The Keelie Hawk – Poems in Scots – by Kathleen Jamie

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The Keelie Hawk, Poems in Scots by Kathleen Jamie was published in 2024. Kathleen Jamie became Scotland’s fourth Makar in 2021 until December 2024.

The Keelie Hawk (Kestrel) is a fairly slim volume, as books of poetry tend to be. The poems are written in Scots, with an English translation on the opposite page. She had planned to just publish a small pamphlet of poems but the poetry editor at Picador Colette Bryce said that she saw no reason why a major London house shouldn’t publish a whole book of poems in Scots, so as Kathleen Jamie said – I scrievit some mair.

I can’t really judge how easy or difficult these poems would be for non Scots speakers to understand, I like to think that by the time you get half-way through then a reader might have picked up the meaning of a lot of the language. I hope so anyway as the Scots is always much more lyrical.

I’m not a huge fan of ‘normal’ poetry but I enjoyed this book. Jamie is much the same age as me so many of her experiences of speaking Scots as a youngster were similar. THEY gave you a row for it, especially at school as it was seen as being slang back then, and of course it isn’t.

This book has 116 pages. All but four of the poems are by Jamie, the other four are in translation which Jamie has adapted into Scots: two by Friedrich Holderin and two by an Uyghur poet Chimengul Awut who hasn’t been seen since she was arrested in 2018 by Chinese security officials and sent to a ‘ re-education camp.’

The Deal of a Lifetime by Fredrik Backman

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The Deal of a Lifetime by Fredrik Backman was first published in Sweden in 2016 by Helsingborgs Dagblad. It was translated into English by Alice Menzies and published by Michael Joseph. This is a beautifully produced little book with just 65 pages including the illustrations. It’s a short story, but it begins with the explanation by the author of how he came to write it. The setting is mainly a hospital in Helsingborg where the narrator is being treated for some form of cancer. He is very wealthy, but has spent all of his time gathering more money than he needs, and has neglected his own son.

In the hospital he befriends a five year old girl who spends all her time colouring in with crayons, particularly a chair which she has decided should be red. They’ve both seen the woman dressed in grey who stalks the corridors of the hospital at night, carrying a folder. They both know who she is and dread her stopping at their door.

He decides to speak to the woman, in the hope that he can do a deal with her, and she explains what has to happen for a deal to be possible.

This was a great read, and I enjoyed the illustrations too.

 

 

 

 

 

The House by the Sea by Jon Godden

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The House by the Sea by Jon Godden was first published by Michael Joseph in 1947, according to the front of my copy of the book but Wiki claims it was published in 1948.

The setting is Cornwall towards the end of World War 2. Edwina is a 41 year old spinster and she has just bought a house in rural Cornwall which stands on its own with the nearest neighbour being a farmhouse a few miles away. Edwina has been able to buy the house with money left to her when her father died. It’s a dream for her, she will be able to escape from London, and also her bossy and really abusive so-called friend Madge. Edwina is thrilled to be in her own place with just her black spaniel for company, but come the evening and a storm she’s feeling very nervous, it sounds like Madge has been gaslighting her for fifteen years and telling her that she is too nervous to live alone.

When a man comes to the door looking for shelter from the rain, Edwina doesn’t really have any choice, he’s in and she’s treating him like a guest although she knows there’s something dodgy about him. He takes on the type of role that Madge had had in her relationship. It turns out that he’s an American, a deserter from the army,  he’s in big trouble – and so is Edwina.

Although this is a well-written book I found it to be too uncomfortable a read, I suppose it could be called a psychological thriller, but the few characters in the book were all quite unpleasant which is always a problem for me.

 

The Skeleton Road by Val McDermid

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The Skeleton Road Book CoverThe Skeleton Road by Val McDermid was first published in 2014 and it’s the third book in her Karen Pirie series.

Fraser Jardine is a demolition quantity surveyor, he’s been doing it for some years now but had always managed to avoid going onto the roof of any building that he was inspecting, which is just as well as he has a terrible fear of heights. But the day comes when he’s the only person available and he has to go on to the roof of a large and very tall and crumbling Victorian Gothic building, the John Drummond in Edinburgh. Fraser is a complete wreck, but when he reaches one of the roof’s decorative pinnacles, he’s in for an even worse time. There’s a skeleton lying inside the pinnacle, and the skull has a hole in the side of the head.

This is obviously a job for Detective Chief Inspector Karen Pirie, head of Cold Cases. As all the clothes have been rotted away by the weather and time there’s really nothing to go on, it seems unlikely that the murder victim will ever be identified.  But there is a tiny bit of possible evidence to be researched, and the trail leads to the time of the Balkan Wars some decades previously.

So this one was quite different from the first two books in this series, with the investigation moving to Croatia where Karen is told about some of the atrocities in that horrendous war.

The blurb says: Atmospheric, spine-chilling and brimming with intrigue and suspense , this is Val McDermid’s richest and most accomplished psychological thriller to date.

I actually found it to be a bit too dark and sad for me, but I suppose that given the fact that the very first shot of the Balkan War was fired in Kirkcaldy where McDermid grew up, then it’s fair enough that she wanted to incorporate it in one of her books.

Another Country by James Mackenzie

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Another Country by James Mackenzie is subtitled A Guide to the Children’s Books of the Lake District and Cumbria. It was published in 2008 by Girls Gone By.

I just wish that I had been able to read this book before my visit to the Lake District in the summer. Anyway, it means that I have a good excuse for going back there and doing some more exploring, trying to visit some of the actual locations from some favourite children’s books.

This is a good read, it’s very well set out and researched, the only problem is that there are now a lot more books that I’ve had to add to my ‘would like to read list’.

Braemar – the Highland Games venue, Aberdeenshire, Royal Deeside

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When we visited the Aberdeenshire area back in July we decided to have a look at the arena where they hold the Highland Games. It’s something I’ve seen on the news many times over the years – usually on the news with THE Queen in attendance in her tartan and tweed, while the rain battered down.

Braemar Highland Games arena, Aberdeenshire

To be honest I wasn’t all that sure that I wanted to check out that area at all, but the teeny village only has a large Victorian hotel which is confusingly named The Fife Arms, and a couple of wee gift shops, or maybe it was only one, anyway it was shut so there wasn’t really anything else to do, except hang over a bridge to look at the River Dee. It was only when we got back home that I discovered that you can go for a riverside walk at Braemar. Below it doesn’t look much more than a burn (stream) but it was July and allegedly the weather had been good in June although we missed it all as we were in the Netherlands. Further research has me thinking that it might be the River Clunie which apparently flows into the Dee.

River Dee, Braemar, Royal Deeside, Aberdeenshire

Below is a view of the scenery from the highand games field. I’m not sure what it’s called officially – a park, arena or maybe just a field.

Braemar Highland Games arena, Aberdeenshire, Royal Deeside

The glazed shelter with the royal coat of arms on it is presumably where the so called VIPs view it all from, sheltered from the usual rain or if the weather is better – from the midges – maybe. There are folded chairs all around the place but I suspect parts of it are standing room only on the day.

Braemar Highland Games, Aberdeenshire, Royal Deeside

This wee stage in the photo below must be for the Highland dancing exhibitions, that takes me back although I never danced at a Highland Games in my day.

Braemar Highland Games , Aberdeenshire, Royal Deeside

So it’s just as well that the games park turned out to be quite interesting, and really quite stylish compared with the other places that the various Highland Games take place in, this one is definitely a step up from the usual local field.

Raven Black by Ann Cleeves

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Raven Black by Ann Cleeves was first published in 2006. This is the first book by Cleeves that I’ve read, and when I started to read it I realised that it is one that I had seen on TV years ago, but I didn’t remember the ins and outs of it  – so carried on reading. I’m glad that I did because there are so many details in the book that you don’t get on TV.

It’s January in Shetland, so it’s freezing and snowy, but the Up Helly Aa celebrations are something to look forward to, even if a lot of the locals see it as being a bit embarrassing, something for the tourists really.

But when Fran Hunter discovers that the splash of red that catches her eye in the distance turns out to be a scarf which has been tightened around the neck of her teenage neighbour Catherine, and the local ravens had already discovered her, the island is gripped with fear.

A young girl had disappeared some years ago and her body had never been found, the locals are suspicious of the man who had been under suspicion back then, but Jimmy Perez isn’t so sure. The mainland police have come over to Shetland to help with the investigation, which Perez doesn’t mind at all, in fact he’s not even sure if he wants to give up his career in the police and go back to his home of Fair Isle where a family croft is now available for him.

I’ll continue with this series as I enjoyed being in the company of Jimmy Perez and his team.

 

The King’s Messenger by Susanna Kearsley

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The King’s Messenger by Susanna Kearsley was published in 2024 by Simon and Schuster. I think this is the third book that I’ve enjoyed by this author. The setting is mainly 1613, Scotland and England.

King James VI’s eldest son Henry has just died, he was just 18 and he had been very popular with the ordinary people, he had been tall, handsome and healthy so it was a shock when he started to have nose bleeds and digestive problems. Inevitably people were suspicious of his demise, none more so than Sir David Moray who had been Henry’s tutor and companion since he had been a young prince. Sir David was more of a father than his father the king had ever been. But jealousy at court led to the finger of suspicion being pointed at Sir David.

The King’s Messenger Andrew Logan is given the task of arresting Sir David and bringing him to the King in London for a ‘trial’ but the outcome of course would be a foregone conclusion. A scribe has also been ordered to accompany them and as he is in ill health his daughter decides to go too.

This is a great read and the 373 pages flew past too quickly for me, I really didn’t want it to end.  Sorrow, adventure, romance and honour, all wrapped in a lovely map of Scotland and England endpapers, with a key showing the locations.

If you do read it don’t miss the sections at the end of the book: ABOUT THE CHARACTERS and A NOTE OF THANKS. They are both informative and if you are like me will spur you on to do some more historical research of your own.  What a miserable ‘family’ life Queen Anne had with King James, I hadn’t realised that he didn’t allow any of their five children to live with their mother – or him. Did he think that was normal as his mother Mary, Queen of Scots had been deprived of him? Surely the children would have been safer with their mother.

It looks like this book won’t be published outside the UK until the 4th of March.

 

 

 

 

The Song in the Green Thorn Tree by James Barke

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The Song in the Green Thorn Tree by James Barke was first published in 1947. It’s the second book in a four book series about the life of the Scottish poet Robert Burns.

At the end of the  first book The Wind that Shakes the Barley, William Burns, father of Robert and his many siblings  has died, really from overwork and poverty. Robert and his elder brother Gilbert have decided to take on another farm as tenants. They think that with hard work which they aren’t afraid of they can improve the soil and drain the land which will make it a good paying farm but in reality Mossgiel turns out to be just as bad a farm as the one that had killed their father, with thin and stony soil.  They’ve made exactly the same mistake that their father did. Mossgiel isn’t far from the village of Mauchline – or Machlin as for some reason it is named in the book.

Robert is soon introduced to the ‘howffs’ of Machline and although he’s not a massive drinker he enjpys the cameraderie of the places, especially Poosie Nansies which is frequented by the tinkers and lower classes. He’s drawn to the place as there’s always so much noise coming from it, fun laughter and singing.  It’s the songs that Robert is most interested in and he collects tunes and songs that otherwise would have been lost forever, songs which are still sung nowadays.

There’s no doubt that this was a formative period for Burns with his poems coming thick and fast. This was probbaly because he was immersing himself in the company of the young women of the neighbourhood, and they inspired him to write poems to them. But I think he had impregnated three women at this time, within a year – or was it four women? Anyway he was on the ‘cutty stool’ in the church, being berated by the minister for his shameless fornicating.

At the end of this book Burns is getting ready to sail for Jamaica where he has the promise of a job as a bookeeper, and he’s going to take his latest squeeze with him who is of course pregnant. At the last minute he gets a reprieve with the printing of his poetry in a book becoming popular and selling out,  and his friends think that he’ll be a star in Edinburgh.

I wasn’t at all sure about reading this series but I’m really enjoying them.

 

 

 

The Inn at the Edge of the World by Alice Thomas Ellis

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The Inn at the Edge of the World Book Cover

The Inn at the Edge of the World by Alice Thomas Ellis was first published in 1990. The setting is a Hebridean island, more precisely an inn which is owned by Eric and Mabel, incomers, an English couple who have moved there to get a complete change in their lives. It’s really Eric’s dream,  Mabel hates the place and the inn is obviously failing. When Mabel can’t stand it any longer she leaves the island, Eric has no idea if she’ll ever come back or if she has just gone to find a more exciting venue, and man for her Christmas.

Eric decides to advertise the inn in some London weeklies in the hope of enticing some guests to stay at the Inn at the Edge of the World and amazingly he gets several people more than interested, five of them book up the inn for the duration of Christmas. They’re a mixed bunch, but all wanting to dodge the Christmas season.

Jessica is a fairly well known actress who is now known mainly for doing adverts and voice overs.

Jon is a struggling actor, much younger than Jessica but he has followed her to the island and as he’s a narcissist he can’t imagine that Jessica won’t be interested in him.

Harry is a retired army officer who is spending his time writing a book about General Gordon. He had actually grown up on the island.

Anita works in a large store, but she’s very disgruntled.

Ronald is a psychoanalyst and his wife has just left him. He’s a man-baby and expects women to do everything for him, just like his mummy did. But even his cleaner has abandoned him as she knows his sort.

I expected a bit more from this book, it’s difficult for me to enjoy a book when there are very few likeable characters, but more than that there wasn’t really a sense of the atmosphere of being on a Hebridean island, and I found the whole thing a bit predictable. There’s even a touch of Robert Burns’s Tam O’Shanter in the story, and selkie allusions that came as no surprise, maybe they weren’t meant to be though.