DISCOVER NLS Opening up the Latest Book by the Crime Writer ISSUE 28 SPRING 2015 Ian Rankin Is, for Many of Us, a Sheer Delight

THE MAGAZINE OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND WWW.NLS.UK | ISSUE 28 SPRING 2015 FREE

CUSTOMER MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR

BOX OF DELIGHTS Ian Rankin lifts the lid on the life of Muriel Spark

PLUS What do Brian Cox, Michael Palin and Lorraine Kelly share?

WELCOME

An invitation to inspiring insights DISCOVER NLS Opening up the latest book by the crime writer ISSUE 28 SPRING 2015 Ian Rankin is, for many of us, a sheer delight. In this CONTACT US issue of Discover NLS the tables are turned on the We welcome all comments, creator of Rebus as he delves into the archive of his questions, submissions and subscription enquiries. Please literary hero. write to us at the National He is given an intimate look at the life of Dame Library of Scotland address Muriel Spark as he highlights the Library’s fundraising below or email [email protected] campaign to buy the last tranche of her archive. It is FOR THE NATIONAL LIBRARY with respect – and glee – that he opens a box of her EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Alexandra Miller personal papers. Find out what happened on page 18. Inspiration is behind so much of what we do at the EDITORIAL ADVISER Willis Pickard National Library. Our collections are a mix of the enthralling, the precious and the curious, from original CONTRIBUTORS copies of classic works such as Treasure Island, The Great Mark Baillie, Bryan Christie, Chris Fleet, Alec Mackenzie, Gatsby and Pride and Prejudice, to an umbrella belonging Kathleen Morgan, to Muriel Spark’s suffragette grandmother. Dora Petherbridge, Kenny Redpath, John Scally, Amid this wonderful mix of manuscripts, books, Michael Tierney, Emma Wilson publications and artefacts, stars from the arts and media have found their inspirations. Brian Cox, Michael Palin and EDITOR Kathleen Morgan Lorraine Kelly are among those who have visited the kathleen.morgan@ Library to take part in our ongoing Inspirations series. thinkpublishing.co.uk They use our collections to tell us – on page 12 – about the DEPUTY EDITOR influences that have shaped their lives. Fiona McKinlay The acclaimed writer James Kelman meets journalist fiona.mckinlay@ thinkpublishing.co.uk Michael Tierney in the shadow of an elephant at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow. They DESIGN Dominic Scott take tea with a large helping of grammar. SUB-EDITORS Our maps curator Chris Fleet illuminates the life Sam Bartlett, Sian Campbell, and work of a pioneer mapmaker from Scotland who Lillian McDowall made the world a safer place. Lastly, Dora Petherbridge GROUP ACCOUNT MANAGER discovers a diary smaller than her hand that opens up an John Innes [email protected] emotive story of the American Civil War. DR JOHN SCALLY Inspiration, from cover to cover. National Librarian ADVERTISING Alison Fraser alison.fraser@thinkpublishing. co.uk 0141 946 8708

PUBLISHED BY PEN AND INK IN TIMES OF PERIL Think Scotland Suite 2.3, Red Tree Business Suites, 33 Dalmarnock Road, Glasgow G40 4LA 1 2 3 0141 375 0504 ISSN 1751-5998 (print) THE QUEEN THE EMIGRANT THE ISSN 1751 -6005 (online) Mary Queen Driven by CONSCIENTIOUS of Scots wrote poverty, OBJECTOR National Library of Scotland her last letter Flora MacDonald A moving letter George IV Bridge six hours before (right) wrote from Thomas Edinburgh EH1 1EW being executed this emotive Hannan to his TELEPHONE 0131 623 3700 on the orders letter in 1774 mother Nellie FAX 0131 623 3701 of her cousin before emigrating in 1917, explaining EMAIL [email protected] and rival, with her husband his controversial The National Library of Elizabeth I, to America and beliefs Scotland is a registered in 1587 a new life http://bit.ly/ Scottish charity. Scottish http://digital.nls. http://bit.ly/nls_ conscientious_ uk/mqs/ flora objector COVER IMAGE: SIMON MURPHY, THIS PAGE: MALCOLM COCHRANE Charity No. SC011086

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CONTENTS

18 What’s making Ian Rankin smile?

JAMES KELMAN ALASDAIR BY GRAY 26

7 NEWS The latest updates, comment and events, including Sally Magnusson on her father’s archive coming to the Library

10 CURATOR’S CHOICE The diary of an unknown American Civil War soldier

12 MOVING STORIES Brian Cox, Michael Palin and Lorraine Kelly share their influences as they celebrate the Library’s Inspirations programme

18 CAMPAIGN The crime writer Ian Rankin gets an exclusive glimpse into the life of Muriel Spark as he supports our fundraising campaign SIMON MURPHYSIMON 22 MAPPING A LIFE The life and work of a forgotten CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE INCLUDE Scottish mapmaker who helped make ocean navigation safer

26 A MAN OF LETTERS The acclaimed author James Kelman gives Michael Tierney a lesson in grammar Dora Petherbridge Bryan Christie Michael Tierney Mark Baillie Christopher Fleet 30 MAKE THE As the Library’s A former journalist An award-winning Marketing and A Map Curator MOST OF YOUR United States and specialising in journalist and Communications at the Library, NATIONAL LIBRARY Commonwealth health, Bryan is Director of Zubarah Officer for the Royal Chris is also Collections responsible for Media, Michael College of Surgeons a co-author Curator, Dora has media and external is author of the of Edinburgh, of Edinburgh: 33 MY NLS a special interest relations at the autobiographical Mark is on the Mapping the City in the American National Library The First Game editorial board of and Scotland: 34 LAST WORD Civil War of Scotland With My Father Surgeons’ News Mapping a Nation

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RORY BREMNER INSPIRES + ALICE IN WONDERLAND AT 150 + BODY TALK NEWS + WIN A GUIDE BOOK TO SCOTLAND + CURATOR’S CHOICE + WW2 DIARIES +

Sally Magnusson as a baby with her parents Mamie and Magnus

‘I can hear him in these words’ Family of Magnus Magnusson donates his archive

e was best known for the “My father never which he hosted for 25 catchphrase “I’ve started so threw anything out – years. He was awarded HI’ll finish”, which punctuated just in case he might an honorary each episode of the British quiz need it for an article knighthood in 1989. show Mastermind. or a speech in the He died in his home Now these words, along with the future. Every TV near Glasgow at the papers and documents of Magnus or book project age of 77, survived by Magnusson, belong to the nation generated a flood of his wife Mamie and after his family gifted his archive to research material he four children, Sally, the National Library. stowed away.” Margaret, Anna and Jon. Sally Magnusson, presenter of the The journalist Siggy, his elder son, had BBC current affairs programme described how it died in a road accident Sally Magnusson Reporting Scotland, explained why took weeks to sift at age 11. Mamie, an the family donated the copious through her father’s accomplished journalist amount of paperwork her father had archive. “I kept being in her own right, lived kept up until his death in 2007. slowed down by stopping to read with dementia for eight years before She said: “My dad had such a wide what he had written,” she said. “Even her death in 2012. range of intellectual interests and in draft form, he could never write a Asked to name the most precious much of his writing throws light on boring sentence.” part of Magnus Magnusson’s archive, aspects of life I believe have a place Magnus Magnusson was born in Sally said: “Anything with my in our national memory. Everything Iceland but moved to Scotland with father’s handwriting on it. Or indeed from the landscape to church his family when he was one. He just anything in his own beautifully buildings to Viking settlements joined the BBC in 1964 as a presenter chosen words – which of course is to place names, birds, wildlife, on the Tonight programme and in almost everything – because I can education … you name it. 1972 became the face of Mastermind, hear him in them.”

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EVENT

master of satire is the latest celebrity to Ashare their influences with an audience at the National Library. Rory Bremner, acclaimed for his impressions of British Impressionist Rory Bremner politicians, is to delve into the Library’s collections but more importantly allows this June as part of the our guests to see and learn Inspirations series. about original material from Figures from the worlds the Library’s collection.” of literature, business, Palin, recently reunited Party time for science, politics, film and with the Monty Python team television have contributed on stage, said: “I was grateful to the series, launched to the National Library for legendary book in 2009. They include helping build a bridge RARE BOOK COLLECTION publisher, Macmillan, the actors Brian Cox and between me and my about its print quality. Michael Palin, and the TV inspirations, and giving me Library celebrates Recipients of presentation presenter Lorraine Kelly, who the opportunity to cross it.” treasured edition copies were asked to share their inspirations in Kelly added: “It’s a joy to return them and only a this issue. talk about subjects you feel 150th birthday is a few bound copies have Each speaker links his so passionate about. I also special one and survived, including the or her inspirations to appreciated the intelligent AAlice is dressed for Library’s copy. documents, books and questions from the audience.” the occasion, sitting in her Dr Graham Hogg, the objects they have discovered Inspirations is part of a fancy party dress at the Curator for Rare Books, in the Library’s collections. year-round programme of head of a tea table. said: “The Library’s copy is Sarah Adwick, the Library’s events at the Library. This is no ordinary one of its treasures, and for Development Officer, said: party, though, and Alice security and conservation “An Inspirations event is a Rory Bremner, Inspirations, is no ordinary girl. This reasons is only available rare treat for the audience, 22 June, 6pm. See page 12 is the mad tea party, for consultation with a featured in an illustration prior appointment. from the rarest edition However, the Library has of Alice’s Adventures more than 300 editions of in Wonderland. Alice and Alice-related Visitors to the Library books in its collections.” were recently given the Dr Hogg explained the chance to see a first enduring attraction of edition copy of the Lewis Carroll’s story, which Carroll book. The title has been translated into featured in a special more than 125 languages. display of rare Alice titles “Up until the mid-19th marking World Book Day century, children’s books - and celebrating the tended to be stodgy 150th anniversary of the morality tales designed FIVE JOIN THE LIBRARY BOARD story’s first publication. mainly to educate readers. The National Library has welcomed five new members onto Only 22 copies of the Alice’s Adventures in its Board, completing its line-up of 14. The Board is first edition are thought Wonderland broke the responsible for the vision, strategy and public accountability to exist. One of these, mould. Surreal, anarchic of the Library. Pictured are (left to right): William Shields Carroll’s working version, and very funny, it has Henderson; Carmel Teusner; Board Chair James Boyle; Helen sold at auction in New continued to entertain Durndell and Amina Shah. Iain Marley (not pictured) was York 17 years ago for and challenge generations also appointed by Fiona Hyslop, Scotland’s Culture Secretary. £1 million. of children and adults.” The first edition was withdrawn after its Visit www.nls.uk/ illustrator, John Tenniel, exhibitions/treasures/ complained to the alice-in-wonderland

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everything from the ribbed surface Gavin Francis of the brain to the inner workings of takes a break the heart and womb. from life as a Accompanying Francis’s first- GP and writer hand case studies are reflections about how the body has been imagined over the millennia. Many of the physician’s research sources have been found on the shelves of the National Library. “I write at the Library every week when I’m not in the clinic and it’s a tremendous resource,” he says. “In my essay on facial expression I did a lot of research into Leonardo da Vinci, as he’s the earliest Renaissance artist to become really fascinated by the muscles of facial expression. COMPETITION I had access to Vasari’s writings on Da Vinci and a wonderful essay by Goethe in Special Collections about WIN a guide BODY his painting The Last Supper.” Other notable sources include On Monsters and Marvels by the to Scotland’s LANGUAGE 16th-century French surgeon SPECIAL COLLECTIONS Ambroise Paré, and biographies top locations of the Argentine author and poet National Library proves it is just Jorge Luis Borges, who suffered Peter Irvine, the organiser of major what the doctor ordered from a degenerative eye disease. events including Edinburgh’s Hogmanay, draws on a lifetime of n upcoming book on the Adventures in experiences to write Scotland The Best secrets of the human body Human Being 100 Places. Guiding you to the top Ahas taken its author on a is published locations in which to walk, eat and voyage through the National on 7 May by sleep, the writer of Scotland the Best Library’s collections. Profile Books in focuses on “reflective, magnificent and In Adventures in Human Being, partnership with human places”. the writer and GP Gavin Francis has the Wellcome drawn on his experiences as a Collection The book, published by Collins, physician to chart a cultural map of includes striking photography the body. His book, to be published of locations from wild glens to in May, offers insights on vibrant cities. The grand tour starts here … For your chance to win a copy of the book, answer this question correctly:

The largest equine sculptures in Q the world are found on which Scottish canal?

POST YOUR ENTRY, ALONG WITH YOUR ADDRESS, TO: Discover NLS Scotland competition, CONGRATULATIONS TO THE MAGAZINE TEAM Think, Suite 2.3, Red Tree Business Discover NLS has been named customer magazine of the year at the Scottish Suites, 33 Dalmarnock Road, Glasgow Magazine Awards 2014. The National Library of Scotland Curator Dora Petherbridge G40 4LA, or email discovernls@ and magazine editor Kathleen Morgan accepted the award from the comedian and thinkpublishing.co.uk. Please include BBC Scotland presenter Fred MacAulay, along with Jenny Blackwell of Midton “Scotland” in the subject line. Acrylics. John Innes, the associate director of Think, which publishes Discover NLS, was named publisher of the year at the awards ceremony held at the Radisson Blu, The closing date is Friday 8 May. Glasgow. Visit www.ppa.co.uk/events/sma2014/winners/

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Life on the front line CURATOR’S CHOICE – DORA PETHERBRIDGE From the Virginia swamplands to the National Library, this pocket diary offers a glimpse into the life of an American Civil War soldier

he unknown into the pocket of his Dora soldier maps his march the night”. Eventually, author of this tiny, blue uniform? Petherbridge toward Richmond, and after further fighting in Tfragile diary was From deciphering the with the then retreat to Yorktown early July, the soldier a Union private fighting now faded handwriting on palm-sized as the ‘Rebels’ drove back states “all Quiett [sic]”. in Confederate Virginia in the worn, grubby pages of diary of Union regiments. For troops on both sides 1862, the second year of the diary, it’s clear the a Union Richmond, the conditions were punishing. the American Civil War. soldier was in camp and private Confederate States’ capital, Scant rations, exhaustion, Irrepressible tensions battle between the James was hugely significant for and the spread of disease between the industrial and Chickahominy rivers both the North and South. took their toll. It is against North and agrarian, on the Virginia Peninsula. Hampered by stormy the background of daily slave-holding South The brief entries, running weather, difficult terrain, hardship that this soldier had escalated and war from early May until 8 and the need for more writes, and it is the broke out at Fort Sumter September 1862, record troops, General George weather, the marching, in April 1861. the soldier’s duties and the McClellan’s efforts to seize issuing of whisky, and the The diary, donated to highlights of his days: the South’s seat of power arrival of letters from the National Library in the “inspection of arms”; failed. General Robert E home that he finds 1970s, fits into the palm of “on the march”; “got Lee and his Confederate noteworthy. He neither a hand. It is a treasured Payed [sic]”; “posted a Army held the city. mentions secession nor relic from the ‘War of Letter home”; “got new On 30 June 1862, states’ rights, or the issue Northern Aggression’ or of pants and new Boots”. towards the end of the of slavery. ‘Rebellion’, as the conflict We believe the soldier Confederate counter- Thinking of this soldier is variously known. Its was involved in the offensive ending the as one of thousands who diminutive size is striking, Union’s Peninsula Peninsula campaign, our were at the mercy of but its imaginative campaign, particularly its soldier writes, “very hard political and military possibilities are compelling culmination – the Seven fiting [sic] we fall back decisions, his entry for – how old was the solider; Days’ Battles. Noting weak”. And again the Thursday 17 July 1862 is what was his background; where he was “on picket”, next day, “very Hard particularly touching: did he tuck this little book scouting and fighting, the Fiting [sic] we fall Back in “One Tear in my nice

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James Lauder Davidson “always had a fondness for Indian elephants” OUT OF THE WOODS COLLECTIONS The forester- Tales of daring turn up in WW2 memento turned-soldier Davidson he diaries of a forester-turned- soldier charting his escape to China Tfrom Burma during World War II have been donated to the National Library. James Lauder Davidson, a University of MALCOLM COCHRANE MALCOLM Edinburgh graduate, was sent to Burma Quilt”. An acutely personal in 1938 as a forestry worker for a Scottish experience noted between firm. Following the outbreak of war, his battles which would shape knowledge of languages led him to the fate of the United become chief liaison officer to the States of America. Chinese army, which was fighting In transcribing this Japanese forces. diary, I am indebted to the He helped the Chinese communicate help of Christopher Minty, with Burmese civilians before the who carried out research conflict forced him to escape to China for his PhD in history at and on to India. Joining the British army in Burma as he and my mother talked the Library. Chris, who I in India, Davidson served as a captain in about it in my childhood … I never read the have worked with on the intelligence corps and returned to diaries until my mother’s death last year many fascinating items in Burma – now also known as Myanmar – when I came into possession of them. our American collections, for which he was mentioned in “His wartime experiences were never described the “visceral dispatches. mentioned much. Mostly he talked about charge” of the item, and Davidson’s daughter, Avril Salt, who his work in the jungle, and he always had how it gives a sense of donated his papers to the Library, said: a fondness for Indian elephants.” immediacy to a war which “My decision was guided by the fact that Along with the diaries, Salt donated two ended 150 years ago. my father was educated in Scotland and photograph albums, passes enabling The fragility of the diary always through his life regarded Peebles passage through conflict zones, and a conveys the vulnerability as his home. receipt for a pistol. Besides charting his of the private in the midst “I was always aware of my father’s life wartime experiences, the material sheds of a conflict that claimed light on Davidson’s life as a forester in the lives of an estimated “I was always aware of my Burma before and after the conflict. 750,000 soldiers. It is father’s life in Burma as he The son of a British tea planter in India, extraordinary that this Davidson returned to the UK to work for soldier’s quiet, battle-worn and my mother talked about the Forestry Commission. Awarded an OBE voice has survived. it during my childhood” in 1976, he died in 1992.

Spring 2015 | DISCOVER NLS | 11 MOVING

t’s rare to see a Hollywood star wedding. This trip to Scotland is to sauntering down an Edinburgh attend the memorial of a friend, and to street with a bag of groceries, but visit his older sister in Dundee. that’s just how we first meet Brian He speaks affectionately of his sons Cox,I who nods hello from beneath his Orson, 12, and Torin, 10, describing them tweed newsboy cap, drops his bag and as “the anchors of my life – and negotiates the front door of the Georgian necessary, otherwise I would probably townhouse he is borrowing overnight. spin into outer space”. They are Minutes later, the star of Braveheart, becoming more blasé about their father The Bourne Identity and X2: X-Men being away from home, he laughs. United settles on a large sofa beside a Brian, who has won acclaim for his log burner, explaining that he has just portrayal of King Lear on stage, admits arrived from London. Groceries he misses aspects of British life, forgotten, he prepares to talk about the particularly the theatre. “I miss the touchstones of his life – including culture – it’s very vibrant. I try to split cinema, Edinburgh and hotel rooms – to my time between the two places.” celebrate the Inspirations programme for the National Library of Scotland. The WHERE DREAMS ARE MADE ongoing series of audience events has Brian, who began his working life at featured well-known figures, including 15 as a message boy for Dundee Rep Michael Palin, Lorraine Kelly and Nigel theatre, cites cinema as one of his Planer. The roll call will this summer biggest inspirations. He comes to life as include impressionist Rory Bremner. he tells how he visited picture houses with his mother and aunts from the age FAMILY MAN of six, later playing truant from primary Life has moved on since Brian visited school to watch films such as Giant the Library in 2010 to share his and On the Waterfront. inspirations with an audience. The Cinema was a staple in his otherwise Dundee-born actor, who travels the unsettled childhood. His father, Chic, globe to work on film, television and who ran a grocery shop in Dundee, died theatre productions, is spending more very suddenly from pancreatic cancer time than usual at home in Brooklyn, when Brian was eight, leaving his New York, where he lives with his mother struggling with grief and a second wife, German actress Nicole legacy of debt. “He was ill for three Ansari, and their two sons. He is weeks and then he was gone,” says shooting The Slap, a US television series the actor, who describes his father about the reverberations of a child as generous, sociable and too soft on being hit after misbehaving at a family his customers.

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Brian Cox with a copy of Charles Edward’s plan of Dundee 1846, presented to the actor by the Library MOVING

STORIESWhat does a Shakespearean actor have in common with a queen of daytime TV and a Monty Python legend? Their inspirations are all found in the Library collections. Brian Cox is first to share his influences with Kathleen Morgan t’s rare to see a Hollywood star wedding. This trip to Scotland is to sauntering down an Edinburgh attend the memorial of a friend, and to street with a bag of groceries, but visit his older sister in Dundee. that’s just how we first meet Brian He speaks affectionately of his sons Cox,I who nods hello from beneath his Orson, 12, and Torin, 10, describing them tweed newsboy cap, drops his bag and as “the anchors of my life – and negotiates the front door of the Georgian necessary, otherwise I would probably townhouse he is borrowing overnight. spin into outer space”. They are Minutes later, the star of Braveheart, becoming more blasé about their father The Bourne Identity and X2: X-Men being away from home, he laughs. United settles on a large sofa beside a Brian, who has won acclaim for his log burner, explaining that he has just portrayal of King Lear on stage, admits arrived from London. Groceries he misses aspects of British life, forgotten, he prepares to talk about the particularly the theatre. “I miss the touchstones of his life – including culture – it’s very vibrant. I try to split cinema, Edinburgh and hotel rooms – to my time between the two places.” celebrate the Inspirations programme for the National Library of Scotland. The WHERE DREAMS ARE MADE ongoing series of audience events has Brian, who began his working life at featured well-known figures, including 15 as a message boy for Dundee Rep Michael Palin, Lorraine Kelly and Nigel theatre, cites cinema as one of his Planer. The roll call will this summer biggest inspirations. He comes to life as include impressionist Rory Bremner. he tells how he visited picture houses with his mother and aunts from the age FAMILY MAN of six, later playing truant from primary Life has moved on since Brian visited school to watch films such as Giant the Library in 2010 to share his and On the Waterfront. inspirations with an audience. The Cinema was a staple in his otherwise Dundee-born actor, who travels the unsettled childhood. His father, Chic, globe to work on film, television and who ran a grocery shop in Dundee, died theatre productions, is spending more very suddenly from pancreatic cancer time than usual at home in Brooklyn, when Brian was eight, leaving his “My sons are the New York, where he lives with his mother struggling with grief and a anchors of my life. second wife, German actress Nicole legacy of debt. “He was ill for three Ansari, and their two sons. He is weeks and then he was gone,” says Without them I would shooting The Slap, a US television series the actor, who describes his father spin into outer space” about the reverberations of a child as generous, sociable and too soft on being hit after misbehaving at a family his customers.

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“My father gave a massive to marry, and his brother to wee hut at Broughty Ferry amount of credit to people join the army. and used to go down there for and they didn’t pay their His sister Betty stepped in seven weeks in the holidays. bills,” explains the actor. “He to help raise him along with That whole stretch of the Tay was the kind of patriarch in her own children, and, at 85, there is just a fantastic this area, but he was let down remains central to his life. resource. I go back and go, very badly and my mum ‘God, I was born here, and I couldn’t collect the debt once TALE OF TWO CITIES took it all for granted’.” he died. The pressure on my He softens as he speaks Brian describes how he mum was huge.” about Dundee, describing his devoured up to eight films a Struggling with both boyhood as “ostensibly a week at two cinemas on his physical and mental illness, happy one”, in spite of the street. “I suppose it was a Brian’s mother was unable economic and emotional way of escaping, but it was to cope with looking after turmoil. “I spent all my also just a world I loved. I her youngest child – his childhood running on the loved the cinemas, the dark, sisters were leaving home beaches,” he says. “We had a the lady selling Ki-Ora.”

It is the capital, though, HOW THE LIBRARY INSPIRED US that inspires him most. “I love Edinburgh,” he says. “I love its design, its geography. Edinburgh is the city of Robert Louis Stevenson, David Hume, John Knox. It’s where Burns had his success as a poet. It’s also the light – I am a man of the east because of the light.” KING LEAR TELEVISION THE GOON SHOW SCRIPTS Brian Cox Lorraine Kelly Michael Palin THE POOR HOUSE Shakespeare’s tragedy, This first edition of This edition of The Goon In contrast, his family dated 1608 though first Television Journal, Show Scripts is written history has left him with a printed in 1619, was titled published in 1928, tapped and selected by Spike gloomy perception of the ‘true chronicle history into the excitement Milligan, a hero of Palin. Glasgow, which he associates of the life and death of surrounding the little box The Library has various with suffering and darkness. King Lear and his three that changed domestic life collections of scripts from Brian explains his great- daughters’. Brian Cox was forever. Find out about the the radio show that grandfather, a canal worker acclaimed for his King Lear. technology behind TV. revolutionised British from Derry, Northern Ireland, Visit http://bit.ly/ Visit http://bit.ly/ comedy and was broadcast fell on hard times after shakespeare_nls television_nls between 1951-1960. moving to Glasgow. “He had a rough time in Glasgow. By

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Robert Louis Stevenson, with his wife Fanny and friends, on the Marquesas Islands the time he was 39, he’d lost “In Travels With a Donkey, Stevenson Irish, German, Persian, Polish his wife and five of his eight and Russian blood. “We’re kids, and was in the poor writes, ‘I travel not to go anywhere, but to like birds that nest: we sit house with his six-year-old go. I travel for travel’s sake …’” down then we bugger off.” boy and couldn’t get a job ... Shifting on his sofa, Brian He died at Gartcosh asylum glowers.” There is a hint of on me other than just to lie returns to his literary hero, at the age of 53, thinking he mischief in his eyes and the there, relax, watch the telly, Stevenson. The writer of was a 14-year-old boy back actor acknowledges the city order room service and have Treasure Island was born a in Derry.” is also renowned for its a jolly nice time. It really few streets away from Brian’s maternal friendliness and community. comes from my background, where he sits in Edinburgh’s grandfather moved to Whichever city the actor because of my issues of New Town and died at 44 in Dundee, which offered a finds himself in, from poverty when I was a child.” Samoa after a lifetime of safety net if you were poor. Glasgow to Budapest, he will travel. He quotes the first “I remember Billy Connolly find a place of sanctuary. “I NEST FOR NOMADS lines of Stevenson’s Travels telling me his great- love hotel bedrooms,” he The actor describes himself With a Donkey: “I travel not grandmother tried to get into says, citing another of his as a restless soul. A recent to go anywhere, but to go. I Dundee because it had these inspirations. “I love their New York Times article about travel for travel’s sake. The asylums, which were these anonymity. I love that the his family’s home life in a greatest affair is to move.” kind of homes for people beds are done for me, that high-rise apartment in And with that, it’s time for who had nothing ... Glasgow they get made every day. I Brooklyn was headlined him to move. Now, where was an unforgiving city. love the fact it’s all tidy “A Nest For Nomads’. “That was that bag of messages? “There’s that heaviness in when I come back at night, really summed us up,” he Glasgow – that glowering and that it’s impersonal and says, explaining that his Visit http://digital.nls.uk/ thing,” he says. “Glasgow doesn’t make any demands sons are a fusion of Scots, rlstevenson

Spring 2015 | DISCOVER NLS | 15 MICHAEL PALIN The actor, presenter and diarist who recently reunited with the team behind Monty Python reveals his biggest influences at the Library

THE EDINBURGH FESTIVAL part of the reunion in 2014 ERNEST HEMINGWAY The Oxford University Revue was a reaffirmation of the I first read Ernest at the Edinburgh Festival in sheer enjoyment of writing Hemingway when I was in 1964 was my first exposure and performing comedy, my teens, but it was much to a non-university which began for all of us later when I was researching audience. The reception to at university. my novel Hemingway’s Chair the revue was so warm that that I discovered just how for the first time in my life I THE GOON SHOW important travel was to his entertained the possibility The Goon Show had a life and work. that I could make a living powerful influence on my I was drawn to his world from writing and performing. own writing. There was a because beneath the macho Terry Jones was also in the great freedom and image was a far more cast, and he and I went on to inventiveness about Spike complicated man who write for David Frost’s The Milligan’s humour. He suffered from depression for Frost Report where we met created a gallery of much of his later life. Eric Idle, John Cleese and extraordinary comic Graham Chapman. In 1969, characters, which he could DAVID LIVINGSTONE we agreed to write take in any direction and When I was young, my something new and fresh – place in any situation. The ambition was to be an this was Monty Python’s The Edinburgh Festival in 1964 more far-fetched it was, the explorer and David Flying Circus. The best sparked Michael Palin’s career more I revelled in it. Livingstone was one of the

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12-17_NLSspring15_Inspiration_KM.indd 16 12/03/2015 14:59 INSPIRATIONS INSPIRATIONS LORRAINE KELLY The presenter tells of being inspired by Hollywood idols, a great explorer and TV

SIR ERNEST SHACKLETON I am in awe of this incredible, complex, brave man. Shackleton’s plan to cross the entire Antarctic continent ended in failure with his ship The Endurance crushed and sunk by the ice. He managed to get his men to Elephant Island and underwent an 800-mile sea voyage to South Georgia that should not have been Explorer Ernest possible. Once he landed Shackleton’s leadership there, he and two of his men skills saved his men had to scale a mountain range to reach the whaling station and get help. His with my dad in 1969. It really leadership skills were was an event that changed second to none. He didn’t the world. lose a single man. As a reporter, covering the Lockerbie bombing and HOLLYWOOD shootings in Dunblane were I admire the legendary Bette events I will never forget. As Davis. When I was appointed a presenter, I will always Scottish correspondent for remember the fall of the TV-am in 1984, I came to Berlin Wall, the horror of 9/11 London to meet everyone and the London bombings of and watch the show being 2005, and the death of Diana, broadcast. The guest that smoke in the studio. No one Princess of Wales. day happened to be Miss had the nerve to tell her to TV has changed; people Davis. She had battled put her fag out. watch in different ways. I sit As a boy, Michael Palin breast cancer and a stroke, down with my husband and dreamed of living but had so much charisma. TELEVISION binge-watch House of Cards, like the explorer She was also smoking a My inspiration as a viewer Breaking Bad and Orange is David Livingstone cigarette and even back would have to be the moon the New Black. It’s good that then you weren’t allowed to landings, which I watched TV has evolved.

people I wanted to emulate. He was the first non-African Among the influences to see Victoria Falls – of Lorraine Kelly are exploration could hardly Bette Davis, above have been more thrilling than that.

VIRGINIA WOOLF Virginia Woolf’s diary really is an extraordinary resource. She writes with such flair and fluency that there’s never a dull day, but what makes the diaries remarkable is how candid she is about her own life. This is a great work of self- examination, rare in someone of such talent and ability. There is so much to

learn here. MEDDLE/ITV/REX STEVE

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BURIED TREASURES The crime writer Ian Rankin gets a glimpse into the life of his literary hero Muriel Spark as he backs the Library’s campaign to complete her archive. Bryan Christie looks on

PHOTOGRAPHS BY SIMON MURPHY

ystery and suspense are the crime in Muriel Spark’s diary entries. A quick glance writer Ian Rankin’s stock in trade from 1995 shows excerpts such as lunch with John but rarely does he get the chance and Penny Mortimer, her near neighbours in to star in his own real-life drama. Tuscany, a meeting with Lord Gowrie at the Arts MThat opportunity arrives when he agrees to Council and arrangements for a BBC interview. support the Library’s £250,000 fundraising Interspersed with these are the more campaign to pay for the last instalment of the commonplace recording of everyday life in the archive of the celebrated writer Muriel Spark, villa she lived in near Florence – the wedding of a self-confessed hoarder of documents. “the butcher’s daughter” and “Adolpho finishing The Library has taken delivery of dozens of the olive pruning”. sealed boxes containing the final set of papers. Rankin is like a child at Christmas as he picks Rankin becomes the first person to peek through the contents of the box. “I like the fact inside when he opens one of the boxes to reveal that, on the same page, you get information about its contents. a media interview and a flat tyre – all the “This is great,” he says as he unknots the twine domestic as well as the literary stuff. It will be securing a standard document box marked rarer and rarer to find an author’s complete life “diaries”, unsure of precisely what treasures lie recorded in this way as email and tweets take within. The opened box reveals a selection of over from letters and paper.” diaries, big and small, along with fan letters and other correspondence. “This is just like my boxes DEEP ADMIRATION at home,” says the writer, who has a collection of He and Muriel Spark are both Scottish writers his own papers. “Some of them are just like this.” who have achieved international fame but the He has been offered a selection of five boxes to connection goes much deeper than that. open and chooses the box of diaries, partly Rankin spent three years – mostly in the because of his own experience in penning a diary National Library of Scotland – studying Spark’s from the age of 12 until his early 30s. work for a PhD which he never completed. Rankin confesses the material from his teenage His own writing took over, leaving the thesis years would provide little reward for any unfinished. What has stayed with him is a deep contemporary reader and he finds more of interest admiration for the work of Muriel Spark, widely

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Ian Rankin becomes the first person to get a peek into one of Muriel Spark’s box files

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CAMPAIGN

Clockwise from right: Robin Smith, Head of Collections at the Library, shows Ian Rankin the archive; Muriel Spark freewheeling as a child; striking a pose; and at her desk

“Her novels read like a poet’s novels. They are very short but packed at the same time. Jean Brodie is only about 125 pages long but it reads like a 400-page novel”

regarded as one of the most important post-war every Edinburgh paper for a year looking for that British novelists. poem but never found it,” he says. MURIEL During his studies he was given an address for Rankin is supporting the fundraising campaign SPARK her in Rome and considered writing to her but to help pay for the remaining part of the archive CAMPAIGN never did. They met only once, in 2004, when and catalogue all the contents – an estimated four The National Spark made a rare public appearance at the years’ work – which will make life much easier for Library is raising Edinburgh Book Festival, two years before she the researchers of the future. funds to buy died. By this time Rankin was a highly successful “It will help people to get a better understanding the last tranche - author but he went along as a fan and got her of her as a human being as well as giving new and catalogue autograph on his first edition of The Prime of Miss insights into her books through studying the the contents of - Jean Brodie. “She knew who I was and I think she notebooks she used,” he says. “It will also be the Muriel Spark knew about the PhD.” interesting to people who are interested in the archive. For He still has the essays he wrote for the thesis lives of authors.” information and the card index that maps its structure as part about the of his own literary archive. “It was fascinating to INVALUABLE INSIGHT campaign, work on the thesis and to look at her progression Until that work is completed, much of the detail of please email the as an author. Her novels read like a poet’s novels. the archive and the remarkable stories it tells will National Library They are very short but are packed at the same remain undiscovered and inaccessible. at development@ time. Jean Brodie is only about 125 pages long but Muriel Spark corresponded with prime nls.uk or call reads like a 400-page novel because there is so ministers, film stars and literary greats including 0131 623 3733. much going on at the margins.” Graham Greene, John Updike and Kingsley To contribute There was no Muriel Spark archive at the Amis. Her notebooks record her painstaking please go to Library when Rankin was doing his research, research and illustrate the development of her http://www. which took him down some blind alleys. He most famous novels. The archive also contains everydayhero. recalled an interview he read which mentioned everything from restaurant receipts and old co.uk/event/ a newspaper poetry prize won by a young Muriel passports to telegrams and used train tickets. murielspark Spark. He decided to try to track down the It is the complete record of the life of one of winning entry. “I went through every edition of Scotland’s literary giants.

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MAPPING A LIFE He was orphaned, shipwrecked and rescued before reinventing himself as a mapmaker. Now the pioneering work of George Thomas can be discovered online, writes Chris Fleet

t is 200 years since a mapmaker strong tides, especially in the Pentland and accidental adventurer Firth and around the Northern Isles. created an Admiralty chart of The life of a hydrographer could be the Firth of Forth. With its perilous. Commander Slater, a mutedI colours and delicate lines, contemporary of Thomas who the map, created by George charted other parts of the Thomas, was the first of what Scottish east coast, fell from a was to become a large family of cliff near Thurso Bay to his death such charts reaching to the in 1842. present day. George Thomas’s early life – and As a legal deposit library, the his journey into the Admiralty – National Library of Scotland has a contained much drama of its own. significant collection of these charts – Thomas was born in London in 1781 and, some 25,000 covering the world’s oceans despite being orphaned, gained a liberal and ports. For the first time, though, they education at the Blue Coat School. At 15 he joined are a click away, with an initial 1,000 charts covering Scottish waters now accessible on the Library’s website. “Their boat was wrecked in the If the first chart of the Firth of Forth is Pacific and the survivors rescued fascinating, so is the story of its creator. Appointed by a passing American merchant head maritime surveyor for home waters in 1810, Thomas spent the next 36 years almost ship. Then, due to a lack of water continually at sea, surveying the Scottish east supplies, they were abandoned coast from Berwickshire to Angus, then Shetland and Orkney. This was a significant achievement in on the island of Más Afuera, itself, due to the relatively inhospitable coast and 500 miles west of Chile”

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Part of Arrowsmith’s chart of the world, showing Más Afuera (left), where George Thomas was shipwrecked in 1796. Thomas’s 1815 map of the Forth (top left)

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the Southern Whale Fishery, sailing in Commerce under the command of Welham Clarke. In 1796 the ship was wrecked in the Pacific, 18 months after leaving England. Thomas was among survivors who were rescued by a passing American merchant ship but, due to a lack of water supplies, were abandoned on Más Afuera, some 500 miles west of Chile.

ESCAPE ROUTE Thomas spent his time there usefully, collecting seal skins. Around three years later another ship put into the island and he was able to buy his passage to China by selling a share in the skins. From there Thomas secured a cabin on the next boat bound for England. When it reached the English Channel, though, the boat was boarded by a press gang. Thomas was captured and detained on a naval frigate. A dispute over Thomas’s use – without permission – of a midshipman’s sextant brought him to the attention of the captain. Instead of punishing him, the captain spotted Thomas’s abilities and promoted him to the quarterdeck, where he trained others in surveying techniques. A year later Thomas was made a nautical surveyor, after successfully piloting the A dispute over Thomas’s use – without permission – of a midshipman’s sextant brought him to the attention of the captain

British fleet up the River Scheldt – today running through the Netherlands and Belgium – as part of the Napoleonic Wars blockade of continental ports. The following year, 1810, he was appointed head maritime surveyor, commanding the surveying vessel Investigator, a brig of 150 tonnes. The ship would be his home for the next 26 years. Thomas worked on mapping the approaches to the Thames and English Channel ports, but it was his work on the Scottish coasts from 1815 onwards that would become his greatest legacy. His first Scottish chart of the Forth, in 1815, packed with useful information for mariners such as transits for safe passage, was far more accurate and detailed than previous attempts. For example, as we can see by the three transit lines on the chart, by keeping the newly constructed Nelson Monument on Calton Hill in line with Arthur’s Seat, North Leith Church, or Leith Martello tower respectively, ships could avoid the Drum Sands off Cramond and the Gunnet Rocks near Inchkeith. The details of numerous conspicuous buildings and the shapes of significant hills on the land complemented the detailed depths in fathoms and offshore hazards such as rocks and sandbanks. During the 1820s Thomas benefited from the Ordnance Survey (OS) primary triangulation of Great Britain, which involved fixing points of

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ESCAPE ROUTE Thomas spent his time there usefully, collecting seal skins. Around three years later another ship put into the island and he was able to buy his passage to China by selling a share in the skins. From there Thomas secured a cabin on the next boat bound for England. When it reached the English Channel, though, the boat was boarded by a press gang. Thomas was captured and detained on a naval frigate. A dispute over Thomas’s use – without permission – of a midshipman’s sextant brought him to the attention of the captain. Instead of punishing him, the captain spotted Thomas’s abilities and promoted him to the quarterdeck, where he trained others in surveying techniques. A year later Thomas was made a nautical surveyor, after successfully piloting the A dispute over Thomas’s use – Thomas gained a reputation for his meticulous without permission – of a attention to detail and, while his surveys midshipman’s sextant brought “had ever the impress of accuracy and care”, him to the attention of the captain they took much longer than anticipated

British fleet up the River Scheldt – today running major heights. He carried the OS surveyors to Clockwise, from through the Netherlands and Belgium – as part of Shetland in 1825 for this purpose. Thomas gained main: Thomas’s map the Napoleonic Wars blockade of continental a reputation for his meticulous attention to detail of the Forth (1815); ports. The following year, 1810, he was appointed and, while his surveys “had ever the impress of Alexander Dalrymple, head maritime surveyor, commanding the accuracy and care” according to official records, the first Admiralty surveying vessel Investigator, a brig of 150 tonnes. they took much longer than anticipated. Hydrographer The ship would be his home for the next 26 years. Francis Beaufort, the Admiralty hydrographer (1795-1808); detail Thomas worked on mapping the approaches to from 1829, was exasperated with Thomas during of a Pentland Firth the Thames and English Channel ports, but it was his survey of Shetland. Beaufort wrote: “There can map (1830); the his work on the Scottish coasts from 1815 onwards be no possible value in inserting the minute side-by-side viewer that would become his greatest legacy. topography of the inner faces of the hills nor is showing the Forth His first Scottish chart of the Forth, in 1815, there any necessity for verifying the third angle Rail Bridge in the packed with useful information for mariners such of all the triangles in such a difficult and 1890s and modern- as transits for safe passage, was far more accurate inaccessible country.” day satellite imagery and detailed than previous attempts. For example, Despite Beaufort’s criticisms Thomas continued as we can see by the three transit lines on the his painstaking work until, in 1846, he died aboard See the Admiralty chart, by keeping the newly constructed Nelson a surveying vessel returning to Woolwich from charts at http:// Monument on Calton Hill in line with Arthur’s the Orkney Isles. maps.nls.uk/ Seat, North Leith Church, or Leith Martello tower The Library has put online its collection of out- coasts/admiralty_ respectively, ships could avoid the Drum Sands off of-copyright Admiralty charts – including seven charts_list, and Cramond and the Gunnet Rocks near Inchkeith. produced by Thomas showing Scottish waters. explore the The details of numerous conspicuous buildings This will allow access to about 1,000 maps dating georeferenced and the shapes of significant hills on the land from 1795-1964. maps in our side- complemented the detailed depths in fathoms and The Library has georeferenced 200 of these by-side viewer at offshore hazards such as rocks and sandbanks. charts so they can be easily compared to http://maps.nls. During the 1820s Thomas benefited from the present-day satellite images and maps, with uk/geo/explore/ Ordnance Survey (OS) primary triangulation of excellent potential for viewing coastal change sidebyside.cfm’ Great Britain, which involved fixing points of over time. sidebyside.nls

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A MAN OF

LaudedLETTERS and misunderstood in equal measure, James Kelman is one of sparked the work of Irvine Welsh, Janice Galloway, and Alan Warner, the nation’s most significant writers. As his literary archive becomes part among others. of the Library’s collection, he tells Michael Tierney why grammar is king His Library archive covers everything from dogged campaigns PHOTOGRAPHS BY ANGELA CATLIN and politicking, including draft manuscripts of his essay on the Common Sense tradition, the Stephen ames Kelman shakes his head that way at all. I really don’t care about Lawrence campaign and documents ruefully as we go over a little of it and it’s so gone, it’s so negative.” from Department of Social Security his past work. Stereotyping can versus Kelman in receipt of Scottish calcify creativity and Kelman is TRAILBLAZER Arts Council bursary; a “poly bag” of Jrightly tired of forever having his In truth Kelman, the only Scot to win In the Night memorabilia, screenplay career associated with his fourth novel, the Booker Prize, doesn’t really need to for Greyhound for Breakfast, Polygon How Late It Was, How Late. explain himself. You either respond proofs for reissues, student essays It’s the elephant, as it were, in the positively to his art or not. In some from his student days at the University cafe of the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and sense it’s much like a painting. If you of Strathclyde; material from his Museum in Glasgow where we meet. don’t understand it you don’t university teaching days in America; Returning to How Late It Was, How Late understand it. Regardless, the art letters and correspondence from a provides a little context to the exists, explaining itself to you in every diverse group of writers; reviews and convenient myths and almost absurd rhythm and cadence: the words, the articles relating to published works and level of vitriol he received following its structure and the grammars. proofs; and print-outs and early drafts. 1994 publication and subsequent “There are different grammars,” And much, much more. Booker Prize win. Kelman had done no Kelman argues. “One grammar is more, said one critic, than “transcribe taught. You realise so many things CIRCLE OF FRIENDS the rambling thoughts of a blind you take for granted in this country Sally Harrower, the Library’s Curator Glaswegian drunk”. According to are basically the result of elitism of Modern Literary Manuscripts, others Kelman was little more than an and an authoritarian use of language believes the depth and richness illiterate savage. In a pique of used to restrict communities in our of the archive firmly place Kelman something akin to Victorian morality country from surviving, never in his creative, political and one observer keenly noted the number mind thriving. international context. of times the main character swore. “For me grammar is the most crucial “Besides his own extensive literary Twenty one years on, with Kelman’s thing, really. The goal is clarity and to papers, there is much correspondence archive now part of the National Library say what you mean. In that sense and work of others, notably his of Scotland, a little archaeology might grammar has to be the greatest Glasgow contemporaries including help mitigate the chafing criticism from weapon you can have next to logic.” Alasdair Gray, Liz Lochhead, the past that, with the benefit of time, The 68-year-old smiles again as if to Agnes Owens, Tom Leonard and now seems almost quaint. say, well, if they can’t see some value Jeff Torrington. This closeness with – “It was difficult to react to the in my work now they never will. and support for – other writers extends hostility, which was quite great,” he He’s right. His work – angry, defiant, beyond Scotland to an international says, smiling behind sharp, blue eyes. polemic or not – stands as a testimony circle of friends. “It’s not really ended. But I always come to one of the finest literary talents the “In a way, this is the unknown Jim out of it sounding bitter and I don’t feel country has produced: a trailblazer who Kelman, and I feel strongly that having

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his archive in a public collection will do something to redress the general perception of this controversial figure. That said, the combative Jim Kelman is represented in the archive too. Very funnily, sometimes – exchanges with editors trying to temper his language are a hoot.”

BIG ERROR The important thing for Kelman, even now, is that he’s always writing. He always has a great deal of work on the go, simultaneously, and writes daily. “It doesn’t matter what emotional state you are in,” he says. “Sometimes you’re not up to working on some things and you can go to something else. That’s how I do it.” Revisiting the oft-repeated mistake – of observing his work is there to illuminate the lives of working-class people, predominately males – draws a nuanced rebuke. Crucially, he says, he has never written simply to represent people, or the voices of those he grew up around in Glasgow. “As an artist you don’t represent James Kelman, people,” he says. “All you’re doing is photographed your own thing. It so happens that by Angela Catlin you’re a member of a community. in 1985 for her book You’re not there to try and exhibit Natural Light the community. That’s a big error people do make. They think that’s what your project is, to represent working-class people. “The only thing that drives you is the “When you talk about identity the thing I come back same thing that drives all artists. The thing about art is it’s an end in itself. to is emigration. In my family emigration is the key. You just want to write the story We have relations on the west coast of the States, properly and paint the picture properly New Zealand, Australia, Canada … Identity is not and move on to the next one and you work at that until it’s finished. But it’s only interesting but crucial, politically, in Scotland” not to do with anything other than the thing itself.’ most people don’t read.” He laughs. INTO THE UNKNOWN Kelman liked art when he was a “Class really is not an issue except how For the Library, Kelman’s importance is young man growing up in Glasgow and do you get books? Do you use a library hard to overestimate. “Jim’s stature and he thought he was going to be a or not? That’s kind of common. influence is such that we felt his papers painter. His father was a frame maker “It’s working class if you accept a belonged in the national collection,” says and picture restorer. His grandfather working-class guy reads poetry, listens Sally Harrower. “National importance is was also in that trade. Kelman left to Beethoven or sings Tammy Wynette a criterion that informs our collecting school at 15 and worked as an songs and reads Kafka and goes to practices, though in Jim’s case I think apprentice compositor for two years Firhill. If you accept that as being an we could say he is of international before his family moved, briefly, to ordinary working-class experience importance. He’s a major influence on America. After returning he undertook then fine.” many current Scottish writers, the only a succession of other jobs before taking Through his archive the strength and Scottish Booker-prize winner so far – up writing. When he began he wasn’t depth of Kelman’s body of work is much a truly major Scottish writer. doing something that was completely bigger than the perception of it as “We will never be able to collect all beyond the creative pale. simply that of a novelist. “I’ve published Scottish writers’ papers – we could “When you start to look at class you about seven collections of short stories. neither afford it, nor cope with the find that a lot of the things you take for I’ve written about eight plays. At what work that would entail, but such is granted as a working-class experience point does one early novel stand as a Jim’s significance that we had to try to is not really. It’s across the board. That body of work? They [the critics] don’t do get his. Apparently this was our second easy assumption working-class people that to the writers who fill the Sunday approach to him, and I’m delighted that don’t read is just nonsense. I mean, papers or get a decent wage.” it worked out.”

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What about the possibility of Kelman perhaps looking at a kind of memoir on his life, his family life and career? “I have to some extent looked into my family already,” he says. “I know quite a lot about the Lewis connection, that would be my grandmother. I would like to look into it, but I can’t afford to do it. I only get a pension and what I get from my writing.”

CLASS AND CLEARANCES A little miscellany: he knows the names of his family in the Outer Hebrides going back to 1760. He mentions his great-grandfather’s brother, Roderick MacKenzie, from Lewis. The conversation makes him smile. He mentions Donald MacRae, the schoolmaster who led the ‘Park deer raid’, and family who still have a croft in Balallan in South Lochs. His great-grandfather was also a crofter on Port Elphinstone, Aberdeenshire. Kelman’s middle name, Alexander, is after him. A little more: there were three doctors on his grandmother’s side. Two brothers and a sister were doctors. The other sister was a school inspector and one of the founders of the chair of Russian at the University of Glasgow. “It was an ordinary middle-class family who had been middle class for two and a half generations. Before that they were basically a Clearances family.” He mentions Camerons and MacNicolls, from Lochaber and around the Dalmally area.

THE KEY “When you talk about identity the thing I come back to all the time is emigration. In my family emigration is the key. We still have relations on the west coast of the States. My great aunt An illustration of and her elder sister both founded the Kelman by his fellow Gaelic Society in Seattle in 1920. writer Alasdair Gray I’ve family in New Zealand, Australia, Canada … so identity I find not only interesting but crucial, politically, in a country like Scotland.” This aspect of Kelman is fascinating. His plays, short stories and political in terms of one novel …” He shrugs It’s also somewhat worrying that one writings are many. Yes, they can be again and smiles. “The story since my of Scotland’s greatest literary talents of demotic. They are also considerable, first collection, I thought, would have the past 30 years can’t afford to finely honed and consummate. indicated enough of a variety of undertake such a project of work about “In them [the short stories] it’s working method and technique that identity (publishers, please take note). always been playing around with would interest the critics more than “I’ve another novel,” he says, genially, voices and just doing things that any simply just finding a way of as he gets up. “Another collection of artist does, which is new forms of condemning the work.” stories. Once that’s by, maybe … ” experimentation and try and extend As for the next stage of his writing, He trails off. Maybe what? Kelman yourself in certain ways and venture there has been enough variety in grins and he’s away as quietly and into the unknown, and that’s what I’ve Kelman’s work over the past four unobtrusively as he arrived. Just the always done. That’s why the criticism decades to suggest further change. way he seems to like it these days.

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Make the most of your National Library With a collection of available on the internet to more than 15 million customers resident in printed items, two Scotland, although additional conditions may million maps, 32,000 apply in line with our films, three miles of licence agreements. manuscripts, and Your first port of call to access the Library’s thousands of photographs, licensed digital collections getting around the Library is https://auth.nls.uk/ldc requires a little navigation The shop at the George IV Additionally, recent Bridge building sells legislation has given books, stationery and gifts the Library and the LIBRARY LOCATIONS other five legal deposit Films Sun 2-5pm, exhibition space making your request for the libraries in the UK the legal Scottish Screen Archive and cafe only) required material in advance right to collect, store and 39-41 Montrose Avenue of your visit to the Library. preserve the nation’s Hillington Park HOW TO JOIN Requests can be made in memory in the digital age. Glasgow G52 4LA To use the Library’s Reading person, by telephone on There will be a mixture Tel: 0845 366 4600 Rooms and order items from 0131 623 3820 or 3821, or by of electronic content Email: [email protected] the collections, you should email to [email protected]. available including hold a library card. This can If you have a library card, websites in the UK domain Maps be obtained by completing books can be ordered in web archive, and articles/ Causewayside Building the online form at https:// advance via the online chapters from e-books and 159 Causewayside auth.nls.uk/registration. catalogue on our website. e-journals. This material Edinburgh EH9 1PH On your first visit to the For information about can be viewed on Library Tel: 0131 623 3970 Library go to Registration pre-ordering see www.nls. computers within the Email: [email protected] where staff will take your uk/using-the-library/ Reading Rooms if you are Mon-Fri 9.30am-5pm photo and produce a library reading-rooms/general/ a registered user. (Wed 10am-5pm), card for you. You will need preorders Sat 9.30am-1pm proof of your identity and VISITOR CENTRE address. Examples of ONLINE The Visitor Centre at the Other collections acceptable ID and address The Library has a vast George IV Bridge building George IV Bridge confirmation are at www.nls. range of electronic features an exhibition Edinburgh EH1 1EW uk/using-the-library/library- resources, including digital space, a shop selling books, Tel: 0131 623 3700 cards/evidence-of-identity versions of reference works, stationery and gift items, Email: [email protected] massive full-text facsimiles a cafe and PC terminals Mon-Fri 9.30am-8.30pm VIEWING MATERIAL and business databases (see with access to Library (Wed 10am-8.30pm), If you know what you are the next page for a list). catalogues and other Sat 9.30am-1pm, looking for, we recommend Many of these resources are digital facilities.

FOCUS ON for music lovers. Highlights the 18th and early 19th include special early editions centuries, including music The music of works by Handel, Berlioz for the Highland bagpipe. collections and Verdi, and manuscripts Watch out for the Library’s ranging from the early Scottish song card index “If music be the food of love, 16th-century Carver being digitalised. play on.” Shakespeare choirbook to 20th-century Whatever your taste, would have had plenty to composers such as Robin from the Beatles to Bach, play with if he’d had access Orr. There are 5,000 you’re sure to find to the music collections published sound recordings, fascinating material in of the National Library. including 78s, cassette tapes, these collections. With everything from LPs and videos. manuscripts to digital Scottish content is an For more information go to recordings, they are a obvious strength – you can www.nls.uk/collections/ The Italian Romantic chocolate box of delights sample songs and music of music/collections composer Giuseppe Verdi MALCOLM COCHRANE MALCOLM

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This progpaganda Digital leaflet published in 1943 was dropped Make the most of your National Library resources over Nazi-occupied territory by an With a collection of available on the internet to The Library’s licensed American bomber. customers resident in digital collections are a more than 15 million Visit http://bit.ly/nls_ Scotland, although printed items, two superb research tool, with propaganda additional conditions may million maps, 32,000 apply in line with our more than 300 million films, three miles of licence agreements. items, of which more than manuscripts, and Your first port of call 80% is available remotely to access the Library’s thousands of photographs, licensed digital collections getting around the Library is https://auth.nls.uk/ldc ART AND LITERATURE The Making of the requires a little navigation The shop at the George IV Additionally, recent The Library’s digital Modern World; Bridge building sells legislation has given collections relating to art Oxford Dictionary of books, stationery and gifts the Library and the and literature include National Biography LIBRARY LOCATIONS other five legal deposit 19th-Century UK (ODNB); Films Sun 2-5pm, exhibition space making your request for the libraries in the UK the legal Periodicals Part 1: India, Raj and Empire; Scottish Screen Archive and cafe only) required material in advance right to collect, store and Women’s, Children’s, Sabin Americana, 39-41 Montrose Avenue of your visit to the Library. preserve the nation’s Humour and Leisure/ 1500-1926; Hillington Park HOW TO JOIN Requests can be made in memory in the digital age. Sport; British Literary The Scotsman Digital Glasgow G52 4LA To use the Library’s Reading person, by telephone on There will be a mixture Manuscripts Online Archive 1817-1950; Tel: 0845 366 4600 Rooms and order items from 0131 623 3820 or 3821, or by of electronic content c.1660-1900; Times Digital Archive; Email: [email protected] the collections, you should email to [email protected]. available including Naxos Music Library; Waterloo Directory hold a library card. This can If you have a library card, websites in the UK domain Oxford Music Online; of English Newspapers Maps be obtained by completing books can be ordered in web archive, and articles/ Perdita Manuscripts – and Periodicals 1800- Causewayside Building the online form at https:// advance via the online chapters from e-books and Women Writers, 1500- 1900 and Who’s Who 159 Causewayside auth.nls.uk/registration. catalogue on our website. e-journals. This material 1700; (and Who Was Who). Edinburgh EH9 1PH On your first visit to the For information about can be viewed on Library Scottish Women Tel: 0131 623 3970 Library go to Registration pre-ordering see www.nls. computers within the Poets of the Romantic REFERENCE WORKS Email: [email protected] where staff will take your uk/using-the-library/ Reading Rooms if you are Period; AND CATALOGUES Mon-Fri 9.30am-5pm photo and produce a library reading-rooms/general/ a registered user. SCRAN Digital Materials; Credo Reference gives (Wed 10am-5pm), card for you. You will need preorders SUR Digital Archive and you access to 400 Sat 9.30am-1pm proof of your identity and VISITOR CENTRE Times Literary high-quality reference address. Examples of ONLINE The Visitor Centre at the Supplement Historical books from a range of Other collections acceptable ID and address The Library has a vast George IV Bridge building Archive. the George IV Bridge confirmation are at www.nls. range of electronic features an exhibition world’s leading Edinburgh EH1 1EW uk/using-the-library/library- resources, including digital space, a shop selling books, BUSINESS publishers. Tel: 0131 623 3700 cards/evidence-of-identity versions of reference works, stationery and gift items, Online resources for Early American Email: [email protected] massive full-text facsimiles a cafe and PC terminals businesses, including Imprints, Series 1 – Mon-Fri 9.30am-8.30pm VIEWING MATERIAL and business databases (see with access to Library BCC Research Reports; Evans, 1639- (Wed 10am-8.30pm), If you know what you are the next page for a list). catalogues and other COBRA – The Complete Sage Journals; HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, 1800; Early English Sat 9.30am-1pm, looking for, we recommend Many of these resources are digital facilities. Business Reference ScienceDirect E-books; GENEALOGY Books Online Adviser; The Economist SpringerLink; Karger You can access 1475-1700 (EEBO); Historical Archive 1843- Journals; Standards 17th and 18th-century 18th-Century Collections 2009; Factiva; Infobase and the extensive Burney Newspaper Online (ECCO) Parts 1 and 2; FAME; Hoovers; Insider 500; Web of Science. Collection; 19th-century Oxford English Dictionary FOCUS ON for music lovers. Highlights the 18th and early 19th Key Note Market Research British Library Newspapers; Online and Oxford include special early editions centuries, including music Reports; Mint Global; GOVERNMENT AND 19th-century UK Reference Online. The music of works by Handel, Berlioz for the Highland bagpipe. Mintel Market Research OFFICIAL Periodicals Part 2: collections and Verdi, and manuscripts Watch out for the Library’s Reports; A wealth of political Empire: Travel and ACCESSING MATERIAL ranging from the early Scottish song card index OneSource Global Business information can be viewed Anthropology, Economics, All collections can be “If music be the food of love, 16th-century Carver being digitalised. Browser; online, including Missionary and Colonial; accessed on the Library play on.” Shakespeare choirbook to 20th-century Whatever your taste, Orbis and ReferenceUSA. House of Commons British and Irish Women’s premises and more than would have had plenty to composers such as Robin from the Beatles to Bach, Parliamentary Papers – Letters and Diaries; 80% is available outwith play with if he’d had access Orr. There are 5,000 you’re sure to find SCIENCE AND includes reports of The British Newspaper the Library by anyone to the music collections published sound recordings, fascinating material in SOCIAL SCIENCE committees and outside Archive; British Online resident in Scotland. of the National Library. including 78s, cassette tapes, these collections. The full text of articles or bodies on public affairs; Archives; InfoTrac Custom With everything from LPs and videos. references are available in Public Information Online Newspapers; To register to use manuscripts to digital Scottish content is an For more information go to resources such as and The Making of Modern John Johnson Collection: the licensed digital recordings, they are a obvious strength – you can www.nls.uk/collections/ The Italian Romantic Cambridge Journals Online; Law – Legal Treatises an archive of printed collections visit https:// chocolate box of delights sample songs and music of music/collections composer Giuseppe Verdi Brill Journals Collection; 1800-1926. ephemera; auth.nls.uk/registration MALCOLM COCHRANE MALCOLM

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MY NLS

“He was the handsomest, best-dressed, and best-bred man. He acted the character of the gentleman, the robber, the sorner, and the tinker”

‘John Faw, Lord and Earle of Little Egypt’, in executing justice upon his company and punishing all who rebelled against him. The seal explained a group of Gypsies had robbed Faw of money, jewels and clothes. Among the group were Towla Bailyow and Geleyr Bailyow – the name later became Baillie and Bailey. Mark Baillie found In a chapter on the Tweeddale using the Library Gypsies, ‘Captain’ William Baillie is a opened up larger-than-life, Robin Hood-style a new chapter in character of the late 17th century. his family research Between escaping various orders for his execution or deportation, there are stories of many ostentatious good deeds, such as him paying a year’s rent to elderly widows facing eviction. Captain Baillie was eventually A road well travelled killed in a sword fight in 1724 while Delving into his Romany family history, Mark Baillie was stunned to discover taking on two adversaries. Even so, it’s hard to resist a feeling of pride one of his ancestors was a swashbuckling rogue with a colourful reputation when reading this about an ancestor: ‘He was the handsomest, best-dressed, t was during a visit to the and best-bred man … he acted the Library to research my character of the gentleman, the I Romany background I first robber, the sorner, and the tinker read about my forebears whenever it answered his purpose. swashbuckling their way through the He was considered, in his time, the centuries as one of Scotland’s chief best swordsman in all Scotland. Gypsy families. With his weapon in his hand, and An old photograph belonging to my his back to a wall, he set almost paternal gran and granddad of the everything, saving firearms, 1886 Kelso Fair had alerted me to my at defiance.’ Gypsy roots. The picture showed the This photograph of the 1886 Kelso Fair put I’ve read other books about the town’s main square crowded with Mark Baillie on the trail of his Gypsy heritage Gypsies that recount a grim tale of travellers, and their horses and trailers. constant persecution across Europe In the crowd my granddad could spot Gypsies by Walter Simson, published well into the 20th century. History of his infant father, along with his in 1865 and held in the Library’s rare the Gypsies is a refreshing read from grandfather, grandmother and books collection. an author with a fondness for the great-grandfather. As I got older, I was The title covers the origins of the characters and tales of the community inspired to delve further into Gypsy Gypsies in India, and highlights in Scotland. culture and history. parallels between the history of the Of course, the experience of visiting After recording an oral history from travelling and Jewish communities. It the Library to research a title from its my granddad when he was 94, I moved traces the Gypsies in Europe and gives rare books collection is also special. on to genealogical research, tracing a a region-by-region account of their The atmosphere of the reading room, direct link back as far as 1800. Having presence in Scotland. There is even a and the smell and feel of the book, exhausted the records of births, deaths section on Gypsy language with a list make a memorable experience. and marriages, I began some of terms. At a point when I thought my background reading with Anne The book reveals the Baillies were research had reached a dead end, Gordon’s Hearts Upon the Highway, mentioned in the first document to the Library collections opened routes published in 1980 and now out of print record Gypsies in Scotland. On 15 to the past, and so the journey into but held at the Library. One of its main February 1540, James V issued a privy my family history still has a long

MALCOLM COCHRANE MALCOLM and oldest sources was History of the seal calling on all authorities to assist way to go.

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nursery rhymes and fairy tales, to be Illustrator Walter Crane printed by Edmund Evans, the leading became the socialist woodblock colour printer in London. movement’s ‘artist Over the next 10 years Crane in residence’ illustrated 37 of these toy books, as they were known, which proved hugely popular in Victorian Britain. He also brought his sense of the fantastic to adult literature. In the frontispiece for Robert Louis Stevenson’s earliest book, An Inland Voyage, he depicts the god Pan relaxing on a riverbank. This example of Crane’s work, along with many of the toy book titles, and his theories on art, can be discovered in the National Library collections.

QUALITY AS STANDARD Crane’s professional life encompassed politics as well as painting and he became closely associated with the socialist movement, initially through his connection to designer William Morris, a leading figure in the Arts and Crafts movement. He became the artist of the cause, designing posters, trade-union banners and cartoons. Crane did as much as Morris to Walter Crane fuelled the transgress the boundaries between “high” fine art and “low” decorative art, making quality craft and design a imagination with his part of everyday life. He embraced the eclecticism of the Arts and Crafts movement, turning his hand to children’s illustrations. designs for textiles and wallpapers, as well as producing poetry and writing. Fuelling children’s imaginations His work still captivates was also a serious business for Crane, who believed: “We all remember the little cuts that coloured the books 100 years after his death of our childhood. The ineffaceable quality of these early pictorial and literary impressions affords the CORBIS strongest plea for good art in the nursery and the schoolroom.” edtimes and nursery Crane’s family life – with his wife rhymes would surely be a Mary and children Beatrice, Lionel B much more humdrum affair and Lancelot – was characterised by without the images happy eccentricities. Their home in conjured up by Walter Crane, the Holland Street, London, was full of prolific English artist and designer. Indian idols, a marmoset that slept in Best remembered as an illustrator the fireplace and even a live alligator. of children’s books, Crane was born Friends and colleagues remember in Liverpool in 1845. Beginning Crane as lovable, relishing the chance working life as an apprentice to wood to play the part of the artist. engraver and political reformer A century after his death on 14 William James Linton, Crane had March 1915, perhaps the most fitting ample opportunity to hone his skills epitaph for Crane is the one he wrote while studying the work of for his friend William Morris in 1896: contemporary artists including the “How can it be? That strong and Pre-Raphaelites and Sir John Tenniel, fruitful life illustrator of Alice in Wonderland. Hath ceased – that strenuous but In 1865 Crane was invited to joyful heart – contribute his own illustrations to a That craftsman in the loom of song series of books for young children, and art.”

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