It’s easy to see how Edinburgh became the first UNESCO City of Literature: just walk along one of its streets. Scotland’s capital is well loved for its breathtaking architecture, but it’s often deceptive. “George IV Bridge looks like it’s lined with three- or four-storey buildings, but they’re actually six or seven storeys high,” says Sarah […]
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Hannu Rajaniemi Interview
Are you relieved that the Jean de Flambeur trilogy – begun with The Quantum Thief, continued in The Fractal Prince, and now concluding in The Causal Angel – is ‘done and dusted’? Writing a trilogy does take a long time. I started the first book in 2008, so it has been a number of years […]
Do It Yourself…
Several years ago, while attending an event at Holyrood, the award-winning Edinburgh-based architect Richard Murphy was introduced to Prince Charles. Well known for his forthright views on modern architecture and architects, the Prince demanded to know whether Richard lived in a house he’d actually designed — and was clearly rather surprised when Richard explained how […]
A Day in the LIfe of a Wedding Photographer
Weddings have always attracted guests with cameras, but these days — when reports say that almost four in five people now have a smartphone with high resolution camera in their pocket or handbag — you might well wonder why you need to fork out money for an official wedding photographer at all? “Certainly other people […]
Calton Hill, Journeys and Evocations, by Stuart McHardy & Donald Smith
There is a strangeness to Calton Hill. The volcanic fragment is neither the tallest nor largest of Edinburgh’s numerous hills–indeed, at just 103 metres (338 feet) it’s dwarfed by Arthur’s Seat barely half a mile to the south–but it has a unique sense of separateness from the Scottish capital, “stubbornly enduring as an untamed space […]
Scotland’s Futile Fortresses
For generations, young men from Leith fished for crab and mackerel from the side of a squat stone tower next to the port’s eastern pier. The nearby sands, tide permitting, were also a popular venue for picnics, where cups of freshly-brewed tea invariably tasted slightly salty. Not any more, of course; those beaches were lost […]
In a Bit of a Jam…
After recently becoming an MBE, Fraser Doherty (24) is taking a moment to reflect. “I’m not sure how great my first few jars of jam were but, thankfully, my Gran, parents and the neighbours who bought them didn’t discourage me.” He’s gone from selling a few jars, door-to-door, out of a plastic bucket to supplying […]
