thirty-Six Murders & Two Immoral Earnings by Ludovic Kennedy

“The starting-point of my life-long obsession with miscarriages of criminal justice may be said to have been the library of my grandfather’s house in Belgrave Crescent, Edinburgh .. ” (Grandfather was an eminent lawyer.) “Between the ages of about 11 to 15, I used to spend a part of my Christmas holidays at Belgrave Crescent .. ”

Sir Ludovic then described how his favourite meal of the day had been the generous afternoon tea, served in the library at a quarter to five. With the new electric lamps lit, the heavy curtains drawn against the drizzle and gloom outdoors, Helen, the maid, would enter in turn with two enormous trays, laden with toast, scones, oatcakes, shortbread, gingerbread; and silver pots of both Indian and China tea!

After the meal, young Ludovic would mount the step-ladder to the library’s topmost shelves, where were housed the handsome red volumes of Notable British Trials. Perched on its top step, he would sit entranced for hours, reading of Madeleine Smith and Pierre L’Angelier, Dr Crippen or Oscar Slater ..

Square Mile of Murder by Jack House

It was now the early 1930′s, and e v e r y o n e had heard of Oscar Slater, for during the preceding 20 years, scarcely a day had passed without some mention of his name in the newspapers. Slater had finally been released from prison in 1927, after serving more than 18 years for the brutal murder in Glasgow of a lady of 82, a crime of which he was entirely innocent.

Waiting to meet him at the gates of Peterhead Prison was his friend, Rabbi Phillips (Slater was from a Jewish family, born in Germany in 1872). The Rabbi took Slater to his home in Glasgow, and showed him such kindness that he burst into tears. “Even the sight of a tablecloth on the table was wonderful to a man who’d suffered so much,” wrote Jack House (1906-1991) in Square Mile of Murder (W & R Chambers, 1961; etc) – one of the best accounts of the Slater case that I’ve come across. Please try to see it. Prison conditions were extremely harsh in the 1920′s; discipline was strict and enforced, ultimately, by flogging with the birch rod.

Chers Amis, I’m sure you’ll understand that I can tell here only briefly, the story of a case about which so much has been written over the past 100 years. The whole Slater affair began in the winter of 1908, when, just four days before Christmas, a wealthy old Glasgow lady was found horribly beaten in her flat at 15 Queen’s Terrace (part of West Princes Street, close to St George’s Cross).

Miss Marion Gilchrist's House in Glasgow, on West Princes Street, formerly Queen's Terrace - Google 2010

Miss Marion Gilchrist

It was said that Miss Marion Gilchrist – 82 years of age, and in rapidly failing health – had inherited from her father a fortune of between 40 and 80 thousand pounds (in today’s terms, a sum of between four and eight m i l l i o n pounds) – and that she had changed her will just a short time previously, in order to disinherit members of her own family with whom she was not on good terms.

Miss Gilchrist lived simply but comfortably, with only her maid, Helen (Nellie) Lambie for company. She kept a large collection of diamond jewellery in the flat, and had become extremely anxious about her personal security. About seven o’clock one Monday evening, just after Nellie had gone out to buy a newspaper, Miss Gilchrist was attacked and beaten to death in her dining-room by an intruder. The murder weapon was a heavy mahogany chair; possibly also a metal auger which the killer had brought into the first-floor flat.

As far as the police were concerned, suspicion fell immediately upon Oscar Slater, a ‘foreign-looking’ man of 36, who had just made plans to sail to the USA; this was portrayed at Slater’s trial as a ‘flight from justice’. (Slater was arrested as the ‘Lusitania’ approached New York harbour, and naively insisted on returning to Scotland to clear his name. If only he could have foreseen the future!)

Oscar Slater

It’s thought that Slater had already come to the attention of the Glasgow police before the murder, although he’d been in the city for little more than seven weeks. He’d tried to earn a living in New York and in London; here he’d met his female companion, a young French woman by the name of Andree Junio Antoine. Slater and Miss Antoine rented an upstairs flat at 69 St George’s Road, part of a handsome red sandstone property known as ‘Charing Cross Mansions’ – located just 400 yards from the scene of the murder. While Oscar Slater spent his days in gambling clubs, and occasionally dealing in jewellery, Miss Antoine received gentlemen visitors to the flat under the name of ‘Madame Junio.’ Slater himself used several aliases; the plate on the door read: ‘A. Anderson, Dentist’.

By any standard, Slater’s trial at the High Court in Edinburgh was a travesty of justice. The evidence produced against him was very weak, much of it depending upon identification. The Lord Advocate, Alexander Ure, who – unusually – led the prosecution personally, lost no opportunity to blacken the character and reputation of Slater. Even the judge, Lord Guthrie, suggested to the jury that ‘a man of
t h a t type’ – meaning Slater – had no right to rely upon the usual presumption of innocence.

Edinburgh High court of Justice Source: Wikipedia

Slater did not speak during his trial; it was thought that his heavy German accent might prejudice the jury against him. After four days of ‘evidence,’ Slater was found guilty as charged, the jury voting by nine to six in favour of convicting him. [Marie-Agnes, Jean-Claude, Janice, you may find it surprising that there is no need for a jury to be unanimous in a Scottish criminal trial (as would be the case in England). A simple majority - even a majority of one - is sufficient to convict the accused.]

To say that Slater was shocked by the verdict would be an understatement. Now his voice was heard: “My Lord, may I say one word? Will you allow me to speak? .. .. I know nothing about the affair. You are convicting an innocent man. .. .. I came over from America .. .. to Scotland, to get a fair judgment. I know nothing about the affair, absolutely nothing. I never heard the name. .. .. I know nothing about it . .. .. I can say no more.” Lord Guthrie made no observation on this statement. He put on the ‘black cap’ and sentenced Oscar Slater to be hanged on Thursday, 27th May. (Executions usually took place within the old Duke Street Prison in Glasgow. The tall perimeter wall of this old jail still stands in High Street, just south of Cathedral Square.) Death by hanging was the mandatory punishment for murder.

Oscar Slater by Thomas Toughill

Such was the public outcry that Slater’s sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. (Actually, a Royal Pardon had been granted by King Edward, but this fact was kept secret for many years.) Now began Slater’s long incarceration in Peterhead Prison, and the long agitation to have him set free.

Officialdom held tenaciously to the original jury’s verdict, narrow as the majority had been. Even at his appeal in 1928 (before the new Court of Criminal Appeal, and by which time he was at last at liberty) Slater’s conviction was n o t quashed; rather, it was ‘set aside’ because the judge was held to have misdirected the jury. To put it more simply, it was conceded that Oscar Slater had not received a fair trial.

Slater had accepted an offer of six thousand pounds (about 300 thousand pounds, today) by way of compensation for his wrongful conviction and imprisonment. Thinking to make a fresh start, he moved to a new bungalow in the Clyde-coast town of Ayr (which since at least 1910 had had a small Hebrew Congregation).

St Phillan's road, Ayr, Scotland - Google 2010

Here, in St Phillan’s Avenue, he lived quietly, marrying again in 1936, and by all accounts was popular in the town. He and his wife were briefly interned at the start of the Second World War, as they still held German citizenship. Oscar Slater died in 1948, but this brought no end to an affair that had excited controversy for 40 years.

William Roughead Trial of Oscar Slater Wm Hodge (Edinburgh), 1950

William Roughead

 William Roughead (1870-1952) the Scottish solicitor and criminologist, produced the first book on the Slater case in 1910 (The Trial of Oscar Slater.) With his vivid, lively style of writing, Roughead has been considered one of the founders of the modern ‘true crime’ genre. ( Young Ludovic Kennedy probably read the 1925, revised, edition of Roughead’s book in the ‘Notable British Trials’ series.) But, even in 1910, reviews of Roughead’s account of the trial – especially those in the English press – betrayed much feeling that an injustice had been done. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, never an admirer of Slater, leapt to his defence in the Letters pages of The Times.

The True Crime Files of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - Berkley Publishing Group (2001)

Conan Doyle, in turn, produced a short book of his own, based on Roughead’s work, intended to have a mass sale and to arouse public opinion in aid of Slater (The Case of Oscar Slater, 1912, Hodder & Stoughton.) For the first time, prominence was given to the idea that the purpose of the attack upon Miss Gilchrist was not the stealing of jewellery, but rather of some important document, such as her will.

Glasgow Police Officer John Thomson Trench

In any account of the Slater case, long or short, tribute must be paid to the memory of Detective Lieutenant John Thomson Trench, the heroic and upright Glasgow police officer who, at tremendous cost to himself, did all in his power to help the unjustly condemned German. One of the country’s most brilliant detectives, Trench sought the protection of the Scottish Secretary of the day before sharing information on the case with William Park, a writer and journalist with the Evening Times in Glasgow. But the politician betrayed him ; Trench was sacked in disgrace from the police, with loss of his superannuation – then prosecuted on a trumped-up charge. John Thomson Trench went on to serve with distinction in the First World War, dying in 1919 at the age of 50.

William Park’s book The Truth about Oscar Slater came out in 1927, by which time the pressure to release Slater was becoming irresistible ; he had already served considerably more than the 15 years usually demanded of those sentenced to life imprisonment. About this time, Slater had the idea of appealing directly to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Employed in the prison’s bookbinding workshop, he wrote a message on a scrap of glossy paper, which was then rolled into a tiny ball and hidden under the tongue of a fellow prisoner about to be discharged. This man took the message to Conan Doyle in London . “Please try again. Oscar Slater,” it said simply.

Jean-Claude, Janice, Marie-Agnes, the newest book (that I know) on the Slater case is also the most revealing – please try to see it, especially for the sake of the excellent photographs. (The original hardbound edition has 24 pages of pictures, many from the Scottish Record Office.)
Oscar Slater - The Mystery Solved  by Thomas Toughill (Canongate, 1993. ISBN 0862414512)

The following interview, given by Thomas Toughill to Bruce McKain, legal correspondent of The Herald newspaper (Glasgow) on 7th October 1992, gives an overview of the thesis advanced in his book.

Thomas Toughill author of Oscar Slater: The Immortal Case of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Toughill’s conclusions are devastating. If he is correct, the Slater case was no mere miscarriage of justice, but a m o n s t r o u s  c o n s p i r a c y, breathtaking in its audacity, that extended to the highest levels of the Scottish legal establishment.

“(Alexander Ure) .. was involved in the investigation into Miss Gilchrist from the very outset .. .. he was involved in the protection of his Charteris friends (the nephews whom Miss Gilchrist wished to disinherit) from the very beginning .. .. it was Ure’s influence .. .. which accounts for the actions of the Procurator Fiscal and the Glasgow police .. .. before and after Slater’s return from America. .. .. It would have been unthinkable to the conspirators that the sons of a professor (and .. nephews of a scion of the Church of Scotland) (that is, the Charteris brothers) would have been publicly involved in a murder case .. .. “

To my mind, had this book appeared 80 years ago, it would, without doubt, have brought down the government of the day – as, I think, the Dreyfus case did in France – and shaken Scottish society to its foundations. Each generation, it seems to me, must learn afresh the lessons of this appalling story.

Oscar Slater - 1908 - Signet Library

A Bientot, Marie-Agnes, Jean-Claude et Janice!

Iain.

Abbotsford Nigel Tranter exhibition author's typewriter © 2006 Scotiana

Since we are speaking of Robert the Bruce I would like to introduce today Nigel Tranter, a very popular Scottish author who has written, among many other books of historical fiction, a trilogy about the great Scottish king. He died in 2000, at the age of 90.  He was a great admirer of Sir Walter Scott and indeed, we discovered this author in 2006, at Abbotsford where a very interesting exhibition was devoted to him in Sir Walter’s bedroom  … but I will let Janice tell you more about this fascinating author…  

Mairiuna in  Robert the Bruce’s Heart Buried at Melrose Abbey  

Hi Mairiuna. Thanks for the invite! I am pleased to write about Nigel Tranter, one of Scotland’s best-loved author and acclaimed storyteller. Indeed, we have both a number of his books.

Quite young he took interest in castles and delved into their history, which led him, at the age of 25 to publish his first book, The Fortalices and Early Mansions of Southern Scotland 1400-1650. (1935) 

His wife then encouraged him to write his first novel.  He wrote In our Arms our Fortune which was rejected by the publishers, but the following one, Trespass (1937) launched his career. 

Trespass by Nigel G Tranter -Ward Lock - Ed 1941

Since those early days, he wrote more than 130 books, including some children books, during a passionate life-long interest of his own country’s history. 

Furthermore, he accomplished this noble task without the help of a computer, as he relied solely on his elderly manual typewriter! 

Nigel Tranter At Work At His Typewriter- Copyright The Scotsman Publications

Upon visiting in 2006 the Nigel Tranter Exhibition at Abbotsford, (which has since been relocated in one of the aisles of Athelstaneford Church, where he celebrated his marriage to May on July 11^th, 1933) we discovered a wealth of fascinating insights about his writings. 

I remember how thrilled the three of us were to explore the different aspects of his life and  literary career throughout the exhibits. 

Let’s take a closer look today at one of his most popular novel:  The Bruce Trilogy. 

This trilogy ( 1. The Steps To the Empty Throne, 2. The Path To The Hero King and 3. The Price of The King’s Peace ) is all about the story of Robert the Bruce, along side of  William Wallace, another great hero of Scotland, fighting for his most burning desire: an independent Scotland. 

Born in Glasgow on 23 November 1909, on the same day that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was chairing a public meeting in Edinburgh on Congo, and in the same year Geronimo died, he grew up to work as an accountant in the Scottish National Insurance Company. 

Married to May Jean Campbell Grieve in 1933, the loving couple had two children, Frances May and Philip. 

(…) In the first couple of decades of their marriage, May’s retiring nature and the presence of young children in the house, combined with Nigel’s deliberate encouragement of his outside interest in public affairs, led to a situation in which he developed a full and busy life of committees and public meetings in which May did not share, or could only share vicariously, and which regularly took him away from the house in the evenings: she occasionally took him to task about it, complaining she never saw him, but it had no very noticeable effect. 

She once counted up that he was chairman of eleven different organisations, a story he is fond of recounting, with a hint of pride in his achievement. 

Nigel and May Tranter in the garden of Quarry House, Aberfeldy, Scotland

But it must have looked somewhat different to May, sitting at home by the fire, and she must have felt at times that she had to share him with half Scotland. 

When great success came to him in the 1970s after the publication of the Bruce trilogy she of course rejoiced for him, but she had no taste for the public exposure and razzmatazz that went with it, nor did she enjoy the invasion of their private life. 

She was a willing accomplice when it came to composing letters to the press, but she would have preferred not to have them about the house. And she fiercely protected Quarry House as his workplace as well as her home, barring the way to the importunate. 

 

(…) He himself approached the writing of the Bruce trilogy with some trepidation, partly on grounds of its magnitude and partly because of the sheer importance of the subject, having thrust it from him for some years. 

Once started, it quickly became all-absorbing. When it was over, he wrote to a correspondent, “For the past four years, I have practically been Robert Bruce. The job is finished now and to some extent I feel quite lost.” Tranter of course writes all his heroes largely out of his own experience, posing the question “What would I have done?” where the historical material fails him, but Bruce was a move up to a new dimension. 

Source: Nigel Tranter Scotland’s Storyteller, Ray Bradfield, B& W Publishing Ltd, Edinburgh 1999 

SYNOPSIS – BRUCE TRILOGY

‘In a world of treachery and violence, Scotland’s most famous hero unites his people in a deadly fight for national survival. In 1296 Edward Plantagenet, King of England, was determined to bludgeon the freedom-loving Scots into submission. Despite internal clashes and his fierce love for his antagonist’s goddaughter, Robert the Bruce, both Norman lord and Celtic earl, took up the challenge of leading his people against the invaders from the South. 

After a desperate struggle, Bruce rose finally to face the English at the memorable battle of Bannockburn. But far from bringing peace, his mighty victory was to herald fourteen years of infighting, savagery, heroism and treachery before the English could be brought to sit at a peace-table and to acknowledge Bruce as a sovereign king. 

In this bestselling trilogy, Nigel Tranter charts these turbulent years, revealing the flowering of Bruce’s character; how, tutored and encouraged by the heroic William Wallace, he determined to continue the fight for an independent Scotland, sustained by a passionate love for his land and devotion to his people.’ 

Bannockburn - Battle For Liberty by John Sadler

The battle of Bannockburn took place on June 24th, 1314. It was a decisive battle in the first war of Scottish Independence and the Scottish victory helped to lead to the independence of Scotland being fully recognised in 1328. 

We will dig more into this subject in upcoming posts, but  meanwhile, be sure to get your hands on a copy of The Bruce Trilogy if you have not done so yet! 

.
 

Take care and talk soon, 

Janice

Liberia - The Lost World - Sheet of 6 postage stamps- 1999

I am thrilled to let you know Mairiuna that indeed , I do have stamps commemorating The Lost World . They are from Liberia and were issued in 1999.  It came in the format of a  sheet of 6 stamps and a souvenir sheet.

Liberia - The Lost World - Souvenir Sheet - 1999

Dinosaurs on stamps is a very popular collection amongst topical stamp collectors.

The first dinosaur postage stamp was issued by the People’s Republic of China in 1958 and per my last notes on the subject , they were 300 stamps produced by 57 countries through 1992.

I should get updated figures, or else I will make figure of a dinosaur myself ! Many were produced with typo errors or mistakes in the geologic eras but it spices up the research and the discussion.

Would be interesting to know how many stamps worldwide have pictures of dinosaurs on them as of 2009…

The Lost World - A.C. Doyle

Hi everybody ! Do you remember how an old dying sycamore growing in Conan Doyle’s childhood garden, on the playground of what is now known as Dunedin School, in Edinburgh, had been given a second life ?

What a good idea to have a violin, called “Sherlock”, carved in the wood of the tree and to have it play on 22 may 2009, the very day of Conan Doyle’s 150 th birth anniversary ? So ingenious are our Scottish friends !

The Lost World & Other Stories - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

But this year, in Great Britain, another kind of homage is being paid to Conan Doyle as The Lost World (1912), one of his most popular novels, has been chosen for the 2009 great reading campaign.

Not a detective story this time but an adventure novel, more or less evoking Jules Verne’s A Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1864) .

The novel is centered round the irascible and very colourful Professor George Edward Challenger who leads an expedition to a plateau in the Amazon basin of South America, where prehistoric animals are supposed to have survived.

The character of Professor Challenger reappears in other Conan Doyle’s stories : The Land of Mist (1926), The Poisoned Belt (1913), When the World Screamed (1928) The Disintegration Machine (1929).

The Lost World - Film - 1925

The Lost World has been turned into a film several times and has inspired contemporary authors and film directors as well. Let us think to  the American author Michael Crichton whose book Jurassic Park was adapted in 1993 by Steven Spielberg.

But let us focus on what happens in Edinburgh, not only because it’s Conan Doyle’s native town but also because Edinburgh is called “the city of books”.

In 2004, Edinburgh won the title of the “1st UNESCO City of Literature” and since then it has launched three great reading campaigns in the city, under the motto of “One Book One Edinburgh”.

The Lost World - Film - 1960

The three books successively chosen to be freely distributed everywhere in the town were Kidnapped, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and The Lost World”.

At least 35 000 copies of Conan Doyle’s book have been distributed in schools, libraries, bookshops and other public places, while many literary events had been  scheduled to take place all over the year. I’m looking forward to the next reading campaign  book choice !

By the way Janice, do you happen to have  some stamps commemorating The Lost World?

A bientôt…

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 - 7 July 1930)

Conan Doyle died of a heart attack on 7 July 1930. He was aged 71 and lived then at “Windlesham”, his house situated in East Sussex, England. He was buried in the churchyard at Minstead in the New Forest, Hampshire. The epitaph on his grave reads “Steel True – Blade Straight – Arthur Conan Doyle – Knight – Patriot, Physician & Man of letters”.

If you question people about Conan Doyle’s nationality many will probably answer : ‘English’. But let’s try to render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s. If Conan Doyle did spend most of his life, died and was buried in England, he was born, spent his childhood and studied medicine in Edinburgh. That is why, on 22 may 2009, the day of his one hundred and fiftieth birth anniversary, he was paid a very moving tribute in Edinburgh, his native town.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's grave, Minstead Churchyard

To begin with, let us go back a few years ago. Of the three houses where Conan Doyle had lived during his childhood, in Edinburgh, only one had not yet been demolished. But Liberton Bank House, a late 18th century sandstone cottage located between Liberton Road and Cameron Toll Shopping Centre, 2 miles southeast of the city centre, was being threatened in its turn by the very polemical project of a Mac Donald fast food restaurant planned to be built there.

Fortunately it’s another one that was finally adopted, of the kind that would certainly not have displeased Conan Doyle who had lived there from the age of 5 to 9 ! It was a school that was to be established there !

In 2007, in a completely refurbished and extended building, Dunedin School opened its doors to a score of children with learning difficulties. But the story does not end here. In the garden of the new school there lived a very old sycamore aged 170 years in the branches of which Conan Doyle had played when a young boy.

Alas, it soon proved that the old tree was dying and that, to everyone’s dismay, it had to be cut. Dunedin school staff soon found a very interesting solution. Why not use the wood of the tree to create something in memoriam of Conan Doyle ? It could be one of those emblematic belongings of Sherlock Holmes, the most famous character created by Conan Doyle .

Finally it was decided that it would be a violin and that the work would be done by a well-known luthier of Edinburgh, Steve Burnett. The violin was finally made right on time and did make its debut on Friday 22 May 2009 at Dunedin school where the instrument would later serve to teach music to the children. The violin had been christened “Sherlock” and inside you can read the following words: “Sherlock, 150th anniversary, birth of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, wood from sycamore at Dunedin School, former chilhood home, Edinburgh, 22.05.2009″ Steve Burnett is going to carve four other instruments (two violins, one viola and one cello) for a group which will be called the Conan Doyle Quartet.

Sherlock Holmes - Illustration by Sidney Paget

So you see, author and character will be forever associated exactly where young Conan Doyle had played in the branches of the old sycamore. In my next post I will tell you about another great tribute paid to Conan Doyle in the city of books… but in the meantime I think Janice is intending to introduce another Scottish author whose detective could well prove to be to Edinburgh what Sherlock Holmes has been to London…

A bientôt!

Mairiuna

PS: Looking for Sherlock Holmes Posters ? Check out Candlesbook.com

Sherlock Holmes Statue - Picardy Place - Edinburgh

Quite touching the idea of portraying Sherlock Holmes brooding over the death of his author… all the more since we know how,  at one time, Conan Doyle got so tired of his character that he decided to ‘kill’ him. “I must save my mind for better things,” he wrote to his mother.

In The Final Problem, published in 1893, Conan Doyle did try to get rid of his hero by making him disappear in the abyss of the Reichenbach Falls, in Switzerland, during a last and fatal combat with Moriarty, the detective’s sworn enemy. Sherlock Holme’s fans were left as disconsolate as Watson at the news of his tragic end and such was the wave of discontent among Conan Doyle’s readers that the writer  had to bring his detective back to life. Not only did he manage this “tour de force” to resuscitate the detective without losing credibility but he also embarked him on some of his most thrilling adventures.

The Final Problem - Sherlock Holmes

Conan Doyle died nearly eighty years ago but the world-wide known  figure of Sherlock Holmes has survived him in our imaginary. However, author and character are going to be united forever in one of the greatest and most touching homages ever paid to a writer. It will be a Scottish tribute paid to a Scottish author.

But who  knows that Conan Doyle is a Scottish writer? The author died in England on July 7th 1930 and was buried in a small churchyard in Hampshire after spending some part of his life there.

I will tell you more next time  and I’m sure nobody will ever forget that Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh and that he is a Scottish writer and not an English one!