‘Not a Varsity Bird’: William Soutar’s Student Years TAGS: William Soutar 100 years ago this week, one of Scotland’s best-loved poets became a student of Edinburgh University. On 13 October 1919, the 21-year-old William Soutar added his name to the university’s …Continue reading →

‘This Single Song of Two’: Centenary of the Marriage of Edwin and Willa Muir TAGS: Edwin Muir | George Mackay Brown | Willa Muir 7 June 2019 marks the centenary of the marriage of Edwin and Willa Muir, one of Scottish literature’s great creative partnerships. Acclaimed in their own right as poet and novelist …Continue reading →

Fifty Years of ‘An Orkney Tapestry’ TAGS: Charles Senior | George Mackay Brown | Helen B. Cruickshank | Norman MacCaig | Scottish Literature This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of two of George Mackay Brown’s landmark publications, An Orkney Tapestry and A Time to Keep. While Brown was already well established as a …Continue reading →

Anniversary of Andrew Lang TAGS: Andrew Lang | Fairy Books | Leonora Blanche Alleyne | Scottish Literature March 31 marks the 175th anniversary of the birth of one of Scotland’s most prolific and versatile writers, Andrew Lang (1844-1912). The author or co-author of 249 volumes, Lang worked …Continue reading →

Plaque Unveiled to Edinburgh University’s First Nobel Prize Winner TAGS: Charles Glover Barkla | Hermitage of Braid | Nobel Prize Today, at the Hermitage of Braid, Principal Peter Mathieson will unveil a plaque commemorating Edinburgh University’s first Nobel Prize winner, physicist Charles Glover Barkla (1877–1944). Barkla is one of a …Continue reading →

Sydney Goodsir Smith Stands for Rector TAGS: Sydney Goodsir Smith In 1951, students voting for a new Rector of Edinburgh University faced a choice between a quite extraordinary range of candidates. The election of actor Alistair Sym in 1948 had …Continue reading →

Hugh MacDiarmid and Mary Poppins: An Unpublished Letter in EU Archives TAGS: Hugh MacDiarmid | PL Travers An unpublished letter from Mary Poppins author P. L. Travers to Hugh MacDiarmid in Edinburgh University’s C. M. Grieve Archive casts further light on the surprising relationship between the two …Continue reading →

MacDiarmid in ‘Thistleonica’: A Poem from a Forgotten Front TAGS: Andrew Graham Grieve | Christopher Murray Grieve | Hugh MacDiarmid The Papers of Andrew Graham Grieve (Gen. 2236) include a poem from a forgotten front of the First World War written by his older brother Christopher Murray Grieve, later to …Continue reading →

Elizabeth Wiskemann, First Woman Professor and War-Hero A university figure that deserves far greater recognition is our first woman professor Elizabeth Wiskemann (1899-1971), who held the Montague Burton Chair of International Relations from 1958 to 1961. Although …Continue reading →

Connected Collections ‘Connected Collections’, Library of Innerpeffray, 29 November 2014 Last Saturday, I was at the wonderful Library of Innerpeffray, Scotland’s oldest lending library (founded ca. 1680) for ‘Connected Collections’, a workshop …Continue reading →