CHRISTMAS AND HOGMANAY CLING TO Edinburgh perfectly; theirs is a seasonal match designed and written in heaven. A publisher’s dream. Outside, in the purlieu of the city, in Leith or Bruntsfield, in Cramond or Colinton, down the byways of the New Town, among the Old Town’s wynds and closes, the salt wind whips itself to life; a heavenly swirl of tumble-dried snowflakes fills the haloes of the street lamps. Here is the stage-set against which the murmur of indoor life takes on a studious, readerly, almost Victorian, raptness as drams and tomes are consumed by firelight and ghosts are summoned, welcomed, fêted: Stevenson, Conan Doyle, Scott, Barrie, MacCaig and behind them the live and kicking, modern, Johnny-come-latelies: Rankin, Rowling, Welsh, McCall Smith. A seasonal wordfest. A Scottish kyst. for more click here
