First published in Crime Scene #2. A STUDY IN MURDER by ROBERT RYAN (Simon & Schuster) Out now Glance at any of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes collections and you’ll see how the consulting detective didn’t take on cases, he had Adventures. So it’s rather fitting that Robert Ryan, pushing Doyle’s iconic characters into […]
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Scottish Voice in the Abdication Crisis
Archbishop Cosmo Gordon Lang’s reputation has been restored – 80 years on from the Year of Three Kings. On the bright, chilly morning of 23 January 1936, thousands of people gathered in Edinburgh’s historic High Street to officially hear news they already knew. As a nearby clock marked noon, the city’s Lord Provost, Sir Louis […]
Making a Difference
For one Glenrothes woman, home energy improvements not only helped her save money, but gave her a new career! “It started with a cold call about solar panels,” explains Shirley Paterson. The “it” in question isn’t just cutting fuel bills during the last four years through using renewables, in the process reducing her family’s carbon […]
Thirty Dooks for the Loonies
“It all started with a conversation between Christmas and New Year 1986/7,” explains former Loony Dook organiser David Steel. “A man called Andy Kerr, who was a bit fed up, wondered if there was something different they could do to celebrate New Year. Somebody, off the cuff said: Why don’t we jump in the Forth? […]
Fire and Feasting at Up Helly Aa
The annual Up-Helly-Aa festival, held in Lerwick on the last Tuesday of January, is arguably the most famous and iconic winter celebration in Scotland. Other communities in Scotland – including elsewhere in Shetland – have winter fire festivals, but arguably none can match the Lerwick Up-helly-aa “for its scale, the vigour of its modern celebration […]
24 Hours in Edinburgh
Crime fiction writer Ian Rankin once described Edinburgh as “a city the size of a town that feels like a village”. Certainly, this UNESCO-recognised World Heritage Site offers both the cool cosmopolitan delights of a capital city – a hub for culture, education and high-tech startups – alongside more homely aspects of village life. It’s […]
Seizing Their Destiny
65 years on, how important was the audacious removal of the Stone of Scone from Westminster Abbey? “You sort of know that when you take a crowbar to a side door of Westminster Abbey and jemmy the lock that there isn’t really any going back,” the eminent Scottish QC Ian Hamilton told the Daily Telegraph […]
