by Vivien Quines Martin Gerda Stevenson’s Tribute to Women of Scotland

HE SNOW had cleared and the sky was that brilliant blue Shetland and yet who looks not one jot Tthat makes it so hard to be indoors, making it a perfect different from any of us today. “She was day to be out and on my way down to the Borders. The sun thousands of years old and, although I was still shining when we reached our destination: an old, was looking at her reconstructed head, two-storied stone cottage, nestling below the Pentland Hills. she appeared to me to be more alive A welcoming house: warm, bright and comfortable; full of than anyone I’d met for a long time. Who the colourful and well-loved possessions that reflect the was she? What language did she speak? lives of Gerda Stevenson and her family. And that included Why did she die so young? She looked - glossy-coated and full of life - Luna, Gerda’s Border Collie, uncannily contemporary. Does history who dropped a tennis ball at my feet and looked up in that really separate us, or does it reveal how eternally hopeful way that dogs do. much we have in common? A poem was It’s not easy to pigeon-hole someone as versatile as Gerda brewing…” And brew it did, to become Stevenson. She’s been rightly called ‘one of Scotland’s not just one poem, but fifty-seven! great Renaissance women’. She’s an award-winning writer, Poems that span not only the centuries, actor, playwright, radio-dramatist, theatre-director, singer- but also vast differences in wealth, songwriter and poet. A woman who moves easily from social-class and profession. Yet the playing Mother MacClannough in Mel Gibson’s Braveheart, stories in this book demonstrate that through starring on stage in Edwin Morgan’s Scots language time and status really don’t separate us translation of Phaedra, to the clipped tones of Paul Temple’s as much as we might imagine. glamorous wife Steve, in the BBC Radio4 dramatisations. If you’re from the north-east, you’re But there’s still more, for she’s equally at home writing, probably familiar with the word quine. directing and performing in her thought-provoking, Others, and that includes me, possibly humorous yet heart-rending play Federer Versus Murray, as first came across the word in Lewis she is composing and performing her own beautiful songs in Grassic Gibbon’s novel Sunset Song. It Night Touches Day. comes from Old English ‘cwen’, meaning I’ve come down to talk to Gerda about her new book of a woman or a lass, and is the root of poetry, Quines: poems in tribute to women of Scotland, the modern word queen: so I began published on March 8th, which, very appropriately, is by asking Gerda how and why her International Women’s Day. Doubly apt, as 2018 is also collection of quines had come about. the year that marks the centenary of the first women What had prompted her to tackle a getting the vote. project like this? For Gerda the answer was straightforward. “I wanted people Quines is a celebration of sixty-seven extraordinary Scottish to discover these extraordinary lives. women, told uniquely through a sequence of fifty-seven Some are well-known, some lesser- poems. Not just the ‘usual suspects’ though, for Gerda’s known and some almost unknown. poems highlight the lives and achievements of women From queens, saints, scientists and some of us will never have heard of before. Yet they’re politicians, right down to a fish-gutter, women whose contributions to Scotland, and beyond, were a salt-seller and a freed slave. I wanted enormous. With the patience of an archaeologist, Gerda has to give a whole sense of a society as carefully scraped away at the neglect of years to unearth you go through the centuries. It’s only some real treasures, bringing to light the stories of women a snapshot and it’s highly personal, who made a mark in their time, but who have been allowed to and certainly not a comprehensive ‘disappear’ by the writers of history. The stories in this book demonstrate look at history, but it’s a celebration These sixty-seven lives cover a vast expanse of years. that time and of what women have achieved and an ‘Five thousand years between us, and yet not a moment, it status really don’t exploration of the rich contribution seems...’ Gerda writes in the opening poem, as she recalls separate us as women have made to Scottish history Gerda Stevenson the impact of coming face-to-face with the reconstructed much as we might and society, whether in a big way or a (Photo by Anna Wiraszka) head of a young Iron Age woman who lived long, long ago in imagine. small way.” Gerda with Dave Anderson in Federer Versus Murray, New York

Snow on the Pentlands

Recording her album Night Touches Day (Photo by Anna Wiraszka)

Esther Inglis (1571-1624)

Gunnie Moberg (1941-2007) © Alistair Peebles, 1996

The language of the poems is vibrant, alive, and at times student, married and lived in Orkney and considered herself both hard-hitting and challenging: matching the lives of the a Swedish-Orcadian. So I’m very interested in this idea of women themselves. Gerda uses a range of voices to tell their Scotland being a kind of a melting point. What is a Scot? Who stories, writing chiefly in English but also in Scots and with, are Scots? What is it to be Scottish? And I think to a certain at times, the subtle, gentle cadences of Gaelic. In only two of extent the book asks that question.” the poems does she speak as herself - at the opening and the Gerda spent four years researching and writing the poems, closing of the book. Otherwise the poems are in the voices getting to know these women and their individual histories. of the women, or a woman who knew them, or an object con- Were there any she felt a particular kinship towards? Had she nected to them. How many people can write a poem where a any favourites? mountain addresses a banknote and achieve a real sense of the woman they reflect! And can you guess who that was?! “That’s impossible to answer! I’ve come to love them all. But Frances Wright, (1795-1852), a daughter of the Scottish Covering such an expanse of time and possible subjects (I Enlightenment, was fearless, outspoken, wonderful and tragic have added their dates throughout), I wondered how Gerda Gerda and husband and so phenomenally out of her time. She was from Dundee had decided on the content and scope of the book? Did she Gaelic poet, Aonghas then moved to the US where she was loved and loathed, MacNeacail, Outside have a master plan? That brought a wry laugh and a very derided by some as the ‘Red Harlot’. She was a writer, orator, 59East59 Theater in decisive ‘No!’ from Gerda. New York where Federer feminist, abolitionist, campaigned for birth control, impressed Versus Murray ran “I definitely didn’t have a master plan and I don’t think that’s presidents, and thousands flocked to her lectures, but is now for a month in 2012 as how artists work. In fact, I didn’t know what I was writing almost unknown. part of the Scottish until it started to emerge. As I researched, I would ask Government’s Scotland “Then there’s Mary Slessor (1848-1915), also from Dundee. myself: is there a good poem in that person as a subject? Week celebrations She was extraordinary. She was a missionary in Calabar and Does she appeal to me? And gradually I realised there was a Frances (Fanny) Wright (1795-1852) was loved by the people. She was totally pragmatic, lived sense of history here. A story of Scotland was beginning to among them, learned their language (Efik), took on their god emerge. Then other themes arose. For example, I was at the (Abassi), and campaigned for the rights of women in Nigeria. National Library doing some research when I discovered this She rolled up her sleeves and got on with what needed to be wonderful artist Esther Inglis (1571-1624), a calligrapher and done. She was a real phenomenon. miniaturist, considered by King James VI /I to be the greatest calligrapher in the realm. I chose to write about her because “And of course Jane Haining (1897-1944), another missionary her life was so fascinating: the calligraphy, the exquisite little and a multi-linguist, who was the only Scot to be officially books that she stitched with tiny pearls. It’s magical. So I honoured for giving her life to help the Jews in the Holocaust. wrote a series of Haiku for her because she was a miniaturist. She ran the Scottish Mission School in Budapest and refused She wasn’t born in Scotland, but was from a family of to leave the girls she cared for and so died with them in Huguenot refugees, who came to Leith when she was a child Auschwitz in 1944. Or there’s Helen Crawford (1877-1954), a and Scotland became her home. pacifist, who was in the rent strikes alongside Mary Barbour, She ran the an astonishing woman, and then there’s the scientist and “From Esther, it occurred to me that we have a history of Scottish Mission polymath Mary Somerville (1780-1872) and that extraordinary immigration and emigration in this country, so I thought I School in Budapest doctor Elsie Inglis (1864-1917), and …” should look at that. And gradually the shape of the book and refused to began to emerge. For example Gunnie Moberg (1941-2007) is The more we talked, the more I realised just how many Scot- leave the girls she Gerda uses a range in the book. Gunnie was a great, great photographer, a real tish women have stood up for their beliefs, and also realised cared for and so of voices to tell artist. Some of her photography is in the Scottish Parliament. that we’re only just beginning to scratch the surface of their died with them in their stories She was from Sweden but moved to Scotland as an art astonishing legacy. But don’t think it’s all too serious! Not at Auschwitz in 1944 Mary Slessor (1848-1915) (top left). Pic: Church of Scotland young couple, married and stayed. Ronald steeped himself in the culture of Scotland, and soon became friends with many poets, including Hugh MacDiarmid, William Soutar, Sydney Goodsir Smith and Alan Bold. “Dad was a musician but his passion for literature was great and in his last years, when he was quite frail, we’d go to Penicuik library and he would always want to go to the poetry section and we’d just sit there quietly and read. So poetry was something we shared hugely.” As a linguist and translator, language in all its forms intrigues me and I was curious to know if Gerda thought Scots had a future as a language for poetry. After a thoughtful pause, Gerda answered. “That’s a very big question. There’s an anomalous situation here, for when Scots language plays are on in theatres they tend to get really, really good audiences. So while Scots is clearly spoken less and less and less, people seem to love to read it and go and see plays in it. I think there’s an atavistic thing there. When Kenny Ireland, the Jane Haining (1897-1944) artistic director of the Lyceum, sent me Edwin Morgan’s Scots translation of all. There are some delightfully wry and humorous pieces, for Racine’s Phaedra, to play the title role, Gerda doesn’t preach or tell people what to think. She is, after I remember reading it and it just hitting all, an entertainer and wanted this book to be fun. me somewhere in the gut in a way that’s quite visceral. To me the language Take, for example, the actress and ballerina Moira Shearer was a vibrant, living thing. I remember The Red Shoes (1926-2006), who’s best known for her role in . thinking ‘Oh yes! I know this; with my But Gerda had also seen her dancing the Charleston in The whole body I know this language.’ But Man who loved Redheads, a very different film, and she was the question: is there a future for Scots? inspired to write The Flyting of the Red Shoes and the Blue I think it’s a combination of political will Shoes. ‘Flyting’? I asked, puzzled. Gerda explained the origin In The Cherry Orchard from institutions and public appetite. of this ancient Scottish tradition of ‘bantering’, an exchange by Anton Chekov, And I think there is an appetite. And I of rhyming fun insults. Nor, I had to admit, had I been aware Dundee Rep. (Photo think it needs to be taught in schools, I that the first recorded women’s international football by John Kazek) think we need to learn our great legacy match took place in 1881 at Edinburgh’s Easter Road, when of Scots language and literature. No Scotland beat England 3-0. So there’s a whole women’s doubt about that in my mind.” football team in the book. And Nessie is in there too! So SUP, and when she decided to stand for re-election as an definitely plenty of leavening! independent (1938), she was branded ‘The Red Duchess’ Language can be a subject of by the Tories, who brought out all the big guns in Perth and controversy, and it’s been said that, ‘A From football the conversation moved to politics, and the two Helen Crawford Kinross to make sure she didn’t get back in. And she lost by language is a dialect with an army and very different politicians who feature in the book: Labour’s (1877-1954) 1,300 votes. What a totally fascinating political figure! She a navy at its back’, to which I’d want to Jennie Lee (1904-1988) and Katherine Stewart-Murray (1874- wasn’t of my political persuasion, but that makes it more add ‘…and the largest printing presses!’ 1960) of the Scottish Unionist Party. What drew Gerda to interesting in a sense: diversity is important, as is respecting And language, both written and spoken, them in particular? different views, and I think debate is so important.” can be wonderfully creative. But it’s “Jennie Lee was the architect of the Open University, which is very powerful too and can be misused Though predominantly in English, some of the poems are in now a world-wide phenomenon. People don’t know that, and to control and divide. Too often people Scots, reflecting the way those particular women would have say, ‘Wasn’t she the wife of Aneurin Bevin?’, yet the amazing are classified negatively by the way spoken. I was curious to know if Gerda had a connection to they speak. But is one particular way Open University was her creation. And ironically she came Scots herself? from Lochgelly, in Fife, which is famous for producing the of speaking really ‘superior’ or ‘better’ belt for punishing children in schools: the home of the ‘slit- “I was born and brought up in West Linton, so I’m very much than another? Why is there often so tongued tawse’! a Borders lass. I grew up hearing Scots around me in the much resistance to acknowledging that The first recorded village, went to the local primary school and then the local Scots and Gaelic are as much a part of women’s “The other politician I chose was the first Scottish woman high school at Peebles. And I was also very aware of the Scots Scottish culture as English? international MP, Katherine Stewart-Murray, Duchess of Atholl, who was language at home.” I think it needs football match vehemently opposed to appeasement of Hitler. She hadn’t to be taught in “In Britain we’re so monoglot, so took place in 1881 seen herself as a suffragette, or even a suffragist, but went Gerda’s father was the composer and musician Ronald schools, I think resolutely empire-monoglot-led. So at Edinburgh’s out to Spain during the Spanish Civil War and saw what was Stevenson, who died two years ago. Ronald was deeply we need to learn different from Europe, where many Easter Road, when happening under Franco. She was so moved by the plight of interested in literature, especially poetry, and over the years our great legacy of languages are the norm. But in this Scotland beat the Republicans that she arranged for 4,000 child refugees set many poets’ words to music. Originally from Lancashire, Scots language and country we’ve got to get our heads England 3-0 to be brought back to the UK. 4,000! She resigned from the he and Gerda’s mother, Marjorie, came to Scotland as a literature around the idea that to be bi-, tri-, or Mary Somerville (1780-1872) Gerda and her father Ronald Stevenson It can be almost too easy to rage and despair, but I would prefer to engage and put my energies into some sort of commitment and involvement. And so many people do care and there’s so much going on in this country that’s good. And look at young people today: they’re a lot better informed and they ask questions. So there has been progress. And the Independence Referendum was fantastically inspiring.” Despite the result of the 2014 Independence Referendum, it’s impossible to deny the sea-change it brought to the political landscape of Scotland, with political activity and debate at unprecedented levels. I wondered if Gerda thought the Referendum, and the 2016 Brexit vote, had affected the quality of debate in Scotland? “Absolutely! During the Independence Referendum I thought it was brilliant the way people, especially young people, discussed, debated and were engaged. I was proud to have Elsie Inglis been part of Scottish Referendum; the Scottish campaign (1864-1917) was dignified. Whereas Brexit was ugly, ill-informed, even racist when it came to immigration. Now, seeing what’s going on with Brexit, with Britain flailing around in the death-throes of its empire, it does make me want another referendum, even quadri-lingual is an advantage. It is not a handicap; because I don’t really want to be part of this attitude that is absolutely not a handicap. My son is fluent in Gaelic thanks revealing itself in relation to Britain at the moment.” to the Gaelic Medium Unit in Tollcross in Edinburgh and then Peebles High School had a Gaelic budget. Which is good (a 2018 marks the centenary of the first women getting the vote. smile from Gerda) as his dad is a native Gael from Skye. I feel An achievement well worth celebrating, although there’s in Scotland we’ve got this great opportunity of a multi-lingual still inequality throughout society. How did Gerda regard the heritage and I think that’s terribly important.” position of women, both in the past and today? At this point I mentioned that I felt that, since the Brexit vote, “I’m not interested in the victim mentality; I’m not interested there’d been a noticeable shift towards encouraging, even in that at all. There are hardly any victims in my book in enforcing, conformity to a single, monolithic ‘Britishness’, that sense, although many of the women suffered terrible whether through Scottish produce being marked as British in discrimination as women have done historically, and still the supermarkets or the subliminal jingoism lurking beneath do. Yet not so long ago Nicola Sturgeon, Ruth Davidson films likeDarkest Hour. Did she think Scotland’s cultural and Kezia Dugdale were the leaders of three main parties identity is endangered by Brexit Britain, and the moves to in the Scottish Parliament. So there’s been huge progress. push ‘Britishness’? Or did she feel that Scotland is strong And we have excellent structures in place; but it’s vital we enough to withstand this? protect and invest in them. I passionately believe in social infrastructure and services. We should be celebrating the “I’m a kind of pragmatist, in the sense that, I think Scotland fantastic work being done in our schools and in our Health will get independence if it wants it. But sometimes Scots Service. And wonderful organisations like the Scottish can be their own worst enemies. We should be working Refugee Council. Effective role models are hugely important together. We need to wake up and grow up. Unless we can too. And that’s exactly what I’m trying to do with this book. love ourselves and our culture we’re not going to be able to I’m looking at wonderful extraordinary lives: women who’ve be independent in a fully-fledged way. I’m not interested in done so much and achieved so much, and are inspiring. I the victim mentality. I have a great love of Britain, my parents want to celebrate these women.” are English, I trained at RADA in London and I loved my time there and I definitely feel British. But I also feel Scottish. I Quines is a remarkable book; one that speaks across the think there’s a parallel where you can feel Scandinavian but centuries and deserves as wide a readership as possible. It be Norwegian. Or Swedish. And I think that’s a possibility for would be equally at home in secondary schools, universities us. It’s not a contradiction. I’d never want to vote for negative and among the general public. It’s for all of us. With Quines reasons, but the way Britain has been going since Brexit is accomplished, Gerda’s now working on some stage plays deeply disturbing. I don’t like this sense of jingoism.” and has a book of short stories waiting to be completed. But Quines has given her another, unexpected, gift: Isobel Wylie Discussion of the filmThree Billboards outside Ebbing, Hutchison (1889-1982), a botanist and Arctic explorer, placed Missouri moved the conversation onto the troubled times Moira Shearer (1926-2006) a poem in front of each chapter of one of her books. Using we’re living in right now, when it can sometimes feel as these beautiful lyrics, Gerda has written a cycle of songs and though community, decency and reason are being overrun Jennie Lee (1904-1988) set them to music. Hopefully we’ll soon be able to listen to by the growth of right-wing populism. Can the lives of these these as well as Night Touches Day. women resonate with us and the challenges of today? At the heart of Gerda’s writing, whether plays or poetry, is a “It’s such a difficult time globally: heart-breaking on so desire to make people think; to debate; to feel; to respond; to many fronts, whether it’s Syria, the Kurds, Trump or Brexit inspire. This book certainly does that. It opened my eyes to instability. There are so many bad news stories that it’s good the extraordinary lives of these women. It made me laugh, cry, Unless we can love for the spirit to feel inspired, and these women inspire me. think, and want to find out more. And anyone who can use ourselves and our They really do: each and every one of them. I care about ‘medieval rap’ to compose a poem about two shoes ‘flyting’ culture we’re not humanity, and I care about my brothers and sisters. And a has to be worth reading! going to be able to lot of these women in my book did. And I think that in that be independent in sense they’re inspirational. A lot of the women were up Quines: Poems in tribute to women of Scotland is published a fully-fledged way against terrible things, but they were very positive. Valiant. by Luath Press, 2018,