Rampant Scotland Book Review
Land Lines - Sneak Preview (2)
Rampant Scotland Book Review
Land Lines - Sneak Preview (2)
And a selection from Chapter 5 - The Ultimate Island:
Islands are bits of the land
that prefer their own company
recluses that sea and wind
address in peculiar accents
Angus Martin
The great Gaelic poet, Sorley Maclean is synonymous with the Isle of Skye:
great island, island of my love
many a night of them I fancied
the great ocean itself restless
agitated with love of you
as you lay on the sea,
great beautiful bird of Scotland,
your supremely beautiful wings bent
about many-nooked Loch Bracadale
your beautiful wings prostrate on the sea
from the Wild Stallion to the Aird of Sleat,
your joyous wings spread
about Loch Snizort and the world.From Chapter 11 - Shrieking Steam:
The building of the great wonder of the world, the Forth Rail Bridge is captured in this poem by Colin Donati to celebrate its centenary:Knitting and riveting
pinning and weaving
knitting and riveting
pinning and weaving
building the girders out
over the watergangers and riveters
sweating at furnaces
welding the rivet-tongs
hammering plates in place
hanging the arms
of the great cantileverAnd on to Chapter 12 - Cityscape:
The novelist Muriel Spark was anxious to leave Edinburgh as a young woman and see the world, but her schooldays here are immortalised in her novel, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie:
"It was then that Miss Brodie looked beautiful and fragile, just as dark, heavy Edinburgh itself could suddenly be changed into a floating city when the light was a special pearly white and fell upon one of the gracefully fashioned streets."
Information
Land Lines costs £45 hard back and £22.50 in paperback. It is published by Polygon at Edinburgh University Press and Columbia University Press, New York. The ISBN is 0748663053 (paperback) and 0748663045 (hardback).Land Lines is devised and produced by the Scottish Literary Tour Company, which runs a series of literary tours in Scotland, including the Edinburgh Literary Pub Tour. For more information on Land Lines and a forthcoming series of Pocket literary guidebooks as well as current tours, visit their Web Site.
You can go directly to Amazon.co.uk to order Land Lines
Previous pages > Page 1, 2, 3, 4.
Return to Bookstore.
Where else would you like to go in Scotland?
