THE MAGAZINE OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND | WWW.NLS.UK | ISSUE 29 SUMMER 2015
CELEBRATING PENGUIN AT 80 JARVIS COCKER P–P–P–PICKS HIS FAVOURITE PAPERBACK
PLUS VAL McDERMID INVESTIGATES THE BEAUTIFUL GAME LIFTING THE LID ON THE HISTORY OF COOKING
CUSTOMER MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR
WELCOME Penguins on parade Now in its eighth decade, we reveal how one of the world’s most iconic publishers continues to delight readers in the digital age What do the singer Jarvis her beloved club. Read about Cocker, the former footballer her journey on page 12. Pat Nevin and the children’s We invite you to use all DISCOVER author Lauren Child have in the senses in this issue as Issue 29 summer 2015 common? Tey all treasure a we launch our exhibition, dog-eared paperback from Lifting the Lid, as part of CONTACT US We welcome all comments, questions, one of the world’s most iconic the Year of Food and Drink submissions and subscription enquiries. publishers. in Scotland. Please write to us at the National Library So many of us have a To celebrate, Sue Lawrence, of Scotland address below or email treasured Penguin book the former MasterChef [email protected] tucked away somewhere, winner, has created a cake FOR THE NATIONAL LIBRARY bought for a long train from a vintage recipe found EDITOR-IN-CHIEF journey, handed down by in our collections. You can Alexandra Miller a loved one, or picked up in read about the chef’s culinary EDITORIAL ADVISER a second-hand bookshop. adventure and find her Willis Pickard Eight decades after Penguin recipe on page 21. CONTRIBUTORS was born, we ask why its Add to the mix an Hugh Buchanan, Bryan Christie, paperbacks, many of which exhibition of paintings by Kyra Edwards, Lord David Hope, are in our collections, are still Hugh Buchanan, inspired by Damien Love, Hugh MacDonald, Alec Mackenzie, Andrew Martin, alluring in the digital era. authors from Jane Austen to John Scally, Emma Wilson Books are at the heart Arthur Conan Doyle, and this of the National Library of summer at the Library should EDITOR Scotland, but our collections prove irresistible. Kathleen Morgan [email protected] offer so much more, as the acclaimed crime writer Val DEPUTY EDITOR McDermid discovers. During Fiona McKinlay [email protected] a visit to the Library, the avowed fan of Raith Rovers FC DESIGN Dominic Scott delves into a world of football memorabilia and traces her DR JOHN SCALLY SUB-EDITORS Sam Bartlett, Sian Campbell father’s history as a scout for NATIONAL LIBRARIAN
GROUP ACCOUNT MANAGER John Innes [email protected]
ADVERTISING Alison Fraser SECRET LIVES OF THE PIONEERS [email protected] 0141 946 8708
PUBLISHED BY Think Scotland Suite 2.3, Red Tree Business Suites, 33 Dalmarnock Road, Glasgow G40 4LA 0141 375 0504 ISSN 1751-5998 (print) ISSN 1751 -6005 (online)
National Library of Scotland George IV Bridge Edinburgh EH1 1EW 1) JOHN NAPIER 2) ROBERT 3) LORD KELVIN Telephone 0131 623 3700 The mathematician lived WATSON-WATT The physicist attended Fax 0131 623 3701 like a hermit during intense The scientist who developed classes at the University of Email [email protected] periods of study and was radar as a means of defence Glasgow from the age of 10 The National Library of Scotland is a regarded by his Stirlingshire during World War II once and wrote his first scientific registered Scottish charity. Scottish neighbours as a wizard worked as a meteorologist paper at 16 Charity No. SC011086 http://bit.ly/natlibrary_napier http://bit.ly/natlibrary_watt http://bit.ly/natlibrary_kelvin MALCOLM COCHRANE MALCOLM
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CONTENTS
18
12
VAL MCDERMID UNRAVELS A LIFELONG LOVE AFFAIR
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7 NEWS Te latest updates, comment and events, including details of a project to collate a Referendum collection
12 VAL McDERMID Te crime writer tells Hugh MacDonald about her two great passions – football and books
18 LIFT THE LID Exploring Scotland’s culinary past with a little help from a former MasterChef CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE INCLUDE 22 PENGUIN AT 80 Jarvis Cocker reveals his favourite paperback and joins in a celebration of the old bird
26 COLLECTIVE CREATIVITY Lord Byron, Jane Austen and Arthur Conan Doyle inspire the artist HUGH BRYAN DR MARIA HUGH DAMIEN Hugh Buchanan BUCHANAN CHRISTIE CASTRILLO MACDONALD LOVE The Edinburgh- A former journalist As the Library’s As the chief sports The freelance 30 MAKE THE MOST based artist specialising in Curator of Political writer, a columnist journalist and OF YOUR NATIONAL has had work health, Bryan is Collections, and former illustrator is the LIBRARY commissioned responsible for Maria has a literary editor at television critic for for the House media and external special interest in The Herald, Hugh The Sunday Herald 33 MY LIBRARY of Commons relations at the modern politics, is known for his and author of the and the Prince National Library and Spanish and colourful, incisive children’s serial
ANGELA CATLIN; HUGH BUCHANAN HUGH CATLIN; ANGELA 34 LAST WORD of Wales of Scotland medieval history writing style Like Clockwork
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SUMMER 2015
THIS ISSUE: WRITER JOHN BUCHAN AND A PASSION FOR POLITICS + TRAVELS WITH A VICTORIAN ADVENTURESS + NEW DIRECTIONS FOR THE NATIONAL LIBRARY + A BOY AND A BEAR IN A BOAT AT THE FRINGE NEWS
While the sheer volume of digital Curator Dr Amy Todman material is an obvious challenge, tracing sizes up the referendum the original creators of online content for a new collection and – and ensuring they have agreed to (below) Lady Alba donate to the collection – is also tricky. Amy said: “I would make contact with, for example, Lady Alba, who was very active on social media during the referendum campaign. Ten I would discuss whether she would want to deposit this material within the collection, and try to establish who owned the rights to the material – for instance, whether there were other film-makers involved. Ten the donor would sign an agreement form which would establish all those rights in written form.” Zara Gladman, the pro-independence campaigner behind Lady Alba, attracted attention with her parody of the Lady Gaga video Bad Romance, which poked fun at supporters of a no vote. Amy’s curatorial role has taken her out of the Library to meet individuals and groups on both sides of the referendum debate. She said: “An interesting part of the job is making contact with local groups like Yes Tweeddale, Better Together Aberdeenshire or North East Fife Women for Independence, as well as the central groups.” THE YES/NO SHOW Size has proved no object, thanks Collecting material linked to the independence referendum to the involvement of the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. has sparked a fascinating journey for one curator at the Library “A lot of the central campaign material, Yes Scotland being one he Scottish referendum collecting social media material as her example, is really large – theatre is being collected, toughest task. set-like signs, or big cut-out yes signs catalogued and preserved “During the months before the almost too big to carry. Tat kind of T by the National Library for referendum, that became one of material is an odd and interesting part of generations to come. the biggest jobs,” she explained. the collection. Some of the material we Collecting the Referendum – a two- “Social media was changing all the have passed on to our colleagues year project to gather material linked to time and every day there was a new at National Museum of Scotland the historic vote – is in full swing, with Facebook site, tweet or website, or a to look after because it is everything from social media streams campaign starting. We just had to try too large for the Library to to billboards being captured. to keep up.” accommodate.” Dr Amy Todman is the Referendum Eilidh MacGlone, Troughout the project, Amy Project Curator charged with sifting the Library’s Web has had to remain balanced. through material from sources Archivist, uploads sites “You try not to have emotions including national campaigns, to the Legal Deposit UK about the vote, because we grass-roots organisations and Web Archive, hosted by are trying to be unbiased,” individual bloggers. She described the British Library. she said. “Te day of the vote, I remember going around Edinburgh looking for materials ‘During the months before the referendum for the collection. I was aware collecting social media became one of of the energy, and the historical significance of the biggest jobs. It was changing all what I was trying to do. It was a powerful day, the time. We just had to try to keep up’ whichever way you felt IAN RUTHERFORD; PETER MCNALLY PETER RUTHERFORD; IAN about the vote.”
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Explorer and writer Isabella Bird inspired a generation
Visual tribute to female explorer, travel writer and photographer he was a Victorian adventurer CELEBRATION and clergyman’s daughter Srenowned for her daring travels at a time when women’s lives were stifled by social mores. Now the life and OF VICTORIAN photographs of Isabella Bird are being celebrated in a book revealing how she faced war and physical adversity as she journeyed through China. ADVENTURER Deborah Ireland, author of the book, Isabella Bird: A Photographic Journal of Travels Trough China 1894-1896, prime ministers, ambassadors and Te Curator of the John Murray writes: “Te adventuress who travelled the newspapermen of the day. Her Archive, David McClay, said: “Her and rode in all weathers, exploring books were engaging, accessible and travel writings were some of the most remote and dangerous regions, was entertaining, and she opened up a world popular of their time and contributed writing about a life in sharp contrast to of travel to the armchair explorer.” to her recognition by the Royal the one originally envisaged for her.” In her 60s, Bird trekked 8,000 miles Geographical Society as their first She describes how Bird, who began in three years across China. It was this female Fellow.” writing about her travels at age 23 journey that inspired Ireland’s book. during a trip to America, was in her Bird’s personal letters and papers Visit bit.ly/natlibrary_bird 40s when she found fame as a travel are an importantpart of the John Isabella Bird: A Photographic Journal writer. “As a respected international Murray Archive at the National Library of Travels Through China 1894–1896 traveller, her views were sought by of Scotland. is published by Ammonite Press, £25
BOUND FOR SUCCESS A quartet of bookbinders Spain and Belgium. Nicky from across Europe and a Oliver and Claudia Richter Scottish publishing house each won £1,200, while have been lauded in two students Geert Stevens and John Scally (centre) awards ceremonies at the Pilar Herreros de Tejada with winners of the National Library. received £600. bookbinding awards The prestigious design Mariscat Press, one award, the Elizabeth of Scotland’s longest- Macdonald Memorial the Glasgow Makar, Jim Soutar Bookbinding running small publishing Award. The company, run Carruth, while A Witch Competition, this year houses, swept the board by Hamish Whyte since Among the Gooseberries recognised bookbinders at the 2015 National 1982, won first prize for by Ian McDonough was from the UK, Germany, Library of Scotland Callum its pamphlet, Prodigal, by named runner-up.
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POLITICAL PAPERS GO ONLINE Digital access to 19th century House of Lords documents in pipeline fficial papers providing an unprecedented insight into OBritain’s 19th century political history are to be made available online in a project led by the National Library of Scotland and global technology company ProQuest. Te Library’s collection contains some of the few surviving copies of 19th century House of Lords Erika Freyer helps digitise papers. Tere are some House of Lords papers 3,000 historic volumes, some of which are in a Charles Darwin: fragile state. Te project pioneer of will digitise every page and ministers served in natural history help to protect the original the House of Lords in papers, while making the the 19th century than content widely available. in the House of Commons, despite the Tales of exploration When the project is complete in progressive dwindling of the influence November, it will provide the Library’s of the upper chamber. The John Murray Archive opens registered users in Scotland with free “Tis represents a fascinating period up a world of travel writing online access to a wealth of valuable and in British history and digitisation will little-seen parliamentary documents. make these important papers available The link between a world-leading Until now, they have only been available to our users in Scotland on any screen, publisher and two centuries of to researchers visiting the Library in at anytime and anywhere. exploration is being celebrated in Edinburgh. Te content will be provided “Tis partnership with ProQuest and a new book. to other libraries through ProQuest. the House of Lords Library is part of our Professor Charles Withers of the Dr John Scally, Scotland’s National commitment to open up our collections University of Edinburgh tells how the Librarian, said: “More British prime to as many people as possible.” publishing house John Murray opened up a whole new world to British readers in the 18th and 19th centuries. The co-author of Travels into Print used the National Library’s John Murray Archive to research the role played by the publisher in giving travel writing a platform. Prof Withers drew on manuscripts, images and correspondence between John Murray and pioneering figures such as Charles Darwin, Jane Austen and Sir Walter Scott. He said: “During the 18th and 19th centuries, books of travel and exploration were far more than the printed experiences of intrepid authors. They were works of artistry and industry, products of the complex, often contentious relationship between authors, editors, publishers and printers.”
POPULAR CHILDREN’S BOOK SAILS INTO THE FRINGE Travels Into Print: Exploration, Writing, Fans of the book A Boy and a Bear in a Boat can see the children’s story come to and Publishing with John Murray, life in a stage adaptation of Dave Shelton’s tale. The play by Stewart Melton will 1773–1859, by Innes Keighren, Charles show at the Library during August as part of the Edinburgh Fringe. Tickets, priced Withers and Bill Bell, is published by £8 (£6), are available from the Edinburgh Fringe box ofce. Visit www.edfringe.com University of Chicago Press, £31.50
Summer 2015 | DISCOVER | 9 NEWS LITERATURE A life in 39 steps
CURATOR’S CHOICE DR MARIA CASTRILLO A wealth of papers from the thriller writer John Buchan illuminates his passion for politics ohn Buchan is best remembered as a prolific novelist, writer and publisher. Te classic spy J thriller Te Tirty-Nine Steps, published in 1915, remains his most acclaimed work 75 years after his death. As a backbench Conservative MP for the Scottish universities, and as Governor General of Canada, his political involvement receives comparatively little attention, despite the wealth of evidence among his papers. Words were On several occasions Buchan stated: Buchan’s craft “Publishing is my business, writing my amusement and politics my duty.” His and his political outlook was inevitably shaped by a deep knowledge of the internal workings writing echoed of the establishment at a time of fundamental change in British society. his literary talent On the outbreak of the Second World War Buchan noted rather laconically in his diary: “Tis is my third war, a bit surviving correspondence, which offers on some of the most pressing political too much.” Major global conflicts – the a more nuanced picture of his political matters of his time, including women’s Anglo-Boer War, the Great War and the career. In an epistolary exchange with suffrage, which he supported, and the impending war with Germany – had Ramsay MacDonald in 1934, the then future of unionism in Scotland, which he dominated his adult life, prime minister and Labour considered particularly strong among influencing his creative politician provided advice Scots because of their talent for uniting streak and his contribution and abundant editorial discordant elements throughout history. to the public sphere. comments to a speech Buchan also focused on constitutional Buchan was planning to politics. In a speech written in around WIDE CIRCLE deliver to the Federation of 1911 he declared he believed in some Buchan has been described University Conservative form of devolution across the United by some of his biographers and Unionist Associations Kingdom as a means to mend its as a free-trade Liberal on the role of the Tories in constitutional machinery and secure Unionist rather than a Tory the national government. good government. He publicly expressed in the strict sense. Oxford, Where Buchan argued “a his views on many other significant and where he had attended narrow individualism is controversial issues such as Palestine university, was a major influence on his bad business”, MacDonald added it was and the Zionist movement, international political thinking and provided access “equally bad social morality”. peace, land reform and limiting the to London society. A wide circle of Words were Buchan’s craft and his power of the House of Lords. acquaintances and friends from across political writing echoed his literary His role as Governor General of the political divide emerges through the talent. Many of his speeches touched Canada, 1935-1940, led him into
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Curator Maria Castrillo NOW YOU uncovers the political face of thriller writer SEE IT … John Buchan (below) Collection lifts the curtain on magic
Hundreds of books and publications on magic acquired by the Library are to give a rare glimpse into the world of conjury in Scotland. The Library has bought more than 400 books and pamphlets from Jim Cuthbert, a practising Ian Scott, Curator, magician, a decade after General Collections, said: first acquiring a raft of “We received binders material from him. recording the history of The books, some of the Scottish Conjurers’ which date from the Association – the nation’s 1910s, will be added to oldest magic club – the Cuthbert collection in along with a history of the Library’s rare books the Paisley Magic Circle. section. The recent Lovingly compiled by acquisition also includes A 1957 issue of Mr Cuthbert, these folders documenting the Te Gen, the British include rare and unique history of magic clubs in magazine launched material. This all adds up Scotland, to be added to by Harry Stanley to a valuable and unique the manuscripts collection. while a WWII soldier resource on magic.”
A century of Scottish life online
Unique films capturing A postcard for the more than 100 years of Empire Exhibition, Scottish life have been Glasgow, 1938 released on the National Library’s website. Online visitors can now enjoy watching more international politics. He encouraged than 1,600 films dating greater cooperation with the USA, back to the early 1900s, particularly given impending war with many of which can Germany, and cultivated diplomatic only be seen through relations with Franklin D Roosevelt. the Library. Part of the nation’s SIMPLE PLEASURES moving image collection, the Ann Cameron, Curator for the Photographs and documents illustrate footage covers aspects of life from Scottish Screen Archive at the this aspect of his time in Canada, as sport to science and the military Library, said: “We have encoded well as his extensive travelling to to music. Highlights include a 1918 all our web content to a new file acquaint himself with the country’s visit by George V and Queen Mary to format, so you can now play back natural and cultural diversity. A 1939 Edinburgh, and the Queen Elizabeth on a wider range of devices, such diary affords a more intimate picture liner leaving port to become a troop as iPad and iPhone.” of his life. Between dispatching with ship during the Second World War. Te films, shot by amateurs government officials and attending One film takes the viewer on a and professionals, are free to view public engagements, he indulged in walk around the 1938 British Empire anywhere with access to the internet. life’s simple pleasures: skating, walking, Exhibition in Bellahouston Park, reading. Above all, writing his last Glasgow. Te event showcased work Visit bit.ly/ssa_nls_videos novel, Sick Heart River, inspired by the by renowned architects such as Follow us on Twitter at Canadian Northern Territories, occupied Tomas Tait and Basil Spence. www.twitter.com/scotsonscreen his time and thoughts. MALCOLM COCHRANE; MARY EVANS PICTURE LIBRARY PICTURE EVANS MARY COCHRANE; MALCOLM
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THE GAME OF LIFE Crime writer Val McDermid journeys from the football stands to the Library to fulfil her long-held passions. She talks love and tactics with Hugh MacDonald Photographs Angela Catlin
he sits with the debris of a football past strewn in front of her, like the accumulated evidence from S a crime scene where the victim was a soccer obsessive. Val McDermid – reader, writer and Raith Rovers supporter – is surrounded by programmes, biographies, fanzines and brochures that are all linked to the Kirkcaldy club. Te relationship between the author and the club is close, apt. “You should all be supporting local teams, for God’s sake,” says one of her characters, Detective Chief Inspector Karen Pirie in Te Skeleton Road, a book marked with football references in the same way as a muddy pitch carries stud marks. McDermid herself speaks animatedly of football grounds and libraries, the two cathedrals where she worshipped as a child and still attends in dutiful faith. She talks of matches and books. She describes her craft, mischievously puncturing any ball inflated by pretension. But the enduring theme, unconsciously and then convincingly, is the family, extended or otherwise. Te lesson for the day, perhaps for every day, is love and how it can wound, invigorate, frustrate, sustain, uplift, depress but always, always be integral to a meaningful life. Tere may be something of the po-faced in this summary. Tere is nothing pompous about McDermid. Te cathedral of learning is the National Library of Scotland but she brings a natural irreverence to proceedings. She turns the pages of the Raith Rovers collection that amounts to a small part of the
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10,000 football items in the Library. She has amassed a personal tally of more than 13 million books sold. She has written more than two dozen crime novels, short stories, a children’s book, and a non-fiction work on forensics. But her life, her passions, cannot be recounted or remembered in numbers. McDermid, the creator of criminals and those who bring them to justice, can only be captured in story. Te best of them, of course, she tells herself, with the lesson being that she has walked this way. Not, of course, down the gory path of murder and mayhem but certainly through the world her characters inhabit. “I have to know them before I write about them,” she says of her creations. “It is a fictitious universe constructed from the great databank in my head of people I have encountered over the years. It is important that I can see, feel or taste what I am writing about.”
SCOUT MASTER McDermid has an authenticity that stretches beyond the imperatives of creating characters. At 59, she is a graduate of the University of Oxford and of national newspaper newsrooms. One honed her intellect, the other distilled her prose to a purity that is so remarkable it is little remarked upon. She is, though, in essence a product of the playing fields of Kirkcaldy, most notably Stark’s Park, the home of a Raith Rovers side that plays in front of the McDermid Stand, a family tribute rather than a personal aggrandisement, and in McDermid- sponsored shirts. Her first forays to this place of lifelong worship were as a young girl, probably about six, with her father Jim, the Rovers scout who discovered ‘Slim Jim’ Baxter, one of the greatest Scottish football talents. “It doesn’t matter how many books I sell, how many of them are dramatised on the telly or how often my name is in the paper … in Kirkcaldy I will Cameron’s diet has expanded because of always be known as Jim McDermid’s daughter,” she football. Mother and son attended Rovers’ historic says of her late father’s renown in the town. Ramsdens Cup final victory over Rangers at Easter An only child, she accompanied her dad on Road in April last year and McDermid minor had an scouting trips, standing on a strip of wood to protect unusual request. them from the chill of the earth. “He wanted to celebrate with his first deep- Tis surely gave her a bond with her dad? fried pizza,” says the writer of her son’s attempts “Aye, I would be moaning at him for a drink of to connect with Caledonian roots clogged in lemonade or a biscuit and he would be saying: cholesterol. “He did say while eating it he wished he ‘Wheesht, I am working.’” had only ordered a half pizza though.” Tis is said with a smile but McDermid warmly and willingly embraces the concept of family in Val McDermid FAMILY STAND football in word and deed. enjoys the Tere was another family connection. McDermid Her “bidie-in”, her quaint description of her wealth of football is aware that her son has a link to her and partner, Jo, has been enlisted to the ranks of memorabilia within her forefathers simply through attendance at a Raith Rovers supporters. McDermid’s son, the Library football match. Cameron, from a previous relationship, is a regular Te glue of life is shared experience. “He is linked at Stark’s Park. to a grandfather he didn’t know through football, “He was once more interested in the pies and but I am linked through Rovers to my grandfather cake at half-time but now at 14 he understands who I barely knew. He died when I was two and a the game,” says McDermid, whose version of half,” she says. Proust’s madeleine cake may come in the form McDermid expands on the importance, the of a Pillans’ pie, once the staple diet of the life-enhancing quality of sitting on a plastic seat Kirkcaldy supporter. watching grown men kick an inflated sphere.
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family in football. She is no dewy-eyed fantasist about the realities of the game that include hooliganism and hatred, but points out there is a camaraderie that still survives. “I can be 2,000 miles from home and stepping on to a plane and someone will tap me on the shoulder and start talking about Raith Rovers,” she says. She then adds: “Scottish football can teach you some harsh lessons too, mostly about losing, but it gives a wider understanding. It gives you a sense of loyalty that goes beyond the immediate family. I have learned there is a wider family. “It can go sour. We know that. But there is a regular generosity of spirit. Tere is a sense of belonging, too. When things go right – and they very seldom do – you have a joy that you can share with other people.” In a case of art imitating life, she echoes the Karen Pirie comment with an assertion that has all the strength of a centre-half’s punt to safety. “I still find it baffling that people from Newcastle can support Arsenal,” she says. She supports her local club with strong emotion and hard cash. “Fans spend their money at the club, that is what you do. You support the club to the extent that your wallet allows,” she continues. Of her sponsorship, she adds: “I had a wee bit more spare cash than other folk.’’
COMICS AND STRIPS Her debt to football stretches into her other passion. Te football ground was for the Saturday. Te library was her destination on most other days. Her love of reading was encouraged by her dad’s passion for football. She would be sent out by her father for the Saturday sports edition of the evening newspaper and would devour one section while he perused another. “Tere was a detective series called Dixon Hawke, and I loved that, but I would read anything … books, papers, comics. My childhood reading was as much Roy of the Rovers and Biggles as Bunty.” ‘It doesn’t matter how many books She does remember becoming enamoured of one comic strip detailing life in a prep school and I sell, how many of them are dramatised informing her Fife mater and pater that she would on the telly or how often my name is in like to go to boarding school in Switzerland. Te truth is much stranger than the desire the paper … in Kirkcaldy I will always be fuelled by that fiction. McDermid became the first state school pupil to graduate from St Hilda’s known as Jim McDermid’s daughter’ College, Oxford, and the Dixon Hawke devotee has become the creator of some of the most successful “When you build up a habit of doing something characters in crime fiction. it becomes a way of communicating with each Tis extended family includes Tony Hill, Kate other,” she says of going to the football with Brannigan, Lindsay Gordon and, of course, Pirie. Cameron. “It becomes a place where you can sit and “Crimes do not get solved the way I write about talk to each other. It takes you out of everyday life them,” she confesses. “It is not about Detective and puts you into something else. Inspector Grumpy and his sergeant who always has “People in their teens tend to move away from to buy the drinks. You have to take your readers on their parents and that is a necessary process but a journey of the suspension of disbelief. if you keep a connection through going to football “But you have to have authenticity in your you always have that space where your 14-year- characters. I know these people I have created and old son, who normally speaks in grunts, can have a readers have to believe in them.” conversation with you. It is something that keeps However, she does not feel the need to write the the continuity of relationships.” Great Football Novel. McDermid, too, believes there is an extended “Tose of us who love football think everybody
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should love it. We believe it is endlessly fascinating and it should be to everyone else. Frankly, it is not.” ‘Crime fiction allows you to write about But there is another reason for body swerving it. “Crime fiction allows you to write about the world the world you live in. There can be lots you live in. And there can be lots of different worlds of diferent worlds within that. You can within that. You can explore anything you really want it to be about.” explore anything you want it to be about’ Te case in point is another investigation for Karen Pirie in Te Skeleton Road. It has the Balkan war as a backdrop, it has characters that include a Clockwise from left: or eating a sweetie or something. Te memorable Croatian general, an Oxford professor and a pair of Val McDermid at incidents came later.” feckless investigative lawyers. Stark’s Park, home I suggest tentatively that its theme is love. “You of Raith Rovers; FINAL CLIFFHANGER make it sound like chick lit,” she says with a smile. the 1898 team, So what, beyond the deep-fried pizza with “You are right but that is not what I was thinking winners of five Cameron, was the most dramatic? when I was writing it. trophies in one “It has to be the 1994 cup final,” she says of the “For me, when I am writing it is about telling a season; and Scottish League Cup won by Rovers in a penalty story and telling it through the different voices. It is David Morris, shoot-out. “I was driving down the M62 and I can all about that need to tell a story. It is generally only Raith Rovers’ most just remember this overwhelming wave of emotion. afterwards I understand what a theme of a book is. capped player I was listening to it on the radio and I kept saying You can examine things too closely, you can lose for Scotland after every one of our penalties went in: ‘We cannot the thread of yourself that way. Sometimes when win this, we cannot win this.’ Ten Paul McStay you are writing a book, you just have to go with it.” [the Celtic captain] came up to take his and I said to Tis is part of a focused Caledonian work ethic. myself: ‘He does not miss penalties.’” “If you are going to call yourself a writer, you need He did. to write,” she says of a schedule that normally But why was McDermid in the car instead of in encompasses a book a year but last year was the stand? expanded to four in 18 months. “I had been doing a library event in Hull,” she says If she creates characters from her memory, she is of a promotional function for a book. She adds with less certain about the details of when she watched a smile: “Libraries, eh. Tey destroy your life as well games with her father. “I was very young then and as add to your life. Tey give a bit, they take a bit.” I remember just being with him, having a drink A bit like football. And love.
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LIFTING THE LID Tasting times As a gastronomic exhibition lifts the lid on the history of Scottish cooking, the former MasterChef Sue Lawrence recreates a vintage recipe. By Bryan Christie
Drawing of fishwives from the 1854 journal of Mrs Foote-Gower
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arvest the best of Scotland’s historical cook books, select the prime cuts and stir in H some surprising ingredients. Heat through and serve with a garnish from the country’s bountiful larder. Tis recipe has been used to serve up the National Library of Scotland’s summer exhibition telling the story of the country’s changing relationship with food and drink down the centuries. It explains the arrival of once exotic items such as tea, displays an advertisement for curry powder sold in an Edinburgh shop in 1798 and reflects on dishes long forgotten, such as Adelaide sandwiches or spring fruit (rhubarb) soup. Lifting the Lid: 400 Years of Food and Drink in Scotland, staged during Scotland’s Year of Food and Drink, reveals
Above and left: illustrated pages from Katherine Jane Ellice’s recipe book, 1846-1859
the differences in diet across society and the country over the past four centuries. Foods such as kale and porridge that feature prominently in what was once a basic Scottish diet are now touted as superfoods and feted by celebrities. Meanwhile Scotland struggles with an obesity epidemic as sugary and calorie- dense foods have taken over from the simple, frugal diet of days gone by. Te exhibition will help visitors understand more of these trends as it takes people back in time to find out what our ancestors ate and how it links to today.
OAT CUISINE Te Scottish diet has often been decried, particularly by the 18th-century writer Samuel Johnson, who described oats as “a grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people”. Despite his scorn, the diet of the rural poor was remarkably healthy although it was restricted in availability. ““Food seems to be all around us today in shops, restaurants and displayed in adverts, and it can be hard to imagine just how limited the supply of food was for most people not really all that long ago,”
Summer 2015 | DISCOVER | 19 LIFTING THE LID
says Olive Geddes, Manuscripts Curator at the National Library, who has organised the exhibition. “At the other end of the social scale, wealthy families hired French chefs and experimented with new foods and techniques that, over time, have influenced our national diet.” Curry is one of these ‘new’ foods. Most people might think its introduction dates from the 1950s when Chinese and Indian restaurants began to appear in Britain. However, the exhibition reveals curry powder was being sold in Edinburgh as early as 1798 for 2/6d – way beyond Porter, Fishwoman the means of an ordinary worker. It was and Journeyman clearly a taste only for the well-to-do. Flesher by Olio Te main ingredients for the exhibition Rigmaroll, 1825 come from the wonderful collection of manuscript recipe books, dating between the 17th century and the 1940s, ‘The written records we have are mostly for the held at the National Library. Tese are personal documents, mostly kept by wealthy, but the exhibition also looks at the role female members of wealthy families as memory aids to record favourite dishes of the cook, from housewife to professional chef’ and new culinary experiences, rather than the everyday meals that would disappeared. “Te written records we have Te importance of soup – a meal be served. Tey are supported by other are mostly for the wealthy,” says Olive, in a bowl – in feeding Scots down the fascinating information in published “but the exhibition also looks at the role centuries is explained, with the story recipe books, household accounts and of the cook from the ordinary housewife brought up to date with the soup kitchens inventories, tradesmen’s bills, menus, and domestic servant to the professional and food banks of the modern era. visitors’ journals, maps, and amateur and chef. Te social and economic significance Te exhibition covers the emergence government films about food. of food will also feature. How far has social of oats as a 'superfood'; and the ways convention dictated what was eaten by of preserving produce which enabled SOME HAE MEAT whom and when?” fishermen to market Scottish fish and Te recipes tell of old Scottish measures Lifting the Lid has been designed like shellfish around the world. It also looks at such as a chopin (two pints), a mutchkin a modern-day cookbook with sections how Scottish baking went hand in hand (just under a pint), a peck (two gallons) on soups, oatmeal and bread, fish, meat, with the female custom of drinking tea in and a forpet or lippie (half a gallon). vegetables, desserts and baking, jams the afternoon. While some foods such as Cullen skink, and preserves. Each section will have Meat, which dominates so many meals cranachan and clootie dumpling have a kitchen counter where items will be today, was a luxury for most people in lived on, others such as powsowdie displayed alongside chopping boards with times gone by. While it featured heavily (a sheep's heid broth), crappit heids memorable quotes about food and diet. in the meals of the rich, it was a rare treat (haddock heads and livers) and cruddy Information on drinks including tea, coffee, for the ordinary Scot. Every part of the butter (a type of cheese) have all but ale, wine and whisky appear throughout. animal was used. Tis helps explain why
ON THE TRAIL OF A CULINARY HISTORY SAVOUR THE COMBINATION OF EDINBURGH'S ARCHITECTURE AND ITS COOKING TRADITIONS
The Edinburgh Food Heritage trail brings together the National Trail reveals links between Library of Scotland and the the city’s built heritage and its National Trust for Scotland with food traditions, ofering a fresh restaurants and food producers way to experience its World to showcase the city’s built Heritage Site. heritage and food traditions. Visitors are encouraged Discover Edinburgh’s culinary to explore the Old and New past, including cookery schools Towns, learn about the city’s dating back to the early 1700s, food history and dine in some and historical locations such as Te Georgian House of its historic locations. Led by the milling relics of Dean Village. in Charlotte Square Edinburgh World Heritage, the Visit http://bit.ly/food_trail
20 | DISCOVER | Summer 2015 haggis became the country’s national dish, served as a way to use up some of MASTERCHEF'S the less desirable parts of the carcass. VINTAGE RECIPE Scots also became adept at preserving CENTURIES-OLD CAKE RECREATED and storing different types of food to get them through the difficult winter months A Scottish cookery writer and former when fresh food was harder to find. winner of the BBC show MasterChef, Sue Lawrence has faced many FOOD FOR THOUGHT challenges in her culinary career, Te Library’s manuscript recipe books, but a recipe requiring 22 eggs was a dating from the 1680s to the 1940s, are completely new experience. to be digitised and made available on It happened when she agreed to its website as an added extra to the help the Library bake a cake using exhibition. A crowd-sourcing project will some of the centuries-old recipes be launched by the Library to encourage held in the culinary collection. One people online to help transcribe these recipe, for a "plume caike" dating handwritten historical documents. Te from the late 17th or early 18th transcriptions will be available online century, contained those 22 eggs, alongside images of the manuscript a “pynt of creame”, two pounds of recipe pages. butter, six pounds of currants and “Te recipe books are the raw material three of “reasines”. Sue Lawrence has of history. Tey tell us so much about the It was clearly intended to bake a recreated an ingredients available and how they were very big cake and Sue decided to 18th-century recipe used,” says Olive. “Tey give a real insight adapt it using another recipe from into the lives of wealthy families.” 1701 that includes “a Muchken of Besides these personal accounts, sweet Cream, a Muchken of seck the exhibition will feature recipes from and a Muchken of strong barm”. bit with the recipes bestselling celebrity chefs of the day The instructions were unlike those because they had such enormous including Charles Elmé Francatelli, once for modern-day bakers. “Let it stand quantities. In some cases, I had to chef to Queen Victoria, and the author of by the fyre 3 quarters of ane houre” divide things by ten.” popular books in the mid-19th century. and “the oven must be very quick” She was surprised by the extent to Te recipe that will be on display is for an are not the kind of recipe rules that which spices were used, given that Adelaide sandwich, a snack of fried bread appear in her bestselling books. the recipes date from more than 300 rounds filled with a blend of chicken and There was some work to be done to years ago. Generous quantities of ham in a mix of sauce and curry paste. convert the measures and adapt some nutmeg, cloves, mace and cinnamon Working on the exhibition has been a of the ingredients into a recipe that were used. “The cake would have labour of love for Olive. Her star exhibit is would work while remaining true to been really exotic in its day,” says the illustrated mid-19th-century recipe the original. Sue. “It’s fascinating to compare book by Katherine Jane Ellice, the wife It was a great experience, she says. this with the plainer fare and quite of Edward Ellice of Invergarry, a wealthy “I am fascinated by historical records bland foods that followed the businessman and politician. Te couple of every description and I was thrilled post-WW1 period when these great lavishly entertained a stream of visitors to do this. I had to fiddle about a spices fell out of use.” at Glenquoich, their Highlands shooting lodge, from the 1840s to the 1860s. Te book features humorous PLUME CAIKE illustrations for recipes such as fish TRY THIS RECIPE ADAPTED BY SUE LAWRENCE balls, chicken jelly and leg of pork which caught the eye of one of today’s 400g or 14oz muscovado sugar 2. Spoon into a lined, celebrity chefs, Tom Kitchin, on a visit to self-raising flour, sifted 3 large free-range deep, 22cm or 8½in the Library. Te walls of his gastropub 350g or 12oz currants eggs cake tin, ensuring the in Edinburgh – the Scran and Scallie - 50g or 1¾oz raisins 100ml or 3fl oz double paper is above the are now adorned with copies of Ellice’s 50g or 1¾oz mixed cream rim of the tin. Bake at original recipes and illustrations. peel 50ml or 2fl oz medium 170C/325F/Gas 3 for “Food has become cheaper and much the grated zest of sherry 1 hour then reduce to more plentiful in the developed world,” 1 lemon 150C/300F/Gas2. says Olive. “Tis has led to concern that the grated zest of 1. Mix the first 10 we are losing sight of where our food 1 small orange ingredients together 3. Place a piece of foil comes from. With this exhibition, people ½ tsp ground in a large bowl, with a loosely over the top and can learn more about food in Scotland cinnamon pinch of salt. Beat the continue to bake for and how tastes have developed.” ¼ tsp ground nutmeg butter and sugar until a further 1¼ hours – ¼ tsp ground cloves thoroughly creamed or 2¼ hours altogether. Lifting the Lid: 400 Years of Food and ¼ tsp ground mace then beat in the eggs Drink in Scotland, 12 June–8 November, 250g or 9oz butter, one by one, before Place on a wire rack to the National Library of Scotland. softened finally mixing in the cool before removing Entry is free 150g or 5½oz light cream and sherry. from the tin.
Summer 2015 | DISCOVER | 21 LITERATURE
My favourite Penguin It is 80 years since the renowned British publisher waddled into our lives. So what makes it so special? Damien Love asks four lovers of Penguin Books to reveal their most treasured – and dog-eared – paperback
22 | DISCOVER | Summer 2015 LITERATURE
JARVIS COCKER MUSICIAN AND BROADCASTER THE DAY IT RAINED FOREVER BY RAY BRADBURY I used to read a lot of Bradbury as a kid. I liked that he’d often have kids in his stories – not in a sentimental, crappy way, but just describing kids … walking around town. I picked this copy up about 30 years ago, and I was going on a long journey recently, and looking for something to read on the train, so I just grabbed it again. He’s got really good powers of description. And his titles are great. The Day It Rained Forever – you can’t help be intrigued. I wouldn’t say I ever consciously sought out Penguin books, but if you wanted to find literature cheap, that was what you were going to get. I’ve always appreciated that kind of thinking: making things available to anyone who wants it. That attitude is dying out now. And I like them as objects. This book, which I got second- hand, it’s been through somebody else’s hands before. Books have a life like that: you’ll find someone’s written their name, or underlined certain bits. For instance, my father left when I was seven, so I didn’t really know him that well; but there were a lot of ‘When you snuf it, his books left at home, and you get a little insight into somebody through that’s it. Your kids won’t that. And then I can give the book to somebody else. You can’t do that with a look on your Kindle. Kindle. When you snuf it, that’s it: your They won’t even know kids aren’t going to look on your Kindle. They won’t even know how to plug it how to plug it in’ in, because that technology will have become obsolete. Books are important that way. They can hang around.
n a way, the birth of Penguin Books were regarded as trash by the industry. Pelicans; the Classics and Modern begins with Agatha Christie. And ‘Respectable’ books cost around eight Classics that became fashion statements like some of the best Christie shillings; Lane proposed selling his sticking from serious young pockets. I stories, it involves a train. In 1934, paperbacks for sixpence – the price of Penguin’s influence extends beyond Allen Lane, managing director of London 10 cigarettes. When he and his brothers, the writing it published. From the first, publisher Te Bodley Head, stood at Richard and John, pushed ahead, issuing Lane’s watchword was modernity, and Exeter station, waiting for the train the first 10 Penguins with their own cash Penguin created covers that remain home after a weekend visiting Christie in July 1935, booksellers were hostile and inspirational, collectible, fetishised in Devon. Facing a four-hour journey, buyers wary. Te project seemed doomed masterpieces, from the classic 1930s he scoured the platform’s paperback – until Woolworth’s placed an order for typographical design – functionally bookstall for something to read. What he 63,500 copies. Tere was no looking back. minimalist, yet invitingly friendly – to found dismayed him: nothing but badly It was driven by entrepreneurial spirit, the striking, regimented abstractions produced editions of Victorian novels and but in terms of democratising culture of the 1960s. low-grade potboilers, wrapped in tawdry – bringing literature within everyone’s Lane died in July 1970, aged 67. Te covers. And an idea was born. reach – Lane’s vision ranks alongside following month, global publisher It’s difficult today to appreciate how the establishment of the BBC and public Pearson bought the company. Today’s radical the concept was. Te Bodley Head libraries. Penguin hatched a host of Penguin is not quite Lane’s, but its initially rejected it as absurd. Paperbacks offspring: children’s Puffins; non-fiction influence endures. Long may it waddle.
Summer 2015 | DISCOVER | 23 LITERATURE
CLARE MORPURGO DAUGHTER OF PENGUIN FOUNDER ALLEN LANE NATIONAL VELVET BY ENID BAGNOLD It’s hard picking one, but I’m bound to choose a children’s book, as I grew up in the 1940s and 50s with Penguins and Pufns all around me. I adored Seashore Life And Pattern by T A Stephenson – it had beautiful illustrations that fascinated me. And the first Pufn Clare Morpurgo with edition of The Secret her husband Michael, Garden – that cover the children’s author. meant a lot to me; Allen Lane, right I’ve read it since and love it still.
LAUREN CHILD CHILDREN’S AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR THE SHRINKING OF TREEHORN BY FLORENCE PARRY HEIDE
I first encountered this at this completely odd sort primary school. It’s illustrated of thing. But, back then, by Edward Gorey, and I wasn’t I wasn’t aware of who did aware of his illustrations the illustrations or even who before. Our teacher always wrote the book. picked a book to read aloud As a child I’d often pick to the whole school at the books by the cover. If there end of the day – I went to was a jacket by Quentin a village school, and it was Blake I’d read it, regardless tiny – and this was one the of who wrote it, and without teacher chose. I liked the text even knowing what it was very much; it was very funny about. I was very image- and it combined with Gorey’s led, and the thing about illustrations: deadpan text Penguins – or Puffins – was with deadpan illustrations. It they were the big publisher doesn’t overexplain. of paperbacks, so you Florence Parry Heide died recognised them even if not so long ago. I used to you weren’t aware you were write to her, because she recognising a particular found out this was one of publisher. I really like the my favourite books and old Puffin design. It’s been we started corresponding. through many incarnations, She knew Gorey very, but I still think this kind of very well, although 1970s format is its best. these illustrations It reminds me so much are sometimes of the Puffin annuals overlooked in his they did, which I also work. Tere are three have. I wish they’d Treehorn books, and change it back. Tey they’re very much should never have Gorey territory, messed with it.
24 | DISCOVER | Summer 2015 ‘Image-led’: Lauren Child LITERATURE
But then I thought of husband. People ask: was home and burnt them on the first Penguin edition of it inevitable I’d end up the bonfire. He was careful National Velvet. I loved that marrying a writer [Michael of people’s sensitivities. book. I first read it when I Morpurgo, the author of He was a really sweet dad. was about eight. We went on War Horse]? No, not at all. And I think his example, holiday every year to a pub in When I married Michael of someone who had a vision Devon, run by an old girlfriend he was in the army. and pursued it, has had of my father’s, and I think she People would tease me an influence. actually gave it to me. I read about ending up as a Michael and I run the it every year for four years. I service wife. project Farms For City remember this extraordinary Children, which has been moment, when the old man VISION AND a huge efort, but I think gives the girls the horse – TENACITY I’ve inherited some of “The Pie” – then goes around My father was sometimes the stubbornness and the corner and “explodes”. unhappy with things tenacity my father had to do That stayed in my mind as an that were going on at Penguins. Penguin Books interesting way of getting rid Penguin. In 1966, Penguin is no longer the family of a character. was very good. Books, published Massacre, a book business but I certainly feel My father often gave me writers and illustrators played of Siné cartoons which the connection if there’s an books he was thinking about a huge part in our family life. were quite sacrilegious, and advert, or a movie set in the publishing, to hear what I Ronald Searle was a great people were outraged. He 1940s, and there’s a shot of thought. Probably the biggest friend. Agatha Christie visited went to the warehouse one someone reading a Penguin mistake I ever made was I told a lot, and my parents went midnight, loaded a van with on a train. That really, really him I didn’t think The Hobbit on holiday with her and her the entire stock, drove them rings a bell. I still feel the pull.
Pat Nevin first read his PAT NEVIN favourite travel-companion BROADCASTER, AND FORMER SCOTLAND Penguin in Singapore AND CHELSEA FOOTBALLER HEART OF DARKNESS BY JOSEPH CONRAD
I first read Heart of Darkness from a different perspective in my early 20s while there is a darkness you can playing for Chelsea, and sometimes sense under the was in Singapore – which surface, and I’ve always been is a theme for me with this attracted to that. I want to feel book. I’ve gone back to it that sense the book has, of a couple of times recently. being within an atmosphere. I’ve been doing a lot more It’s only one aspect, of course: travelling. Te depth of Heart the other side is the delve of Darkness isn’t really about into the psyche, the density the travelling. But you can and heaviness of language. take it with you when you go It’s oppressive, and I like that. somewhere strange, and you Maybe I’m a strange traveller. can almost feel that same oppressiveness – words like gloomy, uncertainty and danger come to mind. Right from the opening paragraph. And I like that. A lot of people take a ‘holiday book’, something light and pleasant. I’ve never been like that. Last summer, I visited Brazil for the first time. I’d been in Hong Kong for two weeks before, and I took my copy of Heart of Darkness and read it in Brazil. Brazil is not Conrad’s Africa, but when you’re in a different culture and seeing things
Summer 2015 | DISCOVER | 25 A watercolour inspired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his best known creation, Sherlock Holmes
26 | DISCOVER | Summer 2015 COLLECTIONS
A brush with the greats From Jane Austen to Arthur Conan Doyle, the Library’s literary collections play a starring role in the paintings of Hugh Buchanan. He explains why as an exhibition of his work is unveiled
s an art student in Edinburgh a cobwebbed vault to the mix and you during the 1970s I would have endless scope for not only evoking spend my lunch breaks the pathos of age but some aspects of A aimlessly mooching around the lives of the people who created those the second-hand bookshops of the painstakingly transcribed documents Grassmarket and Victoria Street. As I – be they great novels, ordinary letters, bought the odd tattered volume, I never title deeds or simple rental agreements. dreamed that 30 years later I would be working with similar but rather more PATHOS OF AGE important material in the National My search for the archives that lived Library of Scotland at the top of the hill. in my imagination – fuelled by images Dropping out of the illustration course from Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast in second year I changed to drawing and Umberto Eco’s Te Name of the and painting. From then I concentrated Rose – led me from Drumlanrig in principally on watercolours of Dumfriesshire to Forchtenstein, the architectural interiors, particularly the Esterházy stronghold south of Vienna. play of light across rooms. With 25km of shelving, this is probably In 2008, in search of new subject the largest private archive in Europe. matter, I was drawn back to the world Work from this project was shown at of books and exhibited a series of Summerhall in Edinburgh during 2013 as paintings of libraries. In a critical review part of the Historic Fiction Festival. of the exhibition, somebody pointed Later that summer I was sitting by the out, however, that the spines of endless edge of a lake in Berlin when I received rows of books were, after a while, rather an email from David McClay, Curator of boring. So I asked myself what was the John Murray Archive at the Library. interesting about books, and concluded He had seen my work at Summerhall. it was the paper itself, especially when “Why don’t you come and paint a proper torn or stained, crumpled, brittle or archive?” he asked. “You’ve heard of greasy. Archives in other words. John Murray’s I’m sure.” And so began Add a glistening wax seal and maybe one of the most fascinating years of my
Summer 2015 | DISCOVER | 27 COLLECTIONS
Jane Austen and the cheques sent to her by John Murray
‘Turning of the neon, we replicated the efect of raking sunlight, illuminating every crease, fold and wrinkle in the documents’ life. Te result, a series of watercolours, between the portraits and documents. will show at the Library from 25 June. Sir Henry Raeburn’s portrait of Sir Every week we would take two Walter Scott is the basis of the engraving authors – Jane Austen and Lord Byron, on the Bank of Scotland £10 note. It is Patrick Leigh Fermor and Osbert the same image on the postcard I used in Lancaster, Sir Walter Scott and James the composition of Lord Byron’s Childe Hogg, Washington Irving and Isabella Harold, yet when it came to painting Bird, Charles Darwin and David them I subconsciously interpreted the Livingstone – and try to assemble portrait quite differently. When I placed compositions from their incunabula, Scott with the cheques – coincident with including letters, maps and passports. his bankruptcy – he appeared pleading Some were easy, some defeated us. and mournful, while in my depiction Often we would have to backtrack, as of his correspondence with Byron he better ideas occurred to us. seemed complacent and defiant. Bringing paint into the strongroom Trough working with the John was out of the question. Neither was Murray Archive I have learned so much this a cobwebbed vault but a modern about the humanity of the authors, from room filled with steel shelving and the way Paddy Leigh Fermor carelessly humming with neon. But what we were repaired his maps with photocopies and Clockwise, from above: able to do, by turning off the neon and sticky tape, to the Ettrick Shepherd’s watercolours focusing with the aid of strong, low lamps, was incongruously grand wax seal. Ten on Patrick Leigh Fermor, to replicate the effect of raking sunlight, there is Byron’s handwriting – the Osbert Lancaster illuminating every crease, fold and surprisingly pedantic curlicues on the and Sir Walter Scott wrinkle in the documents. By laying envelopes contrasting with the drunken them on different coloured papers we scrawl within. Lastly, Jane Austen’s were also able to evoke some sort of cheques, written out by Murray to a mood for the camera. her brother after her death, have an ineffably plangent quality that, along CLARITY AND VIGOUR with so much in the Library’s priceless It had not originally been my intention collection, informs us on a level that to include images of the authors or biography can never really reach. their principal characters, but having worked on the Leigh Fermor passports Hugh Buchanan Paints the John Murray I saw it added a clarity and vigour to the Archive: Austen, Byron, Conan Doyle, Etc, compositions. Dialogues began to open the National Library, 25 June-6 September
28 | DISCOVER | Summer 2015 Summer 2015 | DISCOVER | 29 USING LITERATURE THE LIBRARY
Make the most of your National Library On your first visit to the these resources are Library go to Registration available on the internet where staff will take your to customers resident in photo and produce a library Scotland, although card for you. You will need additional conditions may proof of your identity and apply in line with our address. Examples of licence agreements. acceptable ID and address Your first port of call confirmation are at to access the Library’s www.nls.uk/using-the- licensed digital collections library/library-cards/ is https://auth.nls.uk/ldc evidence-of-identity Additionally, recent legislation has given The shop at the George IV VIEWING MATERIAL the Library and the Bridge building sells If you know what you are other five legal deposit books, stationery and gifts looking for, we recommend libraries in the UK the legal making your request for right to collect, store and With a collection of more than 15 million printed the required material in preserve the nation’s items, two million maps, 32,000 films, three miles of advance of your visit to the memory in the digital age. manuscripts, and thousands of photographs, getting Library. Requests can be There will be a mixture made in person, by of electronic content around the Library requires a little navigation telephone on 0131 623 3820 available including or 3821, or by email to websites in the UK domain LIBRARY Other collections [email protected]. web archive, and articles/ LOCATIONS George IV Bridge If you have a library chapters from e-books Films Edinburgh EH1 1EW card, books can be ordered and e-journals. Scottish Screen Archive Tel: 0131 623 3700 in advance via the online This material can be 39-41 Montrose Avenue Email: [email protected] catalogue on our website. viewed on Library Hillington Park Mon-Fri 9.30am-8.30pm For information about computers within the Glasgow G52 4LA (Wed 10am-8.30pm), pre-ordering see Reading Rooms if you are Tel: 0845 366 4600 Sat 9.30am-1pm, www.nls.uk/using-the- a registered user. Email: [email protected] Sun 2-5pm, exhibition library/reading-rooms/ space and cafe only) general/preorders VISITOR CENTRE Maps The Visitor Centre at the Causewayside Building HOW TO JOIN ONLINE George IV Bridge building 159 Causewayside To use the Library’s The Library has a vast features an exhibition Edinburgh EH9 1PH Reading Rooms and order range of electronic space, a shop selling books, Tel: 0131 623 3970 items from the collections, resources, including digital stationery and gift items, Email: [email protected] you should hold a library versions of reference a cafe and PC terminals Mon-Fri 9.30am-5pm card. Complete the online works, massive full-text with access to Library (Wed 10am-5pm), registration form at https:// facsimiles and business catalogues and other Sat 9.30am-1pm auth.nls.uk/registration databases. Many of digital facilities.
FOCUS ON
Having survived James II’s The home of golf act of Parliament to outlaw With the 2015 Golf Open golf, the game bounced back Championships being held in to evolve into the sociable St Andrews this July, why not activity it is today. impress your friends on the Highlights of its chequered fairway with your extensive journey include the document knowledge of the game? Articles and Laws in Playing Through words and images, Golf, written in 1744 and the Library’s digital archive tells establishing the game’s earliest the story of golf in Scotland, known rules. Or spot Mary from its ban in 1457 to the Queen of Scots swinging a club Mary Queen of Scots launch of the world’s first golf on the links at St Andrews in a playing golf at St Andrews club at Leith Links, near 1905 edition of The Illustrated Edinburgh, and beyond. London News.
30 | DISCOVER | Summer 2015 Digital resources Explore a world of Te acclaimed Scottish content in the Library’s composer Sally Beamish online collections
he Library’s Licensed Digital T Collections service is a superb, free research tool offering access to millions of resources including digitised books, full text newspapers, journals, reports and reference works. The service is included as part of your free Library membership. If your main residential address is in Scotland you can also use many of these resources ASHLEY COOMBES ASHLEY from home. Some of the resources are available instruments and music without registering. venues. All musical styles Visit the Library’s are covered, from classical, Licensed Digital Collections rock, pop and techno to jazz. at https://auth.nls.uk/ldc/ Audio samples are available for some musical pieces. Find out about registering Oxford Music Online to join the Library at provides access to key www.nls.uk/guides/ reference works including how-to-register Grove Music Online, the compendium of music OXFORD MUSIC scholarship; the Oxford ONLINE Companion of Music and This authoritative resource Te cover of a the Oxford Dictionary for music research includes songbook for the of Music. The 10-volume information, articles and Verdi opera Encyclopedia of Popular images linked to major La Traviata, and Music is also available composers and their Te Pocket Companion through the resource. compositions, as well as for Gentlemen performers, conductors, and Ladies Visit bit.ly/nls_uk_oxford
CREDO REFERENCE An impressive collection of than 10,000 topics more than 750 full-text summarising information from reference works, Credo Credo and other reference Reference includes works into a single article. dictionaries, encyclopaedias, These wide-ranging topics handbooks and biographies include all aspects of human on an array of subjects. knowledge and experience From All Things Chaucer: including the arts, science and An Encyclopedia of Chaucer’s technology, biographies, World through to The Young architecture, countries, Professional’s Survival Guide, business and more. you are sure to find what Te 12th-century writer you are looking for. Visit bit.ly/nls_licensed_ Geoffrey Chaucer, considered The resource features more digital_collections England’s first great poet
Summer 2015 | DISCOVER | 31
MY LIBRARY
been given. I didn’t meet Mrs Tatcher then, but I did on other occasions. Squirrel tactics In May 1988 my wife and I were at Holyroodhouse for the Ceremony of the Keys, at which the Queen is Following an illustrious career, the former judge Lord David Hope received in the city of Edinburgh by is promising his diaries to the Library. Memories of an impromptu the City Chamberlain. We were introduced to Mrs Tatcher rather by meeting with Margaret Thatcher are among the highlights chance. Tat led to a long talk about the English and their ability to absorb am one of these people, a bit Advocates, Lord President, and Deputy others, and how she wanted to assert like a squirrel, who never wants President of the Supreme Court of the the English nation in response to the to throw anything out. I had United Kingdom. Scots. Not tactful at a Scottish gathering. I wondered what to do with my Te diaries describe the tension of She was surprisingly complimentary collection of papers because it would be my election and three years as Dean – about the Scottish legal system, though, rather unfair on my three children to be the leader of the Scottish Bar. It was an and liked the idea of forcing people to do faced with throwing it all out when I die. important time for the legal profession. things in a timetable. And so, with the encouragement of a Mrs Tatcher wanted to abolish “We women must get our stilettos professor at the University of Edinburgh, restrictive practices across the legal out,” she said to my wife. It was an I wrote to National Library, which profession. Te Faculty had an exclusive interesting meeting – Mrs Tatcher has been extremely good at showing right of audience – the right to represent was very attentive and friendly, interest in what I have got. clients in the High Court and the Court but maintained the conversation and I have a collection of more than 70 of Session. Tere was a great struggle was not there to ask questions or learn spiral-bound A4 notebooks, used for with the Law Society of Scotland, which our views. writing my draft opinions when I was at represented solicitors, who wanted the In more recent times, the diaries the Bar and my draft judgments when same right. As Dean it was my job to covered my time as Deputy President I was a judge during my seven years as resist that while maintaining friendly of the Supreme Court of the United Lord President of the Court of Session. relations with the Law Society. Kingdom. I was deeply involved in I have been keeping a diary for a long To my huge surprise, I was then asked setting the court up, which was time. Tere are 12 volumes, which I am by the Lord Advocate, Peter Fraser, fascinating because it was creating using as source material for a book. to agree to have my name put on the something out of nothing. When I feel I have no further use for shortlist for Lord President. Tat was an Te Library, to come back to feelings the diaries, they will go to the Library. enormous and quite unprecedented leap of gratitude, has come to my rescue. It Ten the question is: can be released in my life. I had never sat as a judge and is prepared to accept these documents for public examination? My feeling is it here I was asked to become the chief and diaries, and keep them in safe would not be right to do this for a period judge in Scotland. Suddenly the news conditions where they can’t be accessed of 30 years, because the diaries contain came through that Mrs Tatcher had until it’s proper that they should be. Tat material that is confidential or sensitive. chosen me out of three names she had is an act of salvation for me. Te diaries cover major events and figures such as Tony Blair and the Gulf War, the 9/11 incidents in New York and ‘Mrs Thatcher was very attentive and friendly, Washington, the tube bombings and the tension of being in London. Tey also but maintained the conversation and was not cover crucial periods in my career – my
MALCOLM COCHRANE MALCOLM appointments as Dean of the Faculty of there to ask questions or learn our views’
Summer 2015 | DISCOVER | 33 LAST WORD AJ Cronin was famous enough to feature on a A bestselling Wills’s cigarette card novelist and Hollywood favourite, A J Cronin lost his golden touch before being resurrected by Dr Finlay By Andrew Martin
n 1938 the staff at Victor Gollancz, the London I publisher, hailed the young novelist Daphne Du Maurier as “the new Cronin”. At that time the Scot, Dr AJ Cronin, was the jewel in the Gollancz publishing stable, already a bestselling author and a Hollywood name famous enough to feature on a Wills’s other new book apart from Gone cigarette card. with the Wind. Today Cronin’s literary reputation Then, in 1941, came the bestseller is rather uncertain. Those with long of the year, The Keys of the Kingdom, memories will remember his creation the inspirational story of a Scottish Dr Finlay dominating Sunday night priest in China. television throughout the 1960s. All these titles were controversial In his day, though, Cronin was an but well received, and popular. extraordinary success. Hatter’s Cronin arranged lucrative contracts Castle, The Stars Look Down, for major film versions featuring The Citadel, and The Keys of the actors such as Robert Donat, Kingdom are the major triumphs. Michael Redgrave, Deborah Kerr, Cronin was an international celebrity Hatter’s Castle is a full-blooded James Mason and Gregory Peck. and, above all, sold books. 19th-century tale of a tyrannical Cronin’s golden touch began to Cronin’s life made good copy for hat maker in a town where sex and falter in the 1950s, but he received dust jackets and interviewers. Born violence abound. The press response an unexpected boost in the 1960s in 1896, he was a clever child from was warm – the novelist and critic when the BBC adapted his Dr Finlay Dunbartonshire brought up by a Sir Hugh Walpole hailed it “the finest stories. widowed mother, a Roman Catholic novel since the War”. The book sold Another successful adaptation, among Protestants. Later he was a in millions and Cronin put down his filmed in Auchtermuchty and GP in the Welsh valleys, an inspector stethoscope for good to earn his starring David Rintoul, was of mines, a society doctor in a living with the pen. broadcast in the 1990s. comfortable London practice off The Stars Look Down, set in the The writer, once friend and Harley Street, and then an instant collieries of northern England, neighbour to Charlie Chaplin and success in 1931 as the author of followed in 1935. Two years later, his Audrey Hepburn, died in 1981 in Hatter’s Castle. He was to become a greatest success yet, The Citadel, Montreaux, Switzerland. A millionaire author with a series of focused on an idealistic Scottish headstone marking his grave at bestsellers, soon living in America doctor in the Welsh mining valleys. La Tour-de-Peilz reads simply: and Switzerland. American readers preferred it to any “Author of The Keys of the Kingdom.”
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