@scotlit@mastodon.scot
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scotlit

@scotlit@mastodon.scot

ASL is an educational charity, promoting the reading, writing, teaching and study of Scotland's literature and languages, past and present.

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scotlit, to literature
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I’m truly sorry Man’s dominion
Has broken Nature’s social union,
An’ justifies that ill opinion,‍‍
‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍Which makes thee startle,
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,‍‍
‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍An’ fellow-mortal!

—Robert Burns, “To a Mouse, On turning her up in her Nest, with the Plough, November 1785”

Thy wee-bit housie, too, in ruin! Its silly wa’s the win’s are strewin! An’ naething, now, to big a new ane, O’ foggage green! An’ bleak December’s win’s ensuing, Baith snell an’ keen! Thou saw the fields laid bare an’ waste, An’ weary Winter comin fast, An’ cozie here, beneath the blast, Thou thought to dwell, Till crash! the cruel coulter past Out thro’ thy cell. That wee bit heap o’ leaves and stibble, Has cost thee monie a weary nibble! Now thou’s turned out, for a’ thy trouble, But house or hald, To thole the Winter’s sleety dribble, An’ cranreuch cauld! But Mousie, thou art no thy lane, In proving foresight may be vain: The best-laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men Gang aft agley, An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain, For promis’d joy! Still thou are blest, compared wi’ me! The present only toucheth thee: But Och! I backward cast my e’e, On prospects drear! An’ forward, tho’ I cannot see, I guess an’ fear!

scotlit, to literature
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“Of aal the fish there iss in the sea,” said Para Handy, “nothing bates the herrin’; it’s a providence they’re plentiful and them so cheap!”

Neil Munro (1863–1930) – journalist, novelist, short-story writer, & poet – was born , 3 June. Rigby’s Encyclopaedia of Herring discusses Munro’s PARA HANDY stories, as well as giving the full text of the tale “The Herring – A Gossip”

1/3

https://www.herripedia.com/para-handy/

scotlit,
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Neil Munro was also a very fine historical novelist – & possibly the first who really knew the history, language & culture of the Highlands from the inside. In “The Ell-Wand & The Sword”, Ronnie Renton examines Munro’s JOHN SPLENDID and THE NEW ROAD

2/3

https://www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2008/11/the-ell-wand-and-the-sword-the-historical-fiction-of-neil-munro/

Book cover: THE NEW ROAD Neil Munro

scotlit,
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A selection of titles by Neil Munro are available as free ebooks from @gutenberg_org

#Scottish #literature #Highlands #historicalfiction #shortstories #Humour #19thcentury #20thcentury

3/3

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/9862

scotlit, to literature
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“I have warned thee before, dame, and I now warn thee again, that all thy mischief meditated against me will fall double on thine own head”

–“The Brownie of the Black Haggs”, by James Hogg (Blackwood’s, 1828)

Sun 2 June, BBC Radio 4 Extra (& thereafter on BBC Sounds)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00ck4fs

scotlit,
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Three short stories of James Hogg

David Robb discusses James Hogg’s short stories “Mary Burnet”, “The Brownie of the Black Haggs”, & “Strange Letter of a Lunatic” at our 2017 Schools Conference

#Scottish #literature #19thcentury #shortstory #shortfiction #supernatural #folklore

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exhIQyrJU8c&list=PLEP9HxY4X7WZvMYoKDAL_wwSMSLzDldSY&index=3

scotlit, to sciencefiction
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A Dalek, a set of original sketches by writer & a handwritten inscription by are among items on display in ALIEN WORLDS – a new exhibition at the University of St Andrews’ Wardlaw Museum that explores & how they have been understood, dreamt of & imagined by scientists, musicians, artists & writers

https://news.st-andrews.ac.uk/archive/new-wardlaw-exhibition-seeks-answers-from-the-great-beyond/

scotlit, to environment
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Coming December 2024 from Bloomsbury Academic:

Scottish Literature, Borders & the Environmental Imagination
By Julia Ditter

Examining the relationship between & the in from the 19th century to the present. For a preview, see Julia Ditter’s article “Reading Scotland’s Borders Through the Environment” – part of the DEBATABLE LANDS issue of THE BOTTLE IMP, May 2022

@litstudies

https://www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2022/05/reading-scotlands-borders/

thisismyglasgow, to glasgow
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This inscription on a bench in Glasgow's Botanic Gardens always sparks my curiosity whenever I pass, and I wonder about the story behind it.


scotlit,
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@thisismyglasgow The bench makes an appearance in Bernard MacLaverty’s 2021 short story “Glasshouses”:

‘And there were plaques on park benches. He thought them better than any gravestones. “For Lily and George, who loved to sit here.” Another one had sunrise and sunset dates, in place of birth and death years. Instead of a plaque, a bench was engraved with the words “We’re all on a speck in space for a tick in time.”’

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/glasshouses-exclusive-new-short-story-bernard-maclaverty/

scotlit, to literature
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Ian Rankin Investigates: Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde

Currently on the BBC iPlayer: Ian Rankin investigates Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde”. Rankin traces the roots of this story, which stretch back to Stevenson's childhood. Grave-robbers, drugs & prostitution all play their part, as Rankin's journey takes him into the dark streets of the city that inspired the tale: Edinburgh.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007qyzv

scotlit, to literature
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Currently on BBC Sounds:

“Olalla”, by Robert Louis Stevenson

During the Peninsular War a wounded soldier recuperates in a remote location. He falls in love with the daughter of the house, but her family hides a terrible secret…

💀

@bookstodon

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00cft28

scotlit, to literature
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Mister Timeless Blyth: An evening with Prof Alan Spence
A Japan Society of Scotland seminar
10 June, in-person & online

Alan Spence will discuss his new book MISTER TIMELESS BLYTH – A Biographical Novel: R.H. Blyth’s Life of Zen & Haiku, Bridging East & West

@bookstodon

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mister-timeless-blyth-an-evening-with-prof-alan-spence-online-tickets-909364482647

scotlit, to literature
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A Restless Intellect: Florence Dixie (1855–1905)

“Widely respected – & regularly attacked (once physically) – in her lifetime, she is now largely neglected; an intriguing aside to feminism or to agnosticism. Dixie deserves better.”

Florence Dixie – novelist, poet, dramatist, war correspondent, campaigning journalist, suffragist, & more – was born , 25 May. Valentina Bold explores Dixie’s roving life


@litstudies
1/2
https://www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2021/12/a-restless-intellect-florence-dixie-1855-1905/

scotlit,
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@litstudies

Fantastic Feminist Praxis: Consciousness-Raising in the Speculative Fiction of Lady Florence Dixie

– Grace Borland Sinclair discusses gender politics in Florence Dixie’s speculative fiction

Scottish Literary Review 14/1, 2022 – available on via Project MUSE


2/2
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/857655

scotlit, to literature
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What Scotsman was caught up in a civil war before the age of twenty? Wrote a book that became the inspiration for an Oscar-winning film? Met a runaway teenager in Paris and married her against the wishes of his family? Lost his ranch to raiding Apaches?

Buckle up – it’s going to be a long, wild #Scottish #literature 🧵 …

1/18

scotlit,
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RBCG’s wife, Gabriela de la Balmondière, was equally exotic & romantic. Born in Chile, her father—French nobleman Francisco Jose de la Balmondière—& his elegant Spanish wife were killed when Gabriela was 12. She grew up with an aunt in Paris.

📷 Gabriela de la Balmondière

9/18

scotlit,
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RBCG & Gabriela met in Paris when he was 26 & she was only 17. They were married just 6 weeks later. They travelled to the USA & settled into a Bohemian life in Mexico, where RBCG taught fencing & Gabriela taught French & guitar.

10/18

scotlit,
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They returned to Scotland where Gabriela won the admiration of her husband’s society friends—Oscar Wilde, WB Yeats, Friedrich Engels, & others—with her “slight accent, neither French nor Spanish, but most attractive and charming, as foreign accents sometimes can be, especially with ladies.”

11/18

scotlit,
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Gabriela was a talented writer herself. Emilia Pardo Bazán introduced Gabriela’s work to Spanish literary journals, & Gabriela translated Bazán’s novel El destripador de antaño into English. She also wrote a highly regarded 3-volume biography of St Teresa of Avila.

12/18

scotlit,
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When she died, tragically young, she was buried on the island of Inchmahome in the Lake of Menteith. RBCG dug her grave himself. He never remarried. When he died, 30 years later, he was buried alongside her.

📷 Inchmahome Priory

13/18

https://blog.historicenvironment.scot/2018/01/adventurer-worth-remembering/

scotlit,
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Then, in 1985, papers were discovered by the family. “Gabriela” had not been born in Chile to European nobility: her real name was Carrie Horsfall, from Masham in Yorkshire, who ran away to become an actress—which might explain why her exotic accent was so hard to pin down.

14/18

scotlit,
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Clearly, Carrie was an accomplished actress. She, and Robert—& Carrie’s sisters, who were in on it—maintained the deception throughout her life & after, under an ever-present shadow of possible scandal & ruin.

15/18

scotlit,
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Gabriela’s—Carrie’s—incredible career inspired the historian & novelist Clare Clark, whose novel BEAUTIFUL LIES is a (very lightly) fictionalised version of Carrie’s life. But can fiction beat reality?

16/18

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/400682/The-gaucho-MP-and-the-girl-from-the-Yorkshire-Ridings

scotlit,
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Our book EMPIRES & REVOLUTIONS: Cunninghame Graham & His Contemporaries contains essays exploring ideas of revolution, emancipation, equality, & liberty in the works of RBCG & other Scottish writers of the period—in print & online via Project MUSE

17/18

scotlit,
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You’ve made it to the end! Have a FREE book: 3 short stories by Cunninghame Graham—“A Hegira”, “The Goldfish”, & “Beattock for Moffat”. Set in #Mexico, #Morocco, & #Scotland they are about journeys & frontiers, & about tenacity, loss, & death.

18/18

https://asls.org.uk/publications/books/free-publications/three_stories/

scotlit,
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PS: a small selection of RB Cunninghame Graham’s books – including THIRTEEN STORIES, from which the above three are extracted – are available free online via @gutenberg_org

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/644

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