Sixty years ago in 1958, Christmas Day became a public holiday in Scotland for the first time. Until the 16th century, when religious reformers banned it, Christmas was celebrated as enthusiastically in Scotland as elsewhere in Europe. But the Protestant Reformation changed all that. In 1581 new legislation outlawed carol singing and other Yule-tide customs…
Making a drama out of a staircase
Perhaps my title should more accurately be “Making a theatrical performance out of a staircase” because the image below is of the staircase in the foyer of the Theatre Royal in Glasgow, and it is nothing if not dramatic. I visited the theatre recently for the first time since it was refurbished and a new…
Disruptive technologies, art and the power of print
This year saw the 550th anniversary of the death of Johannes Gutenberg and to mark the occasion, the National Library of Scotland used Book Week as an opportunity to display its copy of the famous Gutenberg Bible. Printed around 1455 in Mainz, Germany, Gutenberg’s bible was the first book in Europe to be printed with movable…
Surprising literary references #2: Robert Louis Stevenson
Today (November 13) is the 168th anniversary of author Robert Louis Stevenson’s birth so I was intrigued to find this unusual reference to him on a recent visit to Stirling. The owner of this car might not be paying tribute to a much-loved author, he or she might simply have a name with the same…
The “learning how to schedule a post” post
As a new blogger, I thought I was getting the hang of things by drafting a post about Hallowe’en in advance of the day and scheduling it to post on October 31. But my post didn’t appear on the appointed day so clearly I haven’t learned that lesson yet. It seems I got the scheduling…