Dear readers, Christmas trees are glittering everywhere in crowded city streets, in the heart of towns and villages, in big stores and tiny shops while we are still looking for the best ideas of gifts to put under the little Christmas tree which is waiting for us at home. You should not be very surprised if I say that … Continue reading →
Remember reading in Rankin’s Inspector Rebus series that his famous detective, John Rebus, lived on Arden Street in the residental affluent area of Marchmont in Edinburgh? Since that moment, all fans of Rebus were on a quest to discover the exact Arden Street’s flat number that was home to the much revered Scottish detective of all time! Ian Rankin himself … Continue reading →
Dear readers, No more sweeties… the little candles which had given life to the eyes of our plump red-cheeked pumpkin have gone out and the witches and weird creatures have vanished in the cold spooky night of Halloween. But now, the end of the year is fast approaching, bringing with it the hectic times of Christmas shopping. … Continue reading →
(Old luggage at Arley railway station on the Severn Valley Railway – Wikimedia) Hi everybody! As we are spending a few days away in the family, I’m busy preparing our luggage but on the eve of our departure I feel, as I always do on such occasions, very frustrated not being able to squeeze more things in my suitcase. … Continue reading →
Hi everybody, Before resuming our virtual ‘Journey around Scotland‘, let me tell you a few words about the titles I’ve just added to my summer reading list for whether we are going to take our favourite books with us on the beach, on a bench in the garden or in a comfortable armchair inside the house, it’s summer time … Continue reading →
.. Mairiuna, I just stumbled upon an article in the Scotsman online magazine that compiles a list of top Scottish authors’ favourite books for the year 2012. In all, 44 authors contributed to this project. Wow… Ain’t it exciting to find out what our best authors reads are? So happy to find on the list Christopher Brookmyre, Alistair Moffat, Alexander McCall Smith … Continue reading →
Source : Le coffre aux images de Kate As Father Christmas is already driving his heavily loaded reindeer-drawn sleigh across the icy territories of his faraway country I’m very busy preparing the festivities of the end of the Year, dreaming of a vivifying walk in the countryside or a good book to read by the fireside… Source : Le … Continue reading →
To discover literary Edinburgh, you have to walk it, defying Robert Louis Stevenson’s “bleak winds” and exploring Dorothy Wordsworth’s “passes of dark stone”, simply because there is no other way of penetrating the ancient wynds, closes and creeper-ridden burial grounds of this city, whose literary past is written on its dark and hoary face. (Allan Foster – The … Continue reading →
(Keltia n° 23 – juin/août 2012 – Editions du Nemeton) Open on my desk, at the very page of the article I’m going to write about today, lies the new issue of Keltia, one of my favourite French magazines which I’ve already mentioned in Scotiana. Indeed, I wrote an article about the Pictish stones in this magazine a few … Continue reading →
Hi Mairiuna! It was truly a pleasure to read your last post triggered by Google Doodle’s commemoration of the 220th birth anniversary of Gioachino Rossini. The music was such a joy to hear! Thanks for sharing such great insights about Rossini and the nature of his link with Scotland. About your challenging question… 😉 Dear Janice would you, by any … Continue reading →
As you all know by now, I’m a long time fan of anything and everything related to Unicorns, be it in literature or in any other form or shape. So when Sir James George Frazer’s book titled The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion, landed on my doorstep, I was more than enthusiast about its cover design which … Continue reading →
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 … Continue reading →
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 … Continue reading →
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 … Continue reading →
Ken McGoogan, Harper Collins, First Edition 2010 . In reading Mairiuna’s very moving post “In Flanders Fields…Lest We Forget…“, a question came to my mind: when did John Alexander McCrae’s ancestors emigrated to Canada? Glancing through the bookshelves of my library, looking for a reference book that could answer this question, I stumbled upon Ken McGoogan’s book “How The Scots … Continue reading →
